August includes several national health observances with direct relevance to adult preventive care and chronic disease management. For adults seeking primary care in Roswell, GA, Cumming, GA, Alpharetta, and surrounding North Georgia communities, these observances provide an opportunity to review vaccinations, identify chronic conditions, protect vision, support maternal health, and discuss organ donation.
National Immunization Awareness Month
Vaccination remains an important part of preventive healthcare throughout adulthood. Recommended vaccines depend on a patient’s age, medical conditions, vaccination history, pregnancy status, occupation, travel plans, and other risk factors.
Adults should have their vaccination records reviewed regularly against the current CDC adult immunization schedule. The schedule addresses influenza, COVID-19, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, shingles, pneumococcal disease, hepatitis A and B, human papillomavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, meningococcal disease, measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella.
Patients with diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic heart or lung disease, liver disease, HIV, asplenia, or another immunocompromising condition may have additional vaccine indications. Medications that suppress the immune system can also affect vaccine timing and whether live vaccines may be administered.
Adults looking for immunizations or preventive care in Roswell or Cumming should bring available vaccination records to their primary care appointments. The CDC maintains the current adult immunization schedule.
Adult Eye Health and Safety
Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month is pediatric in focus, but eye health and injury prevention are also relevant to adults. Diabetes, hypertension, smoking, aging, medication exposure, family history, and previous eye injuries can increase the risk of vision problems.
Comprehensive dilated eye examinations can identify eye diseases before noticeable vision changes occur. This is especially important for adults with diabetes because diabetic retinopathy may progress without early symptoms. The National Eye Institute recommends that adults aged 60 or older receive a dilated eye examination every one to two years to check for cataracts and other eye conditions.
Protective eyewear can reduce the risk of eye injuries during construction, yard work, home repairs, sports, and other hazardous activities. Adults should seek urgent evaluation for sudden vision loss, severe eye pain, chemical exposure, new flashes of light, a sudden increase in floaters, or a curtain-like shadow in the field of vision.
Adults receiving diabetes care or hypertension management in Roswell, GA, and Cumming, GA, should also discuss appropriate eye examinations with their internal medicine provider. The National Eye Institute provides additional guidance.
National Breastfeeding Month: Maternal Health
Breastfeeding is relevant to internal medicine because postpartum and lactating adults continue to need preventive care, chronic disease management, medication review, and mental-health assessment.
Breastfeeding is associated with a lower maternal risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Well-nourished breastfeeding adults generally require approximately 330 to 400 additional kilocalories per day compared with their pre-pregnancy intake, although individual needs vary.
Lactating patients may also require evaluation of nutrition, sleep, contraception, postpartum depression or anxiety, thyroid disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Medication safety should be assessed individually. Breastfeeding does not automatically require discontinuation of necessary medication, but clinicians must consider drug transfer into human milk, infant exposure, available alternatives, and the risks of untreated maternal illness.
Women seeking postpartum primary care in Roswell or Cumming can discuss chronic medical conditions and medication safety with an adult internal medicine provider. The CDC offers information about breastfeeding and special maternal health circumstances.
Psoriasis Awareness Month
Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated disease that commonly causes well-defined, scaly plaques on the skin. It is not contagious. Symptoms may occur in cycles, with periods of increased activity followed by improvement or remission.
Psoriasis can involve more than the skin. Joint pain, stiffness, swelling, heel pain, or swollen fingers and toes may indicate psoriatic arthritis. In many patients who develop psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis begins before the joint symptoms.
The condition is associated with increased rates of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease, anxiety, and depression. Adult psoriasis care therefore includes assessment of cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic health, mental health, tobacco use, and alcohol use.
Treatment depends on the location and severity of disease. Options include topical medications, phototherapy, oral systemic medications, and injectable biologic therapies. Patients receiving systemic treatment may require infection screening, laboratory monitoring, vaccination review, and coordination among primary care, dermatology, and rheumatology.
Adults looking for psoriasis-related primary care or chronic disease management in Roswell, GA, or Cumming, GA, should report new skin changes and joint symptoms. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases provides information about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month
Spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, is a group of inherited disorders that affect lower motor neurons. Loss of these nerve cells causes progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Although many forms begin in infancy or childhood, adults may live with childhood-onset SMA, and milder forms can first become apparent during adulthood.
Adult symptoms may include symmetric weakness near the center of the body, difficulty walking or climbing stairs, falls, fatigue, scoliosis, joint contractures, impaired cough, restrictive respiratory disease, and swallowing difficulty. Sensation is generally preserved in the common form associated with changes in the SMN1 gene.
Adult SMA management may involve neurology, pulmonology, rehabilitation medicine, physical and occupational therapy, nutrition, speech-language pathology, orthopedics, and primary care. Internal medicine priorities include respiratory assessment, vaccination, nutrition, aspiration risk, bone health, mobility, mental health, and prevention of complications associated with immobility.
FDA-approved disease-modifying treatments are available for adults with SMA, including nusinersen and risdiplam. In 2025, the FDA also approved intrathecal onasemnogene abeparvovec-brve for adults and children aged two years or older with a confirmed SMN1 mutation. Treatment selection requires specialist evaluation.
Adults living with SMA in North Fulton County, Forsyth County, Roswell, or Cumming may require coordination between their primary care provider and neuromuscular specialists. Information is available from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the FDA.
Gastroparesis Awareness Month
Gastroparesis is delayed stomach emptying without a mechanical obstruction. Symptoms may include feeling full shortly after starting a meal, prolonged fullness after eating, nausea, vomiting, bloating, belching, upper abdominal pain, heartburn, and poor appetite.
Potential complications include dehydration, malnutrition, unintended weight loss, bezoar formation, and difficulty managing blood glucose. Diabetes is the most common known cause. Other causes include gastric surgery and disorders affecting gastrointestinal nerves or muscles. Some medications can slow gastric emptying and cause or worsen similar symptoms.
Diagnosis requires exclusion of a mechanical obstruction and objective assessment of gastric emptying. Gastric-emptying scintigraphy is a commonly used test and usually measures stomach emptying over approximately four hours.
Treatment may include smaller and more frequent meals, modification of dietary fat and fiber, correction of dehydration or nutritional deficiencies, improved diabetes management, and medications for nausea or gastric motility. Severe cases may require enteral nutrition or other specialist-directed treatment.
Adults seeking evaluation for nausea, early satiety, vomiting, or possible diabetic gastroparesis in Cumming or Roswell should discuss persistent symptoms with an internal medicine provider. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases provides information on gastroparesis symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.
National Minority Donor Awareness Month
National Minority Donor Awareness Month addresses organ, eye, and tissue donation and the disproportionate burden of organ failure among several racial and ethnic minority populations.
A donor and recipient do not have to share the same race or ethnicity to match. Organ allocation considers factors such as blood type, tissue compatibility, organ size, medical urgency, geographic factors, and waiting time. However, blood and tissue characteristics are inherited, so compatible matches may be more likely among people with a similar racial or ethnic background. A larger and more diverse donor pool can increase opportunities to identify suitable matches.
Adults can register as deceased donors through the process established by their state. Living donation may also be possible for a kidney or a portion of certain organs, but it requires a separate medical and psychosocial evaluation. Registration as an organ donor does not determine transplant eligibility or organ allocation. Federal information about donation and registration is available at OrganDonor.gov.
Adult Primary Care in Roswell and Cumming
These August health observances reinforce several responsibilities of adult primary care: reviewing immunizations, controlling cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, identifying multisystem disease, supporting postpartum health, preventing vision loss, coordinating chronic neurologic and gastrointestinal care, and providing accurate information about organ donation.
Alpharetta Internal Medicine serves adult patients from its Roswell, Georgia, location, while Cumming Internal Medicine serves patients in Cumming and the surrounding Forsyth County area. The practice’s current provider team includes Jason J. Holbrook, MD; Margaret M. Still, MD; Todd D. Miller, MD; Kaya S. Caldwell, MD; Jennifer D. Cook, MD; Prerna Satyanarayana, MD; Tina H. Strickland, FNP-BC; Sara W. Wallace, NP-C; and Lisa Montbellier, PA.
For adult primary care, preventive healthcare, annual physical examinations, immunizations, diabetes management, hypertension care, gastrointestinal concerns, women’s health, men’s health, and Medicare wellness visits in Roswell and Cumming, contact Alpharetta & Cumming Internal Medicine. (770) 475-2377
