What’s Covered in a Full Medical Check-up?
Many people often find themselves going to the medical centre only when they experience a health problem or have health concerns. The truth is, everyone needs routine health screening to prevent diseases and maintain good health.
Going to your doctor when you are already down with an illness may sometimes be too late. A medical check-up allows your doctor to detect a disease early and commence treatment before things get out of hand.
Here is what a full medical check-up covers:
1. Height / Weight Check
When you go for a full medical check-up, your doctor will check your height and weight. This will help the doctor calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI).
Being underweight may suggest that you are ill or are not eating enough food and if you are overweight or obese, it could be a sign that you need to exercise more and practice healthy eating. Obesity puts you at risk of developing heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other chronic conditions.
2. Blood Pressure Check
A GP will check your blood pressure to ensure that you haven’t developed health conditions like high blood pressure, low blood pressure, or heart disease.
If you already have high blood pressure, your doctor will check for damages that the condition may have caused to your heart, eyes or blood vessels. An enlarged heart could increase your heart sound and swollen neck veins could be a sign of possible heart failure.
3. Cholesterol Level Check
While your body needs cholesterol to function properly, it can cause heart disease when it is too much. It is only by checking your cholesterol level that a GP can know the amount of good and bad cholesterol in your body.
Cholesterol check also helps the physician to know how much triglycerides you have in your blood. You may need to watch your diet, lifestyle, and habits if your total cholesterol level is more than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).
4. Blood Sugar Test
Glucose provides the body with energy. However, people with diabetes need to keep their glucose levels in check.
A blood sugar test will help the GP to monitor your glucose level. If your sugar level is high you may need to adjust your diet, do more exercise or change your diabetes medication.
5. Ear Check
Your doctor will check your outer ear canal and eardrum using an otoscope. The tool which has a light and a magnifying lens helps physicians to detect infection.
If there’s fluid behind your eardrum, too much wax in your ear or a problem with your Eustachian tube, the otoscope will reveal it.
6. Eye Check
Doctors can detect a number of diseases by examining your retina. High blood pressure, for example, causes tiny blood vessels in the retina to twist. So by looking at your eye, a doctor can tell if you have high blood pressure.
Other health conditions like Marfan’s syndrome, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, Metastatic cancer, Horner’s syndrome, and other potentially dangerous diseases can also be detected by looking at the retina.
7. Electrocardiogram
Those at a higher risk of developing heart disease are often subjected to electrocardiogram (ECG) test to see how well their heart is functioning.
During the test, the electrical activity of your heart will be measured to know if it is working as it should. The test can help a GP detect heart disease, an enlarged heart, heart attack, and heart failure which may be caused by abnormal heart rhythms.
8. Chest X-ray
A chest x-ray is one of the most common ways of diagnosing disease. Conditions like pneumonia, heart disease, emphysema, collapsed lung, cancer, and other illnesses can be spotted by a chest x-ray.
Heavy smokers need to do a chest X-ray when they go for a medical check-up to know the state of their lungs, heart and other vital organs of the body that could be affected by cigarette smoke.
9. Ultrasonography
This test helps to identify abnormalities in the liver, kidneys, pancreas, gallbladder, and spleen. It is often done to assess the general state of vital body organs.
In a Nutshell
It is important that you cooperate with the GP when you go to a medical centre in Malaysia for health screening.
If you are asked about your medical history, your family’s medical history, your lifestyle and your habits, don’t withhold any information.
Tell the physician the truth if you want to get the needed help to live a healthy life.
Stay healthy and enjoy life to the fullest!