Health is expensive, but when sick it can be even more expensive. Therefore, prevention is better than cure. As a preventative measure, medical check-ups can be done to determine health conditions, as well as detecting an illness early.
The earlier a disease is detected, the faster help can be given. In this way, the disease does not progress to a more serious stage, while preventing more complicated help.
Medical check-ups are required for women and men, both young people and the elderly. People who look healthy also need to do a medical check-up, especially to check the level of health and the possibility of serious illness that has not shown symptoms.
In general, the following can be a list of things that are checked through medical check-ups.
Weight
Abnormal body mass index (BMI) can trigger various diseases. Obesity can increase the risk of stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, hypertension, and cancer. While physical conditions that are too thin risk to weaken the immune system, resulting in osteoporosis, and anemia. Therefore, it is important to check BMI once every 2 years for people under the age of 50 years and once a year for ages over 50 years.
Actually BMI can be calculated by yourself at home. How: weight (kg) / height (m) 2. Normal BMI for Asian populations is 18.5 to 22.9. But if you experience drastic weight loss, are overweight, or have an abnormal BMI, immediately consult a doctor to handle it.
Blood sugar
This test is done for people aged 45 years and over, at least once every three years. However, if you have a risk of diabetes, consult your doctor to immediately undergo tests, and more often for example every year.
In addition, if you experience symptoms such as weight loss dramatically for no apparent reason, often feel thirsty and hungry, tingling in the hands or feet, and frequent urination, immediately do this test to determine the possibility of diabetes. Before doing the test, you are advised to fast for 8 hours. Fasting blood sugar test will show one of the following results:
- Normal: 70-100 mg / dL
- Pre-diabetes: 100-125 mg / dL
- Diabetes: ≥ 126 mg / dL
Blood pressure
Normal blood pressure for people under 60 years is an upper (systolic) number of less than 140 mm Hg and a lower number (diastolic) of less than 90, or read 140/90. Whereas at the age above 60 years, the normal standard is less than 150/90 mm Hg. Blood pressure above the normal level means hypertension (high blood pressure).
For normal people, the test can be done every 1-2 years. While people who suffer from hypertension or hypotension need to do the test every year or more often.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol is basically the type of fat the body needs, but excessive amounts can clog arteries and trigger heart disease and stroke. Normal cholesterol is as follows:
- Good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein / HDL) should be above 60 mg / dL.
- Bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein / LDL) should be below 100 mg / dL.
- Triglycerides should be less than 150 mg / dL.
- Total cholesterol should be below 200mg / dL.
For people with normal health conditions, the test can be done every 5 years, starting from the age of 35 years. But if you are obese, have diabetes or hypertension, have a family history of heart disease or stroke, smoke, this test can start from the age of 20 years and need to be more frequent. Like a blood sugar test, a cholesterol test requires blood sampling.
Heart health
The heart is one of the vital organs in the human body. Cardiac examination can be done with an electrocardiogram (ECG) test or known as a heart record. Tests are carried out to determine the electrical activity of the heart. This test can detect any abnormal heartbeats or other disorders such as blocked blood vessels. This test is done if you experience symptoms of heart disease, such as chest pain or palpitations.
Eye
Check your eyes every 1-2 years, especially if you have vision problems. In addition to visual impairment, examination in children aims to see the possibility of lazy eyes or squinting eyes. Whereas in adults, the examination can determine the condition:
- Retinopathy, damage to the blood vessels behind the eyes for example due to diabetes.
- Glaucoma, optic nerve damage and increased eye pressure.
- Cataracts, foggy eyes.
Related tests can include:
- Retinal examination: the eye drops with a special fluid so that the cornea enlarges, then illuminated by light so that the doctor can see the structure in the eye.
- Eye muscle examination: the doctor will see the movement of your eyes.
- Visual acuity check: use a poster with letters.
- Inspection with a slit lamp to examine the eyelids, eyelashes, cornea, iris, lens, and fluid space between the cornea and iris.
- Perimetry test to check the ability of the eye to look sideways without moving the eyeball.
- Intraocular pressure test (tonometry) to check the pressure in the eye.
Skin
To detect skin cancer, examination can be done and if necessary, skin sampling or skin biopsy. Skin cancer is an uncontrolled growth of cells in the skin.
The test can be done immediately when abnormal changes in the skin are found, such as a lump. moles that change color, size, or bleed; or the presence of abnormal tissue on red, white, blue, or black skin with irregular borders.
Ear
Do a hearing test (audiometry) if you have hearing loss. Audiometry is used to evaluate the possibility of deafness, determine the type and level of hearing loss. Examination of infants and children is needed to detect hearing problems that can interfere with the ability to learn, speak, and understand language. Checks are done by looking at your responses to the sound.
Tooth
No one is free from plaque and tartar. Therefore, routine dental examinations are needed every 6 months early to detect conditions such as abscesses or festering swelling due to infection, damage between teeth, damage to the jaw bone, impacted teeth due to the wisdom teeth growing abnormally, cysts or tumors.
If tartar is found, the doctor will clean it or scaling it. In addition, if there are signs of problems with the teeth, further examination with X-ray is needed to determine the medical treatment needed.
Bone
Bone density test aims to determine bone strength and help diagnose osteoporosis (bone loss). Examination is done by X-ray or CT scan. The test needs to be done by women aged 65 years and over, men aged 70 years and over, or anyone who is at risk of osteoporosis. Risk factors include long-term use of steroid drugs, smoking, consuming alcoholic beverages, being underweight, or having a family history of osteoporosis.
Others
In addition to the above checks, several other tests may be needed such as sexually transmitted disease (STD) and hepatitis B tests for people who are sexually active and have more than one sex partner, as well as lung disease checks for heavy smokers. The following are some of the diseases that include STDs as well as the tests required.
- Gonorrhea, requires a urine test. In some cases fluid sampling is needed from the urethra in men and the cervix in women, and the throat.
- Genital herpes, the doctor will check the symptoms and take a sample of your wound.
- HIV, requires antibody testing (immunoassay).
- Syphilis, requires a blood test and examination of fluids from syphilis sores.
- Hepatitis B, examination for hepatitis B is the same as an HIV test, which is taking a blood sample to determine the presence and activity of this disease.
How much a person smokes can be measured by the number of smoking pack-years. A person's smoking pack-year rate is measured by multiplying the number of packs of cigarettes consumed per day by the number of years he smoked. So for example, someone who spends 2 packs of cigarettes every day for 4 years, he is said to have 8 smoking pack-years. Here are some risks of heavy smokers and the checks required.
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), requires lung function tests that measure the amount of air in the lungs, the speed of air in and out, and using X-rays on the chest.
- Lung cancer, requires a CT scan. People aged 55-80 years old with 30 smoking pack-years or more and who are still actively smoking or have only quit in the last 15 years, and anyone who has a risk of lung cancer after consulting a doctor, should do this examination.
In addition to the medical check-ups mentioned above, make sure you are also aware of certain tests to detect certain types of cancer, which can appear secretly, without causing any symptoms. Medical check-up is an effective anticipation step in detecting the risk of disease in the body. Do it regularly to prevent the development of more severe disease rates in the future.
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