In our modern society, doctors are treated with reverence because they possess specialized skills that literally save people’s lives. Whether you are on the verge of death in suffering from a terrible illness or have simply befallen some random accident, doctors are there to work as a team and impart their medical knowledge so that you can live another day (and hopefully many more). Healthcare is expensive for many reasons that we won’t get into here, but you can avoid much of this expense by choosing to take care of yourself whenever possible and avoid using emergency services like ambulances or the emergency room. If you must see doctors, try to locate a smaller urgent care center convenient to you that takes insurance.

It All Starts With You and Your Choices

Accidents happen, but there is a lot you can do to take care of yourself in the meantime. How you choose to take yourself should be a priority, and vaccinations are a part of this. In fact, the CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older receive a seasonal influenza vaccination every year. This has now become standard medical knowledge and is considered good health maintenance in addition to getting enough sleep/exercise, taking nutritional supplements (when deficient), and avoiding sugary foods in excess. If you query doctors, many will repeat this same advice for a reason: it is generally sufficient for the overall population at large. If you have other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, or gluten allergy your healthcare needs will be more specific, but you will still benefit from this advice.

Eating right may seem difficult, but it’s actually never been easier than ever. Even if you’re beyond busy, there are so many food services that will cook healthy food for you and deliver it on your schedule for the right price. You can also buy healthy processed snacks in any grocery store if you only know what to look for and how to read nutritional labels, both skills that easily researched online from official sources approved by doctors and health experts.

Not only is there more food than there has ever been in human history, but the preponderance of specialized advice from nutritionists, dietitians, and alternative medicine practitioners is available freely on the internet and in books. Be sure to evaluate your sources carefully and get a second opinion whenever possible, as recommendations for someone else may not fit in with your particular body, lifestyle or health conditions.

Practice a Healthy Lifestyle Daily

When we talk about healthcare “choices,” many people routinely interpret this to only mean things like eating the right foods, getting sleep, and avoiding smoking/alcohol in excess. But did you know that your stress levels and the activities you participate in can also have a profound impact upon your health and the doctors you encounter?

For example, if you regularly drag race cars and smoke cigarettes, you are participating in a double whammy of health consequences: while the cigarettes may take many years to give you lung cancer, they are immediately lowering many health factors that have been known to medicine and science since the 1960s. The drag racing may not have any long-term consequences, but has the immediate effect of getting into a car accident which could be fatal. These two examples are an exaggeration but have a correlation in many other routine day-to-day activities that people don’t think about. If you work in an office at a job you dislike and regularly consume large amounts of caffeine while remaining sedentary, you may be making the exact same decisions as our chain-smoking drag racer. The fact that they are socially acceptable decisions does not negate the fact that stress, stimulants, and lack of exercise are bad for you and contribute to poor quality of life.

Praise Doctors, But Try To Avoid Them

Doctors are certainly worthy of commemoration and praise but try to avoid them in your pursuit of a healthier life. By practicing common health wisdom and only utilizing urgent care centers, you can keep our healthcare system from becoming inefficient or overloading your wallet. That should be advised that everyone can get behind, whether they possess a medical degree or not.