Family physician, author, blogger, speaker, physician leader.

Tag Archive for colonoscopy

The Mistakes Healthy Patients Always Make

Healthy patients always make the same error. They think that they are not at risk for serious medical problems. Though maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, not smoking, and eating plenty of vegetables and fruits while limiting meat, fat, and fast foods does decrease the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer, it doesn’t completely eliminate it. The chance is there, just a little less. But patients wrongly assume that staying healthy means no chance of illness and, as a result, they routinely skip preventive screening tests because they have no symptoms of illness, have no family history of disease, and are “healthy.” That is the error that many healthy patients make. Staying healthy means that in addition to a healthy lifestyle, screening tests and interventions such as mammograms, Pap smears, immunizations, colonoscopies, and high blood pressure and cholesterol screenings and treatment are equally as important. […] Read More »