Why It Is Essential To Get Regular Health Checks In Your 30s

Regular Health Checks: We generally take utmost care of our belongings which are vital in our daily lives—for instance, a vehicle. We make sure it goes through timely maintenance and service checks so that it stays in mint condition and does not break down all of a sudden. If not it could break down to a point where even repairing it would not be feasible. But we miss out on giving time and attention to something even more vital than anything else, that’s our health. Still, a majority of people take their health for granted until they face a major issue, eventually, it might be too late by that moment. 

Even today in India, the majority of the population does not undergo regular health checks. Most of them who have their health screened are obliged to undergo it as they have already undergone chronic health diseases in the past; for now to maintain the smooth pace and for its non-recurrence.

There are 3 most common reasons why the majority of people don’t undergo regular health checks, which are as follows.

1.  The tag of unnecessary expense around Availing of medical services
2. Habituated for a checkup only when faced with any serious illness
3. Lack of knowledge, awareness & tertiary issues.

From a vast perspective, the above 2 reasons might seem true but in reality, they have no justification for forgoing routine medical examinations, here’s why.

1. Regular health checks would reveal any underlying disease in its budding stage where it is easy to cure with minimal effort, whereas if ignored it would eventually harm major organs of the body which becomes painful and a financial burden to the patient. No wonder it’s widely said “Prevention is better than cure” yet not widely practiced.
2. People generally have the notion that they do not need any checkups as they do not experience any symptoms. If there is any illness they would come across its symptoms and get it diagnosed. Here’s a catch, many people ignore the fact that most hazardous diseases are underlying initially which then grow at a pace to become chronic illnesses, rather than reflecting symptoms abruptly overnight. These regular health checks reveal the underlying issue in its initial stage where it is the easiest to treat. If not, once the damage starts it would eventually affect many other organs like a chain link reaction. This reduces one’s lifespan drastically if it’s a chronic illness.
3. People lack awareness regarding the benefits of regular health checks, fear of screening and checkups, the social stigma of being called unfit, unawareness regarding the deteriorating health of current-day men, and lack of education that promotes health checkups.

 The Importance of Regular Health Checks In a Nutshell 

Under regular health checks, diseases can be detected earlier and treated easily, thanks to health checks. Following screening, proper preventative treatment is administered. This then eliminates the scenario where one reaches the final stage of any chronic illness and might have to bear immense pain, lose ample time, degrade financially, and may live with its post effects for all their life. One of the approaches to lower the cost of chronic illnesses is by having routine health screenings. In addition to lowering the expense of medical care, this would dramatically lower the dangers that chronic diseases bring, such as disability and early death. This would eventually increase the lifespan of the person without compromising on disabilities and health.

 Now That We Know The Importance of Regular health Checkups, What Is The Right Age To Start Having Routine Medical Checkups?

There is no fixed age or time factor which obligates one to have a checkup; but considering various factors such as modern-day lifestyle, current-day stress levels, and their adverse effects, it is suggested that one must have a general health checkup at least once a year from their 30s. 

For the majority of the people in this era, one’s health is not compromised majorly until the age of late ’20s. The body is generally capable of maintaining its immunity and recovering at the earliest. Their health starts to diminish once they enter their mid-30s. This is the most vulnerable time when health starts to deteriorate due to underlying diseases. These could be in the initial stages leading to potential chronic illness which can be investigated through a medical checkup. The most common issues are as follows    

• Cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Bone mass deprivation
• Muscle mass – Losing 3-8% of muscle mass per decade from the ’30s
• Infertility
• Obesity
• Kidney diseases
• Excess weight gain/loss
• Cardiovascular issues
• Hormonal changes
• Skin problems

How Do I Get A Regular Health Checkups Done?

One can go for it by consulting a general physician. The doctor might ask a few questions related to your general lifestyle, medical history, previous chronic illness, any ongoing health issues, etc. Post that, the doctor would assign a set of medical tests which may include blood tests, various screening-imaging tests, X-rays, urine tests, stool samples, ECG (electrocardiogram), and so on. These help in analyzing your body and based upon the results the doctor would inform us if everything is in normal condition. If not, appropriate medical treatment or preventive treatment/measures are advised. In some cases, the doctor could redirect you to consult another doctor who is specialized in treating a particular disease or organ.