This month’s Made in Racine episode featured family practitioner Dr. Vedrana Jovkovic with Pillar Health. We focused on topics like preventative care, mental health, how lifestyles changing over time have impacted our health as a society, changes in the Racine community, and how healthcare has changed in the last decade.
The Importance of Preventive Care
One of the points Jovkovic stressed was the importance of preventative measures to ensure long-term health. This includes visiting your doctor for annual appointments, knowing your family health history, watching your diet, getting enough exercise and sunshine, and seeing a doctor if anything feels wrong.
Everyone’s body is different, and by making regular appointments with your doctor, they can determine if there is anything to be concerned about. They can also help you navigate if something about your life changes, such as lifestyle, environment, diet, job, and exercise.
For women specifically, visiting a gynecologist and checking your blood pressure are the best forms of preventative care.
“Blood pressure is the silent killer for women, and people do not know that they might have high blood pressure without getting it checked. You feel normal, but your blood pressure might be high,” said Jovkovic.
For men, having annual physicals and watching BMI, along with exercise and diet, are the main ways to maintain a healthy life.
Building a healthy lifestyle
From learning about the food pyramid in school to going to the gym and monitoring BMI, people are taught to build healthy habits. When life and hard times make that difficult, several important steps can make an impact on overall health.
Staying hydrated, eating non-processed foods, exercising at least 150 minutes each week, spending time outside, and being mindful of the choices we make will impact a person’s overall health long-term.
“Get servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and get away from fast food and processed foods. That’s where the disease process starts for diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol, that all builds up even in young adulthood,” Jovkovic said. “If you’re not watching what you intake, you have a higher risk of getting the disease processes in the future.”
College students are a population group who are especially at risk of poorer health due to their stressful environment, lack of primary healthcare providers, and education about how to build a healthy lifestyle.
Poor diet, lack of sleep, low hydration, stress, and the introduction of substances and unsafe practices can affect people later in life. The best combatant for this is education on preventative measures.
Getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, eating healthy, and knowing the effects substances and activities will have on one’s body goes a long way.
This is also true for mental health. Everything is connected, and how healthy and active the body is affects how healthy the mind is.
“Once you stop moving, you start dying because you’re not getting the blood flowing, and all those toxins that might be built up, the cholesterol, the blood sugar, everything is sitting there and causing problems instead of breaking down,” said Jovkovic.
Being active, socializing, spending time outside, and taking time away from screens greatly helps improve mental and physical health. It lowers blood sugar and cholesterol, and helps improve circulation.
“You only get one body,” she noted.
Healthcare in Racine
The Lincoln King Center is expected to open in January 2027. This will be a one-stop shop primary care, mental health, pediatric, dentistry, and psychiatry in the future, all under one roof. Families won’t have to travel to multiple doctors’ offices to take care of each individual’s health needs.
“It’s providing them accessibility to the community. We want to be the safe space for people to come in to get the help they need and the access to healthcare they need,” said Jovkovic. “Not only will it be that one-stop shop, it’s going to be a place for the community and the kids to hang out at. It’s going to be a positive place for the kids to get together and hopefully get active outside, be in a safe area, and have the ability to get their heart rate up.”
Steps to make today
Now that the weather is becoming warmer, spending time outside is far more inviting. Take time each day to walk a bit outside, stay hydrated – especially on hot days, grow or purchase local produce if you can, and visit a healthcare provider if something feels off.
We want to build a healthier community, and it starts with preventative healthcare.
If you’d like to listen to the full interview with Dr. Jovkovic, it can be found here.
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