Curriculum for a Long Healthy Life

The event was brimming with the exuberance of youth, the blossoming of intellectual vitality, and the naivete of ambition. These students, many of them undeniably privileged, are set to begin lives marked by education, opportunity, and health. Their beaming faces were an exhibition of a powerful truth that two great predictors of a long and healthy life are youth and education.

Youth is a kind of medicine in itself. Your body repairs more quickly. Your arteries are flexible, your immune system resilient, and your risk of chronic illness low. Aging, on the other hand, is no disease, but it is the single greatest risk factor for nearly every chronic condition – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia among them. While we can’t turn back the clock, we can better prepare for the realities of aging.

But if youth is a fleeting asset, education is a lasting one. Study after study confirms that higher levels of education correlate with better health outcomes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that adults without a high school diploma are three times more likely to die before age 65 than those with a college degree. Education leads to higher income, healthier environments, and greater health literacy. These in turn shape behaviours around nutrition, exercise, and preventive care. The result? A longer, healthier life.

Contrast this with poverty – perhaps the most reliable harbinger of poor health next to old age. Poverty limits access to nutritious food, stable housing, and quality healthcare. It increases stress and reduces the ability to make long-term plans, including those for health. In short, poverty is a chronic condition all its own.

The CDC recently released new data on obesity rates by U.S. state. The numbers are alarming. In states with low levels of educational attainment and high poverty rates – such as Mississippi, West Virginia and Arkansas – adult obesity rates exceed 40%. Obesity, of course, is closely linked to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. It’s no coincidence that these states also see some of the nation’s highest rates of diabetes. Adults with less than a high school education are more likely to have diabetes (19.6%) compared to people with a bachelor’s degree (10.7%).

These are not coincidences. They are the logical outcomes of systemic inequalities and missed opportunities. And this is should not come as news. Back in 1877, the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, said, “The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.”

At the Rome ceremony, the students were not just receiving diplomas – they were receiving life’s most effective vaccine. Not against any virus, but against ignorance, instability, and, yes, illness. They will likely live longer, healthier lives than many of their counterparts who never had the chance to walk across a graduation stage.

We can't rewind the clock on age. But we can invest in education at all levels, for all people. We can build systems that promote learning and lift people out of poverty. And by doing so, we can change the health trajectory of life for individuals and for society.

That so little is being done to address this problem is a terrible shame. We are bankrupting ourselves when we could be buying more healthy and productive time.