Importance of Preventive Care

Don’t wait until it’s too late – not when your health is at stake.

Preventive medical care can help you avoid certain health problems altogether as well as stop existing trouble in its tracks before it can cause permanent damage. You’re also more likely to get the timely medical care you need when you have regular checkups by a doctor you know and trust. This should be someone who is familiar with you and your medical history, and who is accessible and responsive when you have questions or concerns. Dr. Adam Possner and Dr. Dina Zeki at North Bethesda Primary Care are that kind of doctor.

Preventive Health Services

Good preventive medicine is about more than just an annual physical exam. It’s an ongoing dialogue between you and your doctor. Because your body changes over time, your health needs change, too. It’s important to understand these changes and what they mean for you. At North Bethesda Primary Care, we address the following preventive health issues with you to ensure you are as healthy and happy as possible.

Lifestyle

Most people understand that a balanced diet and exercise can have a significant impact on your overall health. It’s getting into the specifics that’s tricky. For example, knowing your daily nutritional needs can help you make healthy choices without sacrificing your enjoyment at mealtimes. Also, depending on your current medical condition, popular diets and fasts may actually harm your health. The same is true for certain types of exercise. Your current health will dictate what type of exercise is best for you.

Discussing these lifestyle issues with your doctor can shed light on important ways to stay healthy. Your doctor can provide practical tips to optimize your lifestyle as well as to lose weight, if that is one of your goals.

Vaccines

Vaccines can prevent a wide variety of contagious and deadly diseases. Depending on your age and underlying medical conditions, you will need different vaccines, and some vaccines are necessary on a repeated basis. The flu shot, for example, is recommended for all adults, every year.

At North Bethesda Primary Care, we provide the seasonal flu shot for all adults, including the adjuvanted flu vaccine for those 65 years old and older.

Screening Procedures

A preventive health screening is basically a test or assessment that can identify early signs of a disease before you display any symptoms. Examples of common screening procedures include blood pressure checks (for hypertension), skin exams (for skin cancer), body mass index calculations (for obesity), breast exams and mammograms (for breast cancer), bone density scans (for osteoporosis), low-dose CT scans of the chest (for lung cancer), colonoscopies (for colorectal cancer), and Pap smears (for cervical cancer).

Your doctor will recommend screening procedures based on your health and risk factors for specific diseases. Some can be done in our office. In other cases, Dr. Possner or Dr. Zeki will refer you to the appropriate imaging center or subspecialist for the screening procedure.

Screening Lab Work

Your doctor may order blood and urine work from time to time to look for imbalances that may indicate certain health problems, including:

• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Hepatitis
• High cholesterol
• Kidney disease
• Liver problems
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Prostate cancer
• Thyroid disorders
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

For the convenience of our patients, we can draw blood and collect urine for testing in our office, which we then send to a lab for analysis.

Preventive Visit With Dr. Possner or Dr. Zeki

There’s no time like right now to schedule your preventive care visit with Dr. Possner or Dr. Zeki at North Bethesda Primary Care. Established patients can request their yearly preventive care visit via the patient portal. For those new to our membership-based concierge services, request your complimentary meeting now to find out how our preventive care can help you stay healthy in the long term.