Understanding The Importance Of Regular Preventive Health Checks: Expert Elaborates

With an increased pattern of sedentary lifestyle, preventive health checks have become an unsaid necessary. An important fact that we have been ignoring since ages is that numerous diseases get diagnosed at their end stage, showing mild to no symptoms initially. Indeed, preventive health checks carry an utmost importance with them. They help us in knowing about what's going inside our body, are there any significant vitamin deficiencies, any underlying infection that needs an immediate care or some relevant precautions we should start taking, basis our current health.

With an ongoing pandemic crisis which unfortunately has completed a year, there is a significant dip in the number of preventive health checks that should be taken in a year. COVID is undoubtedly a dangerous virus, but it should not be forgotten that any prevailing symptom, existing disease or unhealthy lifestyle can equally be dangerous.

Chronic diseases like cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, uneven blood pressure levels, etc. need to be checked more frequently today, basis the sedentary lifestyle patterns we have been leading, as these diseases have an ideal potency to develop into a major health risk. Be it increased levels of cholesterol, stress or hypertension, all these ailments have a direct contact with our heart health.

Over the year it has been sharply observed that patients with initial or mild symptoms of any disease have come up with an increased and intensified levels of the same. Not monitoring those symptoms and taking regular health tests to check their levels have caused them to take more serious set of precautions than initially required. Hence here is a set of ailments/tests, one should take a routine diagnosis on:

• Diabetes
• Vitamin deficiencies (specially vitamin D and B12)
• Cholesterol
• Thyroid
• Liver functioning
• Lipid profile
• CBC
• Hormonal imbalances
• Heart health

Also read: Women In 40s, Our Expert Tells 5 Medical Tests You Should Get Regularly

Regular check ups can help diagnose chronic diseases like cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension
Photo Credit: iStock

Moreover in case of women they should also get tested for osteoporosis, cervical and blood cancer. Knowingly or unknowingly, any symptom ignored in such diseases can turn out to be problematic in future.

As the pandemic require to stay at home and follow social distancing, people got bounded to live a particular lifestyle, combined with unhealthy eating patterns and less physical activities, problems related to obesity and diabetes have gradually increased more. With such a data and information at hand, preventive health checks should not be skipped or missed.

Typically preventive checks should be taken more frequently, once you start aging. An ideal estimation should be, taking a preventive health check once every year, at the age of 60 and once in every two to three years between the ages of 30-40 years, on only not having any chronic disease like diabetes or cholesterol. Similarly, on being diagnosed with any chronic ailment at any age, one should increase the frequency of taking the health tests towards the direction of the ailment. For instance, if you have increased cholesterol levels, of whatever age you may be, you should take routine checks for your heart health.

Also read: 6 Health Check-Ups Women Can Do At Home

Hence, people are advised not to adapt to missing the regular health checks. As any symptom, ignored can become problematic in near future. Our health is our greatest responsibility and for maintaining a pace with the current health and lifestyle patterns it is very important to keep fit, healthy and active.

(Dr. Tarun Sahni, Internal Medicine Specialist, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi)

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