Worried About Early Death? How To Transform Your Annual Physical Into a Preventative Screening That Could Save Your Life

Thanks for tuning in to the Armor Men’s Health Hour Podcast today, where we bring you the latest and greatest in urology care and the best urology humor out there.

In this segment, Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee are joined by primary care physician Dr. Lamia Kadir of Family Medicine Austin. Today Dr. Mistry and Dr. Kadir are educating our listeners on what to expect from a Primary Care Physician, or PCP. While many people know they need to get an annual physical exam from the PCP, it can be more difficult to know what specifically should be tested and/or addressed by their provider. Dr. Kadir explains that not only should physicians gather all the standard data like weight, blood pressure, etc., but they should also ask detailed questions about family health history to assess your risk for major, life-threatening concerns like cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, an so on. In addition, your PCP should do a full body skin check to screen for potential melanomas. Finally, some PCPs will offer you additional testing options like the Health Grades Analytics preventative screening. This head-to-toe examination includes a fundoscopy (eye exam); ultrasound of your aorta, looking for an aneurysm; an echocardiogram, which is actually a test of your heart function; ultrasound of your arteries, thyroid, and kidneys; a pulmonary function test, which classically has done for asthma; and an EEG, which is a cursory test for seizure disorder. If you're really looking to capitalize on your health in 2021, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and you can take preventative measures to ensure long-term, holistic wellness with the right provider. To schedule an appointment or learn more about the Health Grades Analytics screening, you can reach Dr. Kadir at familymedicineaustin.com or call (512) 872-6868.

This episode was previously aired on 7.24.21. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!

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Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.

Dr. Mistry: Hello and welcome to the Armor Men's Health Hour. I'm Dr. Mistry, your host, here as always with my incredibly knowledgeable and technologically savvy co-host and producer...professional comedienne, Donna Lee .

Donna Lee: Thank you for having me today, sir, and those kind words that are very rare and hard to come by for me.

Dr. Mistry: I still feel like our listeners are more enamored by you than me .

Donna Lee: They are, as they should be.

Dr. Mistry: One time I said yeah, to a patient, "You know, I have a show on KLBJ on Saturday." "Yeah. I listen to Donna all the time."

Donna Lee: You're welcome. That made me feel good. We have a guy who called the other day from listening to the show and he said, "I'd like to speak to Donna Lee because Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee talk about referring people and I don't have a PCP." And so it was a really nice discussion that we had. He did not have a primary care physician, so I pointed him in the right direction. His name was Tom. Hello, Tom.

Dr. Mistry: This show is brought to you...

Donna Lee: By me!

Dr. Mistry: ...by NAU Urology Specialists. I'm a board certified urologist. My name really is Dr . Mistry. I went through all the little, little things right there.

Donna Lee: My name is really Donna Lee.

Dr. Mistry: And we'd love to talk about men's health issues and really love to find ways to educate patients and the potential patients that see us about a lot of different aspects of their health. And today we're going to talk about not dying prematurely, which I like that.

Donna Lee: Ooh, I like that.

Dr. Mistry: You know , it's the one thing I'm really afraid of is dropping dead for no reason.

Donna Lee: Well, maybe you should be a little healthier.

Dr. Mistry: I'm very healthy.

Donna Lee: You're right. You stopped drinking Diet Cokes . I'm proud of you.

Dr. Mistry: Yes, I did stop drinking Diet Coke. I replaced with Mountain Dew. Donna, how do people get ahold of us if people are interested in a consultation, how do they find us?

Donna Lee: If you have questions for us, you , you can call us at (512) 238-0762. Our email address is armormenshealth@gmail.com and our website is armormenshealth.com. Why are you shaking your head? I have a great voice.

Dr. Mistry: You have a great voice.

Donna Lee: It is awesome. So come and see us, call us when you can and we'll answer all your questions anonymously on the air.

Dr. Mistry: And you can catch our podcast wherever you podcasts.

Donna Lee: Our award winning podcast. Feedspot.com said that we were super awesome. We're number two in like best sexual health podcast and best men's wellness podcasts, and top prostate health podcast.

Dr. Mistry: Well, there you go. We're winning. We're winning.

Donna Lee: We're number two.

Dr. Mistry: Today we have a guest...

Donna Lee: Yes, we do!

Dr. Mistry: ...who's going to keep me alive.

Donna Lee: Right.

Dr. Mistry: Dr. Lamia Kadir. She's with Family Medicine, Austin. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. Kadir: Thank you for having me. What a pleasure.

Dr. Mistry: A couple of years ago, there was a prominent infectious disease doctor in town and he just died. He was like 42 years old and he just died. And I looked around and I was like, that guy was pretty healthy looking. What the heck happened? He just had a heart attack and he just died. It ended up his dad had a heart attack at like 52, and he just didn't pay any attention to it. And then when I see patients, they lament today about how, what they don't feel like they're getting from their family practice doctor. Like in the end, they feel like, "Well, I just go there and they don't even do a prostate exam anymore. They don't even take my shirt off anymore. Like, like what am I even getting?" So I thought maybe you could talk about like, what should people be expecting from their primary care doctor when they go for an exam? And then I really want to talk about how can people kind of supercharge their physical exam and get some things checked that you, that don't necessarily hurt yet.

Dr. Kadir: Well, I have a great idea of how you can start taking better care of yourself. So from a family medicine perspective, I'm a family medicine physician. It's been, gosh, almost 20 years. Really what you start with is the basic that one-on-one nothing takes the place. So head to toe physical and yes, we should be undressing our patients. I do a full body skin check as all our providers do.

Dr. Mistry: Well, somebody has got to see you naked. Don't you think? Like that little place in your back that you don't look at--like somebody should look and make sure there's no cancer there.

Dr. Kadir: Absolutely. Melanoma is a thing.

Donna Lee: I'll check it.

Dr. Kadir: It's it in Austin. So head to toe physical, nothing takes the place of that. Get my hands on you. But I'll, I'll be honest with you. One of the most important information stats that I get from a physical is their blood pressure. So once a year, if they're dead- , they've dedicated that time, you know, it's free with most major commercial insurances, let me get that number, because that number is important. It increases morbidity and mortality. And unfortunately, a lot of people don't know they have a high blood pressure. So I think that's a good place to start. Second step, basic labs. The American Heart Association says that everyone after the age of 20 should know what their cholesterol is. And so my guess is our ID colleague who passed away early probably had some issues with cholesterol. And if no one checked, how would anyone know?

Dr. Mistry: Right.

Dr. Kadir: And that physical ends up being not just my hands on you. I actually, I actually salivate at the thought of collecting information. So his past medical history and his family history are critical. And honestly, in a patient with an early family history of heart disease, which is a man less than 55 and a woman less than 65, your antenna should go up.

Dr. Mistry: For sure. So if you're out there and you're listening and your father had a heart attack at 50, or your mother had a heart attack at 60, or a stroke or had poor peripheral blood pressure or anything to make them think, you should be like getting checked all the time.

Dr. Kadir: Every year, that's minimum. Okay. So we, in the last couple of years, we were founded in 2014 by yours truly. But a couple of years ago, we partnered with a pretty amazing company. They call themselves Health Grades Analytics. And they have found a pretty amazing program, put it together. And roughly 99% of my patients insurance pays for it. It's a head-to-toe preventive screening, integrated to discover potential health problems and address risk factors that compromise a lot of people's health. And so in this two to three hour span of time onsite at our clinic at , in another suite, they start from the top. They do a fundoscopy, which is an eye exam. They ultrasound your aorta, looking for an aneurysm. They do an echocardiogram, which is actually a test of your heart function. They look at your arteries, carotid in your neck, lower extremity. They do a thyroid ultrasound, a kidney ultrasound, a pulmonary function test, which classically has done for asthma, and an EEG, which is a cursory test for seizure disorder. It has been pretty spectacular.

Donna Lee: That's a full body scan, right there.

Dr. Kadir: It's a full body scan, however, safe. No radiation. This is all ultrasounds. And more importantly data, right? Patients get to review these test results with one of our providers at Family Medicine Austin and patients have been very happy. On the other side of it, we're happy because few and far between have been abnormal. So we've caught cancer of the eyeball. I've got my first carotid artery stenosis. So I have a 45 year old patient who has way too much blockage, and she's got a significant family history. And so now we're going to go hunting.

Dr. Mistry: And she's a woman, right ? That's also rare.

Dr. Kadir: She is a woman. That is rare. Non-smoker. And so genetics, you know , genetics is silent. You're not going to know. And unfortunately in our colleague's case, probably a little bit too late, but this is one of those easy Health Grades has informed us that most insurance companies will pay for this testing every year. Safe, you get the data, and then God forbid, if I pick up something, why not? I can potentially save your life. We picked up an aneurysm in a patient who had life-saving cardiac surgery about three months afterwards.

Donna Lee: Wow.

Dr. Mistry: If you, if you are out there and you're, you know, and you kind of think to yourself, "Man, you know, those rich billionaires? They probably have the best healthcare." Or if you've ever been in a company in which the executives get to go away for like a weekend for an executive physical and you're like, "Man, that must be a perk for only the rich."

Donna Lee: And it costs thousands of dollars.

Dr. Mistry: What we're saying is that you can get really with minimal to no radiation, a really good examination covered by your insurance if you were to visit someone that, that, that offers Health Grades Analytics. And over the course of the years, we've met many kind of cutting edge primary care doctors that like to do it. Don't you think Donna?

Donna Lee: Mhmm. Yup. It's a different program, but...

Dr. Mistry: And I think there's, I think there's a real association. If you, if you go to a doctor that does these kinds of preventative tests, they probably care about keeping you healthy, not just treating you when you're sick.

Dr. Kadir: And an ounce of prevention, right? Worth a pound of cure. You, if you come in for a strep test into our clinic and you're a 45 year old woman, you're probably going to leave with a mammogram slip. If there are life saving things,...

Dr. Mistry: That's a pretty deep strip.

Donna Lee: That was...

Dr. Kadir: That's a pretty...So funny. So colonoscopies, I mean, we're all about preventative medicine.

Dr. Mistry: "Doctor, where are you going?"

Donna Lee: "Hey, what happened there."

Dr. Mistry: "I got a colonoscopy."

Dr. Kadir: So if we can offer, if we can offer a safe testing, why not? Health Grades is growing, they're opening a clinic in Georgetown. So they're coming to , to an area near you. But we're the first to host them in the first to help them take off. They were, they're based in San Antonio.

Dr. Mistry: Well, that's amazing. So really the take home message for our listeners is that you should really expect a lot from your primary care doctor. They should really care about keeping you healthy. If they don't make that yearly visit worth it, meaning you don't end up feeling like, "Man, that person really about my health and really is keeping me on the right track." If they didn't talk about your weight and you're overweight, if they didn't talk about smoking and you smoke , they didn't do the right job. And that's really what you're going to do is you're trying to make sure you're getting set on the right path. And if you, I would say if you're over the age of 40 with a family history or age of 50, and you haven't had a really, really comprehensive look, then you might be at risk for, you know, showing up with a kidney tumor that's nine centimeters and never having any symptoms. And that's what a more comprehensive examination might , might tell us. So , Lamia , why don't you tell us, how do people get ahold of you? How do they make an appointment with you? And how do they call to make an appointment for a Health Grades Analytics type test?

Dr. Kadir: So for Health Grades Analytics , at this time they have to be a patient at Family Medicine Austin. So making a quick appointment with us to discuss why you'd like to get tested. If your insurance covers it, you get tested. You can do appointments either in person or online, familymedicineaustin.com. You can make the appointment online. You can call us (512) 872-6868. The referrals very easy. So we give Health Grades your information. They verify your benefits, and then they take over. They call you, set you up, and you come on down to central Austin.

Donna Lee: We'll put that on our social media.

Dr. Mistry: That's amazing. We'll put it on our social media. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Donna, how do people get hold of us?

Donna Lee: They can call us at (512) 238-0762. Or visit our website at armormenshealth.com. Send us your questions to armormenshealth@gmail.com and check out our podcast. They're wherever you listen to free podcasts and they are magical.

The Armor Men's Health Hour will be right back. If you have questions for Dr. Mistry, email him at armormenshealth@gmail.com.