Health Checkups: Empowering Patients to Take Control of Their Health Journey

By Dr. Neelam Bisht in Internal Medicine

Jun 12, 2024

Until the past few years, people used to visit hospitals and healthcare professionals after contracting any illness or disease or having pain. However, now that the world has changed, so have individuals’ priorities.

With increasing health awareness, people are becoming more concerned about their health, and thus, almost everyone wants to control their body and mind. A significant proportion of the population understands that being proactive will help them go a long way.

One vital element of proactive living is going for regular health checkups. Regular full-body medical checkups are paramount to achieving a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. This article explains the importance of regular medical checkups to those who have put their health on the back burner.

What are Health Checkups?

Health checkups are consultations with a medical professional involving different screenings and tests, even where there are no symptoms. They can help assess the risk of future health issues or check for ongoing medical problems. In addition, undergoing regular health screenings can provide you with recommendations to prevent illnesses and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Importance of Regular Health Checkups

In addition to helping identify early signs of illness and diseases and increasing the chances of treatment success, health checkups can offer many other benefits:

Prevents Health Issues

You might have heard the saying- ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ This saying serves as the primary aim of regular medical checkups, making them a vital element of Preventive healthcare.

Many often overlook or miss the warning signs of their disease or illness. But these symptoms can be picked up during a health checkup and thus, your doctor can guide you in preventing a specific disease.

For instance, regular medical screening can identify Prediabetes, a health condition where your glucose levels are higher but not high enough to diagnose you with Type-2 diabetes.

Once the medical condition is identified, your doctor can suggest some lifestyle changes like regular workouts, a healthy diet, and weight loss to prevent Prediabetes from progressing to type-2 diabetes.

Timely Detection of any Life-Threatening Conditions

High blood pressure and cholesterol levels are among the common causes that can lead to one of the life-threatening conditions, i.e., cardiovascular disease.

Whether you have a family history of high blood pressure or cholesterol level, experts recommend people get their blood pressure checked every two years. It’s because uncontrolled high blood pressure (hypertension) can cause haemorrhagic strokes.

Moreover, individuals over 45 should regularly get their cholesterol levels and triglycerides checked. It’s because high cholesterol levels and fatty substances can narrow down arteries and reduce or block the blood flow to the heart and other body organs.

Therefore, early detection of high blood pressure and cholesterol levels with regular health checkups can help take corrective measures on time and prevent life-threatening health conditions.

Save on Medical Costs

Many people avoid regular medical checkups because they think it’s a costly affair. However, paying for routine X-rays or other health checkups is more cost-effective than undergoing extremely expensive MRIs, treatments, and surgeries to diagnose or treat serious medical conditions.

Timely medical screenings can promote health awareness and reduce the risk of complications, eliminating the need for expensive diagnoses and treatments in the future. So, you can save significantly on medical bills by undergoing regular screenings.

Reduces the Risk of Complications During Medical Treatment

Regular health checkups are the optimal way to reduce the risk of medical complications and enhance treatment outcomes.

Usually, medical professionals ask for a detailed personal and family history during medical screenings to pinpoint the factors that could impact your treatment and recovery. For instance, if you have an alcohol use disorder, it can interfere with your medications or treatment.

Knowing this beforehand can help your doctor proactively manage this specific factor and, thus, minimise potential complications and optimise the treatment effectiveness.

Who Needs Regular Health Checkups?

Many actively working men and women between the age group of 30 and 60 years are susceptible to lifestyle diseases. Prolonged working hours, insufficient sleep, incorrect body posture, unhealthy eating habits, and constant stress are integral parts of such individuals’ lives.

Moreover, almost every other day, there is news of young people succumbing to cardiac arrest while resting or working out at the gym. Therefore, regular health screenings shouldn’t be restricted to just working people. Regardless of age, everyone should visit their doctor regularly for full-body checkups.

How Often Should You Go for a Full Body Medical Checkup?

Now that many medical conditions don’t show symptoms in the early stages, getting health checkups at least once a year is advisable. Furthermore, in case of any ongoing illness, your doctor might prescribe what and when to get a medical screening.

Knowing the Types of Health Checkups

Types of body checkups, tests, and procedures in the health checkup packages vary depending on the healthcare unit and the individual’s age, gender, lifestyle, and family and medical history.

Here listed are the basic medical screening tests you should consider getting done regularly: