Contributed by -Healthians Team
Our health is the most important aspect of our lives, often responsible for making or breaking things for us. Everything we do is somewhere or the other related to how we feel and how our bodies are able to cope with the tasks we perform every day. While everything depends on your diet and lifestyle to help you achieve overall well being and help you get going on a daily basis, it’s important to know the correct status of your health to choose diet and lifestyle wisely. Which is why regular health checkups are the way to go in order to keep a tab on your body and organ functions. Read on to open your eyes to the importance of regular health tests that could change the way you look at maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Why are health checkups important for a healthy person?
Usually, people go for health checkups only when they were sick, or dying. But the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis indicates how vulnerable we are and how good health can make the difference in helping us cope with even the deadliest of diseases. Today, preventative health care is extremely important in order to achieve a certain level of immunity against diseases or maintain good organ health. Regular screening of your health also keeps you in the know of your actual health status and helps you lower the risk of various conditions or diseases by making changes to your lifestyle like maintaining a healthy diet, weight, and level of physical activity.
Regular check-ups are helpful in finding potential health issues even before they become a problem. It avoids any guesswork which you could possibly do when some symptoms appear.
For example, if you’re constantly feeling itchy, it could be an allergic condition that your body indicates to you. Temperature fluctuation in your body may be the poor circulation of blood and sometimes it comes with some serious medical conditions like fever and typhoid. Regular health checkups eliminate these risks and detect health problems at an early stage.
Healthy choices which reduce your health risk
- Quit smoking: Smoking is the main cause of lung diseases, Heart attack, or stroke. Even one cigarette a day can affect your lung health. If you have a habit of smoking, you should go for a smoking-related checkup.
- Follow a healthy diet: A balanced diet can help you lower your cholesterol levels and reduce the health risks associated with it. If you don’t know about what to eat and what not to, then you may consult with any nutritionist for a diet plan.
- Maintain a healthy weight: Being overweight can lead to severe heart diseases, diabetes, and some cancers. You can go for a health checkup related to obesity and plan your work out for maintaining your weight.
- Check on your blood pressure: Checking your blood pressure regularly and controlling it can prevent damage to the wall of your arteries and maintain the blood flow.
- Set a limit for alcohol: Moderate alcohol consumption may not cause serious health issues, but drinking too much is unhealthy. So you may go for an alcohol-related health checkup if you feel some weakness inside your body after drinking alcohol. There might be some health problems associated with it.
[Also read: Why being fit doesn’t necessarily mean being healthy ]
Health screening recommended for different ages
Different health checkups are required for diverse age groups because various health risks develop with age. You may need to get additional health checkups to catch health risks that develop over time.
Health screenings for children: Most of the children nowadays are affected by obesity due to lack of exercise and laziness. Obesity causes many problems like high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes in the later stage. Children at the age of 6-12 yrs need obesity tests and also need cholesterol tests because most of the children like to junk food.
Health screenings for young adults: Younger adults can go for regular checkups and improve their health in their 20s. The tests are performed for early identification of diseases that are common at this age, i.e. STDs, diabetes, and heart diseases, etc. Health screenings can discover certain conditions in their most treatable stage, even before they notice symptoms.
Middle-age health screenings: Your body needs extra care and maintenance with ageing. An annual health checkup that includes thyroid test, cardiovascular test, blood sugar test, hepatitis C, lipid disorders test is recommended for this age. You may go for a cancer screening test because the earlier cancer is detected the better the chances of treatment are.
Health screenings for the elderly: At this age, most people are affected by diabetes disease. It happens due to the intake of food based on their lifestyle. People in this age group, are also commonly affected by joint or knee pain diseases due to lack of exercise.
[Also read: Why does everyone keep recommending full-body health checkups?]
Tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle
It’s up to you how you can change your lifestyle for yourself. It is quite challenging to change your regular lifestyle and accept a sudden change. Here are some easy ways to bring about a little change in your lifestyle that could translate into a huge benefit for your health.
- Exercise regularly or go for a run for 10-15 minutes daily
- Drink more water throughout the day
- Practice healthy eating throughout the day
- Follow a consistent skincare routine
- Cut down screen time before bed
- Reduce the intake of saturated fat
- Cut down on sugar intake or switch to natural substitute of sugar
There is no better time than now to take charge of your health and lead a healthy lifestyle. Make regular health checkups part of your lifestyle and see the difference. But it is advisable to consult your doctor so that you are guided by the right advice that can help you choose the correct tests for yourself.
Take a full body health checkup or talk to a health advisor to choose the right test.
