- I'd throw myself down the stairs to see that doctor.
I'd throw myself down the stairs to see that doctor.
(ominous music)
- Come on guys, really?
I appreciate that you wanna see me.
You don't have to only see your primary when you're sick
or hurt.
You can go see us when you're healthy.
In fact, we want you to come see us when you're healthy,
to stay healthy.
This video is gonna be all about something
that I've recently read
and subconsciously knew was happening
but I was repressing it and did not wanna believe it.
A new study has come out to show that
almost 50% of millennials, those aged 18 to 29 years old,
basically you, don't have a primary care doctor.
I'm a primary care doctor.
This statistic not only scares me, it angers me
and in this video I'm gonna explain to you exactly why.
I'm a millennial too.
So I can totally relate and understand
as to why some of them are skipping out
on having a primary care doctor.
They want convenience.
And we're talking about convenience,
we're talking about money, pricing transparency,
ease of scheduling an appointment,
the ability to get care online.
And I think that the most important reason
or the most prevalent reason why millennials
don't have primary care doctors is
'cause they're generally healthy.
They don't have any kind of serious illnesses
that are causing them to create a relationship
with a primary care doctor.
Let's focus on that convenience part first.
The last thing that I want is for you to put
a higher emphasis on convenience than on your health.
Let's take a minute to discuss urgent care centers,
telemedicine, even internet medicine.
Now these are short cuts that have been created
to fill a gap within our healthcare system.
And they make sense in certain given situations.
Urgent cares definitely have a role
within the healthcare space.
If you need care very quickly
but don't wanna go to the ER because
your illness is not so severe.
You don't wanna crazy expensive bill.
You don't wanna wait an extraordinarily amount of time.
Now it's important that we don't start using these services
in lieu of having a quality primary care physician.
Let's take antibiotics as an example.
You shouldn't be taking antibiotics for viral illness.
And when you look at antibiotic use
between urgent care centers and primary care doctors,
you see that there's a higher amount of antibiotics
being prescribed at urgent care centers
for non antibiotic related illnesses.
This is really important.
That means people are being exposed to antibiotics
unnecessarily which have harms of their own
including resistance, antibiotic associated diarrhea.
Just by utilizing a different type of provider
you're gonna be changing your healthcare outcome.
I think a substantial reason
of why young folks don't have a primary
is because they don't know the benefits
of having a primary care doctor are.
So, I'm gonna lay them out for you right now.
Three reasons of why having a primary care doctor
is very important to you.
First benefit is that you're gonna get holistic care.
Now holistic care doesn't mean naturopathic care.
It doesn't meant that the doctor won't prescribe medicine.
It mean exactly what it sounds like.
Holistic.
Whole person approach.
It happen quite often that an urgent care doctor
or a subspecialist will get very narrowly focused
as they should 'cause that's their job
on exactly the illness that you're facing
right at that moment.
As a primary care doctor,
I need to understand how that illness fits into the great
scope of your life as a whole person.
Not just as a patient who has diabetes.
You have many other things happening to you.
What other illnesses do you have?
What medications are you taking?
What is your family situation or life situation like?
Also, like I said in one of my last videos
on mind body disorders, there's an incredible relationship
between mental and physical health.
And that's incredibly important contributor
to all sorts of illnesses.
Erectile dysfunction, heart disease, high blood pressure.
Unless we have that conversation,
we're never really gonna know what the best treatment
or options are for you.
The second benefit of having a primary doctor
is that we get to focus on prevention.
I want you to go see your doctor even if you're not sick.
It's so much better to build a firehouse
before there's a fire.
When I'm talking about prevention,
the first thing I'm talking about
is making lifestyle changes.
Improving your diet, starting to exercise.
But there's also very important lifestyle changes
that come with quitting smoking,
reducing your alcohol intake to a moderate amount,
improving your sleep habits.
All of these things are so important
to not only the quantity of years you live,
but the quality of your years as well.
Next is cancer screenings.
We wanna catch many cancers early
and treat them before they become a serious problem.
Now not all cancer screening are perfect.
And not all cancers can be screened for.
That's why it's so important to have a primary care doctor
to understand what risks do you face
and make an individual decision based on your health
on what cancers can we catch and prevent early.
And last but not least, is vaccinations.
I know there's a lot of negative press about vaccines.
Not only do they save lives, they improve our lives.
And if we didn't have them,
the world would be worse off as a result.
Third benefit is hacking the system.
I know how much millennials love the word hacks.
Primary care doctors actually can hack the system.
We know who the quality specialist are.
We know the ones that are close to where you live
and are easily accessible and have reasonable prices.
We know how to decrease hospitalizations
and lower ER visits.
And the best thing about it is
we know how to save you money.
If you're facing a financial hardship,
perhaps we know of social work programs
or financial assistant programs
that can help you get the services you need at low
or to even no cost.
There's two examples that come to mind
when I think about this.
My medical office has a 24 hour triage line
where there's always a doctor to give you some guidance
whether or not you need to go to the ER or can you wait
until the morning to come see us in the office.
Not only reducing cost, but reducing the burden on you to
have to go to the ER, wait all those hours,
and get the same exact quality of care.
The second example, is that
very frequently my patients end up seeing a specialist
who recommends a very complicated procedure,
a high risk procedure,
and my patients don't quite understand
or know what the right decision may be.
Treatment A and treatment B can be both great options.
But maybe only one of them is right for you.
Your primary care doctor can be the person
that can help guide you in this decision.
I hope you see how passionate I am about primary care
and the importance of it to your health.
We've seen better outcomes with those who
have a primary care doctor.
Not only from a physical standpoint
but also from a mental health standpoint.
I know what you may be thinking.
How do I get myself a good primary care doctor?
Well I'm gonna make a video on that subject on its own.
'cause it's important.
And I wanna make sure that it's complete
and answers all of your questions.
That being said, if you have any questions
drop'em down below in the comment section
because I wanna address them as much as I can.
I also have covered a bunch of health topics
from mental health to vaccines to diet advice.
So visit my channel's playlist,
and check'em out for yourself.
As always, stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat happy music)