National Call Your Doctor Day
See if your doctor is offering telehealth options.
National Call Your Doctor Day is more important than ever due to the declining number of doctor visits during the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, there are new and safe ways to still engage in crucial preventative care.
Still in the midst of the coronavirus, leaving the house is done with great caution. Many households have a designated person sent for shopping while others have stocks of personal protection equipment ready for each departure. Many events and gatherings have switched to an online video platform while others have seized until further notice. Non-emergency healthcare appointments have greatly scaled back across the country. Though adhering to restrictions and social distancing measures is applauded, the decrease in doctor visits is concerning for the health of the nation.
National Call Your Doctor Day is scheduled for the 9th of June. Beginning as a way to convince women to take their well-woman exam, National Call Your Doctor Day has become a day in which people of all genders are encouraged to speak to their doctor about their overall health and learn about preventative measures to reduce their risk of disease. While the goal of National Call Your Doctor Day in years past was to encourage people to schedule their in-person appointments, this year many offices across the country are now offering telehealth services in light of the COVID-19 situation. These services allow patients to receive medical advice over the phone or computer – either negating the need for a face-to-face consultation or reducing time spent in the office.
Utilizing telehealth services and attending regular wellness checkups is a great way to initiate positive health outcomes, but there are ways in which one may celebrate this holiday without picking up the phone at all. Despite the name sounding like a call-to-action in and of itself, National Call Your Doctor Day is simply focused on preventative health. In fact, the four most effective ways to lower the risk of cancer and other deadly diseases can easily be done without ever leaving the house. Tobacco use, for example, is the leading cause of the deadliest cancer – lung cancer. Similarly, alcohol is associated with an increased risk of liver, head and neck, esophageal, breast, and colon cancers. Reducing or seizing one’s use of both tobacco and alcohol in conjunction with regular exercise and a healthy diet can greatly decrease the overall risk of cancer.
National Call Your Doctor Day is an opportunity to be reminded, and to remind others, of the importance of preventative care. While regular checkups and screenings are highly effective, simple lifestyle modifications can have great effects. To learn more about preventive health, and to keep loved ones healthy, download the National Foundation for Cancer Research’s Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Kit. To learn more about cancer-fighting lifestyle modifications, visit NFCR’s website.
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