This new prevention vision from the Secretary of State is a seminal moment for the public’s health, one that PHE warmly welcomes.
Good health underpins a healthy economy and for years we have known that prevention is better than cure.
We need to help people to stay well and in work for longer, so they need the NHS less and later in life. And when people are unwell, we need to help them stay independent in their own home for longer, avoiding a move into hospital or the care sector.
So we must seek a better balance between a system focused on detecting and treating illnesses, with one that also predicts and prevents poor health.
To achieve this we must ensure prevention is invested in by the NHS and through local government and by national policy, and that people themselves are encouraged to take charge of their own health.
It’s long been a complaint that those last five pounds can often be the hardest to lose. And the answer to why this is the case reveals a lot about the dynamic relationship between body weight and appetite (what we feel when we say we’re “hungry”), and about how, as humans, we’re almost always “ready to eat”.
When dieting to lose weight, there are two basic reasons why weight loss typically slows down over time. The first reason is that calorie (energy) expenditure decreases with weight loss. This “slowed metabolism” happens because fewer calories are required to maintain and move a lighter body.