Your health is very important. So, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to give yourself the best odds of staying healthy?
Booking checkups every year may seem excessive, but if those appointments could potentially save your life, they’re worth the minor inconvenience. They also might keep you and your family from worrying about your health. If money is an obstacle, there are insurance options available to minimize the out-of-pocket costs.
Here are some key potential benefits of getting annual checkups:
1. Save You Time In The Long Run
Having checkups every year, and possibly discovering health concerns from these, means you’ll spend less time getting checks and treatment in the future because it’ll most likely have been caught early.
Some key tests you can have are:
- An MRI Scan – Amongst other things, MRI scans can discover cancer and help doctors figure out what stage it’s up to, before prescribing treatment.
- A Blood Test – This can give an over view of your health, from how some of your organs are functioning to how your blood is clotting.
- An ECG Scan – An ECG scans your heart and determines whether you have high blood pressure or if you might have a heart condition.
By having these tests around the same time every year, you should be able to keep on top of your health and start treatments as soon as anything is found. This consistency could result in less appointments than if you leave professional medical help until you feel unwell.
2. Provides Peace Of Mind
It’s completely normal if you have a passing thought that something might be wrong with your health. You may have had pain for a little while and your mind has gone to the worst possible scenario. Perhaps you have family history of a certain medical condition which plays on your mind because there’s always a chance you could develop it. By having checkups every year, it could lessen your worries and stress about potentially having these issues. You’ll have the knowledge that if something is wrong, it’ll be found.
3. Checks For Major Health Concerns
No one wants major health conditions like cancer, diabetes or heart disease. By having annual checkups, you can keep on top of these concerns and know that if you do develop any, they won’t go undetected.
In most cases, you’ll also have a greater chance of beating whatever condition you may develop. For example, the five-year relative survival rate for bowel cancer that’s detected early is 99%. This early detection could significantly improve a patient’s chance of survival.
4. Identifies Any Underlying Issues
Underlying health issues can go unnoticed. If you don’t feel that anything is wrong, you’re less likely to go to the doctor for that specific reason. However, if you have a checkup every year, they’ll be able to look for these issues and treat them more quickly. You’ll also have the knowledge that it probably hasn’t affected your health too greatly.
5. Manages Medical Conditions
If you already have a medical condition, such as heart disease, then it’s extremely important to have checkups to ensure that the management steps you’re taking are effective and that the condition hasn’t worsened over time. Sometimes if you have one condition, then it can increase the risk of developing another condition. Annual checkups enable you to keep an eye out for these potential concerns.
6. Prevents Potential Medical Conditions
In most cases, prevention is easier and healthier than treatment. You may save money, time and stress about your health if doctors notice that certain behaviors or lifestyle decisions could potentially lead to a condition.
There is a huge number of health conditions that could potentially be prevented. For example, one suggested way you may help to prevent the onset of diabetes is by exercising regularly. Or, if you’re a smoker, consider breaking this habit to lessen the chances of you developing lung cancer.
Your doctor should be able to give you a guide or a plan to help you to prevent these potential conditions.
7. Reduces Overall Healthcare Costs
You may find that by having regular checks you’re consequently reducing the potential overall costs of your healthcare. Discovering conditions earlier rather than later may mean you’ll spend less time being treated and require a less intense treatments. In some cases, this also equates to less expensive medical bills. Even if a condition isn’t diagnosed, you might save money by preventing a potential health concern.
8. Encourages You To Keep A Healthy Lifestyle
Sometimes it can be hard to choose the healthy option. You might know that having another glass of water is better for you than a glass of wine, but that doesn’t always mean you’ll opt for it. For many people, having their health monitored regularly gives them more willpower to choose healthier options. And as a result, a healthier lifestyle may lessen the likelihood of developing health concerns in the future.
Some common things that contribute to a healthy lifestyle are: exercising regularly; eating well; drinking more water and less alcohol; and getting enough sleep.
9. Keeps Your Medical Records Up To Date
Doctors reference your medical records whenever you have an appointment. By visiting your practitioner for an annual checkup, you’ll keep them up to date with your condition, therefore giving them the best chance of understanding what’s going on in your body. They should be able to pick up if there’s a pattern with your health that needs further testing. Plus, those records may also give yourself and your doctor the confidence that you’re healthy and doing everything you can to stay that way.
Conclusion
Having yearly medical checks has a range of potential benefits. They might make discovering health conditions easier and give you the best chances of successful treatment. You may potentially save time and money in the long run if you either prevent a condition or catch it early, too. Most importantly, annual checkups should help you to stay as healthy as you possibly can.
