David Agus

In health care today, we spend most of the dollars - in terms of treating disease - in the last two years of a person's life.

There's no question that the mind-body connection is real, even if we can't quantify it. Hope is one of the greatest weapons we have to fight disease.

We talk about cancer as a noun, as if it's a one time event: 'I've got cancer.'

Of all the things a body loves, predictability is one of them.

Cancer is the ultimate nemesis that hangs in the balance for one in three women and one in two men in their lifetime.

We may never understand illnesses such as cancer. In fact, we may never cure it. But an ounce of prevention is worth more than a million pounds of cure.

I have developed a unique way of looking at the relationship of the human body to health and disease.

If your DNA profile puts you at a higher risk of developing obesity, that doesn't mean it's your fate. You can take control of the environmental side of the equation and reduce your overall lifetime risk by a lot.

We are finally entering an exciting time in medicine where we have the technology to custom-tailor treatment and preventive protocols just as we'd custom-tailor a suit or designer gown to one's individual body. But it all begins with you. You have to know yourself in a manner that you've probably never done before.

I'm a big believer in what's called personalized medicine, which refers to customizing your health care to your specific needs based on your physiology, genetics, value system and unique conditions.

Keep the soil healthy and the bad seed won't grow.

We have forgotten that curing cancer starts with preventing cancer in the first place.

I want doctors to treat toward health and not treat toward disease.

Keep a strict, predictable schedule 365 days a year that has you eating, sleeping, and exercising at about the same times day in and day out.

Take charge of hidden, sneaky sources of chronic inflammation that can trigger illness and disease by wearing comfortable shoes daily, getting an annual flu vaccine, and asking your doctor why you're not on a statin and baby aspirin if you're over the age of forty.

We all need to figure out what's right for us because nothing about life is one size fits all. Even for an Olympian, that's for sure. And such discovery starts with you paying attention - to yourself.

When's the last time you really thought about what you eat, how much you move throughout the day, whether or not you feel fantastic when you get up in the morning, and which shoes keep your feet comfortable?

Much in the way Olympic athletes optimize their game by paying an enormous - borderline maniacal - amount of attention to things like diet, exercise, sleep, and of course the essential R&R, we all would do well to pay more attention to those key aspects of our lives that comprise our overall health equation.

I believe we can prevent or delay most disease until the 9th or 10th decade. The goal is to prevent anything that can affect your quality of life prior to those years! By the time many of us get to the 9th or 10th decade, who knows where the new medical and science will take us? I am an optimist!