5 Important Medical Test For Your Parents

Parents are precious. When they get older, the responsibility to give them a healthy disease-free life comes on to us. Regular exercise, proper nutrition, and sound mental health play a key role in leading a healthy long life. Apart from this, health screening tests for diseases common in older age groups may help you in knowing the possibility of any disease at a stage when it is preventable. On the other hand, if your parents are already suffering from any age-related disease, then disease management with regular monitoring of related medical parameters becomes important. Listed below are five very important health screening tests which are a must for parents above 50 years of age:-

1. Physical Examination: – Getting your parents to visit a general physician and asking for a routine physical examination every year may help you to know a lot about the status of their health. A good physician can easily tell a lot about health just by examining a person from head to toe. Important parameters measured during a general physical examination include height, weight, waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, pulse, body temperature etc.

2. Gender Specific Tests: – For your father, you must ensure timely tests for screening of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer and heart diseases. For your mother, timely tests to be performed by a gynecologist include a breast examination, pelvic examination, mammography, and PAP smear.

3. Complete Blood Counts and Blood Chemistry Panels: – Along with a physical examination getting these blood tests done, annually for your parents, can help your doctor screen for a very large number of diseases. Complete blood count provides information about haemoglobin, red blood cell count, total leukocyte count, differential leukocyte count and platelets count. All these counts can help your doctor to screen your parents for anaemia, infections, type of Infection, blood cancers, and many other hematological abnormalities. The chemistry panel includes lipid profile, liver function tests, kidney function tests, fasting/postprandial glucose etc. These tests help to find out any health related problems in heart and blood vessels, liver, kidneys, bones and pancreas.

4. Eye examination: – This helps in screening for various eye related problems like cataract, macular degeneration, glaucoma etc. It also helps in regular check of the eyesight of your parents. If any one of your parents is a diabetic, an eye examination should be done more frequently.

5. Hearing Test: – Your parents may be suffering from hearing loss or reduced hearing. Hearing loss is preventable. Getting your parents’ hearing tested by an expert doctor routinely can help prevent any major fall in their hearing abilities.

Apart from these tests, other important tests include bone density tests, ECG, thyroid function tests, dental examination etc. Some might think that these tests are too many and will cost a lot. But this is not true. The actual cost of curing a disease, follow-ups, hospital cost etc. is far more than the cost of regular monitoring. Moreover, the health of your parents is most precious. The availability of online diagnostic services has made these tests affordable. Check Healthians for different medical tests. Our competitive prices and services with free doctor consultation will keep all financial stress at bay. It is now your turn to give the same affection and care back to your parents that they had showered on you when you were a little kid.