Preventive health Checkups:  What are we preventing.

Health is a very sensitive issue for almost all the people. However, it comes to surface when there is interference in good health. It could be a minor tooth ache, but it creates a lot of discomfort within the individual that he or she prays to get back to the normal state as soon as possible.

Preventive health checkups are recently being marketed as a measure to look after one’s health. The corporates offer them to their employees with a dual intent. They wish the wellbeing of their employees at the same time they want to check the costs that would be involved if they would need to sponsor the treatment of the employee in the future.

With a single draw of blood, a number of levels can be analyzed. It all depends on what kind of ‘Package’ you choose and how much money you want to shell out for this purpose. The possibilities are unending. We have seen certain labs offering to check the levels of certain rare chemicals and minerals, which we have rarely checked even as a part of a disease evaluation. So it makes sense to be informed about how you should go about your preventive health check. Here is the information which can guide you.

A. Doctor first or the Tests!?

Now this is not a chicken first or egg first dilemma. The doctor can advise the best profile of tests required for you as a preventive measure. Period.  Most of the times, it is seen that the profile of tests are usually offered as a package at the reception of a laboratory or it is a pre-planned package offered by a company to the employees. In both the cases, the doctor is consulted after all the tests are over. Many a times this leads to unnecessary tests and unwanted dilemmas. If a doctor is consulted before the tests, he or she would study your clinical profile and advise the matching tests which could be useful for you. Just doing a test, because it is cheaper to buy a package than individual test is not a sensible health strategy. This model can work only for Mc Donalds.

B. What is the principle behind Preventive Tests?

One should remember that the body is very sensitive to minor changes within the body. It starts giving signals which we often miss. However in certain disease processes which are slow and the initial stages have no symptoms, preventive tests come into play.

1. The Haemogram gives good information about the 3 lines of the cells in your blood. The Red cells, white cells and platelets. Often the drop in Haemoglobin is a slow process. The body adapts to the change and one may not notice the change. Moreover, dropped Haemoglobin in a male can be a reflection of some disease in his gastrointestinal tract.
2. The blood sugar levels are important tests in the preventive profile. Often Type 2 Diabetes is a slow process and gives no signals till it has progressed significantly. A screening test would surely help to catch the disease early.
3. Urine routine examination: Microscopic changes in the urine like presence of excess proteins or abnormal cells cannot be detected by the naked eye. The examination of the urine is an important test which can give a direction to examine many unsuspecting diseases.
4. Kidney Functions: The blood urea level and Serum Creatinine are the tests which screen for the kidneys problems. Knowing how the kidneys are performing would be worthwhile because, in case a slow ongoing damage is detected, we can prevent a further incapacitating damage. At the same time we can avoid certain medicines and medical procedures which could be potentially harmful to the kidneys.
5. Lipid Profile: This is a very common test performed as a part of preventive checks. Many of the patients get anxious when they see the value above the reference range. They feel they are on the brink of a heart attack. However, the relation is not so direct. The various components of the lipids like LDL, HDL, and Triglycerides are only the risk indicators and not direct contributors to cardiovascular disease. When a mosquito infected with dengue bites a person, there is a high chance that the person gets the disease, however, when the cholesterol parameters are raised, they just indicate a statistical risk of cardiovascular disease in the future. Many factors such as the age, gender, presence of diabetes, smoking, blood pressure have to be considered before prescribing medicines to lower the cholesterol levels. Leave it to your doctor.
6. ECG: Having your baseline ECG, when you have no symptoms at all, is a useful thing. Once you have your baseline ECG it can be used in the future to compare with an ECG taken in case you develop chest symptoms. Noting the changes can help the doctor to take quick decisions as well prevent unnecessary investigations.
7. Stress Test: We do have an entire section about the Tread Mill Stress Test (https://cardiologypune.com/before-your-stress-test/ ) . It would be important to note here, that the Stress test not only evaluates the status of your coronary arteries, it also gives a fair idea about the effort tolerance or stamina. A reduced effort tolerance can be an indicator of an ongoing disease process or it can be an eye-opener to a faulty lifestyle being followed.
8. Other tests like the liver function tests, Pulmonary function test, Uric acid and other biochemical profiles , Audiometry are all reasonable after the clinical profile is studied by your doctor.

 C. Is spending on Preventive Health Checkups a MANDATORY thing to ensure that you live longer?

Well, no! The preventive checks have a supportive role and not an authority over your health. You are in charge of your health.

Following steps are absolutely free and could be very effective in giving you signals about your health.

1. Watch your weight: A monthly weight check is a very important tool for detecting problems with your health. An unintentional weight loss or unexplained weight gain should help you decide if you need to see a doctor.
2. Watch your Stools: Yes. Sounds not very interesting, but is very helpful. Painless bleeding in the motions or abnormal color of the stools like a tarry black motion is a very important signal from the body.
3. Watch your stamina: Spend 45 minutes a day for brisk walking. You would know your baseline effort tolerance. Any disease process reduces the effort tolerance immediately. Incapacity to perform a previously performed task would be an important signal from the body.

Apart from this the blood pressure measurement is a common part of preventive checkups. Hypertension is not a disease. It is a reflection of an internal process. The consistency of raised values is more important than a single high value. This has been covered in our section on Hypertension.

Surely prevention is better than cure. This holds true in health care as well. However, just performing a Preventive Health Check as a ritual is not prevention. Do you remember any drastic change that you decided to make in your lifestyle after you had done your last preventive health check?