In many cases, the practice of medicine is reactive. In other words, a patient goes to a doctor with symptoms of a disease or medical condition, and the doctor treats it with medication or surgery. However, a preventative medicine specialist, such as Dominique Fradin-Read, is more proactive. In other words, preventative medicine provides treatments to help prevent patients from getting sick in the first place. There are several different techniques for accomplishing this.
1. Vaccines
Vaccines are effective at preventing infectious diseases. They work by introducing a pathogen into the body through an injection. The pathogen is inactive, meaning that it can no longer cause disease. Nevertheless, the immune system recognizes it as a potential threat and starts producing antibodies to defend against it.
Once the immune system has been exposed to the pathogen, it can produce the same immune response if exposed to it again in an active form. As a result, it can fight off the infection without the patient ever getting sick.
2. Health Screenings
In many cases, diseases are easiest to treat in their early stages before they have had a chance to develop. Unfortunately, however, many of the early warning signs can be very subtle, having little noticeable effect on the patient’s general sense of well-being.
In many cases, tests have been developed to identify early markers of disease. This allows a doctor to diagnose it before the patient shows symptoms and determine a treatment plan. Examples of health screenings include the following:
- Cancer screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies
- Scoliosis screenings for adolescents
- Blood tests
- Urinalysis
Though not necessarily performed by a medical doctor, routine eye exams and dental check-ups could also be considered health screenings.
3. Nutritional Counseling
A person’s diet can affect his or her health in subtle ways. Unhealthy eating habits can cause a person to become obese, which puts one at risk for developing a whole host of serious health complaints, such as heart disease and diabetes. Not only that, but the ingredients in certain foods may put one at risk for particular diseases. Nutritional counseling can help identify foods to avoid because they could cause or contribute to certain diseases. It also helps to teach eating habits to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight.
These are just a few aspects of preventative medicine. It is a much more complex field that includes both clinical and non-clinical practitioners. Non-clinical physicians perform tasks such as managing health services or compiling statistics. Clinical physicians work directly with patients.
