What is preventive medicine?
Preventative medicine is not a radical idea, but the implementation of a common-sense approach to avoiding future illness. It seeks to strengthen and support the body before it’s under attack by disease or injury to improve health in the long run.
For example, if you had high blood pressure, you would want to monitor it and keep it under control as a way of preventing a heart attack.
All doctors are in favor of preventing future health problems, but some actually focus on it and make it a specialty.
What kinds of preventive care can I get from a doctor?
On an individual level, preventative care often revolves around regular tests and screenings to detect disease in its early stages. Catching a condition early often makes it much less dangerous, much quicker to recover from and much less expensive for you to treat.
Some of the common forms of preventive medicine include:
- Blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes tests
- Cancer screenings like mammograms or colonoscopies
- Vaccinations against diseases like polio or measles
- Flu and pneumonia shots
Dr. Gray can also provide advice on changes to your lifestyle to improve your health overall.
What can I do to prevent illness and injury on my own?
In addition to the care you receive from Dr. Gray, establishing good habits on your own can be beneficial to your health. Some good strategies for preventing future disease include:
Quit smoking
Smoking can cause heart and lung disease and an array of different types of cancer. If you’re a smoker, quitting is one of the most immediate and drastic improvements you can make to your lifestyle.
Get frequent exercise
Exercise not only helps your body burn fat and build muscle, but it also has a whole set of benefits for your physical and mental well-being alike. Regular exercise can strengthen your muscles and joints as well as your body’s ability to fight anything from depression to infection. Aim for about two hours of exercise each week.
Change your diet
An unbalanced diet containing too much fat, sugar, or alcohol can cause untold health problems in the future. Most people can afford to cut back on one or more of those three things, but for a more personal approach, talk to Dr. Gray about a nutrition plan to help you start eating better.
If you’re interested in how you could do more to prevent future illness, call A Healthy You today or use the online scheduling tool to make an appointment.
