Your Marshfield Clinic primary care doctor wants to help you stay healthy and this means scheduling regular preventive screenings to spot problems.
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 Marshfield Clinic, your primary care doctor or another health care specialist will recommend specific preventive screenings to match your health care needs.
Develop slowly
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.
Marshfield Clinic doctors are committed to helping you make healthy lifestyle decisions and resolving any health problems.