If you’re looking for comprehensive medical care, consider seeking the care of a physician working at a family practice. Going in to see a family doctor is something that we should all all be doing on a regular basis – ideally at least once throughout the course of a year. For children, visits to a family physician will need to be even more frequent, at least in the first few years of life when they are being readily vaccinated more than they will at any other point in life, all with the goal of protecting them from disease and future death or disability.
In addition to this, going in to see a physician when you get sick is something that else that you should do, depending on the illness. For instance, a primary care physician might not recommend an in office visit for a mild cold. After all, there is no cure for a cold and they are quite prevalent indeed all throughout the United States. There are up to one billion separate instances of the common cold seen over the course of just one year – and these are all far from life threatening or dangerous in any way. In fact, the normal healthy adult is likely to contract as many as four separate colds in this span of time and a child that has not yet reached their teenage years will actually contract as many as eight total colds, as their immune system is still very much in the process of building itself up.
However, the cold can sometimes be confused for the flu, which will mean a trip to see your primary care physician. Seeing a physician or other such family care doctor for the flu is ideal, as this will help them to chart exactly how prevalent the strain of flu in question might be. They can also give you an anti viral treatment, which can help to mitigate the symptoms of the flu and reduce your overall chance of every developing any type of serious complication as a result of having it. Knowing you have the flu is hugely important too, as this knowledge can help you to prevent the spread of it, which can be done from day one of the infection all the way that first week of being infected and beginning to suffer symptoms.
Of course, your best course of action when it comes to the flu is to go in to see your physician far before flu season ever starts in order to get a flu shot. Flu shots are incredibly safe for the vast majority of people who are over six months of age. Getting the flu shot can protect you from multiple strains of the flu and though it is not 100% effective, it will keep your illness relatively minor should you still end up contracting the illness. Therefore, you will be at a greatly reduced risk for every suffering negative complications of the flu, which can be as serious as pneumonia or sepsis (or both) and are certainly not things that should be taken lightly.
Aside from illnesses, you can go to your primary care physician for other complaints as well. Dizziness, for example, is an incredibly common physical complaint and one that can stem from any number of different causes. As a matter of fact, it’s the second most common complaint heard by primary care physicians and other medical doctors all throughout the country. And while dizziness can certainly be quite frightening indeed, the underlying cause of this dizziness is more likely than not going to be relatively benign, all things considered. Still, however, it is a good idea to get it checked out, especially if it is beginning to impede in your day to day life.
Ultimately, when it comes to your health it is almost always going to be better to be safe than to be sorry. If you’re having a variety of troubling symptoms or even just one, going in to be seen by your family doctor is highly advisable. Taking such steps can get you feeling better sooner rather than later and can catch major problems before they become major in the first place.