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Maggie: It's another new year. And with that, brings resolutions and annual health exams. So today, we're talking with Dr. Nick Peterkin, a family and sports medicine physician with Baptist Primary Care to answer your questions about why keeping up with your annual visits and screenings should be the first item on your list for the new year.

Welcome to Baptist Health Radio. As the most preferred healthcare provider in Northeast Florida, we're here to help you stay informed with the latest news, views and resources for your health and wellbeing. I'm your host, Maggie Mackay. Dr. Peterkin, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Nick Peterkin: Hi, Maggie. Thank you for having me.

Maggie: So the start of the new year brings in new year's resolutions. That can be as easy to make as they are to break, but you don't have to start with lofty goals to take care of your health. It all starts with a visit to your primary care doctor. So let's start with the basics. Doctor, why do we need a primary care doctor?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: You know, thinking about it kind of in its long form, in the history of medicine, we've always been very reactive. This goes all the way back to kind of military times and keeping soldiers on the battlefield. Well, now with innovations in science, we think so much more about preventing things before they even become an issue. And so often folks will say, "Gosh, doc, I feel fine. You know, is there anything that I need?" And there's a predictability to human health and life where we can, prioritize that and decide who needs what test, when and how often. And so having that sit down visit gives us an opportunity to decide can we look for things and find them when they're still silent and make a difference, and that's one of the best values of primary care.

Maggie: And are there different kinds of primary care physicians? What's the difference say between family and internal medicine or doctors that have areas of specialties?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: You know, the family physician or specialist has always been coined as the jack of all trades. It's training in every discipline that runs the gamut from childbirth, pediatrics, internal medicine, geriatric medicine and everything in between. . Our internal medicine physicians are doing the same thing, but specializing in adults. And so skipping the obstetric, gynecological and pediatric part.

I added to that a fellowship in sports medicine, so much of what we do now, we see activity and with aging, a lot of our issues tend to be musculoskeletal, so adding that in just helps treatment of many things.

Maggie: Why is it important to keep up with annual well exams? And what can we expect during those visits?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: It's an opportunity to sit down and kind of plan for the future. We can look at the big picture items like our cancer screening tests, that's going to be specific to age and gender and so we know of all the common cancers.

Beyond that, we now are all pretty much vaccine specialists. This allows us to talk about things that we can do to play defense. You know, historically most of our vaccines are in childhood and they have been so successful, we don't see many of these things anymore. Think, you know, measles, mumps, rubella, and polio. But we see the value of things like our flu vaccines, tetanus boosters, pneumonia vaccines, shingles vaccines and, the newest kid on the block, our COVID-19 vaccines.

So sitting down to talk with the doctor really allows us to kind of get through some of the facts and figure out what is right for the individual. You know, lifestyle, that's always going to be the key to great health. And so we can help with any questions that come there and maybe some advice for things that can help us with healthier lifestyles and an opportunity to ask some questions. There's so much information. You know, we're in the age of information, but too much information can be confusing. So it's a good place to start.

Maggie: That's so true. Every time I go -- well, not every time -- but when I go for my yearly exam, at least, I always take a written out list because I can never remember once I get there. And, you know, there's just too many things to remember, but also speaking of how much information there is out there, my husband is a big fan of going to say WebMD, for example, and trying to diagnose himself, which drives me nuts. I'm like, "Call the doctor first." There's just too much conflicting information to try to figure it out yourself. Do you agree?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: The challenges are it's being armed with the information, are we going down the right path? You'd never want to read the information and, say, "Hey, you know what? I think what I have is this and it's mild and I shouldn't worry" or go down the path that says, "Wow, maybe I have cancer. Maybe I have some rare disease." And so finding ourselves somewhere in the middle, I do encourage patients to look up things and have their questions ready. we do want to be informed. So we don't want to, bury our heads in the sand, but we don't want to be stressed out by too much information. So I think going to reputable sources, collecting your questions and then asking the doctor, that's probably the best way to do it.

Maggie: That sounds like a good order. So a while ago, I was just with a group of friends and we got talking about screenings and people were saying, what age are you supposed to be when you get a mammogram or a colonoscopy?" And it was amazing how many people had different answers. So how do we know that, when to schedule and at what age for certain screenings?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: You know, a great question. These are in real time dynamic pieces of information. We have seen changes in the last few years, for example, colon cancer screening. What was initially recommended to start at the age of 50, the American Cancer Society in 2018, I believe says we should consider starting at 45. We see changes in our health relative to our lifestyles and even changes in diet.

And I think, speaking with a primary care physician, a family doctor, you can make sense of the information to determine "What risk level am I at and can I start at the average age or should I be starting at a younger age?" And that's going to be unique to each person.

Maggie: That's a good rule of thumb and also your family history, right?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: Yes, individuals with specific cancers often have to start earlier and screen more often.

Maggie: And so if you skip a year or two of a preventive screening, how much are you increasing your risk of getting whatever it is, say, skin cancer?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: The challenge there is there's no predictability in knowing if somebody will get a cancer, you know, if you did a test today and it came back as negative and you waited 365 days to repeat the test, there's no predictability there. Statistically, you know, trusting the research, we recognize that many of these cancers may be slow growing and are silent. And so the wait time in between the testing should not worry us too much. The only challenge here is the missed opportunity. And this is very putting into these times with COVID many people have out of an abundance of caution, skipped appointments or skipped the screening tests. And so silently, we are seeing many cancers being diagnosed at a later stage because tests were put off. So missing a test by itself is not a big deal, but going for a very long time in between tests, we miss opportunities to catch things in earliest stages.

Maggie: You mentioned coming in for screening during COVID. But before that, why do you think people put off preventive screenings? Because it seems like a chance to avoid getting something down the line, but what do your patients tell you why they don't come in?

Dr. Nick Peterkin: You know, I think it just goes to the human condition. We don't naturally think that bad things will happen. We don't operate in that space. And most folks, if given the chance, you know, we lead pretty busy lives, nobody's going to take time out of their busy schedule to do a colonoscopy, to do a mammogram, these are not pleasant experiences. And so you couple those things together, it's really twisting elbows sometimes to get these things done. But, you know, you open the piece, talking about resolutions, you know, the start of the year is when we really take stock of everything and prioritize our self-care and our goals. So January is a great month to start to think about that and plan ahead and say, "You know what? Not the most fun thing to do, but let's prioritize the big things here and get these things planned." And it creates a great, sense, peace of mind, knowing you got it done.

Maggie: All useful and wonderful advice, Dr. Peterkin. Thank you so much for your time today and for basically getting us motivated to make our health a priority in this new year. And if you need help finding a primary care doctor for you or for a family member to set up an annual well visit or to ask about recommended screenings, call 904-202-4YOU. That's 904-202-4968. Thank you for listening to Baptist Health Radio. For more information, visit us online at baptistjax.com. That's Baptist Jax, J-A-X dot com or call for a personalized physician referral at 904-202-4968. This is Baptist Health Radio. I'm Maggie McKay. Be well.