Women Wellness & Prevention

Provida Family Medicine offers top-quality care to all of our female patients. We recommend regular wellness visits with a healthcare provider to ensure that you are maintaining your health and preventing any issues that may arise as you age.

With annual visits, your doctor will perform a physical and mental exam to check your overall health. These exams include the taking of your vitals, checking your heart, lungs, and skin, and examining your overall appearance. We also recommend pap smears starting at age 25 to screen for cervical cancer. Sexually transmitted infection testing can also be done at any age depending on your risk factors. We will ensure you receive appropriately timed breast screening starting at age 40 and colon cancer screening starting at age 45. These exams can be accomplished at your wellness visit.

To schedule a wellness visit, please call (847) 548-2200.

Staying Healthy

Maintaining your health is a life-long undertaking that includes getting proper nutrition, sleep, and exercise. Minimizing your stress, exercising frequently throughout the week, sleeping for seven to eight hours at night, eating healthy, and reducing alcohol intake can all improve your health.

Living healthy is about making daily lifestyle choices that actively improve your quality of life and functionality of your mind and body, and with the right choices, your wellness and mental health will improve.

Nutrition

A healthy diet is a critical part of staying healthy. Women need nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, seafood, nuts, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, eggs, and lean meats and poultry. 

At Provida Family Medicine, it is our goal to prevent chronic health conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension and help you monitor and control your weight to prevent other health complications that can stem from rapid weight loss or weight gain.

Additional dietary related issues we can treat include eating disorders. The media consume is just as important as the food we eat. Many TV shows and movies portray the female form in unachievable and often dangerous standards. These portrayals can have damaging effects on the mental health of women, as well as in some cases, lead to eating disorders to develop. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder and are looking to receive help, please schedule an appointment with us today. 

If you have questions about planning a healthy diet, Provida Family Medicine’s on-site dietician and credentialed diabetic educator, Monica Gonzalez, can work with you to create a nutrition plan that works best for you within your lifestyle.

Sleep

To function at their best, adult women need between seven and eight hours of sleep a night. A persistent lack of sleep leaves your brain exhausted, which impairs motor function and your cognitive thinking skills.

Adult women should stick to a consistent sleep schedule. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day reinforces your body’s sleep cycle and helps you fall asleep when you need to and rise feeling refreshed in the morning. Creating an environment conducive to sleep is also important. The light from your phone actually decreases your brain’s ability to produce melatonin, a chemical needed for sleep. We recommend you put away your phone at least one hour before you plan on sleeping.

Naps during the day can also disrupt sleep at night. Naps that last longer than thirty minutes produce REM sleep, the deepest level of sleep. Achieving REM sleep during the day disrupts your internal sleep cycle and will leave you just as tired as you were before the nap.

Everyone experiences an occasional sleepless night, but if you find that you have persistent trouble sleeping, contact your provider at Provida Family Medicine so that we can help you identify the source of this issue and help you get the sleep you need.

Exercise

Many women find themselves sitting in front of a screen for many hours a day because of their work, but reducing the amount of hours you sit and increasing the amount of time you exercise during the week is important to maintaining your overall health.

The best form of exercise is hitting at least one hundred and fifty minutes of a combination of moderate and vigorous aerobic activity a week, and strength training all major muscle groups at least twice a week.

If you want to lose weight or increase your muscle mass, increasing your level of exercise gradually while maintaining a healthy diet will result in the changes you wish to achieve.

Sports & Secondary Education Physicals

This check is to make sure you are healthy enough to attend the coming year of school or compete in sports, and can be completed in a single visit to Provida Family Medicine’s office. Any of the providers at Provida can complete a physical form for daycare, K-12, or pre-college entrance.