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Fathers Need Care Too
Staying on top of your health isn’t easy, and neither is being a parent. Being a father is an important role in your children’s life whether your kids are young, or they have kids of their own. You should take care of yourself so you can have as many active years as possible to spend with your family.
Why Preventative Care?
Preventative care is exactly what it sounds like; it helps prevent complex health issues from developing when you are still young and manage them while you age.
Sometimes parents put off preventative care because you don’t know what you don’t know. How are you supposed to know what screening to do, when, and why?
There are many resources that can tell you what to do and when, but not always why, and some preventative tests aren’t always appropriate for everyone. This is why you should always check in with your primary care provider to determine what screenings and tests you should consider as part of maintaining your health.
Preventative Care for Men
If you are feeling motivated to be proactive about your health this month, below are some common preventative care tasks you can ask your care team about at your next checkup.
Here are some of the most common preventative care tasks men can do at any age:
- An annual checkup with your primary care provider.
- Talk to your primary care team about your mental health.
- Check your blood pressure. High blood pressure can be a sign of a variety of health conditions, and it’s a condition of its own that can lead to lifelong problems.
- Perform a self-skin check or go see a dermatologist. Skin cancer is common, and men are more likely to develop skin cancer on their scalps and lips. But you should check everywhere because you can get skin cancer anywhere you have skin.
- Self-check your testicles for irregularities like lumps or changes in size. Learn more about self-exams here.
- Blood sugar and cholesterol testing every five years is important for evaluating your risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. Both can be life-limiting conditions.
- Yearly vision screening.
Older men should consider these additional screenings
- A colonoscopy to check for precancerous polyps (your GI can remove these during the procedure!), GI conditions, and to make sure everything is working as it should.
- Prostate Cancer Screening is a blood test to check your PSA levels. It’s important to check these annually so you can measure any changes over time.
- Heart disease screening if you have concerns about your risk.
- A bone density test to check for osteoporosis and increased risk for bone fractures.
- Older men should consider these additional screenings
- A colonoscopy to check for precancerous polyps (your GI can remove these during the procedure!), GI conditions, and to make sure everything is working as it should.
- Prostate Cancer Screening is a blood test to check your PSA levels. It’s important to check these annually so you can measure any changes over time.
Heart disease screening if you have concerns about your risk.
A bone density test to check for osteoporosis and increased risk for bone fractures.
Whether you’re a dad or not, men’s health is important. Talk to your primary care provider about your health.
