Most of preventive care fits into one annual appointment plus two or three referrals. The single most useful thing you can do this year is book that appointment — everything else follows from it. Resolutions collapse in February; a diary entry does not.
This is deliberately a checklist rather than a pep talk.
Once a year, for everyone
- An annual visit with a primary care provider — blood pressure, weight, a medication review, and a conversation about what has changed
- Blood pressure checked (more often if raised or treated)
- A skin check — this matters more in Arizona than almost anywhere in the country
- Influenza vaccination, ideally by the end of October
- A dental check-up, twice a year if you can — gum disease is linked to cardiovascular and blood sugar problems
- An eye examination, particularly from 40 onwards, and annually with diabetes
- A medication and supplement review — bring everything in a bag, including over-the-counter items
- A look at your own numbers: do you actually know your blood pressure, cholesterol, and A1C?
Every few years, or by age
- Cholesterol — from about 20, then every four to six years unless risk is higher
- Blood sugar / A1C — from 35, earlier with risk factors; annually if you have prediabetes
- Cervical screening — from 21, every three to five years depending on the test
- Mammogram — from 40, every one to two years
- Colorectal screening — from 45; colonoscopy every ten years or a stool test annually
- Hepatitis C — once, for all adults
- Shingles and pneumococcal vaccines — from 50
- Prostate (PSA) discussion — from 55, or 45 with higher risk
- Bone density (DEXA) — women from 65, earlier with risk factors
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm ultrasound — once, men 65–75 who have ever smoked
- Lung CT — annually, 50–80 with a 20 pack-year history
- RSV vaccine — 75+, or 60–74 with risk factors
- Tdap — every ten years
The detail behind the cancer ones is in cancer screenings by age, and the vaccine detail is in adult vaccines explained.
An Arizona calendar
Our year has a different shape, and planning around it works better than being surprised by it.
January–February. Book the annual appointment while intentions are fresh and the weather is ideal. Get blood work done. Seasonal residents: establish care now rather than in March when you are leaving.
March–April. Peak allergy season — get ahead of it, because a steroid nasal spray started in March works far better than one started in April. Good hiking weather: use it to build the fitness that summer will otherwise erode.
May. The pre-summer medication review. Ask specifically how heat affects your prescriptions — diuretics, blood pressure medication, and several psychiatric drugs all change how your body copes. Check that your air conditioning works before you need it.
June–September. Survival mode. Shift exercise indoors or into water, hydrate on a schedule rather than by thirst, and watch older neighbours. This is also when people become isolated and low — plan social contact deliberately. Monsoon: dust and air quality.
October. Influenza vaccination. Snowbird arrivals: bring your records and medication list, and book a first appointment.
November–December. Holidays — keep taking your medication through the disruption, watch salt if you have heart failure, and do not postpone chest pain because of the calendar. See holiday health and safety.
Making the appointment actually worth it
Preparation is the difference between a ten-minute box-tick and something useful.
Write down your three main concerns before you come, in priority order. Appointments run out of time, and the thing people mention last is often the thing that mattered most.
Bring every medication and supplement in a bag — actual bottles, not a list from memory. We routinely find duplicates and interactions this way.
Know your family history. Who had what, and at what age. This changes screening recommendations more than almost anything else, and it is the one thing we cannot look up.
Bring your numbers if you monitor at home — blood pressure readings, blood sugars, weight. A log beats a recollection.
Say the awkward thing. Mood, alcohol, sex, memory, continence, money worries affecting your medication. These are the highest-yield topics in the whole visit and the ones most often left out.
Ask what you are due for, and get the follow-up booked before you leave.
The four habits behind all of it
Nothing here is a surprise, which is the point:
Move 150 minutes a week, plus strength work twice. If you do nothing else on this list, do this one.
Sleep seven to nine hours, at consistent times.
Eat mostly plants, fish, and whole grains. No diet name required.
Do not smoke or vape, and keep alcohol modest. If you want to quit, medication plus support works far better than willpower — ask us.
Pick one. A single habit sustained for a year beats five abandoned in three weeks, and this is where most January plans go wrong: they are too ambitious to survive contact with February.
Where to go
Book our Medical Clinic — one appointment starts almost everything on this page, and our laboratory is in the building so most blood work comes back the same day. Same-day appointments are usually available. Call (602) 671-7981.
Our Emergency Room is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, at 9700 N. Saguaro Blvd: (602) 671-7990. Preventive care is what keeps you out of it — which is genuinely the outcome we want.
Related reading
- Donating Blood: Who Can, Who Can’t, and Why Summer Is the Crunch
- Cancer Screenings: What to Schedule, and When
- Adult Vaccines: What You Need, and the Myths Worth Dropping
Sources
- US Preventive Services Task Force — A–Z recommendations
- CDC — Adult immunisation schedule
- MyHealthfinder — Personalised preventive care recommendations
- American Heart Association — Life’s Essential 8