I consider myself a fan of medical checkups. Because? Because doctors in the hospital see patients who arrive late for the consultation every day and we say: “What a pity!”. Or we see those people who arrive early and think: “Great, let’s get away!”.
Because that timely consultation can imply early detection of a disease, when its form is mild —by identifying the first signs— and thus making the necessary lifestyle adjustments or starting treatment. The sooner, the better it will be for our health.
Checkups start with going to the doctor. the doctor is who indicate what types of study should be done. You are not going to a doctor’s appointment to request a CT scan or a specific kidney study. It always begins with the interview with the doctor.
How long has it been since you had a gynecological exam, a papanicolaou (PAP), an ultrasound or a mammogram? In women it is essential. As for men, prostate cancer is the second most frequent in us. And early diagnosis is made through a blood test and going to the urologist from the age of 50, once a year. With a rectal examination, I know we don’t like it, but this exam is essential for early detection.
In this sense, the doctor can ask for a blood test and, based on the results, make an early diagnosis of diabetes, high cholesterol, triglycerides, he can examine liver function, kidney function, so many things…
Or in the case of cardiovascular health, he can give you an EKG, and he can find arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, which is the cause of a stroke. With the valuable information provided by medical checkups, you can control and manage. If you have coronary, valvular, heart muscle, or blood pressure problems in your heart, these situations can be addressed with the data provided by preventive medical examinations.
The same happens with studies of the colon, colonoscopy or upper-air videocopy to view the stomach, in these cases cancer-precursor lesions can be detected several years before symptoms begin.
To conclude, I am going to mention a very clear example, which is oral health. We all know that when one goes to the dentist because he feels pain, the dentist tells him: “What a pity he didn’t come before, because now what you have to work on is much more.”
We doctors like to care for healthy patients, because we can do a lot to make them prolong that health condition. That is why I recommend that it be done frequent medical checkups and once a year see your doctor.
*Dr. Daniel López Rosetti is a doctor (MN 62540) from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). President of the Stress Section of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH). And he is the author of books such as: “Emotion and feelings” (Ed. Planeta, 2017), “Balance. How we think, how we feel, how we decide. User’s manual.” (Ed. Planet, 2019), among others.
*Production: Dolores Ferrer Novotny. Realization: Samuel Eyebrows. Editing: Rosario Benítez Chiarelli
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