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BLOG: Report shows supplements can save money with chronic disease
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Read more from Jeffrey Anshel, OD, FAAO.
A recently released report has shown that the use of specific dietary supplements in populations with chronic disease has the potential to save billions of dollars by reducing the number of disease-associated medical events, according to a press release from the Council for Responsible Nutrition.
The report, issued by Frost & Sullivan through a grant from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) Foundation, examined the potential cost savings when U.S. adults 55 and older with chronic disease used certain dietary supplement combinations at preventive levels:
- Coronary heart disease and omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid, B6, B12, phytosterols and psyllium dietary fiber.
- Coronary heart disease attributed to diabetes and chromium picolinate.
- Age-related macular degeneration and cataracts and lutein and zeaxanthin.
- Osteoporosis and calcium with vitamin D or magnesium alone.
“Chronic disease takes a huge toll on people’s quality of life, and the health care system spends a tremendous amount of money treating it, but has failed to focus on ways to reduce those costs through prevention,” Steve Mister, CRN Foundation president, said in the press release. “We already knew that the dietary supplements identified in the report can play a role in reducing the risk of certain chronic diseases; we felt compelled to find out if they could also contribute to health care cost savings by reducing the medical events associated with those conditions. This new report says emphatically that they do.”
The press release stated that, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 75% of U.S. health care dollars are spent on treating chronic disease, while only 3% is spent on prevention.
Medical events associated with coronary heart disease are expected to cost $77.92 billion per year, according to the press release. However, if people 55 and older with elevated cholesterol took psyllium dietary fiber at preventive levels, the cost savings could be nearly $2.5 billion per year, according to the report. Similarly, if women older than 55 with osteoporosis took calcium and vitamin D, the savings could be $1.5 billion per year.
With this new research in the beneficial effects of ocular nutrients, it behooves the National Institutes of Health and CDC to consider doing long-term studies to validate the reduction in chronic eye diseases.
“This report provides one more reason for doctors and other health care practitioners to open a dialogue with their patients about incorporating supplement usage along with other healthy behaviors,” Mister said in the press release. “We should also encourage insurers and employers that are looking for ways to lower premiums and absenteeism to consider dietary supplement regimens as part of workplace wellness programs or employee benefits.”
In addition, patients should talk to their optometrists about prevention and dietary supplements.