It’s important to undergo a yearly checkup with your physician, but it’s also important to go in with a game plan of what you want to have examined beyond just the vital signs.
Even for teenagers, it’s essential to delve deeper than just a blood sample and a check of the reflexes. With health insurance coverage that provides beyond Medicare by covering entire families and their children, there is an opportunity for your teen to get the checkup they need.
Monitoring Weight
Regardless of age, concerns like obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure can rise for even teens. Teenage obesity can come from different issues such as genetics, lifestyle choices, and metabolism.
Each person’s body uses energy differently. Metabolism and hormones don’t affect everyone the same way. Under a family health insurance plan, teens receive network benefits that are not just safety nets from out-of-pocket cost, but also provide a litany of specialists that can evaluate issues with weight gain and loss more deeply.
Obesity is best defined in teenagers by BMI, or Body Mass Index, a rating system calculated by dividing weight over height to estimate a body’s fat mass.
Beyond the number on the scale and BMI, medical professionals will look into a teen’s family history of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other disorders that could lead to concerns over a teenager being overweight. This provides clarity as to how a patient can better their health through a variety of options.
Making Mental Health A Priority
Teenagers deal with so many emotions that are difficult to convey to a parent, friend, or frankly even their own reflection in the mirror. Therapy Group of New York City, a renowned therapist in NYC, encourages teens to confront issues involving puberty and sexual development head-on, as it can be linked to deeper mental health troubles. Therapy is available for most extras insurance plans to deal with psychological issues that are impacting a teenager.
The right therapist can provide a safe space for a teen to feel understood, openly discussing relationship issues with friends, in the dating world or even troubles within their own family. A psychiatrist can better assess through a therapeutic relationship if a teen’s troubles could actually stem from mood disorders.
By establishing trust, a therapist may delve into whether a teen is battling substance abuse as a means of coping. Rather than admonish the usage, clinicians can rely on cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy takes into account the emotions and triggers that can lead a patient to rely on drugs or alcohol to get them through and develop new mechanisms to not have to rely on such unhealthy habits.
Addressing “Growing Pains”
A teenager may be complaining about knee pain, headaches, and other aggravations, and, yes, they are common when it comes to puberty.
However, it’s good to once again look into possible physical therapy through the extras health insurance plan or under family plans in the event of those symptoms being persistent and severe enough to interfere with your teen’s normal activities. It’s also important to be vigilant for any swelling, tenderness, or other conditions.
A physical therapist can evaluate potential treatment, and look into the possibility of long-term issues with certain aches and pains that may have developed not from “growing pains,” but from sports injuries or other tweaks. In a standard physical exam, a teen can be evaluated for issues like scoliosis, the curvature of the spine causing significant problems in pubescent growth.
Above all else, it’s important in these life transitions for a teen to feel like they can be open about their health and develop trust with their medical professionals.
