Regular Health Check-up – Why is it Important?

Our health is our greatest treasure. Taking care of our health is utmost important. But in our daily life, we keep on looking for excuses to not visit our doctor. Be it for saving money or for other reasons like ‘I am too young and healthy to go to a doc’, ‘I don’t have time today; may be next week, I’ll get an appointment…”, we keep on ignoring our health.
We do not understand the fact that performing regular health check –ups from young age can actually save many lives. Saving some bucks today by ignoring periodic check-ups, we increase the risk of occurrence of several health issues in future.

Money is not everything. Yes…without money we cannot survive. But how can you earn if you don’t possess a healthy body? Along with a healthy body, a healthy mind is required to stay fit. A healthy person is one who stays fit, is physically active and mentally alert. If your body is affected by any disease, physical or emotional you cannot be truly successful in life. The good news is that modern medical science has made unparalleled advancements. As a result, people across the globe are enjoying long lives today. Not only this, the quality of life has also improved with all those medicinal drugs, treatments and miraculous therapies. The average life expectancy at birth for the U.S. population, according to the National Centre for Health Statistics, is 78.7 yrs for men and 81.1 yrs for women.

Make investment for your overall well-being:

To improve the quality of life and enjoy good health throughout your life, you need to go for regular health check-ups. Spending bucks on regular health check-up is like investing on some funds that will give you good returns in the future, when required. Although your body may be fit today, you cannot be sure that this ‘fit and fine’ condition will prevail till your last breath. Of course, there is the fear of unknown. No one can tell you about accidents and certain unexpected, unavoidable circumstances. But that does not mean you take your health for granted. To fight the unknown and unexpected in the future, you can at least, take some basic precautionary measures. 

Our body is like a machine. You never know which part will face problem. But you can take some steps to assure this machine is working well and for that you need to visit any service centre where mechanics will address problems, if any. This is exactly same with our body. Going for periodic check-ups will ensure you know the inner-workings of your body, to a certain extent and make changes in your lifestyle accordingly.

How can check-ups better your physical health? 

Your medical check-up starts with an appointment with your physician. Once you get an appointment, ensure that you don’t miss on the opportunity. However busy you may be, you must visit your doctor. Your physician will see you, prescribe certain laboratory examinations. Once he gets all the reports, he will go through those and prescribe further tests, if required. He might also advice you certain lifestyle modifications and medicines. With regular check-ups, you can benefit a lot as described below:

• You can be careful about your health:

  Your doctor may warn you about many of your habits based on your age, family history and health. Let us take an example. Many of us are not aware of oral care or even if we aware, we do not practise those. You may not be brushing your teeth twice. But once your doctor reminds you about the health benefits of brushing, you may start incorporating this habit. This habit may help you reduce the chances of occurrence of certain dental problems.

• You can transform the unknown into the known:

  Based on your blood tests and other exam results, your doctor may reveal that you are susceptible to one or two diseases which have apparently no major symptoms. You might need some medications, as prescribed by the doctor. Thus you can prevent your body from getting affected by any serious disease. Example can be cited from famous philanthropist and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie’s life. She has chosen preventative double mastectomy and oophorectomy. Her risk of having breast and ovarian cancer was very high because of her ‘faulty genes’, medically termed as BRCA1. Thus Angelina’s quest towards a healthy, happy life has led her take such difficult yet practical, life-saving decisions.

• You can detect health issues early:

  When you get to know about a disease early, chances of you getting better increases. Treatment processes can be carried on smoothly. The later your disease gets detected, you may need to go through more painful treatment procedures and surgeries. Thus healing process may be longer than what you expected. And in worst cases, a disease in later stage may turn fatal and take your life.

• Your doctor can identify risks of several chronic diseases:

  Identifying symptoms of several chronic diseases like cancer, coronary heart disease, depression, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke etc. can save many lives. With regular check-ups, your doctor can identify these risk factors and thus save you from a disease that you could be already suffering from, unknowingly.

• You can save money:

  With the rising cost of medication and other treatment processes, it may not be easier for you to bear those hefty treatment expenses.

• You can be more productive at work:

  When you have a healthy body and mind, you can be more productive at work. You need not take leaves for seeing doctors time and again. Sometimes many people go on sabbaticals, to get cured from any serious health issue.

According to the American Medical Association, periodic health assessments should be performed every 5 years for an adult until age 40 and every 1-3 years after age 40. Remember when you are healthy, you can enjoy with your family, friends and socialize more with people. When you know you are fit, you can live life in the true sense.