The LifeStrive Difference
This page has been prepared to respond more thoroughly to the fair question of: Why LifeStrive, with its direct access health systems, is likely to achieve wellness results that employer and health-plan-sponsored wellness programs and health fairs have not been able to attain?
1. Larger Scope of Laboratory Biomarker Assessments:
Most employer-sponsored screenings and health fairs provide cholesterol screening and perhaps a BMI and glucose measurement. LifeStrive’s direct access lab service "Comprehensive Wellness Panel" screens for diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, bone disease, metabolic disorders, electrolyte imbalance, thyroid disease, anemia, kidney disease, liver disease, iron deficiency, iron overload, fluid status, inflammatory disorders, nutritional imbalance, blood disorders, and more, typically for the same cost or less.
2. Primary Focus of Optimizing Function
Increasingly, lab results are no longer just "normal" or "abnormal" but rather the results are representative of varying levels of physiologic function. The continuum from good health to disease diagnosis is often overlooked in the conventional interpretation of lab results. E.g. fasting blood glucose levels in the 80-100 range are considered optimal, while levels of 126 and higher often indicate the presence of diabetes. But what about the mid-range from 101 to 125? This is the realm of metabolic "dysfunction" and levels in this “prediabetes” range represent a person at high risk of heart disease, stroke, eye disease or progressing on to diabetes1’2. It is estimated that 54 million people in the US fall into this category3 with greater than 50% of those individuals progressing on to fullscale diabetes within the next 10 years4. Two randomized controlled trials (the DPP and FDPS) have demonstrated that 3-5% of individuals with pre-diabetes who engaged basic lifestyle changes progressed to diabetes on an annual basis while those that persisted on their present lifestyle course had 11% progress to diabetes annually5 6. This is an excellent example of why LifeStrive has always taken the stand that optimal physiology in all areas of functioning should be the target, and that education towards this ideal is the best way to decrease the future occurrence of chronic illness. This is important not only to decrease human suffering and improve productivity, but also to avoid the costs associated with disease onset. The annual cost of Type 2 diabetes is $159.5 billion, with an additional estimate of $25 Billion in cost as a result of complications of pre-diabetes7. When an individual goes from the category of "healthy" to a diagnosis of chronic illness, their annual health care costs increase exponentially. It is only by raising our standards of assessment, and making supportive resources widely available that we will improve our health and economic results.
3. Targeted Education Triggered by Lab findings:
It was recently reported in the American Journal of Kidney Disease that fewer than 16% of a group of people that had kidney disease knew they had the problem. This is especially tragic because strategies exist to preserve kidney function if it is caught early. But information without understanding is impotent. Understanding this at LifeStrive, each individual’s lab results trigger feedback and direction to specific resources. Their custom health promotion report refers them to resources that encourage and support a level of health-responsibility that few have been called to previously. The enhanced awareness created by our comprehensive lab testing provides essential personal context and serves as a unique catalyst to open even previously resistant individuals to lifestyle education and re-direction. As any health professional will attest, knowledge of the need for personal change and of the consequences of not doing so, have always proven uniquely motivating. The challenge has been: “How do we manage to more comprehensively assess individuals and then provide meaningful feedback, re-direction and support in a time and cost effective fashion?” That question has now been answered by LifeStrive’s direct access health systems. All stakeholders are now able to turn their attention to supporting the individual in taking the new actions required to improve their function and improve their health trend. It is apparent to all who do their homework on the LifeStrive approach that our system of assessment and education stands in stark contrast to all others. The LifeStrive approach is to go well beyond the all-too-typical cursory and highly ineffective postscreening response of: "Your cholesterol is too high...be sure to see your doctor about starting a medication." While proper medication can play an important role, so can empowering more personal health-responsibility and supporting healthy changes in the individual’s lifestyle.
LifeStrive solutions enable results such as these:
a) Christine’s Comprehensive Wellness Panel (CWP) revealed elevated liver enzymes, high uric acid, elevelevated glucose, elevated triglycerides, and a low HDL level. Targeted education alerted her to the likelihood she had a severe problem with insulin resistance and potentially fatty liver disease - she chose to change her diet and increase her physical activity and was thereby able to revert these aberrant test results back to the normal range, reversing her progression on to Type II Diabetes.
b) Amir's CWP results revealed a slightly elevated creatinine. Our autofeedback alerted him to the possibility of early kidney disease. Properly targeted lifestyle modifications and appropriate medications to lower his blood pressure and protect his kidneys are likely to save him from the need for future dialysis.
c) Jeffery's CWP revealed his serum iron was elevated. His targeted education alerted him to the fact that hemochromatosis is the most common genetic disease among caucasian males. It came to light that his father died of heart failure and had arthritis. A decision to engage further testing, change his dietand give blood on a regular basis (the simple safe and inexpensive treatment for his condition) may well save him from the very same fate. What are the implications to his employer and workplace, family and home life…and our healthcare system at large?
d) Marilyn had been to her physician for an evaluation of depression, and bodywide pain with no relief to date. She neglected to tell her doctor that she had had recurring kidney stones. When her CWP revealed her calcium to be very elevated, she was alerted to the possibility of parathyroid disease being the cause of her problems. With appropriate treatment she is now on track to improve her symptoms of depression and prevent future kidney stones and severe osteoporosis.
e) Roland had come to believe that he would always be tired and sad. Because of his deductible he avoided seeing his primary physician. When presented with the opportunity to engage the CWP, at no cost to him, with the added assurance that his results would be reported to him alone, he proceeded to get tested. His thyroid lab results came back extremely abnormal and he was empowered to take action with renewed hope for enhanced energy and wellbeing. On studying his targeted feedback, Roland was further motivated by his new understanding of how his thyroid dysfunction had been affecting his cholesterol results and risk to cardiac disease, obesity, hypertension, and depression.
What personal, family and employer hardships were avoided in the cases overviewed here? What future expense was likely saved? What was the net impact on productivity and health care costs? As a husband, father, and physician, the word ‘immeasurable’ comes to mind.
4. Lifestyle Assessment Integration:
Real-world actions (be they dietary choices, stress related factors, activity levels, sleep issues, substance use, etc.) drive real-world results. The latest evidence reveals as much as 75% of our healthcare costs today as being preventable, and stemming from what is now broadly referred to as “lifestyle-related chronic illness”9. To bring an individual’s attention to their habits, which do not support their health, we need to have a system that enables thorough assessment, targeted feedback and ongoing support. To solve for this, LifeStrive has partnered with Direct Access eHealth the leading online Health and Lifestyle Assessment, reporting and support system. This enables properly individualized health promotion education to be provided to every participant, time and cost effectively.
5. In-depth Multimedia Wellness Education:
Years of research reveal the need for the individual’s lab testing and Health and Lifestyle Assessment to lead seamlessly to suitably targeted actionable steps, focused health education, and peer support. Participants are invited to “opt-in” on the online courses best suited to their unique needs. Course-specific forums, chats and e-tips gently and progressively encourage healthy lifestyle changes. . Courses on effective stress management, tobacco cessation, nutrition, heart health, weight & shape improvement, and diabetes are examples.
6. High Participation:
Most wellness programs only appeal to the healthy with participation levels in the <5% range. The extremely low participation rates are what allow for the plethora of “wellness programs” offered at absurdly low fees, inclusive of the promise for in-person and telephonic support. A few quick calculations reveal the simple fact that if even a small percentage of the employees participate in such, there is no way any meaningful properly instructive support can be provided. To do so, a properly designed, truly integrative web-based system is required. LifeStrive has built the system required to deliver on this need. As the direct result, we are experiencing participation at levels not heard of prior to our launch. Early feedback supports participation at > 90%. This enables all organizations and employers to reach and properly support the individuals who stand to benefit the most from more effective health promotion.
7. Proactive Follow-up:
LifeStrive enables proactive follow-up on key laboratory and lifestyle assessment findings. This second tier auto-coaching is done only upon voluntary subscription by the individual. Strategic behavior change is supported with targeted education campaigns, in-house corporate education materials and online community forums and classes.
8. Emphasis on Health-Responsibility:
As a species we human beings do not act upon instinct alone, each of us share the mental capacity to have a space or thoughtful pause, between stimulus and response. We have the power of choice. Our personal choices interact to define each of us as individuals. In few arenas is this more evident than in the realm of our health. Each of us has the ability to make new healthier choices regardless of our past. Embracing this opportunity to make better choices, moment-to-precious-moment, is what we mean by personal healthresponsibility. LifeStrive materials and programs focus on expanding each participant’s awareness of their personal health-responsibility and the real opportunity to make incremental, sustainable, meaningful steps, promoting health, happiness and diminishing risk to illness.
9. Confidentiality:
A growing number of people have concerns that participating in laboratory screening may uncover a condition that decreases their insurability, markedly changes their insurance premium, or jeopardizes their career path. LifeStrive test results are reported only to the individual. This puts each participant in the driver’s seat with regard to their health and treatment choices. An individual who learns that they are trending in the wrong direction and chooses to take action and improve their health, effectively avoids both the health consequences and the financial consequences that were otherwise unavoidable. When this occurs before their next assessment with their health care provider, they can even avoid the “diagnosis” of a condition that could affect their insurability, medical expense and/or career path. This opportunity serves to motivate many to participate who had previously been ‘fence-sitters’ with respect to employer-sponsored wellness initiatives.
10. Denial Busting - Longitudinal Tracking:
Repeat lab testing confirms health trends. This serves to encourage those who are making supportive lifestyle and medical care choices. As importantly, it challenges those who have yet to take corrective action to begin doing so.
11. Discount Lab Testing Creates Opportunities for Better Outcomes:
The shift to consumer-directed healthcare with it’s attendant increased out-of-pocket expense has been shown to decrease utilization of important preventive services which may lead to poorer clinical outcomes, greater future costs, and lower health plan quality ratings.10 LifeStrive’s DirectAccess lab services provide opportunity for the individual to directly obtain important laboratory testing and additional screening tests, adding more depth to their understanding. Users may take advantage of repeat testing to assess the effectiveness of their own diet and lifestyle and medical interventions. Reduced costs, complete privacy, and enhanced convenience, all serve to motivate health-responsible living.
12. Community Leveraging:
Change experts are quick to point out the power of social and community influence in shifting individual behaviors11’12. When the resources of LifeStrive are applied to an entire organization, results emerge which are not possible when individuals receive direction and feedback in relative isolation. The message of "Health-Responsibility" permeates the culture of participating organizations. Imagine a change in the water cooler conversations from: "Why are my benefits being cut?” and “What is my employer/insurer/doctor going to do for me?" to: "How can I make my work and home environment more supportive of my health goals and those of my co-workers?” and “Have you been following the recommendations of your Personal Health Promotion Report…I can hardly believe the difference in the way I feel!” LifeStrive engages change from all angles. As an example of how our “Labs + Lifestyle + Leveraged Learning” works in the real world, let’s return to Christine’s story. Because of her abnormal lab results she felt a need for action. This fueled a renewed interest in taking an honest and comprehensive look at her lifestyle through our online assessment. What she learned, in the privacy of her own home, opened her to engage an online class which brought her into a supportive community while protecting her confidentiality. Progressive e-mail reminders to take health-responsible actions reinforced her actions and enabled her to overcome the inevitable episodic inertia. By repeat testing of her lab biomarkers she gained positive reinforcement for her real-world actions leading her to encourage others in her community and workplace to do similarly.
Only by asking better questions are better answers found. LifeStrive offers the most cost and time effective way to run a comprehensive experiment in shifting corporate healthcultures from being ‘entitlement-oriented’ to the more productive and sustainable ‘wellness-oriented’ culture all desire. We look forward to empowering Health-Responsible Living in your workplace and community.
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Diabetes Fact Sheet, United States, 2005. [Cited 2006 Nov 3]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2005.pdf (PDF – 54 KB)
2 Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. The prevalence of retinopathy in impaired glucose tolerance and recent-onset diabetes in the Diabetes Prevention Program Diabet. Med. 2007;24:137–144
3 Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. The prevalence of retinopathy in impaired glucose tolerance and recent-onset diabetes in the Diabetes Prevention Program Diabet. Med. 2007;24:137–144
4 Nathan DM, Davidson MB, Defronzo RA, Heine RJ, Henry RR, Pratley R, Zinman B. Impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance. Diabetes Care. 2007;30:753–759
5 Knowler WC, Barrett-Conner E, Fowler SE, Hammon RF, Lachin JM, Walker EA, Nathan DM, the Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group: Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. NEJM. 344:393–403, 2002
6 Tuomilehto J, Lindstrom J, Eriksson JG, Valle TT, Hamalainen H, Ilanne-Parikka P, Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi S, Laasko M, Louheranta A, Rastas M, Salminen V, Uusituupa M, the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study group; Prevention of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. NEJM. 2001;344:1343–1350.
7 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-18-diabetes-cost_N.htm
8 Flessner, MF et. Al, “African Americans often unaware of Kidney Disease “ American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Feb. 2009.
9 Kenneth E. Thorpe, Curtis S. Florence, and Peter Joski, “Which Medical Conditions Account for the Rise in Health Care Spending? The Fifteen Most Costly Medical Conditions Accounted for Half of the Overall Growth in Health Care Spending between 1987 and 2000,” Health Affairs (2004). See also Kenneth E. Thorpe et al., “The Impact of Obesity on Rising Medical Spending: Higher Spending for Obese Patients Is Mainly Attributable to Treatment for Diabetes and Hypertension,” Health Affairs (2004).
10 Karter AJ, et. Al. The Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes study – Out-of-Pocket Costs and Diabetes Preventive Services. Diabetes Care 26:2294-2299, 2003
11 Marmot MG. Improvement of social environment to improve health. Lancet 1998; 351:57–60.
12 Anderson LM, Fullilove, MT, Scrimshaw SC, Fielding JE, editors. Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Interventions in the social environment to improve community health: a systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2003;24(3S).
