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It’s certainly been a long and trying winter and spring, hasn’t it? The pandemic has had us all locked in isolation for over a year. The vaccine couldn’t have hit the scene at a better time. Summer is just ahead, and there are real opportunities ahead to enjoy it. We’ve been lurking inside so long we may have forgotten some essential safety tips. In the enthusiasm to get out and enjoy the summer mask-free, don’t get careless. With a little bit of caution and a reminder of what the outside looks like, we can make sure we enjoy it to the fullest.
Getting outside and enjoying summer is bound to result in a few bumps and bruises. Sunburns, bug bites, and a host of injuries and illnesses await us. The risk of all of these is worth it for a bit of activity and fresh air. With a bit of safety-mindedness, the worst injuries can be avoided, however. Consider the following list of common summertime injuries.
Medical practitioners see all sorts of injuries throughout the year. You can avoid most of them with just a little bit of caution. Speaking to your professional can help generate ideas you can use at home and with your family. Talk to them about your favorite activities and get what advice they have to give about enjoying the summer safely. With their help, you can make it through injury-free.
As respiratory illnesses have gained more awareness, getting your annual flu shot has become more important than ever. The influenza virus can be harmful to those with compromised immune systems and can cause severe breathing issues. Most often, if you catch the flu, our bodies will fight the virus off, and the disease will go away within a few weeks. But to prevent getting future variations of the flu virus and protecting those with compromised immune systems, getting your flu shot is the best way to protect yourself. As medical professionals, we highly recommend getting your annual flu shot to help prevent its spread and getting sick during flu season.
Influenza is a common illness, as millions of people get the flu each year. People can experience the illness for up to two weeks, and afterward, symptoms go away. Most often, flu season occurs during the fall and winter, but the virus is able to spread year-round. The flu virus peaks during the months of December to February but can be active as long as May. Even while millions of people catch the flu each year, the virus can pose a more severe threat to those with compromised immune systems, such as children, the elderly, and those with autoimmune diseases.
Because of the nature of the influenza virus, the flu virus evolves each year, making it harder to control. Our only method of controlling the virus is through vaccination shots. These vaccination shots contain a tiny amount of deactivated influenza virus, just enough to allow our immune systems to recognize and destroy the virus within our systems. These vaccinations are specifically designed to boost immunity and help protect the body from future strains. For those planning to get the flu shot this fall or winter, there are some side effects that come with the flu shot, including:
Flu shots have been medically proven to reduce the risk of future flu infections, and due to its ever-evolving nature, it can be a difficult illness to manage each year without an updated vaccine. After getting a flu shot, though, immunity from influenza will last about six months.
As the Covid-19 pandemic lessens its impact over time, it can become easier to become more relaxed about getting your vaccinations. For those people who have not been vaccinated for the Covid virus, flu symptoms and covid symptoms have been misrecognized and mixed up over time due to their similarity in symptoms. The CDC recommends getting the flu shot is vital alongside the Covid-19 vaccine because it helps reduce pressure from healthcare professionals responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. To best protect yourself against both Covid and the influenza virus, getting both the Covid vaccine and flu vaccine with two weeks in between periods is the most assured way to protect yourself from getting sick this year.
Asking questions is essential for communicating with your doctor about your body, any conditions you may have, and what you should expect from your treatment. Our bodies are complex systems made of muscle, tissue, and bone, and most often, our bodies experience issues that can be embarrassing on some level. With this embarrassment, it can be difficult for patients to talk to their doctors about what’s going on with them. Many medical problems, especially if they deal with the intestinal tract, urinary system, or sexual organs, are often a place of awkwardness, but for your doctor, it’s more important than ever to learn about it.
Learning about these issues gives your doctor vital information about your health. However, as the disparity between doctors and their patients grows from these issues, we’re here to help make discussing these issues easier between you and your doctor by giving you some tips to follow at your next appointment.
The patient-doctor relationship is a personal connection as well as a professional one because these relationships should be a safe place to talk about sensitive subjects and find solutions. However, the embarrassment that comes with talking about memory issues, sex, digestion problems, and other health issues can often go undisclosed. Talking about these issues is a crucial part of providing healthcare, and for physicians working in general offices and urgent care centers, these topics are especially vital for providing care.
But for many working in the healthcare industry, this concept is an all too familiar problem because it relates to the patient’s trust and privacy of their health problems. Our methods for handling these health issues involve a complex look at how we socially interact with patients, and what researchers have found is that there isn’t an established social script for how nurses and medical professionals handle the delicacy and privacy of these issues. This lack of clear guidelines means that everything involved has to occur between the patient and their doctors, and when it comes to approaching sensitive issues, the solution has to come from how we as professionals provide a safer atmosphere to allow interpersonal relationships to develop.
So, what’s the best solution for this issue? It all comes down to reaching out, speaking to a professional that will listen to your concerns without judgment, and working towards finding better solutions for your health. When speaking to your doctor, these tips can help you find the treatment you need:
When it comes to seeking help from your doctor, know that they’re here to help you. Speaking to your doctor about these issues, even while they’re sensitive, gives your healthcare team the best ability they have towards helping you receive treatment.
Weeks have passed since the CDC announced that the Covid-19 vaccine is an effective way to prevent the disease and approved it for adults back in April; many researchers are still learning about how effective the vaccines are against the Covid-19 variants, how well the vaccines work for those with weakened immune systems, and how the vaccines can protect people long-term. As the CDC continues to update people regarding the vaccinations, many people waiting for their first or second dose of the vaccine may experience some side effects.
Although you may not be able to choose which vaccine you can get, we can help inform you about the various side effects that may occur once you’ve received your vaccinations and help you prepare for how to proceed knowing you’ve been vaccinated.
Vaccinations from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson have been in constant distribution throughout the United States and the rest of the world. With these three vaccines being authorized by the FDA, understanding what makes each of these different and what side effects are most usual with them can be helpful to know by the time you’re scheduled for your appointment.
Below, we’ll outline these three vaccines available within the US in greater detail and note their side effects:
If you’re considered fully vaccinated, the best resource to follow is the CDC guidelines for protecting yourself and others. If not, please make sure you schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or urgent care center for your vaccination today!
The invention of penicillin changed medicine forever, and today, antibiotics are used constantly to treat various infections and diseases. Antibiotics work to destroy the growth of bacteria, and with the numerous options available for treating infections, antibiotics are often misused in cases where people feel sick and miserable. Antibiotics aren’t a complete solution to every time you’re sick, and understanding how antibiotics work can help remove any potential side effects and help you feel better quicker.
Not all antibiotics work to kill off your illness. Antibiotics only work to kill off certain types of bacteria and work to aid the immune system. Our immune systems work to detect and kill strains of bacteria through our white blood cells, and if detected, work to fight off that infection through those white blood cells. However, if the bacteria has been present long enough that it’s spread uncontrollably, then our immune systems can become compromised, causing us to become sick. Antibiotics work to kill off bacteria that have developed to uncontrollable degrees and aids the immune system in destroying the bacteria cell wall and making it disappear completely.
Antibiotics are a vital part of how we fight off diseases and infections each day, but there are moments when antibiotics won’t work. Overused antibiotics, according to the CDC, can help bacteria strains develop a resistance to the medication. Because bacteria is an ever-evolving organism, antibiotics that are used constantly won’t work against it. For medical professionals, prescribing medications for infections has to be used sparingly to help patients long-term improve their immune systems’ ability to combat disease.
If you have any infection causing pain, inflammation, and muscle aches, your primary care doctor probably prescribed you medication. As a general rule, we recommend following your doctor’s advice for your medication, as well as these tips:
If you have any signs of a bacteria infection, speak with your primary care doctor. If you have symptoms that have become more severe within the last few days, visit your urgent local center for treatment.
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Urgent care centers have become a highly new way for people to gain care. Over the last decade, many families have begun going to urgent centers to help treat fractures, bronchitis, and other ailments that need attention but don’t need the emergency room. For those needing primary care, offices have begun changing the way their practice runs by offering laboratory services, x-rays, and stitches. For the primary and urgent hybrid, laboratory services provide patients with numerous options to receive the care they need.
As medical practices change over time, the healthcare industry grows and evolves with new demands. As protocols are being set in place for healthcare, areas experiencing larger degrees of illness, longer turnaround times, and supply shortages can make caring for families highly difficult to maintain. As primary care offices only work in scheduled settings and emergency rooms are constantly overflowing with people, families that require urgent services don’t have the space to treat a fractured ankle or a bad case of bronchitis. In those scenarios where answers are needed, that’s where urgent care centers come in to help.
Within urgent care and primary care centers, they can provide:
In many ways, the ideal practice can treat both non-emergency issues and urgent care issues, addressing people’s health on both a short and long-term scale to provide all-around healthcare for everyone. With the development of urgent and primary care centers in place, people can receive better and faster care throughout their lives. From safe, responsible testing to cleaning up a nasty wound, we’re here to help.
For physicians that work within urgent care centers, the purpose of their careers is to provide safe, responsible health care that helps families grow. By providing these services, these centers can better identify health conditions, prevent future illnesses, and avoid emergency room visits for conditions and ailments that don’t require emergency treatment. Whether you’re suffering from a severe cough that needs attention or just fell and fractured your leg, we are here to help. For more information about having both primary and urgent care, contact us to learn more about what medical services we provide and how we can help you.
Staying healthy is something we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about when we’re kids and teenagers. As we enter our 20’s, we’re often so happy to be out of the house and moving on with our lives that it continues to remain pushed to the side. After all, with education, entry-level jobs, and striving to advance in our careers and lives, who has time to think about eating healthy and staying active? Unfortunately, this leaves many of us entering our 30th year a bit behind the health curve and struggling to get some traction before a slowing metabolism turns losing weight into a Sisyphean task.
If you’re starting out in your 20’s and trying to figure out how to make sure you enjoy a long and active lifestyle, you’re already starting off on the right foot. The sooner you start getting a handle on your physical health, the more likely you are to avoid developing health issues later in life. Too many of us rely on our youthful resilience to see us through these years with the thought that “I’m too young to worry about my health.” Nothing could be further from the truth. You should start the following habits to get the most out of your 20’s and a great start on your 30’s and beyond:
On top of all this, make sure you get enough sleep and always use sunscreen when going outside. Sleep is among the most essential gifts you can give your body to keep it at peak performance. Like any machine, it needs enough downtime and maintenance to keep working properly, and sleep is when this happens.
While everyone should have a physician they regularly see to help maintain personal care, not everyone has (or can afford) a personal trainer. If you have a gym membership, you can check in to see what deals or prices they have, as some can come quite cheaply. You don’t have to employ a trainer every time you work out either! Indulging in a trainer every once in a while to make sure you’re staying on track to your health goals can go a long way towards improving your life in years to come.
Telehealth is a virtual and remote form of medical care that has been taking hold even before the pandemic began. During the pandemic, it has seen a meteoric rise as it provides doctors with the ability to meet with their patients, provide diagnoses, and prescribe medication from a distance. Without an office visit being involved, doctors have been able to see more patients, maintain sterile practices, and stay safe. This new option for medical care is still on the rise, and it’s unlikely that it will be going anywhere after the pandemic is over.
One of the cornerstones of the rise of Telehealth has been the availability of high-speed internet and video conferencing services. Many medical concerns don’t actually require a visit to the office to get diagnosed and treated but instead can be identified and managed remotely. Not only does this make things easier for the patient being treated, but it prevents further spread of illness by encouraging them to stay home. What other benefits are there to Telehealth?
As Telehealth continues to grow, you can expect to see more and more providers offering it as an option. Imagine it no longer being necessary to leave the comfort of your own home to get treatment when you’re sick. No more do you have to drive yourself or find someone to drive you, to get the care you need when ill. Instead, you just need to pick up a phone and reach out to your medical provider.
The first telehealth services began being offered about fifty years ago, but at that time, the services offered were minimal. As technology has grown and high-speed internet more universal, this field has been seeing substantial growth. Throughout the year’s multiple inventions came and went trying to make this field a reality, and today it’s finally become possible. From patient portals to video conference consultations, the future of telemedicine is here. There is even a growing push to create robotic surgical suites allowing skilled surgeons to treat patients anywhere on the globe that has access to them.
It’s been a long year of virus-ridden pandemic, but with any luck, it’s all slowly coming to a close. It’s too soon to do a victory dance yet, but as things sit, the Vaccine seems to be performing adequately. If the current trend and vaccination schedules continue, we should see a world where the COVID vaccine is under control in just a few months. On the way there, however, there are some questions left for many patients.
We put together a compilation of a number of the most commonly asked questions about COVID to help you manage what is hopefully the last few months of a year-long pandemic.
Those looking to get their vaccination should reach out to their medical provider to get resources. Many doctor’s offices are providing vaccination options, but there are also many vaccination centers springing up at pharmacies and stores across the United States. This is an exciting time for those of us who have lived through the pandemic. With time, patience, and a little luck, we’ll be back to living life close to normal in just a few months.
For many people, the pandemic has been easier to tolerate as the colder months came upon us. The idea of spending this colder part of the year primarily indoors was familiar to us, even if the absence of our distant family through the holidays was not. While this helped with social distancing outside of work and school hours, we still have to concern ourselves with the spread of COVID at our places of employment. With the warmer months ahead, we’re going to feel driven to spend more time outside. While the vaccine is being distributed, caution is still necessary, so we’re going to explore the mechanics of how this disease spreads indoors and out.
With all this talk about social distancing, many have gotten the impression that the primary concern is physical contact. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Social distancing helps reduce the spread of COVID through aerosol behavior, such as through coughing, sneezing, even talking. There is a risk of contact spread, but our masks and the distance we keep are addressing these other venues as well. As a result, keeping airflow moving in your workspace and maintaining ventilation systems is important. The following are a few things suggested by the EPA to address ventilation concerns:
When you’re outdoors, it’s necessary to take the more well-known steps to avoid transmission of the disease. These steps are fairly well-known and include the following:
These steps will help you both indoors and out and can ensure that you and your family stay safe from the life-threatening illness that is the Coronavirus.
We’re entering an exciting part of the pandemic as the vaccine gets introduced. For many of us, this represents a hope of returning to normalcy and a life free from masks… eventually. For now, we’re still finding out how effective this vaccine is and whether it is capable of protecting us from the mutated strains that have been discovered. Recent studies covering the newly produced vaccine are showing promising results, but caution is still necessary. It will be a while, but hopefully, soon, we can start taking steps to go back to something approaching normal. Until officially notified by the CDC, continue to social distance, wear masks, and otherwise take steps to protect you and your family from COVID.