Each year, the month of June is dedicated to encouraging the men in our lives to schedule routine check-ups, pay attention to their health risks, and address any lingering health issues that they’ve been putting off.
Schedule Routine Check-ups
Men’s Health Month serves as an excellent reminder for men to call their primary care providers to schedule a routine physical exam. Routine physical exams are recommended yearly for men over the age of fifty and once every three years for men fifty and under and in good health. In addition, there are various screenings, tests, and vaccinations recommended for men at different stages in their lives and depending on their risk factors and current level of health. Men’s Health Month is the perfect time to pick up the phone and call your PCP to schedule those appointments.
Get to Know Your Primary Care Provider
Developing a long-term relationship with a primary care provider is one of the most effective ways to help you manage your health. A PCP acts as a health partner and can guide you toward meeting and maintaining your health goals. Overtime, your PCP gets to know you and can detect even slight changes in your health that may cause concern and require further testing. Also, overtime, you should feel comfortable enough with your PCP to freely share with them any struggles or concerns that you may have with your health.
Prevention Is Better than a Cure
When it comes to men’s health, prevention and early detection of disease is critical. Attending screenings as recommended by your PCP will help detect disease early, making intervention possible. Many of the risk factors for disease are either preventable or reversible. Learning what to look for and what lifestyle changes to make can help to greatly reduce those risks. Men’s Health Month is also a great time to address those health issues that you’ve been putting off, like that skin spot that refuses to heal or that shoulder that’s been bothering you during your workouts.
Amberwell Atchison encourages all men to schedule routine checkups with your primary care provider, learn your health risk factors, and take care of persistent health issues.
