We all know someone who died in the prime of life, losing precious years they expected to enjoy. And although we strive for the promised glade, chances are that half of us won’t reach our life expectancy, leaving prime years on the table. Why? Cancer, heart attack and stroke cause almost all early deaths in American adults. Most of those problems develop randomly despite your best effort, so whether or not you live a healthy lifestyle and get standard health checkups, odds are that one of them will shorten your expected life.
Fortunately, you can boost your odds of living all of your prime years by finding and correcting your vulnerabilities and health threats early. Cancer and heart disease develop silently and curably over many years. But you have to look to find them. If you wait until symptoms signal a problem, it’s very often too late.