Healthcare consultations are nearly always important and meaningful. Health is an imperative to good living and so we see healthcare professionals & providers to help stay healthy or get healthy. This is fairly “obvious” and most of us do not feel confused or unclear about these things. But there are some types of consultation that can be overlooked or poorly understood or under-appreciated. These are consultations most of us would benefit form having, or having more of. Let’s look at some…..

The check-up – it’s all very well going to the doc when you’re sick, and you should. But we think you should also go when you’re well. Modern healthcare has quite a lot to offer in the area of preventive healthcare or “staying well” but the key starting point is almost always some form of check-up. This is best done when you’re well, not when you’re sick.

Counselling – the world is a tough place and few of us are as happy, balanced, content, and calm as we’d like to be. Sometimes life just gets “too much” and we start to feel excessive anxiety, anger, depression and more. This is the time to talk to someone like a psychologist, the company’s EAP, a social worker, your doctor, a trusted pastor, etc. Someone you can trust, someone confidential, someone professional. Counselling approaches vary from the in-depth long-term approaches of classical psychology to more practical “real-world” short-term methodologies. But counselling is generally a proven approach to helping people cope with life. We all need this sort of help from time to time.

Dieticians – nutrition has a huge impact on wellbeing, be it about weight control, energy, sports nutrition, or managing conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. We truly are what we eat. This is also an area of science that is advancing rapidly: we understand more and more about good nutrition but it is a technical field where professional expertise really plays a role. Arguably, we should all see a dietician at some stage, possibly on a regular basis (certainly for those with chronic medical conditions).

Biokineticists or personal trainers – exercise and active living is another key building block in healthy living. We should all be exercising. There are good ways (safe & effective) to exercise and there are bad ways (dangerous and ineffective) to exercise. Professional help can help us exercise safely, effectively, enjoyably. Not many of us can afford our own dedicated personal trainers long-term but even a few sessions can really help us to “get it right, do it right”.

Dermatologists – we live in a sunny climate and skin cancer is very real risk (less-so for darker skins but even the darkest person can develop skin cancer). Seeing a dermatologist for a full skin-check is a very worthwhile consultation.

So there is a list of some of the most-valuable but often-overlooked consultations we think you should at least be considering. There are others so please comment below to add-in the ones you think belong on this list…