Do you really need to see your family physician every year? Preventive medical care might seem unnecessary if you feel fine, but scheduling regular appointments with your doctor has major benefits. It could save you money in the long run and keep you healthier.
Keep reading to learn the importance of preventive medical care.
Ensure Proper Development in Kids
Preventive care is important at all ages, but kids especially need to see their doctors regularly to ensure proper development. Your child’s doctor tracks weight, height, and other development information through the years. They check for developmental delays in children related to things such as talking, walking, and muscle coordination.
Early intervention can help your child overcome many developmental delays. If the doctor notices a change that doesn’t track with previous visits, it could be a sign that something new has developed and needs to be investigated.
Development and preventive care evolve over the years as kids get older and become adults. Visiting providers like https://reverehealth.com/specialty/family-medicine/ show those changing needs with things like sports physicals and gynecological exams.
Stay Current on Vaccinations
Regular vaccinations are an important part of good visits, especially for kids and teens. The regular immunization schedule includes multiple doses of common vaccines for diseases including polio, measles, tetanus, whooping cough, and chickenpox. Getting the doses on time is important to protect your child fully.
Even as an adult, you occasionally need boosters of certain vaccines to make sure your immunity is strong. You can also get additional vaccines for things like the flu and shingles as you get older.
Keeping current on vaccines significantly reduces your chances of getting these diseases. Many diseases that have vaccines available are very serious conditions that can have long-term effects.
Identify Risk Factors
Routine checkups give your family physician a chance to learn about your overall health. They ask medical history questions, including information about the diseases of family members. That medical history is important in identifying risk factors for certain diseases, especially conditions that are hereditary.
Your physical exam can reveal other risk factors. It might show that you are overweight, for example, which puts you at a higher risk for multiple chronic conditions.
Additional testing that happens during physicals can also show risk factors. Your doctor might notice that your blood sugar is high, for example.
When you visit regularly, your doctor can also notice new risk factors that develop. If you suddenly develop high blood pressure when it’s usually normal, that new indicator tells your doctor it’s time to investigate. Your regular visits serve as a baseline so that even a minor change can be used as an early sign of a problem.
Recommend Lifestyle Changes
Everyone needs a little motivation to make healthy lifestyle choices occasionally. Your family medical care practitioner will likely ask you about things such as your diet, exercise, smoking, and drinking. They can provide recommendations to improve your quality of life with lifestyle changes.
Your risk factors can help your family physician make those lifestyle change recommendations. If you already have a family risk of heart disease, your doctor might recommend a heart-healthy diet. If you’re slightly overweight, your doctor might offer suggestions for losing a little weight in a healthy way.
Catch Health Conditions Early
Chronic health conditions are prominent, with 6 in 10 adults having one and 4 in 10 adults having two or more. Common chronic diseases are cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Not only can your doctor identify your risk factors of developing these conditions, but they can also recognize early onset of various diseases when they’re most treatable. Many of those conditions don’t have noticeable symptoms in the early stages, or the symptoms are general and don’t raise any red flags for you. Your doctor often has tested and knows what subtle signs to look for to diagnose them.
You might be able to reverse some conditions before they fully develop. For example, your doctor might diagnose you with prediabetes, where your blood sugar level is elevated but not yet high enough to indicate type 2 diabetes. With lifestyle changes and possibly medication, you can lower your blood sugar to a healthier level and avoid a diabetes diagnosis.
Early diagnosis of some conditions gives you more treatment options or improves your odds of successful treatment. Catching cancer in the early stages before it spreads to lymph nodes and other parts of the body increases your chances of surviving.
It can also help prevent additional health conditions from developing. Diagnosing high blood pressure and controlling it can reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and other worsening conditions that often happen.
Reduce Healthcare Costs
Preventive care is much more cost-effective than urgent medical care if a condition grows worse. Most healthcare plans cover preventive carefully once per year. That means you’ll pay nothing or very little out of pocket for those regular checkups at your family medicine clinic.
When your doctor catches a potential health condition early, the treatments are often less invasive. You might be able to make simple lifestyle changes or take an inexpensive prescription to control or treat the condition. Certain types of therapies could help control the issue.
If it goes unchecked, the treatment options often become more aggressive once the disease is diagnosed. You might need to see specialists multiple times per year. Copays for specialists are higher on many insurance plans, which means your out-of-pocket expenses increase.
You might need surgery or other invasive procedures. Prescription medication needs could increase if the undiagnosed medical condition starts causing other issues, requiring multiple prescriptions or more costly medications.
Controlling and treating health conditions often becomes more expensive as they progress. That ultimately means higher costs overall for treatment, including a higher out-of-pocket amount that you have to pay.
Increase Your Life Expectancy
Every year, 7 out of 10 deaths are caused by chronic diseases. By taking care of yourself and getting regular preventive care, you can minimize your risk of developing those conditions. If you do develop them, you’re better able to keep the symptoms under control and minimize lasting effects on your body.
This type of care can increase your life expectancy. With fewer health conditions and early treatment, you can often enjoy a longer life with an improved quality of life.
Schedule Preventive Medical Care
Staying current on preventive medical care improves your overall health. It can help improve your quality of life and help better manage your health conditions.
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