Prevention is the best medicine, it is said. This means that it is much better to not get sick in the first place if you are trying to protect your overall health. Preventative care is a major factor in staying healthy and getting better outcomes when you do get sick.
There are several little things you can do to practice preventative care. For instance, going with a concierge doctor like this one can have a big impact on your health. In this article, we will go over several benefits of going with a preventative health care plan to help maintain your health.
1 – Early detection of diseases
One of the biggest benefits of preventive care is that it helps in the early detection of diseases. When a disease is found early, it’s often easier and less expensive to treat. Preventive care includes screenings and tests that can spot health problems before symptoms even show up.
For example, cancer screenings like mammograms for breast cancer or colonoscopies for colon cancer can detect these illnesses at an early stage. If you’re doing regular blood pressure checks, you may spot heart disease risks before you have a problem. These screenings can catch a disease at a stage when it’s more manageable. This not only gives you a better chance at getting better but also helps avoid the need for more complex and costly treatments later on.
2 – Reduced healthcare costs
It’s often less expensive to prevent a disease or to treat it early than to handle it after it has advanced. It’s much like how it’s cheaper to maintain a car regularly rather than waiting for it to break down and bringing it to the mechanic.
When diseases are caught early through screenings, the treatment is usually less complex and less expensive. For instance, treating early-stage diabetes or high blood pressure can prevent the need for expensive and extensive treatments required for serious complications later on.
Little things like flu shots and vaccines can also bring down your long-term healthcare costs. It costs a little bit of money, but it helps you avoid getting the flu. If you do get the flu, you might have to go to the doctor or even the hospital, which costs a lot more. It’s the same with other diseases.
3 – Better long-term care outcomes
When you’re able to detect diseases before they become serious, it is easier to treat the disease which improves your long-term outcome. Catching diseases in the early stages gives you a much better chance at eradication than if they are allowed to progress.
For instance, by regularly monitoring blood sugar levels, people with diabetes can manage their condition more effectively, preventing serious complications like kidney failure or heart disease. Only treating diabetes is going to allow you to live a long and healthy life as opposed to needing to treat three different diseases at the same time. Leading a healthy lifestyle when you have something like diabetes will also contribute to better outcomes.
