3 Types of Preventive Medicine

No one likes being sick. That’s why people eat fruits and vegetables, exercise, get plenty of rest, and take vitamins to avoid being under the weather. It just so happens that there’s a branch in healthcare specifically for that: preventive medicine. But, what exactly is it?

Preventive Medicine Explained

This is more than just eating right and staying fit. Instead, it’s the healthcare measures taken for preventing certain diseases from developing rather than treating them.

Currently, preventive medicine is separated into 3 categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each is based on the phase the disease is currently at and the measure/s taken for intercepting it. Read on to learn about them.

Primary Prevention

Primary prevention isall about protecting an individual from diseases. To give you an idea, here are 2 of the most notable examples.

Promoting a healthy lifestyle: This is the stage where eating right and staying fit belong. For example, avoiding sugary food and drinks as well as exercising reduces your chances of developing different health conditions, like diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and heart disease.

Takingmedication: This one is using medicine to keep illnesses at bay. Vaccines for infectious diseases like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and the common flu are some examples. Taking vitamins and minerals to boost health are included here, as well.

Secondary Prevention

The focus of secondary prevention is to nip a disease in the bud. Here, medical professionals detect early signs, making it possible to avert the emergence or progression of illnesses.

By using imaging tools, like MRI, X-ray, and CT scanners, physicians from the best preventive medicine clinic identify potential health problems and perform the appropriate measure. Secondary prevention also helps limit the spread of communicable diseases through screenings and medical history recording.

Tertiary Prevention

In tertiary prevention, the disease is alreadyestablished, and the goal is to minimize the negative impact. Medical professionals accomplish this by doing 2 things:

1. Restoring the function of the affected body part/s or physiological system
2. Reducing the effects of disease-related complications

Aside from that, tertiary prevention helps improve the quality of life of individuals with the disease, as well. Maintaining and replacing prosthesis as well as insulin therapy for Type II diabetes are some examples.

These are the different categories of prevention. Interested to learn more about them? Talking with physicians from a preventive medicine and wellness clinic can help you out.