Annual wellness exams

Annual wellness checks are important — even if you're healthy.

Modern society is complicated and many lifestyles are not conducive to maintaining good health. And, many medical conditions can take a while before they become evident with symptoms, especially in subclinical or preclinical stages.

A good primary care physician, though, should be able to detect such conditions during wellness checks even before the condition produces symptoms.

With a thorough physical examination and any recommended tests based on exam results and your personal history, primary care doctors can detect any early risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and many other common health conditions that can lead to bad outcomes if not detected early or treated well.

Wellness checks give your primary care physician the opportunity to get to know you and advise/consult regarding healthy lifestyle habits that promote disease prevention.

We all know about immunizations for kids to prevent some infections which could have bad consequences otherwise, but many of us don't realize that there are also such preventive shots/vaccinations available for adults to prevent infections as well. Some examples include flu shots, tetanus shots, pneumonia, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), COVID-19, pertussis, shingles, etc. Based on personal risk factors, our primary care physician can make recommendations to help keep you up to date and protected.

Finally, and quite importantly, these wellness visits can serve as a time to determine your risk of certain cancers. Again, based upon your personal risk factors, your primary care physician can recommend important and timely screenings for common cancers like colorectal cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, and lung cancer. These "preventive" screenings help us detect pre-cancer before it truly occurs, or catch it in very early stages with better treatment options and recovery.