ROUTINE CHECK: How important is this to your health?
A routine check is the regular, periodical assessment of your health that your healthcare provider does to ensure your health status is at the optimal level. It is a process wherein a doctor inspects your body in order to verify a normal state of health, prevent any impending diseases or detect disease in its earliest stage.
The overall benefits of routinely evaluating your health to look out for risk factors for various medical conditions, screening for diseases, and assessing lifestyle habits are to help you stay healthy while reducing your risk of life-threatening diseases.
How often should you go for a routine check? The recommendation is based on your age, risk factors, and current health status. Routine physical exams are recommended once a year for individuals above 50 years, and once every 3 years for individuals below 50 years who are in good health.
If you have a chronic disease or other ongoing health issues, you should see your doctor more often, no matter how old you are.
Benefits of Routine Check:
The benefits of regularly checking your health are quite numerous and worthy of mention in the next few lines:
1. Prevention of diseases such that you do not suffer from them at all. During your regular check, your doctor examines your body and counsels you on the need to take preventive measures for diseases that might be looming.
2. Early detection of diseases can be potentially life-threatening. When your doctor identifies a disease at the early stages before it has caused too much damage to the body, it can be managed with a better outcome and at much less cost.
3. Prompt treatment of the early-detected disease goes a long way in improving the outcome of the disease.
4. Regular monitoring of already-existing diseases will help forestall worsening symptoms and complications.
5. Helps to check massive expenditures on complicated diseases that emerge from lack of routine check.
6. Getting vaccinated after screening tests is a particularly important benefit of routine check.
7. Maintaining a good and close relationship with your healthcare service provider. This creates an enabling environment for confiding in your service provider for improved healthcare.
8. Learning lifestyles for improved health and thus, longer life.
Components of a Routine check:
When you visit your doctor for a routine check, your doctor will review your previous health information (history) and note any current information, do physical examination of all the systems in your body, request for appropriate screening tests and investigations, then prescribe any medications (if needed).
History Taking: An annual checkup should include an extensive review of your medical history, your family medical history (if necessary), your medication and allergy history, your social medical history, your childhood medical history (if necessary) and your vaccination history; then note any changes in your history since your last visit, that is update any new relevant information on your health.
Physical examination: Your doctor will perform a thorough and complete physical examination to detect any abnormalities in all the systems of your body. He will inspect your body generally; palpate (touch) and percuss the different organs to assess their sizes, locations, and any pain therein; then listen to distinct parts of your body like your heart, lungs (through the chest).
Screening Tests: These are early tests done to detect potential diseases in people; or to detect the diseases in people that have not started showing the symptoms; thereby catching the diseases early. Adults, including men and women, are typically screened for the following conditions:
- Hypertension (High blood pressure)
- Diabetes (High blood sugar/glucose)
- Obesity, based on your body mass index (obtained using your weight and your height)
- Tobacco use (smoking history)
- Alcohol and recreational drug use and misuse
- Depression
- Viral illnesses (HIV, Hepatitis B and C)
- Respiratory diseases like Tuberculosis, Lung cancer
- Colorectal cancer, from the age of 50years.
- High cholesterol level
There are additional screening tests specific to different sexes. Women should be screened for Breast cancer and cervical cancer. Men should be screened for Prostate cancer.
It is important to communicate with your doctor about all aspects of your health because having the right information is key to making an accurate diagnosis and prescribing the proper treatment options for you.
Getting routine checkups is a great way to take charge of your health and care for your health. Regular routine checkups can help you improve your health and reduce your risk of getting sick, while prolonging your life on earth so that you can achieve all life’s purposes for you.
Speak to your EBAL MEDICAL CLINIC Listed Medical Doctor for a routine check. This way, he will review you, examine you and recommend the right investigations for you, review your results with you and prescribe the best measures for your improved health.