
women Annual Health Checkups
If you feel all high and mighty (perfectly healthy), then perhaps you’re not considering to see a doctor unless of course, you feel something is wrong.
Your age, gender, health and family history of disease, lifestyle choices (i.e. what you eat, how active you are, whether you smoke), personal preferences, and other important factors impact what and how often you need healthcare.
You might not feel anything bad at the moment, but are you REALLY okay? Why risk it?
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What’s a medical test and exam?
During annual health checkups, your physician will ensure that you are up to date for any suggested screening tests. Getting a regular screening test can help diagnose disease before symptoms appear. The goal of any health screening is to help find problems and diseases early so that the likelihood of you being sick with the disease is avoided. It also allows you to know your numbers, your cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and body mass index – all of which are important markers of your overall health.
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Will it really make a difference?
Reviews and several large studies have shown that these yearly health visits don’t make any difference in health outcomes. Meaning that being checked by your doctor once a year won’t certainly save you from getting sick, or even help you live longer.
The difference is if you already have an existing underlying illness that’s been detected during checkup, this is where you’ll be glad you undergone the checkup in the first place.
In other words, reducing the annual exams would save both money and time but many doctors and patients perceive the annual visit important to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship and a way to ensure that people get suitable screenings and preventive care.
There are three ways to promote annual health checkups:
First is focusing on the doctor-patient relationship. This will allow those who are new to their doctor to have an initial visit to establish a relationship, and to be seen on some routine interval to maintain it. The focus would be more on medical history and less on the screening and laboratory tests.
Second, acknowledging that if the annual visit is to be discarded, doctors will be able to find a more proactive way to monitor their patients’ condition. This might include online risk assessments and a review of preventive care at any visit to the doctor.
Lastly, in order for doctors and patients to embrace this shift, patients must make changes as health plans and government programs no longer pay for annual visits. You can use regular checkups as a measure of health care quality.
Still for some, it’s hard even to commit to annual health checkups. It’s during these times where you can have a spot check at Chemmart and other similar pharmacies and clinics. Spot checks can include any of the following:
- Blood Pressure Checks
- Bowel Screening
- Cholesterol Checks
- Diabetes Support
- DNA dose
- Health Checks
- Home Medicine Review
- Impromy Weight Loss Program
- MedsCheck
- Naturopath
- ScriptReady
- Sleep Better
However, there are still no substitute to full annual health checkups. Getting the right health services, screenings, and treatments will help your live a fuller and longer life – it’s what everyone wants.