Why bother with a yearly check-up?
- Prevention is better than cures.
- There are many things that we may not be aware of that we can do something about.
- In many cases it’s not about now but about the future.
- Three main areas to think about: checking for cardiovascular risk factors, early detection cancer, and prevention of disease.
What things will your GP check for?
- They’ll check for the ‘hidden’ issues.
- Physical: look at blood pressure and weight in particular. Both can cause heart disease.
- Run some routine blood tests, in particular checking blood sugar for diabetes and cholesterol.
Why are these important?
- Rising blood pressure, sugars rising in the blood stream, and fats in the blood stream are silent. We don’t know they’re happening.
- Blood pressure and cholesterol left untreated can lead to heart disease and strokes down the track.
- Elevated sugars can give us a warning that we are headed for diabetes, which is treatable with changes to diet, exercise, and weight loss.
What else do we need to think about?
- Cancer screenings:
- Mammograms for early breast cancer from age 45.
- Bowel screening from the age of 60 for bowel cancer.
- Cervical screening for cervical cancer from age 25.
- In men, think about a blood test for prostate cancer from the age of 50.
- If we detect cancer early enough, we can cure it – that simple!
Any other issues?
- Being up to date with immunisations.
- For children we need to think about all those diseases we prevent with immunisation. Measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatitis, pneumonia, tetanus, and meningitis are all killers, and we need to make sure our children are protected.
-For adults: a yearly flu injection, shingle vaccine at the age of 65, being up to date with Covid boosters, and discussing pneumococcal vaccine for pneumonia over the age of 65.
-These are all important in preventing disease.
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