The spread of chronic disease threatens to wreak havoc on the entire health care system unless a more preventive approach is taken, said Gordon O. Matheson, director of sports medicine at Stanford University.

Chronic disease is an epidemic that could cost the world $20 trillion and account for 46 percent of gross domestic product in 20 years, he said.

Matheson is a contributing author of the essay “Responsibility of sport and exercise medicine in preventing and managing chronic disease: applying our knowledge and skill is overdue.” The essay, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on Sept. 26, is meant to draw on the knowledge and skill of health wellness sports medicine to improve health worldwide. The essay proposes that prevention may need to develop as a separate field of medicine, much like neurology, psychology and oncology.

The medical system uses “reductionist” and “fragmented” approaches, which according to Matheson, focus on servicing individual medical issues, rather than treating the person in totality.

According to Matheson, although there is a tremendous amount of information on prevention, no one knows a definite solution to preventing chronic diseases, but it is a cultural change that needs to be made.

“Prevention probably does not fit within the medical system,” Matheson said. “What prevention needs is an integrated, more holistic approach.”

According to Matheson, the holistic approach will solve the medical system’s inability to preventing chronic diseases. Holistic medicine takes physical and mental health issues into account as well as medical issues. He believes the movement to promote prevention is dealt with will not come from within the

medical community.

“The medical profession is suddenly [going to] find itself in a situation akin to the Arab Spring, where social media and technology transform the way medicine is practiced,” Matheson said.

According to the essay, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for death caused by non-communicable disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2008 that adults with chronic conditions get important health benefits from regular physical activity.

In September 2011, the United Nations called a General Assembly to discuss the disparity in prevention of non-communicable diseases, which was only the second time the U.N. called a General Assembly on a health-related issue in its history. The last one was called for the AIDS epidemic.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, getting people to become more active could cut yearly medical costs in the U.S. by more than $70 billion.

“[The assembly was called because] unless something is done, [the epidemic] is going to bankrupt developing countries and have a serious pull on the cost of health care in developed countries,” Matheson said.