You’re likely good at making sure your car gets an oil change whenever necessary, communicating with your financial advisor about anything unusual that may be going on with your investments, and making sure your home and yard are in peak condition. However, are you as much of a stickler about having an annual checkup with your physician?
While the number of Americans with health insurance is at an all-time high – up to 80%, according to Business Insider – only 25% of those people get an annual physical. Many people also ignore having a yearly flu vaccine, even though these preventive shots are readily available at little to no cost.
Let’s talk about why it is so important to your health to have regular visits with your doctor, and where you can go in Northern New Jersey to find an excellent healthcare physician who will ensure that you are in optimum health.
Why Are Regular Checkups So Important?
Here’s why adults should see their primary healthcare physicians on a regular basis:
- Your healthcare physician can help you identify risk factors which could jeopardize your long-term health. These risk factors can include family history (your genetic predisposition for diseases or conditions), lifestyle factors (smoking, diet, sedentary lifestyle, occupation, family stressors), and underlying health conditions which could make you susceptible to other things, such as diabetes leading to foot problems. Once risks are identified, you and your primary care physician can develop a plan to mitigate their impact.
- Your primary healthcare physician can conduct and give you prescriptions for routine screenings which you should ideally have done, beginning at certain ages and continuing at certain intervals. For instance, men and women alike should get a colonoscopy to look for and remove potentially precancerous polyps beginning at age 50, or even earlier if colon cancer is in your family. A colonoscopy is therefore not only done to look for cancer or precancerous cells, but also to remove any polyps – and possibly thereby prevent colon cancer from ever developing.
- Annual checkups provide a general head-to-toe assessment of your health, including vital signs, breathing, oxygen levels, and more. Changes from what’s normal for you are red flags that chronic problems could be developing, so your physician may give you treatment.
- Blood work is done annually (or more often) by your healthcare physician to monitor blood sugar (blood glucose) and cholesterol levels to alert both you and the doctor of any potential of developing diabetes, heart disease, and other problems. For a man, your blood may also be tested for PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels, as a sudden increase in your PSA level from prior checkups could indicate prostate cancer.
- Your healthcare physician will also conduct a urinalysis to check for a UTI (urinary tract infection) and other health issues that can show up in the urine.
- Your PCP will prescribe or administer important vaccines, including the flu shot, shingles vaccine, tetanus shot, and pneumonia shot. These medications constitute important preventive care.
Healthcare Physicians in North Jersey
At our multispecialty medical practice, Hudson MD Group has internal medicine and family practice physicians, as well as cardiologists and podiatrists – all ready to help you and yours. Why not start a new healthy habit today and call Hudson MD Group to book a checkup? We’re here to help you be as healthy as possible.
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation, call us today at (973) 705-4914, or send us a message online now. We look forward to being your healthcare provider!
