So you’ve made the decision to become more proactive about your health. If you are not sure of where to start, here’s a good idea: go visit a center for primary care.
A primary care center is a clinic or healthcare facility that provides primary care services, such as diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases, health screenings, wellness checks, weight-loss counseling, and chronic disease management.
Once you start seeing a primary care provider regularly, you will be on the receiving end of great health benefits. Let’s talk about the benefits of visiting a center for primary care.
Treatment of Acute and Chronic Illnesses
Primary care doctors are internal medicine doctors. They have extensive training in treating a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions. There are many acute illnesses that can be treated by a primary care doctor, and a patient’s experience with chronic illnesses can also vastly improve with primary care. Primary care doctors can treat many respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, musculoskeletal, urinary, dermatological, and mental health conditions.
Prevention of Diseases
Among the many services provided by a center for primary care are annual check-ups, routine health screenings, and immunizations. All three are part of preventive services and help with the early detection of illness or disease. In an annual check-up, a primary care doctor can detect changes in your blood pressure and heart rate, which can raise your risk for heart disease. They will then make recommendations to reduce your risk, such as smoking cessation, reducing alcohol consumption, weight loss, better sleep hygiene, and other lifestyle changes to prevent disease.
Routine health screenings, on the other hand, test for diseases before they start causing symptoms. For instance, general guidelines for mammograms recommend yearly scans for women beginning the age of 40. The goal is to diagnose the disease early on while it is highly treatable.
Immunizations prevent millions of deaths every year, as vaccines protect against diseases for which there is no existing treatment. There are immunizations recommended for each age group. Adults are recommended the seasonal flu vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, and the Td or Tdap vaccine (Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis). Adults age 50 and older are recommended the shingles vaccine. The human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes cancer, is recommended to those between the ages of 9 and 45.
Primary care doctors treat every aspect of your health and empower you to become an advocate for better health. You deserve to live an active and fulfilling life, so take advantage of the primary care services now.
Center For Primary Care in Irmo, SC
If you are looking for quality, patient-centric care, SC Internal Medicine Associates & Rehabilitation, LLC invites you to our center for primary care. We provide a wide range of primary care services and can help you stay on top of your health, from diagnosis and treatment to wellness and aesthetics. We are committed to helping you live your best life.
To schedule an appointment with a primary care doctor, call us today at (803) 749-1111 or use our online appointment request form. We look forward to helping you take charge of your health!