Preventive care is on everyone’s lips: you hear it from your doctor, it’s advertised on TV, and it’s present at every family reunion. However, we still tend to avoid it and only see our doctors when we notice some suspicious symptoms. So in order to invest in our preventive care, it’s important to know what it is and why is it so important for our health.
What is preventive care?
Preventive health care includes all the things that we do to prevent sickness and stay healthy. It definitely includes going to your doctor’s even when you’re not sick. This habit can result in better overall health, longer life, and lower healthcare costs. For instance, through immunization with vaccines, people can prevent various diseases like measles, chicken pox, flu, COVID-19, and tetanus, and protect not just themselves, but others as well. Preventive care also helps doctors catch health problems in their early stages (high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc.) when the disease is still easy to treat. It also helps you stay on track with your health, helps with pain management, and reduces the risk of developing any new health concerns.
What falls under preventive care?
Preventive care is very broad, and there are many examples of it offered by health care services. For instance, your annual checkups are a regular part of preventive care—these include physical exams, general health screenings of blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood analysis. Cancer screening is another very important part of preventive care. Since most people don’t experience any symptoms of cancer while it’s in its early stage, screenings are here to catch the disease in its early days and nip it in the bud. According to experts, it’s recommended that men and women start regular screenings for cancer after they turn 45.
For women, regular Pap smears and mammograms are also included in preventive care. If you take any contraception, it’s important for your doctor to examine your condition. For instance, most IUDs have a life span of 5 to 10 years, after which you need IUD removal done by a good gynecologist. This is a great time to ask any questions about your reproductive health and devise a future plan for your contraception strategy.
Immunization is also a part of preventive care, together with all boosters and shots against pneumococcal conjugate and shingles. And finally, yearly flu shots can reduce the risk of getting seasonal flu by 60%. Plus, being vaccinated reduces the possibility of developing serious symptoms that can put you in the hospital.
Why is prevention important?
Medical workers do not recommend preventive care for no reason. Actually, there are many of them that can push you to engage in preventive care:
Early disease control
As stated above, preventive care allows you to catch problems before they grow and cause health concerns. For instance, if your healthcare provider notices your blood pressure increases, you can start preventing it before you develop hypertension. Through preventive care, it’s possible to increase your lifespan. Keeping yourself healthy and strong can prevent serious conditions like heart disease and diabetes that can lead to early death.
Financial benefits
Additionally, it’s less expensive to prevent health conditions than to treat them. Catching diseases before they become serious can reduce treatment costs and give you insight into all health areas that need better attention. On top of that, if you have any health insurance plan, you will get all preventive care costs covered. This makes it a much more attractive option than having to pay tens of thousands of dollars for complicated treatment.
Education
Education on health issues and preventive actions is also an integral part of preventive health care. If you have any existing health issues, your doctor can teach you how to reduce the risk factors and practice healthy living. This can range from strategies for quitting smoking, losing weight, developing a proper exercise routine, improving your diet, etc. All of these things can be covered during your preventive healthcare visit and help you minimize your health risks. It’s also important to get rid of unhealthy lifestyle habits as early as possible, so you can get back on track and manage your life responsibly.
Medicine improvement
By engaging in preventive medicine, researchers get a lot of data from preventive care, which is later used for improving the metrics and systems of hospitals and offices. The more people use preventive care, the better it becomes. Monitoring health and reporting findings can improve health care in every way.
So don’t waste any more time, but book your preventive care appointment and take back control of your overall health. It’s beneficial for you and for the entire community.
