DOCTOR is in Wellness
DOCTOR is in Wellness Exams: How a Visit to the Doctor Could Save Your Life It has been said that good physicians treat disease, but great physicians prevent them. In a time where COVID has changed our way of life, it is now more important than ever to take a closer look at our own health. Many of us may be engaging in unhealthy behaviors that could lead to serious consequences if not corrected early. For this reason, an annual wellness exam (or “physical”) is a great opportunity to develop a personalized plan to BY DR. BRAN- DON KARMO SPECIAL TO THE CHALDEAN NEWS help prevent disease based on your current health and risk factors. The wellness visit usually includes measuring your height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, and your doctor may also do a physical exam. The visit also is a chance to review healthy and potentially unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as diet, exercise pattern, smoking, and alcohol use. The wellness exam is also a great opportunity to discuss stress, depression, anxiety, and sleep issues. Another critical component of the yearly annual is to discuss cancer screening tests. Colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer are some of the examples of extremely important preventive screening tests that can be ordered depending on your age. Detecting cancer at an early stage could be the difference between life and death. Recently, a patient of mine who felt otherwise healthy came to see me for a wellness visit. This patient had no complaints and as part of the wellness exam I referred the patient for a colonoscopy due to their age. During the colonoscopy, a large pre-cancerous polyp was discovered and removed. The patient tolerated the procedure well and we were able to prevent the patient from developing colon cancer. This is just one of many examples of how important preventive exams can be. There is also good news, many annual wellness exams are covered by your insurance. If you have Medicare, you may be eligible for a once a year annual wellness visit with no cost to you. Check with your insurance provider to see what costs if any are associated with your wellness visit. If the COVID pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to value life and to prepare for the unexpected. Now is the time to focus on our mental and physical well-being. Having a yearly wellness visit with your doctor is the first step in your journey to good health. Talk to your primary care physician and schedule your yearly check-up today. An annual wellness exam (or “physical”) is a great opportunity to develop a personalized plan. Dr. Brandon Karmo is a Board Certified Family Physician at Orchard Primary Care in Farmington Hills. He is also an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and teaches resident physicians at Ascension Providence. Simply delicious food served by the finest Professionals Delta Dental of Michigan CASUAL DINING AT ITS BEST Authentic Italian style restaurant featuring cut to order steaks, fresh seafood, homemade pasta and pizzas and several salad options. Spacious Banquet rooms available perfect for corporate events and meetings, family celebrations, weddings and showers. All tobacco use can increase your risk for a number of oral health conditions. This includes e-cigarettes and smokeless (spit). Talk to your dentist about any tobacco use. Don’t let it affect your smile! 5600 Crooks Road, Troy, Michigan 248.813.0700 ◆ www.loccino.com 34 CHALDEAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2020
ECONOMICS & enterprise Urban Air Is Back Aloft! BY PAUL NATINSKY The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for businesses in general, but especially hard for some. Urban Air Trampoline & Adventure Park in Sterling Heights finds itself in the latter category. Owner Wes Ayar said his entertainment venue was finally able to open its doors on October 10, after 209 days closed. Through the entertainment venue’s hiatus, Ayar has relied on the Paycheck Protection Program, other loans, leniency from his landlord and from the 130-location Urban Air franchise company. Ayar has owned Urban Air since March 2019. The Chaldean News covered the Grand Opening in the 2019 October issue, when Ayar had high hopes for a booming business. The indoor adventure park offered a fun (and at the time, safe) environment for keeping kids occupied. About 30 percent of Urban Air’s footprint is trampoline attractions. The park also features a rock-climbing wall, bumper cars, ropes course, virtual reality experience, zip line and other activities. Urban Air provides year-round indoor amusements. On its website, the company describes itself as “the ultimate indoor playground” for families. It hosts children’s birthday parties and touts a more varied and expansive presentation than typical indoor trampoline parks. The company has been on an upward trajectory, voted Best Gym In America for Kids by Shape Magazine, Best Place To Take Energetic Kids and Best Trampoline Parks. While now open, Ayar says the 450-capacity park is now limited to 120. Open day passes that allowed patrons to come and go have given way to scheduled time blocks. Mask wearing and social distancing are in full effect, as is enhanced sanitation, which required hiring an additional employee. Urban Air faces a stiff challenge to profitability under current COV- ID protocols. Ayar says almost all of the 130 franchises across the country re-opened ahead of those in Michigan, and began recovering profits as pandemic protocols loosened in other states. “Our hope is to ramp up, little by little,” Ayar said. He, too, hopes slowly to return to profitability, but says he would need to operate at 50 percent capacity, at least, and sell out all of the time slots available. “With the general public there are two things right now. A) Most people still don’t know we’re open and B) The people who know we are open are still not coming because they are not yet comfortable, and we completely understand that.” Ayar is working hard to get the word out that Urban Air is open, clean and safe. Urban Air is working with a company on “hyper-local” marketing and hitting social media hard, while the franchise puts out national ads. In addition to attracting customers, Urban Air’s future depends to a significant extent on the rules it must follow going forward, particularly regarding capacity. “Twenty-five percent just doesn’t get us anywhere because of what our rent is and what our expenses are. Twenty-five percent capacity just wouldn’t allow us to make any money or break even,” says Ayar. He says the business can only sustain itself under the current rules for a month or two, without a substantial influx of new money. If there is no change in state rules governing capacity, will the business be able to continue? “That’s a really open-ended question. If my partner and I are willing to refinance our homes and take that money and put it into the business, we can make the business float. But as far as the business itself, a month, two months might be all the business could withstand with the current level of capacity and the (the other added costs and restrictions),” says Ayar. Changes at least in process are taking place at the state level. A recent court ruling has shifted decision making on Michigan’s COVID precautions from exclusively under the Wes Ayar of Urban Air control of the governor to a status more inclusive of the state’s legislature. It remains to be seen what effect the move will have on businesses limited by current rules. “At the capacity that we’re at, we would have to run our business close to perfect to just get to a break-even point every month with rent, with our loans and our payroll and our insurance,” says Ayar. When we talked, Ayar said Urban Air had been open three days. “The experience for the guests seemed to be positive. We didn’t have any guests who had anything negative to say, so that was a big plus for us.” For now, trampoline and adventure parks join the ranks of re-opened restaurants, hair salons and recently re-opened movie theaters trying to figure out how to serve their customers, pay their employees and earn a living as they wait for rules changes that allow them to increase their bottom lines. NOVEMBER 2020 CHALDEAN NEWS 35
