It goes without saying that health is among the most valuable things a person can have — regardless of age or gender.
Young people spend considerable sums chasing what is sometimes called "healthy pleasure" — the desire to live well and feel good. Middle-aged and older adults with greater spending power dream of anti-aging and slower aging. As the body's homeostasis, immunity and resilience naturally decline with age, that aspiration is entirely understandable, and the industries built around it will only keep growing.
Good habits in exercise, sleep and diet — along with a sound mental state — are equally essential. Health means more than the absence of disease; it is a condition in which body and mind are both functioning well. Intangible in itself, health becomes tangible when expressed through physical vitality. At that point, it acquires the clear character of an asset.
Understanding precisely why health has asset value makes it easier to appreciate that value more deeply — and motivates the effort needed to maintain and expand it. That makes framing health this way a genuinely useful exercise.
In business, assets are resources with economic benefit deployed in operating and investment activities. They are funded by equity and borrowed capital — and health, it turns out, has its own equity component and its own debt element.
The equity component is the health built through one's own efforts on top of favorable genetic factors. It is generally defined as the product of sound habits in exercise, sleep and diet.
The debt component is the ill-health that erodes that equity — stemming from unfavorable genetics as well as obesity, stress and poor habits. It must be offset through fitness activities, regular checkups, treatment, health supplements and insurance. These draw down assets and reduce equity.
Applying the concept of opportunity cost to health makes the framework even clearer. The money and time spent maintaining good health represent an opportunity cost — resources that could have gone toward income-generating activities but did not. Everyone accepts this trade-off.
Health, thus understood, is recorded in the ledger of the body and kept ready for use. Once health is lost — when liabilities become excessive — recovery can be difficult even with heavy investment. The resources consumed in that effort are also sunk and gone.
This leads to a clear insight: protecting your health while you are still healthy is the most valuable thing you can do. It also spares you the heavy costs and losses that poor health demands.
Health is not only spent on pleasure and the satisfaction of desires — it also builds wealth through work and other productive activity. When that capacity is exchanged in the market, it generates added value as well.
In practice, a recent survey found that a large majority — 76.1 percent — view the economic evaluation of health positively. Respondents said that assessing health as an asset would help with health management. The survey was conducted by Seoul National University Hospital in July.
freiheit@heraldcorp.com
