Preventive and Lifestyle Health in Southlake, TX

The foundation of every person's primary care plan should be a solid preventive healthcare routine. Preventive healthcare is the area of medical treatment that focuses on avoiding or stopping problems before they can begin and ensuring that your overall condition is kept in check. There are different types of preventive care, depending on your age, gender, lifestyle, and genetics. At Integrative Pain and Wellness Center, we don't just help treat disease, we want to prevent it in the first place. Reach out to our office in Southlake, TX and the surrounding areas of Midland and Odessa, TX to find out how you can take charge of your overall health today!

Preventive healthcare at Integrative Pain and Wellness Center can provide our Southlake, TX patients with many benefits, some of which include:

• Catching signs of disease and illness before they become chronic
• Establishing a baseline of health for you
• Building rapport and familiarity with your provider
• Ability to ask medical questions without waiting for a new patient appointment every time

The best, most efficient way to be proactive in your health is to attend your yearly wellness exams, stay on top of taking your medication, and being vocal with your physician whenever you notice that something is wrong. As long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle and see your doctor regularly, you can prevent a wide range of diseases that run in your family or are common in people your age. At Integrative Pain and Wellness Center, our team will work with you to help you understand the best way to stay on top of your physical health and help you live life to the fullest. Some other aspects that can help include:

• Maintaining a balanced diet
• Avoiding tobacco products
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Making an effort to be active and limit screen time

While traditional Western medicine is heavily focused on treating diseases after they are already present and causing problems, our goal is to support your mind, body, and spirit to prevent the occurrence of disease in the first place. We will discuss diet and nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and other healthy habits that will maintain your vitality and keep you feeling young. Here are some of the ways that we incorporate preventive and lifestyle medicine in our practice:

• Annual physical exams: We meet at least once a year to track your previous progress, discuss your health goals for the upcoming year, and order any screening lab or diagnostic test that may be needed.
• Osteopathic manipulative treatment: We encourage all patients to get treated by one of our osteopathic physicians at least a few times a year. One of the tenets of osteopathic medicine is that structure and function are reciprocally related. We screen the entire body for areas of restriction or asymmetry and use a variety of techniques to restore normal motion and function. Osteopathic manipulative treatment has been shown to improve the function of the musculoskeletal and neurological systems, lymphatic flow, and organ function.
• Nutrition assessments: In these assessments, we will look at your current diet and discuss your macronutrient needs. We can also test you for any micronutrient deficiencies and discuss how to correct them with diet and supplements. You may also be eating something that is considered healthy, but your body has a negative reaction that is less severe than a food allergy; this is called a food sensitivity. If this is the case, we can conduct a food sensitivity test to make sure you are eating the right foods for your body.

What are some more ways to practice good preventative health?

In addition to the recommendations listed above, you should also:

• Pursue a lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a healthy diet
• Regularly screen for diseases, especially heart disease and diabetes
• Monitor risks for possible diseases like obesity and cholesterol
• Stay current on vaccinations
• Moderate alcohol use, or quit altogether - this also includes tobacco use

What are the three types of prevention?

The goal of disease prevention is to stop the disease before it starts, identify it early, or treat it as early as possible. The three levels of prevention are:

• Primary — taking steps to intervene before health effects happen by moderating risk factors and engaging in good health practices.
• Secondary — identifying diseases in the early stage through regular screening before symptoms arise (blood pressure testing, mammograms, etc.)
• Tertiary — managing disease after diagnosis to slow or stop its progression (medication, rehabilitation, chemotherapy, lifestyle changes, etc.)

What types of tests are included in preventative health care?

Typical preventative health screening includes a number of tests, including:

• Cholesterol
• Blood sugar
• Blood pressure
• Colon cancer screenings
• Mammograms
• Genetic tests for cancer
• Osteoporosis screening
• Pap smears
• Diagnostic eye exams
• Heart screenings
• Prostate exams

It's never too late to improve yourself for the better. At Integrative Pain and Wellness Center, we put a lot of emphasis on preventive and lifestyle health to ensure that you can stay healthy throughout your life. Contact our office in Southlake, TX to schedule your yearly wellness exam, and get the head start you need to live comfortably and healthily.