The Annual Health check-ups: Prevention better than curing

Do you know? In the busy era like these days, you may have forgotten taking care of your health. As days pass, your health may deteriorate unknowingly caused by polluted environment and the inappropriate lifestyle and are likely increasing the risk of some diseases. Some may think that they look after their health well but it may not be enough. The harm of diseases is close to you than you can imagine. These are the reason why “The Annual Health Check-up” exist for.

What is the Annual Health Check-up and its purpose?

The Annual health check-up is the process to examine how your body system function as well as screening the risk of developing the disease especially the non-communicable disease (NCDs). This type of the chronic disease is still troublesome nowadays which includes Heart disease, Diabetes Mellitus and hypertension, etc. If there is no treatment done or the bad habits aren’t changed, the symptom of diseases got worse and finally, it will lead to having the complication of disease or the long-lasting illness later.

What is the importance of the Annual health check-ups?

1.Searching for the disease in the early stage

The annual health check-up is the beneficial process which help screening the risk in developing the disease when you are still in asymptomatic or shown with little symptoms. The sooner the disease traces are found, the sooner the treatment is planned and begun instantly as efficiently. As this will also decrease the chance of developing the disease complication and considerably lower the cost needed for curing these chronic diseases.

2.Receiving advices and the way to prevent diseases from the doctor

The Annual health check-up is one of the great opportunities to talk with the doctor about your health problem. You will individually get guidance of proper ways to attend to your health so that you can adapt to your lifestyle. Moreover, you may get some information of way of disease prevention including the vaccination such as influenza vaccine, Hepatitis B vaccine, HPV vaccine and etc.

3.Following the treatment progress and treatment plan for chronic disease

The Annual health checkup is one of the important treatment procedures in following the symptoms of chronic disease at that moment. This will be the great help for the doctor to see how efficient the treatment is and also alter the nursing plan when its needed.

What do we have in the Annual health check-up?

What are the checklists of lab test you should choose for your annual health check-up depends on many factors all together: Age, family history, any abnormalities condition and the risk relating to those diseases. In some cases, some inspection may need to be done in order to choose the test to be run according because health problem is varied between individuals. The health checkup package will range from basic test package to advance test package serving for people age ranging from 35 to 70 years old. The list of the lab test we provided for you is shown below.

Urine test examination

• Urinalysis: Checkup for the risk of kidney disease, Diabetes and the urinary tract infection condition.

Blood test examination

• Complete blood count (CBC): Checkup for anemias, infection and any other condition
• Renal function test: BUN, Creatinine
• Liver function test: AST, ALT, ALP, Total bilirubin, Direct bilirubin, Albumin, Total protein
• Lipid Profile checkup (HDL LDL Cholesterol Triglyceride): Check up for heart disease risk assessment
• Fasting blood sugar (FBS): Check up for blood sugar levels
• HbA1c: Check up for blood sugar controls (2-3 months duration), risk assessment for diabetes
• Thyroid function test (TSH, free T3, Free T4)
• Uric acid level test
• Screening tumor marker test
• Colon cancer (CEA)
• Pancreas/Bile duct Cancer
• Liver cancer (AFP)
• Prostate cancer (PSA)
• Ovarian cancer (CA 125)
• Breast cancer (CA15-3)

How to get ready for the Annual health check-up?

The preparation of your body before having the health check-up is one of the Important step that should be readied before check-up. The reason for this is to have the accurate and precise lab result that is correlated with the body condition at that time. The preparation prior to the annual health check-up includes:

1. Make the appointment

You should make an appointment with the doctor to make sure that you will be able to have health check-up in your own convenient time and that the doctor is ready for you.

2. Prepare your health information

Prepare your health history, the medication that you are using and the symptoms you are having. This were to help the doctor analyze and give the best advice accordingly to your information.

3. Follow the preparation instruction before having the health check up

• Sleep time for at least 6 hours
• Avoid drinking any drink contain calories or caffeine as well as eating snack and food prior to blood collection for 10-12 hours (For the fasting blood sugar test and lipid profile test) *You can drink the water normally*
• Eat less greasy or fatty food, avoid drinking alcohol and smoking 1 day prior to test
• Avoid any intense physical activity prior to your blood test.
• Wear the comfortable shirt that is accessible to have blood drawn from your arm.
• Urinalysis for women could be test after having menstruation for 1 week
• The proper time of running screening for breast cancer is 1-7 days after having menstruation

Summary

In conclusion, the Annual health check-up is the best way in order to look after your health and have the long good quality life. Also, it is a part of taking care of your health and preventing yourself from diseases. Having your health check-up constantly can also help you finding the health problem in the early state. This will lead to the instant treatment and the change of better living habits. Lastly, for the reminder for the readers “Your health is in the hand of yours”.