Some form of medical care is an important part of everyone’s wellbeing. And in the US, with 139 million emergency room visits in 2017 alone, taking care of ourselves before things get that bad is vital. We can do many things to take better care of our health, and important among those is having an annual physical.
Dr. Rogers Walker and Walker Urgent and Family Care have years of experience with giving annual physicals and taking care of patients.
Here are some reasons your annual physical is so important:
Getting a routine annual physical means getting blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and visual checkup (checking parts of the body visually for signs of any conditions), which helps doctors help us better. Yearly exams include tests for things like cholesterol levels, diabetes, heart disease, many forms of cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and osteoporosis as people get older. Some of these may be checked more than once a year depending on results and family history.
Although you may go to specialists periodically to check on specific conditions, the primary care physician is the person who has a clearer picture of a patient’s health because they see them on a regular basis. Patients are more likely to open up about issues important to their health with their PRP. Checking in on things with annual physicals can help give your physician a better picture of your health. This also means they can better recommend treatments because they see the whole medical picture, while working with specialists.
A medical history for a patient can be vital to understand things like allergies, family conditions that can affect the patient, and previous events and surgeries that may affect patients in the present and the future. Prior immunizations, family genetics, and test results for various conditions over time paint a medical picture of health that a PRP can use to help patients stay well. Many of those are covered in exams in your annual physical.
Health is important at every stage of our lives, but as we age, people deal with different risks for conditions. Cancers (prostate, cervical, and colon), heart disease, diabetes, and cataracts become more of a problem as we reach our 40s and older. In our 60s and above, the risk for the previously mentioned conditions can be worse, and the risk for osteoporosis, glaucoma, and skin cancer is also greater.
So, an annual physical is essential to manage medical needs at all stages of life, and having a primary care physician to help see the whole medical picture is essential to finding the best treatments should things go wrong.
If you haven’t had your annual physical yet this year, make an appointment with Dr. Walker and
Walker Urgent and Family Care to keep healthy.
