hi want to know a secret well I know the secret and the key to aging gracefully and aging healthily it's really quite simple want to know what it is it's routine Primary Care visits and a good relationship with your primary care physician primary care physicians AKA your family doctor are trained to provide a comprehensive level of care to patients of all ages really to treat disease but also and sometimes more importantly to prevent it whether you have multiple chronic conditions or you're perfectly healthy having a regular primary care doctor is so key to your health and really it it prevents disease and allows you to healthy be healthy and age gracefully today we're going to discuss and salute those unsung heroes of the healthcare profession here on ask the doc send s your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com welcome everyone to ask the doc a TV show where we encourage our viewers to send in their health care questions I'm Dr core a double board certified primary care physician and today we're going to talk about how your primary care physician is an integral part of your health care Journey our first question oh this is exciting our first question comes to us from one of our YouTube viewers and it is from Victor Victor says hi Dr core I'm 67 and retired last year oh lucky you I hope you're enjoying retirement Victor other than a red scaly itchy spot on my for arm that just won't go away I'm feeling pretty good my wife says I haven't seen the doctor in a couple of years so she really wants me to get it checked out but where's the fire oh Victor Victor Victor your wife is absolutely right as many times we are no matter how big or small if you feel something is off with your body you should get it checked out because honestly you know your body best right so if something feels not right chances are that it is not right and plus if it's something that can be caught early or prevented and taken care of isn't that what we all want best case scenario is it's nothing maybe it's just something that needs to be frozen off or needs an ointment for or again maybe it's nothing at all but if it is something more serious don't you want to catch it early and get it taken care of as soon as possible your primary care physician can help you with a variety of Health Care concerns which is especially important the older that we get your primary care physicians are often also the biggest advocates for your health I encourage you to get a comprehensive annual phys physical exam with your primary care physician and see them at least once a year the goal of these exams is to address important aspects of your health that may get missed during routine Primary Care visits this is also why annual exams are longer than routine visits the types of screening that you're going to need for your annual exam depend on your age and they depend on your gender as well the older you are it's understandable that you may need more screening than somebody who is younger so for instance if you're 65 or older your annual exam will include screenings for various items such as the risk of falling now as we age just like a car that ages we need routine maintenance things may not work as they once did and the risk of falling does increase as you age and the worst thing is if you fall you have a higher chance of breaking a bone or getting complications so we really want to make sure that you're sturdy your balance is good and that your risk of falling is low also your risk of infectious diseases for instance as you age your immune system does tend to decline a little bit so you're at a higher risk of Contracting infectious diseases just like shingles RSV influenza uh covid pneumonia and then the most important well not the most important but probably the most anticipated part of an annual exam is your personalized risk of cancer we want to screen the cancers that you're at risk for depending on your age your gender your family history your personal risk factors and really based on these results your PCP may suggest that you get certain vaccines certain screening tests like colonoscopies mammograms or make certain Lifestyle Changes because those are just as important sometimes more important than medications even however many of these screenings are now being suggested at earlier ages younger ages so whereas colon cancer screening used to be a test that we started recommending to individuals at the age of 50 we now are recommending it at age 45 and this change happened after years of research shows that colon cancer is being found in younger and younger individuals while that's happening for a variety of reasons the main point is if you are 45 or older or have a family history or even have any concerns please talk to your primary care physician about the screening you should get some screening tests have more to do with your lifestyle than your health risk factors or your genetics or your family history for instance if you smoke now if you smoke we want to know how long you've smoked what you've been smoking and depending on these questions the answers to these questions we may then recommend that you get a CAT scan a lowd dose CT of the lungs in order to screen for lung cancer now nevertheless no matter what it is your PCP is going to discuss what's best for you and really develop a personalized plan so sorry Victor I got off in a little tangent that there I get passionate about this but you know it's important to remind folks that they need to visit their primary care physician and get a comprehensive annual physical exam now back to that red scaly itchy spot on your arm you should really make an appointment with your primary care physici to get it checked out and honestly consider seeing a dermatologist for a more in-depth skin cancer screening as well okay next question Facebook oh wonderful so our next question comes from one of our Facebook viewers and it's from aracelli hi arisi so she asked I'm 70 and I just moved to a new city down here in South Florida Welcome to South Florida I found a primary care physician I really like but I'm having a hard time finding a geriatrician what should I do well that's an excellent question aricelli for those who don't know a geriatrician is a primary care physician who has done additional training to specialize in treating the individuals who are 65 and older generally we see that individuals 65 and older have more chronic conditions or have more complex Health Care needs um than somebody who is younger so primary care physicians can choose to do a residency or Fellowship to become a geriatrician now the unfortunate part is that there is a scarcity of geriatricians in the United States for various reasons medical students and residents are more inclined to go into other Specialties um and parts of the medical profession but don't worry aisel that doesn't mean that you can't find a good geriatrician honestly most primary care physicians have the extensive training that is needed to address the needs the complex and chronic healthare conditions of our aging population so if you have a good primary care physician and you have a good relationship with them that can be just as good as having a geriatrician speaking of chronic diseases we have another Facebook question and this one is from Samuel Samuel says I'm 63 and was just diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes by my physician who called it a chronic disease I forgot to ask him what he meant by chronic and now I'm really curious about it oh Samuel that is a hefty diagnosis and I really hope that you are listening to your doctor doing what you can to not only treat it but prevent it from getting worse now this is an excellent question also to describe what a chronic condition is we throw that word around as doctors all the time and forget that the general population may not know what it means well chronic diseases are defined as diseases that can last for one year or longer and require ongoing treatments medications and interventions there are some conditions though if they last more than 6 months they're termed chronic so anywhere from 6 months months to one year basically it's something that's longterm and these chronic conditions do tend to occur more the older that we get and as I said they do require ongoing medical attention even if you're not taking medications for them they need to be continuously monitored every 3 to six months to make sure that they're well controlled and that they're not getting worse because that's that's the bad part right and aging does increase your risk of chronic conditions one of those examples is heart disease type 2 diabetes also and then arthritis cancer the list goes on these are also the leading causes of death and disability in the United States so we take them very seriously and we really really want to help you manage them now many chronic diseases are caused by a short list of risk behaviors and these risk behaviors differ for everybody but these are the general ones now the first one I want to talk about is not having a healthy diet and having poor nutrition now this includes diets that are low in fruits and vegetables that are low in fiber and high in sodium and saturated fats now I could do a whole seminar on why fruits vegetables the macronutrients the micronutrients are so important for your body but I think if anything the pandemic taught us how important eating healthy is it improves your immune system it improves your mood so you definitely want to be cognizant of what you're putting in your mouth what you're eating now that's not to say that we don't all enjoy some junk food once in a while a piece of chocolate a bag of potato chips but these are not things that should be a regular part of your diet and if there's any piece of advice I could give to anybody more fiber fiber does wonders in your body so please make sure you're getting the recommended daily amount now the other risk factor I want to talk about is e tobacco so smoking it or chewing it is a risk factor for various conditions and Cancers now um exposure to secondhand smoke is also a risk factor so I want people to know even if you don't smoke but your part partner does somebody in your house does and you're constantly exposed to that that can also cause some damaging effects to your body we all know that smoking can cause lung cancer but there's other conditions that it can cause too repeated lung infections or upper respiratory infections um oral cancers if you're chewing tobacco so really keep that in mind and if you are somebody who uses tobacco in any kind of form talk to your primary care physician there are ways to quit there are ways to reduce and we would love to help you with that it's a long journey and it's one that we will happily guide you through now the other one is lack of physical exercise now physical exercise well I should say physical activity is any movement that your body does so going from here to the bathroom technically that's physical activity because you got up and did something but exercise is what is an intentional activity that produces a increased heart rate and increases your Baseline everything that's going on in your body basically you might sweat a little um you might not be able to talk if you're engaging in really vigorous exercise there's different levels of exercise and you do what's best for you I always say don't go from zero to 100 you got to do it slow if you're increasing for the first time but whatever it is that you do physical exercise is so important for your physical health your mental health your spiritual health all the healths um you'll notice that even 30 minutes of just going for a brisk walk every day is going to help improve your mood your digestion your memory your sleep oh my gosh the list goes on but yes physical exercise and then the last one I'm going to talk about is excessive alcohol use now unfortunately we did see this increase in the pandemic and hopefully that's coming down but to be honest with you excessive alcohol use has been linked to so many chronic conditions and diseases and bad things in the body that we really encourage cutting down now I want to make a note alcohol use especially if you're doing it on a daily basis you're having more than two drinks more than one drink even we never encourage individuals to stop it all together because that's a risk um as well so talk to your primary care physician see if you have concerns about your alcohol intake and if so the right way to calm down or to reduce it and didn't forget about you Samuel type 2 diabetes Now this used to be known as adult onset diabetes they changed the nomenclature seven several years ago but basically it means that having diabetes your body either doesn't make enough insulin or doesn't use the insulin that it is making and because of that the glucose increases in your bloodstream now when glucose or for simple terms I'll call it Sugar increases in your bloodstream it has so many damaging effects to a lot of parts of your body um the first one that comes to mind is your nerves because when sugars increase they damage the nerve and you can get n uh neuropathy which I know many individuals unfortunately suffer from but you know what there's ways to prevent it to treat it again it's all about that relationship with your primary care physician who can educate and guide you on the best ways to do this we can prevent diabetes screen diabetes diagnose it when it's there and give you the best treatments so keep that in mind now medications are needed sometimes for diabetes and which medication's right for you is also going to depend on your personal health risks now in case you missed it the first time here's another opportunity to find out where to send in your questions send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth goo on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com hey guys and gals keep those questions coming speaking of which here's one from our very own website allhealth tv.com hi Dr core my name is Alberto and I've been having occasional chest pains which I've always attributed to heartburn but I've also been feeling kind of sluggish lately I'd like to get your opinion on this hi Alberto thank you so much for sending in your question unfortunately I can't diagnose you over the phone but based on what you're telling me I'd recommend that you make an appointment with your primary care physician as soon as possible in fact if this chest pain get gets worse or becomes more frequent or really changes in any way you really want to get it looked at you might even consider going to an emergency room at that point especially if you're older than 60 because chances are it's a heart condition sometimes those heart conditions can be detrimental or even fa fatal now I hope it's just heartburn but as they say better safe than sorry right Alberto and speaking of heart disease here's a video from our friends at the Mayo Clin the heart keeps us alive so having heart disease can be a very important factor in how long we live heart disease is a big term referring to any disease of the heart now the most common cause is coronary artery disease and that refers to a buildup of plaque in the arteries over time it can lead to narrowing of arteries and risk of a heart attack a heart attack is when a part of the heart muscle dies because it is deprived of blood flow or oxygen or it can be due to the heart having to work really really hard that outstrips the oxygen supply most coronary artery disease is preventable says Dr Hayes if you're smoking stop if you're a couch potato get off and start taking 10 or 20 minute walks every day physical activity is medicine know your cholesterol and blood pressure numbers and maintain a normal weight these are all ways to help reduce your risk of heart disease welcome back everyone so we've got a question from Doris and Doris is one of our YouTube viewers she says I'm not sure if these are chronic diseases but my granddaughter keeps telling me to get vaccinations for covid flu and RSV I'm 73 do I really need them I thought vaccines for just for children I'm so happy you asked this question Doris and please thank your grand granddaughter for me because she's taking really good care of you and her concern is just very heartwarming now covid flu RSV pneumonia shingle whooping cough these are not chronic diseases but they are infectious diseases and it's important to get vaccinated for them especially the older that we get because if we contract them we can have a higher risk of complications and some of them can even be fatal so we really want to make sure we're doing what we can to prevent these diseases now everybody knows covid influenza RSV is more known now pneumonia and honestly even whooping cough but shingles is one that not many people are familiar with and shingles is very important because it can be a very very painful uh infection but not only that once the infection goes away it can actually leave long lasting damaging effects on your nerves and that can cause pain for weeks for months or honestly for even the rest of your life and that can be quite quite detrimental to your life so please talk to your primary care physician about a shingles vaccine and if it's something that you should be getting now just in case you missed it for the for those of you who didn't catch it the first time here are the ways to send in questions for our viewers send in your questions to questions at allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the do page on our website allhealth tv.com welcome back everybody so it seems that we have a question from another viewer of ours Patrick let's see Patrick says I have to see the urologist for the first time in June do my regular doctor and the urologist communicate regarding my health this is a fantastic question Patrick because I personally am a huge advocate for comprehensive care and what that also entails is me talking to your specialty providers so yes your primary care physician and your specialty provider no matter what specialty is should communicate about your healthare generally what happens after you see a specialist is that office will send that doctor's notes to your primary so we're kept in the loop and so we can make sure that we're all on the same page about your treatment that reduces medical airs it increases how we're trying to treat you and how our outcomes will be and then honestly it's just a better level of care so yes your urologist should be and will be contacting your primary care physician now that was a great question let's see what else we have the questions are just coming in and I'm honestly just having to pick and choose which one ones um which ones are coming in all right let's see this one is from Rohit now Rohit says my 65-year-old wife bahava lost one of her close friends a few months ago due to alzheimer's she's been pretty depressed about it and now she's worried that she might have it too because she starting to remember things sorry having trouble remembering things I'm so sorry to hear that roit Alzheimer's is one of the most devastating um diagnoses that one can get not only for the patient but for the family members as well thank you for sharing your story now I'd like to answer this question by first explaining that Alzheimer's is a type of cognitive impairment and science has not yet identified a particular cause of it we're still working on that but what we do have are ways to diagnose it and to manage it now backing up a little bit cognitive impairment in simple terms means that a person is experiencing a decline in one or more of their cognitive functions so their ability to make decisions um their language and memory their complex and critical thinking skills or sometimes just using their judgment and concentrating and when that decline starts to interfere with our daily activities and daily life routine that's when we determine that it's a disorder and that's when we start to think that we need to look into this a little bit more now that's also known to most people as dementia cognitive impairment can be due to a variety of causes including not limited to medication side effects metabolic or endocrine dysfunction an illness like covid or pneumonia or a urinary tract infection depression can also cause cognitive changes and not a lot of people recognize that so that's something to keep in mind as well and then Dementia in general which includes Alzheimer's dementia something called vascular dementia and then a third type called Lou body dementia now although we do occasionally see vascular and Louis body dementia it's Alzheimer's disease that makes up 60 to 80% of dementia cases and nearly 7 million Americans have dementia sadly it's the the number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease has more than doubled between 2000 and 2021 and that's just that's just a devastating statistics now vascular dementia is the type of dementia that onsets after you have issues that are happening in the brain that limit the blood flow to certain parts of the brain mostly the parts of the brain that are responsible for your cognition vascular dementia can happen say after a stroke if you start to have symptoms of dementia then we term it as uh having to do for a vascular reason then there's Louie body dementia funny word but very important to know cognitive changes that result from Louis body dementia are due to little protein deposits and these deposits are called Louis bodies they tend to deposit in certain areas of the brain and cause dementia and cognitive impairment the one thing that makes Louis body dementia different from the other ones though is that it comes with hallucinations or it can come with hallucinations now regardless of the type of dementia I'm sure you can see why it is so important to screen for it to diagnose it and to manage it it could really pose serious life alterrain challenges for not just the patient but like I said also the patient's family and their caregivers so the sooner it's caught the sooner we can do something about it now the screening for dementia generally starts around age 65 during your 65th annual wellness exam your PCP May administer some tests that test your cognitive function some of these are the minim mental examination and then the Montreal cognitive assessment and speaking of cognitive impairment let's see our next YouTube question deals with Alzheimer's let's see Alma Alma says my husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I'm wondering what I can do to help oh Elma I'm so so sorry I really really hope that you guys are dealing with this in a strong manner you have a good Advocate and you have a good Medical Care team with you that's guiding you through this and thank you so much for reaching out now there are several management methods for Alzheimer's disease medications nutrition Lifestyle Changes there's cognitive rehab and therapy as well exercise programs exercise is oh so important and honestly one of the most important ways to manage it is the support of your friends and your family that social support network that strong social support network is so important now management of Alzheimer's also includes addressing the caregiver as much as the patient so very very important to include everybody now more important than treating or diagnosing Alzheimer's believe it or not is preventing it so how do you do that well although our research has not yet found one specific thing that prevents Alzheimer's 100% the following excuse me are some ways that have possible benefits and some of these are again exercise now exercise does so many good things for the body there's so many good chemicals that are released there's endorphins and all these things work in different ways in order to improve your cognition improve your mood so you really want to take physical exercise seriously the other thing is maintaining a social interaction maintaining regular social interaction with your family and friends believe it or not that also increases endorphins and other positive chemicals in the body then there's engaging in regularly stimulating mentally stimulating activities like cross puzzles puzzles in general anything that makes you engage those critical thinking skills and regular regularly engaging in those will keep your mind sharp and then the last one I want to mention is eating a nutritious and healthy diet I know we've honed it on it many many times but it's so important to get all your nutrients and and those good vitamins going into the body now in addition to dementia another set of conditions that is often misdiagnosed in the elderly population is depression and anxiety and though it's quite common nowadays it's still not diagnosed as much as it should be your primary care physician serves as a central figure in your health care Journey so I really really hope we've helped educate you on that today and helped emphasize that today your primary care physician shows you the importance of your conditions your health your prevention methods so as you can see yes your PCP is an integral part of your Healthcare Journey well guys that's it for this episode I hope I performed well and gave you some good um information answered your questions well please do tune in every day 12:30 for the next episode thank you for watching we'll see you again at ask the do send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com