The Importance of Preventive Health Care

While there’s no such thing as a crystal ball when it comes to your health, there are clues that can help us guide you toward a brighter future. From heart disease to cancer, there are ways that you can avoid these serious diagnoses altogether, and the first step is practicing good preventive care.

At Gulf West Medical Associates, Dr. Rajesh Dave and our team provide preventive health care services that are designed to optimize the wellness of our patients. Through vigilant monitoring and screening, here’s a look at why preventive care is your best line of defense when it comes to your health.

Preventive care basics

There’s an expression that states that, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” which means that any steps you can take to ward off disease are far easier than fighting the disease once it takes hold.

At the heart of our preventive care are your yearly physical exams with us, during which we record vital statistics that help us track your health from one year to the next. In doing this, can spot any alarming trends and take swift action.

Based on your gender, age, and risk factors for diseases, we also perform invaluable screenings, such as:

• Pap smears
• Colon screenings
• Mammograms
• Prostate exams
• Skin checks
• Sexually transmitted disease testing
• Blood work

Between your annual exams and these screenings, we collect valuable baseline information concerning your health and work with you to mitigate any factors that we deem risky.

Prevention and disease

Nearly 60% of adults in the United States have one chronic health condition, and 42% have multiple conditions. While there are many conditions that qualify as chronic, let’s take a look at some of the more common — and preventable — ones.

First, the American Heart Association reports that 80% of cardiovascular diseases are preventable. As part of your preventive care, we analyze your cardiovascular system through blood pressure readings, cholesterol testing, and blood work. 

Depending upon what we find, we can help you reverse any worrisome trends through diet, exercise, and certain medications, which can prevent serious consequences like heart attack and stroke.

Now let’s take a look at another growing problem — Type 2 diabetes. Consider these statistics: More than 34 million people in the US have diabetes, and a whopping 88 million adults are considered prediabetic. 

If you’re among the one in three Americans who are on the brink of developing Type 2 diabetes, we can help you institute some lifestyle changes that can prevent you from receiving this serious, and lifelong, diagnosis.

Rounding out our list of serious diseases is cancer. Through tests such as colonoscopies, prostate testing, and mammograms, we can screen for the early signs of cancers. We can also help you offset certain risk factors for cancer, such as smoking, obesity, and other environmental considerations.

While we’ve outlined some very serious health issues, our goal here is to underscore the role that preventive care can play in helping you preserve your health. To schedule your preventive visit today, please contact our office in Port Richey, Florida, to set up an appointment.