Preventive health care may seem just like any other buzzword floating in the medical community, but it has real benefits to people’s lives. Understandably, not everyone has the privilege to do preventive health care, but to those who have the means to, it would be a waste not to take the chance.
However, before you jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the benefits of preventive health care, you must first understand what it is.
What is preventive health care?
In a nutshell, preventive health care is the practice of taking regular tests and screenings to reduce the burden of disease. It prevents the onset of chronic illnesses and serious health conditions from taking place by minimizing the risk factors surrounding an individual. And it’s also done to prevent the further decline of a person’s health.
Preventive health care comes in the form of immunization, STI counseling, HIV testing, and psychiatric consultations. For women, it could be taking birth controls, mammograms, pregnancy screenings, or breast cancer genetic (BRCA) tests. And for men, it could be done through prostate cancer screening.
Why is it important?
Most people seek the attention of a medical professional when they feel like there’s something wrong with their bodies, but sometimes not even then. This allows a condition that could have been prevented from becoming worse just because it was left unaddressed for a long time.
This is what preventive health care aims to solve. It’s a medical practice that involves a lot of screening tests to look for any signs of a chronic illness and diagnose it as early as possible. Through preventive care, people can live healthier and take a more proactive approach when it comes to their overall health.
How can it benefit your life?
There are three levels of preventive health care. The primary level involves lessening the risk factors in an individual’s life that can trigger the onset of a chronic illness. The secondary level involves detecting and treating any changes to the individual’s body. And the tertiary level involves trying to reverse or delay the impact of the illness on the individual’s life.
Knowing the different prevention methods can help you play a more active role in your health instead of simply coming along for the ride. This gives you the option to prioritize your health and take the right steps to maintain it. Here are other benefits that you can enjoy from doing preventive health care:
1. Receive treatment for a condition earlier
The earlier you can receive a diagnosis for a health condition, the earlier you can receive the appropriate treatment for it. If you simply go through life without getting health check-ups and knowing the state of your body, there’s a big chance that you won’t become aware of a condition, especially if the symptoms aren’t noticeable.
For instance, if you have food allergies that you aren’t aware of, it could put your life in danger, particularly if you or the people you’re with don’t know what to do during the attack. That’s why you should immediately receive a food intolerance treatment when you experience it the first time so that it doesn’t happen again.
2. Improve your overall quality of life
Most chronic illnesses are manageable with medication, but some can leave people debilitated and helpless. This is because a serious chronic illness can affect their quality of life, and it can be challenging to bounce back from it. However, if you were to do preventive health care, you can prevent yourself from ever reaching that point.
This means that you can spot the signs of a condition early and receive treatment for it, which can help you maintain, if not improve, your quality of life. Of course, this isn’t to say that preventive care will eradicate the condition, but it can reverse or delay the impacts of the illness on your body.
3. Save you from expensive medical costs
It’s not a secret that living with a chronic illness is expensive. Aside from your regular doctor’s appointments and consultations, you’ll also be taking a lot of prescribed medications to manage your condition. There’s also the cost of other healthcare services, such as physical therapy and various tests.
All these can quickly accumulate to a substantial amount that can drain your bank accounts if you don’t have health coverage. But even with insurance, certain services won’t be covered by the policy. So, by doing preventive health care, you’ll be able to save yourself from all these expenses.
4. Maintain your day-to-day routines
Lastly, if you can prevent the onset of a chronic illness, you won’t have to live your life around it. This means that you won’t need to deviate from the routines you’ve already established when it comes to your work, social life, and alone time because there are no big changes to your life.
Going to your annual check-ups, taking a few tests and screenings, or even reducing the risk factors surrounding your day-to-day life. Doing all these steps to take care of your health can be worth the trouble, especially if it means that you can maintain the kind of life that you have right now.
