High Point doctor urges men to get routine checkups

Dr. John Card used a FOX8 House Calls segment from High Point to press a simple warning: men who wait until they feel really sick often make routine problems harder to treat. The June 29 segment landed during Men’s Health Month, the annual June observance aimed at getting men into preventive care before small warning signs become bigger ones.

Card spoke in a season when many men try to power through discomfort, skip appointments because of cost or time, or keep putting off care because they do not have a primary doctor. That pattern matters in Guilford County as much as anywhere else, because the conditions that often build quietly are the ones primary care is designed to catch early, including high blood pressure and cancer risks.

The numbers back up the concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 50.8% of men age 18 and older have hypertension, 39.2% of men age 20 and older have obesity, 11.5% of men age 18 and older currently smoke cigarettes, and 14.2% of men age 18 and older reported being in fair or poor health in 2024. The agency also lists heart disease, cancer and accidents among the leading causes of death for men.

Men’s Health Month traces back to National Men’s Health Week, which Congress designated in 1994. Groups that promote the observance say it is meant to educate families about preventive practices and push men toward the kinds of visits many only make when symptoms are hard to ignore. Historical materials tied to the observance note that men have tended to live about seven years less than women and are less likely to seek preventive and mental health care.

For Guilford County, the message connects directly to local public health work. The Guilford County Division of Public Health says it collects and analyzes local health statistics and publishes data briefs and special reports, while the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics maintains county-level tools used for community health assessments. Those systems are meant to show where gaps in care exist and where outreach has to reach men earlier.

Card’s own work sits inside a large network. Novant Health says it has more than 850 locations, including more than 700 physician clinics and urgent care centers. Card specializes in internal medicine and focuses on patient-centered care, disease prevention and health equity improvement, and Novant says he serves as physician liaison for the greater Winston-Salem region in its office of health equity and community health.