Welcome back to the show.
You know, any expert will tell you that
the start of good health begins with the
relationship with our primary care doctor.
Now, even though we know this,
sometimes we don't make it a priority.
So joining us now is Doctor
Azmera Mazar from Overlake Medical
Center to discuss some things to
think about when choosing one.
Good morning, doctor Mazar.
Good morning. So look,
I guess let's start with where do
you even start when you're trying
to choose one for those who don't
have a primary care doctor already?
So I think it's essential to
find a primary care doctor.
That you feel comfortable with,
that you're able to connect with.
And location is so important,
so finding someone at a location
that's convenient for you.
Most adults and children will see
their primary care docs at least
once a year to stay on top of those
annual health screenings, right.
And we love to see patients more than that.
If there's any issues that come up
now, you know, sometimes people have
a medical issue and they're thinking,
do I go to my primary care doctor
or do I go see a specialist?
How do you know when to go where?
That's that's exactly our job.
So when we see our patients.
Kind of help address all of their
healthcare concerns and if we feel that
their best fit towards a specialist,
we can help get them into the right hands.
So is it kind of like you
guys are the point guards?
Absolutely, absolutely
love it, yes. Alright,
so we're in the new year,
a lot of people start thinking about their
health at the beginning of the year,
how they can they be better?
Do you have any tips on just how
we kind of can stay on top of it?
Yeah. So sometimes it's as
easy as diet and exercise.
So we recommend trying to incorporate
at least 150 minutes of some sort of.
Moderate intensity activity per week.
And you know you can talk with
your doctor about tailoring those
recommendations to you and then diet.
So keeping a very diet balanced,
trying to keep you at a healthy weight
is what's going to keep you on top of
your healthcare goals and then keeping
on top of those annual health visits.
So once a year,
most insurance companies will
cover an annual primary care visit.
And it's at these visits that we can kind
of run through your personal history,
your family history, risk factors,
cancer screenings.
All those types of things.
Yeah. And I have to say,
I'm still doing the math because
you said how much exercise a week?
I was like how much I got a day, 150 minutes.
Yeah, 30 minutes, five times a week.
OK. I knew that I was just kinda.
Yeah, that's it. Now other.
So you mentioned a few of the screenings.
Are there ones that you're you
really like to tell people today,
hey please do this.
We're seeing a lot of this.
Please make sure you don't forget this one.
Absolutely.
So I think it cancer screening is so
important and essential to be on top of
cancer screening will depend on your
personal risk factors, family history.
So breast cancer, colon cancer,
cervical cancer, those are ones I'm,
I'm very passionate about.
But health care screenings even
outside of cancer screening,
so blood pressure and that's
something that should be checked
at every single primary care visit,
may not have a lot of symptoms.
And just doing your cholesterol
screen starting at age 20,
depending on starting at age 20.
Yeah, really. Yeah, that helps us identify.
So we're,
we're fans of preventative medicine
and so identifying issues beforehand
and then helping to come up.
Like,
here's the am I wrong on this?
It seems like that cholesterol can be
sneaky because people often think, ohh,
if I'm if I'm exercising and doing this,
then my cholesterol should be fine.
But that's not always the
case with cholesterol.
You're exactly right,
and that's where family
history can play a huge role.
You may have an active lifestyle and
and eat a varied, balanced diet,
but certain aspects of your family
history can put you at higher risk.
And unless we screen early on,
we may never pick it up.
And if your cholesterol is high,
what does that put you at risk? For
cardiovascular disease.
So that's heart disease, stroke,
early death from all of those causes. So.
Hmm. And I understand, again,
I'm not a medical expert,
but you can actually
reverse some of this, right?
If you do have high cholesterol,
you can actually move it in the
right direction. Absolutely.
There's so much to be done
with just lifestyle changes.
And that's why establishing a
relationship with the primary care
doctor is so essential because we can
pick up on those little things in your
diet and your lifestyle that may be
contributing to that high cholesterol.
Yeah. So if someone. But someone,
and I was wondering about this piece,
if you haven't seen a doctor in a
long time and you're just like what,
where do I even start? Hey,
yeah, I think having an established
care visit with somebody,
getting to know them,
making sure that you feel comfortable
with that primary care doctor
part of it. If they're not listening to you,
making sure that they're, yeah, that
they're going to listen to your concerns,
I think, I mean, I can speak for myself.
That's a huge reason why I
went into family medicine,
is establishing those relationships
with patients because it can
lead to better health outcomes.
So how can people learn more
about overlay? Yeah, because you
have a lot of options there.
We do, absolutely.
We have 10 primary care locations
all throughout the east side.
So overlakehospital.org
is a great place to start.
All of our preventative screening
guidelines are listed there.
You can schedule an appointment
with your primary care doctor
there and look at all of our,
our other locations that are
and that's going to say where can
you see a provider when you talk
about those other locations? Yeah.
So we have Bellevue,
Issaquah, Sammamish, Redmond,
Kirkland all throughout the east side.
We also have. The concierge clinic,
a senior health clinic and
then numerous urgent care is
associated with our primary cares.
What is a concierge clinic do that sounds
cool. Specialty level care.
So kind of that one-on-one
getting to know a provider,
having access to that provider quickly
depending on your health history.
So you have an array of options absolutely.
Any final bits of advice for people?
I think you know I'm I'm a huge
proponent of preventative medicine.
So if you're at all worried about
anything in your health stop by and
see a primary care doctor because
I think that's a really good.
Place to start, fill that relationship and
hopefully lead to better health outcomes.
Awesome. Doctor Asma Azra Mazar,
thank you so much for joining us.
Alright, to learn more about what we
discussed today or to explore your
primary care options, just visit the
website on your screen. Well, no.