How Often Should I Do A Body Check-Up? Staying in good health is no longer a choice but it is becoming an important prerogative. Being in good health has been talked about over the past many decades and perhaps even centuries.
However, as information dissemination improves and as people become more educated and knowledgeable, they are beginning to understand how important is good health. Life is not the same as it was around two or three decades back.
Jobs and careers have become stressful and there are tension and uncertainty in the air. Further, our eating, exercising, and lifestyle habits also have changed and they are perhaps not conducive to good health for most of us.
In such situations, it would be better to understand the importance of regular body checkup. Regular checkup of the body ensures that you are in a position to check the vital parameters regularly.
In this article, we will try and find out answers to the question as to how often should I do a body check-up.
It is clear that regular body checkup is a must in today’s world where the incidence of lifestyle diseases are increasing quite a bit. Further, the current covid-19 pandemic also has brought to the fore the risk of diseases and illnesses caused by bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms.
Hence, there is a need to have a concerted effort to ensure that our bodies are in good shape.
There are many factors that could decide on the frequency of body checkups. There cannot be any straight jacketing or uniform rule that could be applied as far as frequency of body checkups are concerned.
For example, people who are working in hazardous circumstances and situations could be at higher risk when it comes to illnesses and other such health problems. Hence, these people may require regular screening of their health perhaps even every six months.
On the other hand, healthy youngsters above the age of 13 to 30 may require checkups once in two or three years, provided they do not have any health issues or complications. The risk of illnesses, lifestyle diseases, and other such problems increases with age.
Therefore beyond the age of 35, it would be a good idea to increase the frequency of medical checkups. It could be done every 18 months.
However, as a person goes beyond forty then once a year medical checkup should be the norm. This is because of certain factors that increase the risk of lifestyle related diseases.
These risks include the risk of blood sugar, joint problems, osteoarthritis, overweight and obesity-related risks, and risk of cardiovascular diseases. These increase with age unless the persons are active, moderate in their food habits, and are away from stress as much as possible.
In many cases, this may not be happening for many of us. Career and work-related stress, the stress in family and personal lives, and an atmosphere of uncertainty could increase the risk of illnesses and therefore this should always be kept in mind.
As mentioned above, different people have different medical needs, there are some generally accepted standards as far as body checkup time-frequencies are concerned. If you are healthy and of a young age with not many health challenges then medical checkups may be enough once in four years.
If you are in the age group of 19-21 years a medical checkup once in two to three years could be a good idea. Those between the ages of 22-64 could go in for medical checkups once in 1 to 3 years.
Men and women above the age of 64 should ideally go in for medical checkups once every year. While these are for people with no habits, if some men and women are into regular smoking or drinking and other such habits, it would be better to go in for medical checks more frequently even if they belong to lower age groups.
For example, if a person smokes heavily and belongs to the age group of 22-64, he or she has two options. The best option is to give up smoking. If this is not possible, it would be ideal to increase the frequency of medical checkups to every 9 months instead of 1 to 3 years.
Regular checkups are a good way to be proactive and nip problems in the bud. You should not be wary of it and should encourage it not only for yourself but also for your family members, relatives, friends, and those who you love and like.