Doc Talks: The Conversations You Want to Have with Your Doctor If Only There Was Enough Time.

By Dr. Justin Abbott DO/MBA

Doc Talks provides the reader with personal health information that many patients yearn to understand and few have the opportunity to learn. Todays busy practice environment and short office visit times seldom leaves time for the patient to learn and understand about their disease. Dr. Abbott starts this series off with such topics as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease, as well as information on vaccines, cancer screening recommendations, and the effects of tobacco and alcohol on long-term health.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504987301

Dr. Justin Abbott DO/MBA

Justin Abbott, DO/MBA is an AAFP board certified family physician who has practiced broad spectrum family medicine in rural Utah since he finished residency at Utah Valley Family Medicine Residency in Provo, Utah. Areas of his practice have included Internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonology, oncology, womens health, surgical obstetrics, including high-risk, geriatric, as well as emergency and pediatric medicine. He has served as chief medical officer of Sevier Valley Hospital for the last four years, gaining further insight into today's complicated health-care system and influencing the local health-care landscape in his home community. His views and opinions on personal health come from years of practicing as a physician and a diverse personal background with many socioeconomic and cultural influences that have guided him to be the first in his family to graduate college. Prior to medical school, he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in social and behavioral science, studying behavioral influence on society at large. He further studied health-care leadership, attending Rockhurst University in Kansas City, simultaneously earning a master's degree in business administration while earning his doctoral degree from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. His interests include the ever-changing health-care landscape and the process of empowering individuals to change their health through detailed understanding of diseases and influences on health.

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© 2016 Justin Abbott. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/31/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8731-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8730-1 (e)

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Hypertension, The Silent Killer

Chapter 2 Hyperlipidemia (High Cholesterol)

Chapter 3 Diabetes

Chapter 4 Adult Vaccination Guide

Chapter 5 Cancer Screening

Chapter 6 Alcohol

Chapter 7 Tobacco

Chapter 8 What you should know about your doctor

CHAPTER ONE

Hypertension, The Silent Killer

Medical Facts:

According to the CDC, seventy million Americans are currently diagnosed with high blood pressure. In medical jargon, we commonly call high blood pressure hypertension and we abbreviate it HTN. HTN is a disorder that is characterized by an elevated pressure of the flow of blood in your arteries all over your body. There can be many different causes of high blood pressure, and it can exist just by itself, we call this essential hypertension. Essential HTN is likely a genetic trait passed on to you from your parents. Many of the causes of HTN are reversible, and you should have this discussion this with your doctor. A few examples would be being overweight, sleep apnea, narrowing of the blood vessels to your kidneys, certain tumors, and certain behaviors such as excess stimulant intake (caffeine) and salt intake that can increase blood pressure.

High blood pressure typically does not have any symptoms associated with it, hence the term the silent killer, as it can be present and damaging your body for many years before you know you have it. At very high levels you can