Preventative care means recognizing risk factors and taking steps to maintain health and avoid future health problems when possible. Dr. Tina Marcantel is a naturopathic doctor in Gilbert, AZ, who also serves the East Valley cities of Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler, Queen Creek, Apache Junction, and the greater Phoenix area.
Transcript:
Most of the people that I see as a naturopathic physician are people that have made the rounds. What I mean by that is that they are people who have gone to all kinds of different doctors, different specialists, have been put on all kinds of different medications and are still having problems. So sometimes we can be like the last stop. But we are changing that.
We are having more people coming now that are into preventative care. They’re wanting to take care of themselves: they’re wanting to lose the extra weight, they’re wanting to eat better, they’re wanting counseling on lifestyle changes, they want to support themselves during stressful times. Women that go through perimenopause to menopause, for example, can prevent the “bumpy road” during that transition if we can get those hormones balanced at that time.
So we’re seeing more and more people for preventative medicine, but for the most part what we’re seeing now is those who have tried all kinds of different things and they’re not getting to the root cause of the problem and that’s why they land here. That’s why I tell them, “It’s not going to be an overnight cure. It took you years to get where you are and it’s going to take us a little while to figure out the pieces of the puzzle of your life.” Once we do that–and it’s very individualized–you will have subtle changes where you’re feeling better and better and it will be for the long run because we’re working with the root causes of the problem.
I encourage people that if their children are feeling good or if they have relatives that feel pretty good it’s a good place, also, to come to–preventative medicine. Look at ways to prevent future illnesses. For example, people who have a history of diabetes in their families–we can talk about good eating habits at a young age to prevent diabetes, to prevent cardiovascular disease, and such as this.
