Are you satisfied with your current state of health? Do you want to feel better, less depressed, have more energy and a healthier self-image? Do you want to live 10 years longer than the national average? Your health is not the responsibility of the government, the insurance company or even your primary care physician unless he or she is trained in preventive or lifestyle medicine. 

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on March 25 titled “Setting Public Health Priorities in the United States” says: “On the most basic measures of health, the U.S. is falling short. In 1990, life expectancy in the U.S. ranked 35th among 204 countries for males and 19th for females; by 2021, U.S. rankings had fallen to 46th for males and 47th for females.” This is surprising since we spend more than twice as much money on health care ($4.9 trillion in 2023) than any other country in the world! The article  goes on to say: “When it comes to obtaining health for dollars, the American people have been shortchanging themselves. There is no better way than through advancing health to ‘make America great’ in the 21st century.”

Among the challenges listed, “The vast sums lavished on medical care cannot readily be redirected to more promising avenues of disease prevention and health promotion.” The article questions the medical spending that will be needed to cope with alarming increases in both obesity and overweight people in this country, for one example. Setting public health priorities involves a complicated balance of data and analysis and value judgments. Sometimes the focus is directed too much on the perceived need without considering whether the change is attainable in a timely manner.

Another challenge is the difficult choice of prioritizing high causes of disability and death (heart disease and cancer overall) even as these are on the decline, or focusing a higher priority on conditions with worsening rates but considered lower threats (such as depression, obesity and metabolic diseases). Oftentimes public health policymakers must prioritize by making the best choices with limited resources. 

So what can you do to help set or influence public health priorities in the United States—as well as help yourself achieve good health? Just as I tell my patients, lifestyle and behavior choices are individual choices that can profoundly affect the likelihood of disease and premature death. The JAMA article references this as well and cites diet and exercise and use of alcohol and tobacco as individual risk factors. 

But can government intervention accomplish this? In an article in the CATO Report Spring 2025 titled “Beyond Medical Paternalism: Restoring Control to the Individual,” author and general surgeon Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer says, “If the Trump administration is serious about ‘making America healthy again,’ its first priority should be to return control to the individual.” Does that also sound familiar? As I have emphasized for many years, there are simple steps through lifestyle changes, exercise and healthy eating that you can take to prolong and improve your life. 

Our well-known study involving 100,000 of our patients (two-thirds men and one-third women) who had preventive medical examinations at Cooper Clinic at least 20 times over a 45-year period gives evidence to this. Our men had a life expectancy of 86.5 years and our women 90.4 years—for an average life expectancy of 88.6 years. That is 10 years longer than the average American life expectancy. We also found that these patients tended to die suddenly, not over a prolonged period. That is, they are condensing the time of senility and physical breakdown to a brief period immediately prior to death. We call that “squaring off the curve.”

Let’s look at the cost of health care in our Cooper Clinic patients. We followed 28,000 patients (21% women) for a period of 25 years from ages 50 to 75. We found there was a 40% lower cost of Medicare from age 65 to 70 in the top 20th percentile of fitness compared to the bottom 20th percentile. This is in addition to having a 36% reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Each of these facts is documented in my 20th book, Grow Healthier as You Grow Older. In this new book you will find the underlying theme of God having His hand on my life. By God’s grace, I am here today through the benefits of being both spiritually and physically fit. Remember, good health is within your reach and it’s never too late to start! Even minimal improvements—such as going from being totally inactive to exercising just 30 minutes a day, most days per week—are enough to drastically alter the course of a person’s life. Reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, chronic kidney disease, congestive heart failure and certain types of cancer by moving more. Make the most of your remaining years so you, too, can grow healthier as you grow older.

The Bible says in Isaiah 40:31: “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”  ©2025 Kenneth H. Cooper

Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., known worldwide as “the father of aerobics,” is the founder and chairman of Cooper Aerobics in Dallas and chairman emeritus of The Kenneth H. Cooper Institute.

The Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation.