What is a Family Physician
A local Family Physican is a specialty that focuses on comprehensive primary care of people of all ages. Having a long-lasting relationship with a family doctor who knows your history is greatly beneficial. A family physician can diagnose and treat all types of diseases, and if necessary, refer you to a specialist. In treating patients a family physician can educate them on diabetes, obesity, immunizations, pregnancy, allergies, children’s health, mental health, men’s and women’s health and senior’s health. A vaccine provides immunity to a disease, typically by containing ingredients that resemble a disease-causing microorganism. A vaccine is made of small amounts of weak or dead germs that cause the disease being vaccinated against, which stimulates your body to recognize the germs as foreign.
Local Family Physician
Family Physician, discusses Preventative Health Planning visits with your Family Physician
This allows the immune system to recognize and destroy these microorganisms later. Obesity is an incredibly common health condition that occurs when a person has accumulated so much body fat that it can negatively affect their health. According to studies, nearly 30% of people worldwide are overweight or obese – it’s become an epidemic. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in North America. Heart disease refers to many conditions that affect the heart, including coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, heart attack, heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) and more. Seniors will account for 22 percent of the population by 2050. Many seniors live active and healthy lives, but as we age, our health needs change. These changes depend on different factors, such as your genetics (family history) and lifestyle modifications. Good mental health is also related to physical health. Mental health problems in seniors often relate to disability, cognitive or sensory impairments, mobility issues, chronic pain and death of family members or friends.
Caring for your mental health – whether it’s having a support system in place, seeing a psychologist or taking antidepressants – is as important as your physical health. As you age, you may need to schedule more visits with your primary healthcare provider. Schedule a yearly visit with your doctor and discuss necessary screenings as needed. There are many reasons why people want to quit smoking. It increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and certain eye diseases. It affects your respiratory health, it’s expensive and it smells bad. Quitting smoking can be a huge challenge for people, whether they’ve smoked for one year or 20.
Preventative Health Planning visits with your Family Physician
So the family physician is uniquely positioned to provide a patient with a lifetime of advice and suggestions for preventative healthcare.
It’s important to have a long-term relationship with your doctor because they know your unique medical conditions, lifestyle, social circumstances, work circumstances that influence your overall health for the future from a preventative health point of view.
It’s important to think about speaking to your family doctor if you have concerns about where your health is at, if you have a family history of cardiometabolic disease or if you have any of the following four conditions.
Number one, physical inactivity. Number two an unhealthy weight or medical obesity. Number three is you’d like to think about quitting smoking, and number four if you’d really like some advice on healthy eating.
It’s important to sit down with your family doctor. There are a list of scientifically proven, evidence-based clinical maneuvers and proven screening tests that will be offered to you based on your particular situation, including colorectal cancer screening, mammography, pap smear screening, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes screening. They may discuss with you the use of aspirin in special circumstances.
They’ll encourage you or applaud you on avoiding smoking and trying to quit smoking. They’ll give you some ideas as to the ideal immunizations that you should receive based on your age, and as well they’ll give you some tips on diet modification and exercise recommendations.
So during these preventative health visits your family doctor will review each of these tests that are customized towards your care. They’ll advise you on the ideal intervals for those tests and not only that they’ll give you some ideas of some offline resources and websites and support groups that you get for more information.
This patient educational video is for informational purposes only. Each patient has unique needs and unique concerns, so it’s very important that you seek help from your family physician or healthcare provider to review your own problems and issues.
Local Practitioners: Family Doctor
