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MIAMI - The doctor who brought the world the South Beach Diet is taking his battle against heart disease a step further, accusing the US healthcare industry of not tackling an affliction he believes is almost entirely preventable.
Arthur Agatston, who made a fortune touting a diet that promotes olive oil over trans fats and fish rather than fast food, said American men and women would keep dying of heart disease because the healthcare system paid doctors to treat disease rather than prevent it.
A growing number of primary-care physicians have found they can no longer make a living off Government-sponsored programmes such as Medicare, reducing the amount of preventive care available for ageing Americans.
"Primary care doctors are literally retiring and going out of business because they have to see 50 patients a day to make ends meet," said Dr Agatston, 60, the author of the 2003 best-seller The South Beach Diet and other spinoffs.
In his latest book, The South Beach Heart Programme, he again stresses how exercise and a high-fibre Mediterranean-style diet can lower cardiovascular risk factors.
The doctor, one of the world's best known cardiologists, also warned that Americans were getting fatter and suffering more than ever from diabetes.
He called for an overhaul of the US medical system before the demands of ageing baby boomers overwhelmed it (about 70 million Americans will be 65 or older by 2030, up from 36 million today).
"We have a trend here where the baby boomers are reaching the coronary age group, not to mention the age group of cancer," Dr Agatston said.
"At the same time, individual health-care costs are rising rapidly and primary care doctors are going out of business and they're not being replaced. These trends are colliding in a way that is going to break the bank."
Dr Agatston said there was something inherently wrong with a system that put no premium on prevention.
Insurers and health plans paid doctors the same amount for a standard office visit whether they spent five minutes with patients or took time to educate them and work on their individual health issues.
Dr Agatston said: "We have to figure out a way to incentivise prevention.
"We can prevent heart disease today," Dr Agatston said. "The fact that doctors are seeing heart attacks disappear from their practices when they practise aggressive prevention is one of the best-kept secrets."
The problem was that many Americans could not afford proper healthcare and that many doctors could ill-afford to practise medicine properly.
- REUTERS
