When you think about healthcare, what comes to mind? First-aid kits? Hospitals? Surgery? Medications?

While these innovative modern healthcare techniques and tools are constantly changing how (and how long) we live, they tend to focus only on sickcare and leave out the other major aspect of healthcare: wellcare.

Let’s learn more about the difference between sickcare and wellcare and how you can use them both to support your healthy and vibrant life.

Sickcare vs. Wellcare: What’s the Difference?

Within the world of healthcare, there are two different realms: sickcare and wellcare. We need both to thrive as a healthy society. The trouble is, we tend to focus only on fighting disease and forget about promoting wellness, too. 

What Is Sickcare?

Most of the “healthcare” we experience is really sickcare, or symptom management. We turn to sickcare in emergencies, or when we have nagging symptoms that won’t go away. When we see the doctor, we usually get a plan that helps treat or manage those symptoms (rather than address the root cause of our issues).

In other words, sickcare sees the body as a machine with parts that need fixing, and uses tools like surgery and medication to fight disease and dysfunction. 

What Is Wellcare?

Wellcare views the body as more than the sum of its parts, and balance and harmony between all the parts is essential to create one “well-oiled machine.” 

While sickcare manages symptoms, wellcare is focused on the causes of those symptoms and how to prevent them from the root. The driving concept of wellcare is simply that the body will heal itself when given the right support.

Unlike sickcare (which is used only when there is an obvious issue) wellcare is used even when healthy to prevent illness, maintain balance, and promote wellbeing.

Shift into Wellness: How to Bring Wellcare into Daily Life

While there are certainly times that sickcare is helpful and necessary, prevention is the best medicine. Along with setting the stage for deeper healing, preventative wellcare also helps build resilience and prevent disease while encouraging optimal physical and mental health.

To practice wellcare, stay current with your regular wellness checks and preventative screenings. Then, incorporate these tips to bring the power of wellcare into your daily life:

Set a strong foundation of healthy habits. 

Eat healthy, exercise often, drink plenty of water, get enough sleep. We’ve heard it all before. While this advice may sound tired, it still holds true! These habits are the foundation of a healthy life and the basis for all preventative care.

If you struggle to stay on track with these healthy habits, consider working with a wellcare professional, like a nutritionist, personal training coach, or naturopath for a tailored plan that fits your needs. 

Prioritize stress management. 

Stress is one of the biggest culprits of preventable chronic disease. Yet, while many of us know that stress lies at the root of our health issues, it’s easy to brush it off as “just how it is” and resort to less-than-healthy coping mechanisms (like drinking alcohol or binging junk foods). 

Through prioritizing regular stress-relieving wellcare practices (like meditation, acupuncture, massage, yoga, and others), you can significantly drop your stress levels and protect yourself against chronic stress-induced disease. 

Use supplements for simple daily support. 

With sickcare, we wait until there’s a problem before we make a change. With wellcare, we act now so we can stay well later. Taking a preventative supplement like CBD is one of the simplest ways to incorporate proactive wellcare into your schedule—no matter how busy you are or which health benefits you want to achieve. 

Learn more about the benefits of CBD for everyday wellness and shop our collection of USDA Certified Organic Broad and Full-Spectrum CBD products to get started. 

Embrace Wellcare for Optimal Health and Wellbeing

Wellness is more than the absence of disease. While sickcare prolongs your life in emergencies, wellcare improves the quality of your everyday life. We all need the benefits of modern medicine from time to time, but spending time and energy on wellcare and prevention leads to a future with less intervention and more wellness.