What Are the Benefits of Preventative Health Services?
Preventative health services are what keeps you in good health. There are plenty of benefits to be had with preventative health services. Read on to learn more about preventive health services and how they benefit you.
What Is Preventative Health?
Before touching upon the benefits, let’s go over what exactly preventative health services are. Basically, preventative health services protect people from life-threatening emergencies. These services include testing for diseases and diabetes, counseling, screenings for cancer, such as a colonoscopy, and regularly scheduled checkups. Each of these services can help diagnose and provide treatment; however, they all specialize in a certain practice. This means that you can only use a certain service that can treat a specific issue. Preventative health care means striving to maintain optimal health before any problems occur or before they have a chance to progress. Routine screenings and overall good health practices contribute to overall health in a preventative way.
Healthy Living
Now that you have a general understanding of what preventative health services are, it’s time to go into some of the benefits that come with them. The first and most obvious benefit is being able to live a healthy life. Preventative health services are what keeps us from experiencing an illness that is life-threatening. Without checkups, we wouldn’t be able to know the condition of our blood pressure, for example. If we didn’t have cancer screenings, the death toll would reach unimaginable heights. In fact, seven out of 10 deaths in the United States are related to illnesses that may have been prevented if they engaged with more healthcare services. Preventative health care can catch illnesses and underlying problems before they’re beyond being treatable, which saves lives.
Keeps You Financially Stable
Another benefit that preventative health services give you is keeping you from going under financially. With the high price of medical care, it’s important that you ward off illness as much as possible. Granted, this is dependent on whether or not you have insurance; however, even the deductible can be expensive to pay. Preventative health care services help you keep your health in check so that you don’t have to pay an astronomical hospital bill or take extensive time off from work. Preventative health care services are what ultimately extend our life span. Without them, things would be a lot different than they are today. Being proactive in your healthcare is the best way to live longer and healthier.
3 Things You Can Do Today to Prevent Heart Disease
Even if you are in good health and exercise regularly, the potential of heart disease is lurking down the road. As the leading cause of death in the US, heart disease can strike anyone. While some of the factors that contribute to your heart disease risk are hereditary and cannot be controlled, there are a number of lifestyle factors that you can control. Here are three things that you can do today to prevent heart disease in the future:
Improve Dietary Habits
Your diet is a significant predictor in your odds of developing heart disease. Medline Plus explains that to lower your risk of heart disease, focus on eating a diet that is low in saturated fats, sodium and added sugars. You should make fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains the cornerstone of your diet. There are a variety of dietary changes that you can make to decrease your risk of heart disease while still enjoying flavorful food. For example, instead of reaching for the greasy tortilla chips to dip in that heart-healthy guacamole, try eating it with jicama instead. Substituting applesauce for vegetable oil is a great way to reduce the fat and calories in baked goods. With a little creativity, you can still enjoy your favorite foods without sacrificing your health.
Floss Daily
Most people are surprised to learn about the connection between flossing and heart disease. Not flossing regularly can lead to a host of oral hygiene issues such as gum disease. According to Dr. Bret Dyer, this gum disease can inflame blood vessels around the heart, increasing the risk of heart attack. For this and many other reasons, it is important that you make proper oral hygiene a cornerstone of your overall approach to good health.
Exercise Regularly
When it comes to preventing heart disease, the benefits of regular exercise are vast. Family Doctor says that engaging in frequent cardiovascular activity strengthens your heart while also improving blood circulation. Regular exercise will also help you to maintain a healthy weight, which is a big predictor of heart disease. You will also enjoy lower blood pressure levels and lower cholesterol as a result of working out. All of these benefits work together to reduce your chances of suffering from heart disease.
Heart failure is the leading cause of death in patients today. Welcome Homecare’s exclusive CHF program caters to each patient, individually and focuses not just on care but also education and prevention to keep patients from readmitting into the hospital. Contact us with questions!
