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As more people become educated and empowered about their own health, preventative health care is becoming much more commonplace for all ages.
To maintain a balanced lifestyle and overall well-being, it’s essential to attend regular checkups with your doctor and conduct relevant health screenings for early detection of potential diseases, better control over chronic conditions, and so much more.
While mindful eating, daily movement, and enriching social connections are all important to aging well, annual full-body checkups also provide many benefits that enable you to take the steps towards a holistically healthy lifestyle.
In this blog, we’ll highlight 5 reasons why we believe routine checkups are significant at every age as well as their many benefits for your health and well-being!
1. Understand Your Health Baseline Today
Knowing where you are with your health journey is an important first step to maintaining a healthy overall well-being and addressing any health concerns early on.
During a checkup, your doctor will perform a series of physical exam tests to identify potential risks for diseases and look out for any symptoms or other health-related matters.
For instance, routine checks of your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels can help your doctor spot the signs of diseases like high blood pressure or diabetes before they develop even further.
A check of your family health history can also flag risks for inherited conditions like cancer, so your doctor could refer you for relevant tests, send you to the right specialists, or recommend treatments.
Your doctor could even ask about your diet, fitness, sleep, and stress habits which are also essential to helping you prevent unfavorable health problems in the future. If you're seeking guidance in these areas, your doctor will be more than happy to offer tips and advice on how to keep you healthy and living an active lifestyle.
2. Monitor Progress and Changes
At each year’s visit, your doctor will go over your personal health history and include a check of whether you're on track with screening tests.
Here is a list of some medical tests your doctor may refer you to:
- Blood Pressure Check
- Bloodwork
- Body Mass Index
- Cancer Screening
- Colorectal
- Skin
- Cervical (Women)
- Breast (Women)
- Prostate (Men)
- Vision Exam
- Hearing Exam
Your doctor may also recommend which vaccines you should get, such as shots for the flu, pneumonia, or shingles, in order to stay up to date on your immunizations.
3. Gain Better Control Over Chronic Conditions
Unfortunately, chronic diseases are on the rise in the United States. According to a 2018 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 51.8% of adults have at least one chronic condition.
Although they are common, these health concerns can be prevented or closely monitored if you are maintaining routine checkups with your doctor.
By keeping an eye on your overall health, you can potentially make changes that could alter the possibility of developing a chronic condition or avoiding it altogether.
On the other hand, long-term diseases like diabetes, arthritis, and asthma need day-to-day care, so your doctor will check in with you at each appointment to make sure you have these chronic conditions under good control. If not, they’ll be able to recommend changes to your medication or easier modifications to your daily habits.
4. Reduce Healthcare Costs Over Time
There’s a saying that it’s much cheaper to prevent diseases than to treat them.
The money you spend on a regular checkup with your doctor is insignificant compared to the cost of treating a condition that’s discovered at an advanced stage. Therefore, it’s wise to invest in medical checkups to prevent and manage diseases in the early stages before they worsen.
For instance, if you quit smoking with your doctor's help, your odds get lower for a heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Following weight loss advice and healthy lifestyle habits can help you avoid diabetes or heart disease as well as the costly treatments they involve.
As a result, you'll be less likely to need expensive medicines, treatments, or surgeries thanks to your preventative health care measures and efforts.
5. Build a Stronger Relationship With Your Doctor
Every time you visit your doctor, you can learn something new about your own health or disease risks and ask about health information you've seen on the news or online.
Each checkup is also an opportunity to get to know your doctor better and vice versa. A strong doctor-patient relationship is crucial for building trust, which will allow you to feel more comfortable in having candid conversations about your concerns, whether it be about general health or personal subjects like alcohol or drug use and mental health.
And while you may be tempted to withhold information from your doctor for fear of being embarrassed about your health choices and concerns, it can ultimately make it more difficult for your doctor to provide the right care and for you to understand your personal health.
For your doctor to best serve and guide you as a patient, remember that open communication is often the best way to build a stronger, more trustworthy doctor-patient relationship and to make sure that you’re maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Moreover, these visits will make your doctor more familiar with your health history, so they'll be able to tell if you develop symptoms that are new or unusual for you. And the more your doctor knows, the more personalized care they can give you.
Wiser, Better, and Healthier
Everyone should prioritize their health, regardless of their age, financial status, or how healthy they appear.
Not only does healthy longevity promote the positivity of aging and living active lifestyles, it also allows you to continue participating in your daily activities and doing things you love – whether that be spending time with your family, traveling and being outdoors, or excelling in your career field.
Therefore, through regular checkups, you will have a better understanding of how to monitor your physical, mental, and emotional health, and make wise decisions for your well-being.
At Arden 55+ Living, we believe in taking charge of your health and embracing healthy, active living in all aspects of life. To learn more about our 55+ active adult community and our various resources for healthy living, take a look at our other healthy lifestyle blogs here.