Preventive care, also known as preventive medicine, includes age and gender appropriate lifestyle changes, vaccinations, screening tests and other measures.
Dr. Sabharwal will help you identify major health risk factors (such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and so on) and work with you to bring them under control.
Your first step towards a healthy lifestyle is making an appointment. Together, you and your doctor can create a preventive care plan.
Quality of life
The goal is to keep you healthy. You will enjoy a better quality of life, while reducing your potential health care costs.
Doctors usually practice preventive care at the individual level proactively using examinations, screenings and other tools to address your individual health needs.
Preventive care programs targeting health concerns such as tobacco use, drug abuse and vaccinations (flu, for instance) address health concerns of the whole population.
The old saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” describes how preventive care benefits you and the entire health care system.
Preventive medicine offers better outcomes for most patients and lower health care expenses.
Wide range
Preventive care covers a wide range of activities from the simplest habit of thoroughly washing your hands to sophisticated procedures that look for killers like colon cancer and aortic aneurysm. While the focus of preventive medicine is to keep you healthy, it also extends to people with chronic medical problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, emphysema, depression among others. For these conditions, preventive medicine is about managing symptoms ,complications and improving and maintaining quality of life.
Your first step on the road to better health begins with your primary care doctor.
Why Preventive Care Is Important
Prevention easier than curing
Leading causes of death preventable
Less expensive than treatments
Preventive care is the most important step you can take to manage your health, because many of the top risk factors leading to illness and premature death are preventable.
It is easier to make healthy lifestyle decisions when you have the information and guidance of your health care provider.
Your first step towards a healthy lifestyle is making an appointment with your family doctor. Together, you and your doctor can create a preventive care plan. The first step is a thorough physical examination. Your doctor will also ask detailed questions about your medical history, including whether close family members have had certain problems.
Doctor recommended
Your doctor will recommend preventive care steps and goals depending on your overall health, your gender and your age.
Many of these steps are much the same for everyone. For example, your doctor will schedule the proper vaccinations for you and your children at the appropriate age.
For adults, screenings that consider your family history, age and gender will help your doctor spot problems. Early detection often means a better outcome for you and lower health care costs.
For example, your doctor will want to know if a close female relative has had breast cancer as this may indicate you are at higher risk.
Colon cancer, heart disease and other medical problems in close relatives may alter the timing of screening tests.
Even if you have a chronic condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other medical problems, there are steps your doctor can recommend that may reduce symptoms and improve your quality of life.
Control risks
You can control the risk factors for many of the leading causes of death. A comprehensive preventive care program can lower your odds of becoming another statistic.
For example, preventable risk factors (see chart) such as avoiding tobacco use, maintaining your proper weight, regular exercise and other steps can significantly reduce your chances for illness or premature death.
Your doctor can help you with effective healthy lifestyle strategies that will eliminate or reduce these risk factors.
You may not be able to control every medical condition, but following preventive care guidelines may lessen your chances of serious illness or moderate some symptoms.
Fewer trips to the doctor, urgent care or the emergency room to treat problems associated with preventable risk factors add up to a higher quality of life and more money in your pocket.
What Are Preventive Screenings?
Why your doctor orders tests
Following a schedule for tests
What you don’t know can hurt you
Depending on your overall health, gender and age, your doctor will follow a recommended schedule of preventive screenings.
Preventive screenings are important because some risk factors for illness or premature death are more obvious than others are.
For example, tobacco use and weight control are two major health risks that are usually obvious to you and your doctor.
Not so obvious
However, conditions such as high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels may show no outward symptoms.
High blood pressure can lead to a stroke and other serious medical conditions, while elevated cholesterol levels are linked to heart disease.
There are treatments for both of these conditions that may reduce or eliminate the risk factors, but if you don’t know the problem exists, you can’t seek care.
At North Peoria Internal Medicine, your primary care provider will recommend specific preventive screenings to match your health care needs.
This Wellness Guide provides general information on preventive screenings and their recommended frequency. Your doctor may make adjustments based on your individual health situation.
Some health problems develop slowly, while others may appear more rapidly. This is why your doctor schedules some preventive screenings more frequently and others less often.
If your doctor spots a problem early enough, the solution is more likely to succeed and the resolution may come more quickly.
No one wants to hear they have a health problem, however what you don’t know can hurt you.
You can’t make the best healthy lifestyle decisions if you don’t know about specific issues to address.
If you have children or plan to have children some day, you owe it to them to identify any health issues you are experiencing.
Some health risk factors tend to appear in families. For example, if you or a parent or sibling has had colon cancer your children may be a greater risk.
Your adult children need to know this and communicate it to their primary care doctor. Because of a heightened risk factor, their doctor may adjust the schedule for colon cancer screenings.
Preventable Deaths
Smoking:
High blood pressure:
Overweight-obesity:
Inadequate physical activity and inactivity:
High blood sugar:
High LDL cholesterol:
High dietary salt:
Low dietary omega-3 fatty acids (seafood):
High dietary trans fatty acids:
Alcohol use:
Low intake of fruits and vegetables:
Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids:
Harvard University public health researchers concluded these are the leading preventable risk factors for premature death in the United States annually. Source
Preventable Causes of Death
⦁ Adopt a healthy lifestyle
⦁ Top preventable causes of death
⦁ Top lifestyle changes to improve your health
You have the power to moderate or eliminate many of the top preventable health risk factors that lead to illness or premature death.
Making healthy lifestyle decisions and following a regular schedule of preventive care is the key to better health results and a higher quality of life.
Preventive care also known as preventive medicine places its emphasis on preventing health issues or identifying small problems before they become a major health crisis.
Your doctor will recommend lifestyle changes and screenings that are appropriate for your overall health, age and gender.
Preventive care doesn’t guarantee good health – some illnesses and conditions develop without warning.
However, preventive care and healthy lifestyle decisions give you the best chance to avoid or moderate many serious problems.
The accompanying chart lists the top preventable risk factors for premature death.
Avoiding each of these preventable risk factors involves either a lifestyle decision or early detection of the problems they cause or both.
Your doctor can help you take the steps necessary to reduce or eliminate these health risks and can identify related or other problems through regular examinations and screening tests.
For most people, making a few healthy lifestyle decisions will greatly reduce or eliminate preventable risk factors. These include:
⦁ Avoid all tobacco usage in any form
⦁ Avoid alcohol or use in moderation
⦁ Maintain a healthy weight
⦁ Exercise regularly
⦁ Eat a healthy diet
Making and maintaining these decisions is easier said than done, but with the help of your doctor, you can prevent or lessen many risk factors for serious illness or premature death.
Preventive Care and Healthy Eating
⦁ Healthy eating is a habit
⦁ Smart choices
⦁ What to avoid
Poor diet choices have long-term consequences for your health.
You can trace many of the preventable forms of death to our food choices.
It’s not difficult to learn good diet habits, however some basic information about nutrition will make the process easier.
The goal of health eating is more than losing weight. Health eating helps you enjoy a better quality of life.
Your first step towards a healthy lifestyle is making an appointment with your family doctor. Together, you and your doctor can create a preventive care plan.
You will feel better because your body will be getting the nutrients it needs to fight off disease and aging.
Here are some important tips:
Food pyramid – A great place to start is with some basic information on smart choices for health eating. This section contains a link to the United States Department of Agriculture’s personalized food pyramid.
Food labels – Almost any food you buy today must have a nutrition label that lists some basic information about the product. Be careful when using food labels to determine calorie intake and so on. Many labels report the food’s information based on an unusually small serving size. This can fool you into thinking a food is low calorie.
Fats – Fat in your diet can lead to heart attacks and other serious health consequences. Here’s how to manage the fat in your diet.
Sugars – Sugars occur naturally in a variety of foods, however sugar-laden soft drinks, sugar snacks and other processed foods add many unnecessary calories to our daily menus. Avoid or limit food and snacks with high levels of sugar. Select foods that offer nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, which are missing from many snack foods.
Fiber – Fiber is an important part of every diet. It aid digestion and helps lower blood cholesterol. Fiber is found in plant foods. High fiber foods tend to be lower in fat and are more filling, so they help you maintain a healthy weight.
Importance of Exercise
⦁ Definition
⦁ Kinds of exercise
⦁ How to get started
Physical activity involves moving the body. Being active and maintaining a healthy weight are needed for good health. Both benefit health in different ways.
People of all ages can improve health and fitness by including moderate amounts of physical activity in their daily lives. A moderate physical activity is any activity that requires about as much energy as walking 2 miles in 30 minutes, such as rowing, cycling, vacuuming, swimming, tennis, and volleyball.
Don’t attempt to go from “couch potato” to world-class athelete in one weekend.
Start with a modest amount of exercise most days and build up to the recommended levels.
Check with your doctor before beginning a strenuous exercise program.
It is never too late to benefit from a regular exercise program. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Recommendations:
⦁ Aim to include 30 – 60 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week.You can do the activity all at once, or split it up into short bouts.
⦁ To have additional fitness benefits, increase the intensity of the activity.
⦁ Try to add a warm-up before starting exercise and finish at a slower pace to cool-down.
⦁ Include stretching in your activity plan.
⦁ Find an activity that you enjoy that can be easily added into your life.
⦁ Find other people to exercise with for support and encouragement.
⦁ Track activity on a chart or calendar to check how often and how long you are exercising. Use a pedometer to track steps; discuss goals with your health care provider.
⦁ Build activity into your daily life – take the stairs, park away from buildings, walk in place while listening to radio or watching TV.
⦁ If you have questions about your ability to exercise, check with your health care provider before starting a program.
Preventive Care for Women
⦁ Paying attention to your health
⦁ Top health screens
⦁ Steps to a healthier lifestyle
Women share many health risks with men, such as many types of cancer and heart disease.
Women also face some unique health concerns specific to their gender.
Preventive care can reduce some of the health risks by helping women live a healthy lifestyle and recommending age and medically-appropriate screenings.
The first step in preventive care is to be mindful of your health – listen to what your body may be telling you.
Your first step towards a healthy lifestyle is making an appointment with your family doctor. Together, you and your doctor can create a preventive care plan.
A sudden weight loss or gain, unusual bumps or tender spots, shortness of breath, skin color and other outward signs can be a signal that not all is right with your body.
Not all health problems have outward symptoms. High blood pressure, for example, has no symptoms but is a significant factor in heart disease and strokes.
One of the most important steps in preventive care is a thorough and timely physical examination by your doctor. Your age, overall health and any specific health issues will guide your doctor in recommending the frequency and types of exams.
Your doctor will encourage you to have the appropriate preventive screening tests and will recommend a schedule to fit your preventive care needs.
Your medical history and any medical problems in your family, breast cancer, for example, may prompt your doctor to suggest a personal screening schedule that differs from widely published norms.
Your doctor will encourage you to take advantage of preventive screenings for conditions that cross gender lines, such as:
⦁ Colo-rectal cancer (colonoscopy)
⦁ Skin conditions including cancer and shingles
⦁ Mental health issues such as depression (more common in women than men)
⦁ Autoimmune diseases including diabetes, lupus and others
Major preventive care concerns for women include:
Heart health
Heart disease is the leading killer of women and men. Follow your doctor’s advice on such issues as controlling:
⦁ Your weight
⦁ Blood pressure
⦁ Cholesterol levels
Eating heart-healthy foods and exercising (with your doctor’s guidance) along with preventive screening tests will help you reduce the dangers of heart disease.
Heart disease symptoms in women may be different from those in men leading to undiagnosed heart disease in its early stages when treatment may be more effective.
Talk to your doctor about the signs of heart disease and what steps you can take to prevent this leading cause of death in women.
Cancer
Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women, although not the only concern for women. Family history plays an important part in helping your doctor understand the particular risks you face.
Your doctor will recommend a schedule for mammograms that is age appropriate and considers your family history or any other risk factors. Self-examination and clinical examination are important steps in spotting breast cancer.
Cervical cancer is a health concern that warrants your attention. Pap smears and a pelvic exam are important parts of preventive care for women.
Frequency of pap smears depends on several factors including age, sexual activity and other risk factors such as family history.
Osteoporosis
The loss of bone mass can lead to broken bones, a stooped posture and other problems late in life. Men and women can suffer from osteoporosis however, a majority of cases involve women.
While osteoporosis mostly affects older women, you can take steps at any age to reduce bone mass loss.
Your doctor will encourage healthy lifestyle changes to prevent or reduce the long-term effects of the condition. Starting as a young adult, you and your doctor can make the right decisions that render osteoporosis mostly preventable.
Preventive Care for Men
⦁ Paying attention to your health
⦁ Top health screens
⦁ Steps to a healthier lifestyle
Men and women share many of the same health concerns such as heart disease, cancer and other problems.
Men also face some specific health concerns that are unique to them.
Preventive care beginning as a young adult can help men live a healthier lifestyle and possibly avoid health problems.
It is not uncommon for young men to skip preventive care if they presently enjoy good health. Yet, lifestyle habits formed as a young man may mean problems later in life.
Young men may be able to consume massive amounts of unhealthy food, go with little sleep and indulge in immoderate alcohol consumption and tobacco use.
While it may seem these habits have little impact on young men, the consequences later in life can be severe and it is often difficult to give up indulgences once started.
Unhealthy lifestyle decisions at a young age can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other serious medical conditions.
One of the most important steps you can take is a thorough physical examination, which will include a family medical history, age-appropriate screening tests and identification of potential health problems.
If there is a history of heart disease, cancer or a chronic illness such as diabetes in your family medical history, your doctor may suggest other tests.
Lifestyle changes and any predisposition towards such dangers as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other indicators will factor into your doctor’s recommendations.
Two problems in particular are specific to men: testicular and prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer
One of the most prevalent types of cancer in men, prostate cancer typically develops after the age of 50 although it can occur earlier.
In many cases, cancer of the prostate presents no symptoms and progresses so slowly that older men may have the disease, yet die from another unrelated cause.
When symptoms are present, they include:
⦁ Difficulty urinating
⦁ Pain when urinating
⦁ Erectile dysfunction or other sexual problems
However, prostate cancer can spread and if not treated can cause death.
The National Cancer Institute estimated new cases and deaths from prostate cancer in the United States in 2009 at:
⦁ New cases: 192,280
⦁ Deaths: 27,360
The following screenings are recommended:
⦁ Digital rectal examination (DRE) by your doctor every year after age 50 will check the prostate gland for lumps and swelling.
⦁ Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a blood test that may help diagnose prostate disease. Men over 50 should discuss having this test with their doctor. This test is not conclusive and there are risks with false positive results that can lead to invasive and potentially, debilitating side effects.
If the prostate cancer is not aggressive or growing rapidly, your doctor may not suggest any treatment. When treatment is appropriate, the options include:
⦁ Surgery
⦁ Chemotherapy
⦁ Several forms of radiation treatment
⦁ Hormonal therapy
⦁ Other specialized treatments
It is important to catch the cancer at an early stage when more treatment options may be available. A yearly checkup will help you and your doctor decide what’s best for your situation.
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer can appear in young men and later in life. Here are the steps to help spot this form of cancer:
⦁ Males should perform monthly testicular examinations beginning at age 15.
⦁ Males with a history of undescended testicles are at increased risk of developing testicular cancer.
⦁ Any male noticing an abnormality in the scrotum or testicle (pain, swelling on one side) should seek prompt medical attention.
Breast Cancer Screening
⦁ Why screen for breast cancer
⦁ Medical history
⦁ Screening schedule
Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in women (after skin cancer). Breast self-exam alone has not been shown to reduce deaths from breast cancer.
Clinical breast exam by a health care professional, breast self-exam, and mammography are currently recommended for early detection. Routine breast cancer screening has the potential to reduce deaths from breast cancer in women.
Women with a strong family history of breast cancer should start routine screening at least 10 years before the age of onset of breast cancer in their relatives.
Breast cancer risk can be inherited from both paternal and maternal sides of the family.
⦁ All women over 20 years of age are encouraged to perform monthly breast self-exams. Ask your health care provider about doing the self-exam.
⦁ Women age 40 – 49 are advised to have a mammogram every 1 – 2 years based on risk factors.
⦁ Women over 50 years are advised to have a mammogram every year.
⦁ Women over 75 years should discuss the frequency of mammograms with their health care provider.
Colon Cancer Screening
⦁ Why screeing is important
⦁ What are polyps
⦁ Symptons
Why is it important to screen for colon cancer?
One in eighteen Americans will develop colon cancer. Colon cancer is the number one cancer killer in non-smoking Americans. For all Americans, including those who smoke, colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer.
Most cases of colon cancer begin with a pre-cancerous growth called a polyp that can be recognized and removed before it has an opportunity to grow in to a cancer.
Anyone 50 years old and older should be offered colorectal cancer screening by means of total colon exam.
Individuals with a family history of one or more first degree relatives (parent, sibling, child) with colorectal cancer, or precancerous colorectal polyps are at greater risk. The overall colon cancer risk is three to four times that of the general population.
Screening on these persons should be performed by colonoscopy beginning at age 40 or ten years younger than the age at diagnosis of the youngest affected relative.
What are the symptoms?
As a rule small pre-cancerous polyps have no symptoms. Likewise the vast majority of colon cancers do not have any symptoms. Waiting for symptoms to develop may result in advanced cancer, which results in a poor outcome.
Occasionally, large polyps and cancers may have symptoms such as blood in or on your stool, abdominal discomfort, change in your usual bowel habit, or unintentional weight loss.
What is the best screening option?
Total colon exam has been demonstrated to be superior in detecting pre-cancerous polyps and colon cancer. Because your total colon is evaluated, colonoscopy is more likely to find polyps than looking at only the lower third of the colon with flexible sigmoidoscopy, and/or by trying to detect chemical evidence of blood in the stool.
Visualizing the total colon can be accomplished by a barium enema x-ray exam, virtual colonoscopy by CAT scan x-ray, or colonoscopy. Colonoscopy offers the greatest accuracy and remains the gold standard not only in diagnosis of pre-cancerous colon polyps and colorectal cancer but it allows us to remove any polyps or early cancers.