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Even the most thorough medical
examination can miss a potentially important medical condition,
because the tests we have available are still relatively crude,
whereas human beings are complex. Nonetheless basic health checks
are useful, for several reasons. The first is that an awful lot
of people have not had the basics checked, either at all or properly.
Many people do not know what their blood pressure is (or what it
means), or their cholesterol, or blood sugar level. There are literally
thousands of people walking about right now with undiagnosed high
blood pressure, or dangerously high cholesterol or who are diabetic
and don’t realise it. All of these conditions are routinely
checked for in our health screening.
Second is the opportunity, for those people who
are already on long term treatment for a medical condition, to confirm
that the treatment is as good as it can be. Many people with asthma,
diabetes and high blood pressure for example do not have their condition
adequately controlled with their present treatment. One of the purposes
of the NetDoctor
book series is to provide detailed information about medical
conditions so that people can better understand what the condition
is about, and what good treatment of that condition actually means.
The third and in many ways the most important
aspect of health checks is that they are designed to motivate you
towards improving your health. Everyone knows that being too heavy,
or not taking enough exercise, or smoking are all ‘bad for
the health’. Rather than set themselves up for an ear-bashing
from the doctor many people who know they aren’t as fit as
they should be therefore stay away from health checks. It’s
much better, and more realistic, to work out which direction you
need to move in improving your health, to set achievable goals,
and to strive to reach them. Most of us are not going to be elite
athletes, but we can get a bit fitter if we tackle it properly,
and any improvement is better than none.
If you can’t prevent an illness from
occurring then the next best thing is to detect it at an early stage.
Many important illnesses, such as high blood pressure, show no symptoms
in the early stages, which can be years long. Yet during this time
the problem is there and is causing harm. Picking up problems early
will almost always result in corrective action being more effective.
This is also true of the established cancer
screening services, such as for cervical and breast cancer in women.
Two other main cancer screening programmes are the subject of much
current research and debate: prostate cancer and bowel cancer screening.
All these types of screening are available through our health check
system and are fully explained as part of the service.
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