The ever-changing lifestyle and work environment bring along a whole lot of health concerns. For example, ignoring the constant niggling pain in your neck/back or continuous indigestion can be harmful in the long run. Are the headaches too frequent? It is better to be aware, prepared, and have a plan to work towards a healthier you. The first step towards this is evaluating your physical health and body condition. Undergoing a complete body health check-up can help you assess and decide when to consult a doctor.
What is a complete body check-up?
A full body check-up is a complete health assessment package of various tests that include testing for the general functioning of all your vital organs like the central nervous system, your brain and spine, the digestive system (stomach, small and large intestine), heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, all urinary organs, reproductive organs, endocrine glands, bones, and skin. It includes a complete physical examination, diagnostic tests done on blood, stool, and urine samples, and radio-imaging of organs, including x-rays and ultrasounds of the abdomen and pelvis.
Our home and work lifestyles introduce several factors that can cause health problems. A complete body check-up can help us assess our body’s symptoms and condition at the start of the issue.
Several contributing factors related to lifestyle changes can cause health issues. Some of them are:
- Increased stress levels can cause cardiac issues like blood pressure, mental breakdowns, digestive problems like acidity and constipation, PCOS, early hair loss, weight gain, etc.
- Work-related precipitating factors like weight gain due to sedentary chair work, Stiff neck, and spine problems.
- Thyroid and other endocrine disorders due to no physical activity.
- Eye problems due to continuous screen time jobs.
- Sleep problems due to improper work schedule.
- Pollution – inhalation of toxic chemicals and intake of micro pollutants and toxins in water sources.
- Hereditary disorders.
- The presence of family affinity for certain diseases like blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, or heart ailments.
- Prevalence of infections in surroundings – Covid -19 infection, common flu, etc.
- A disease of social interactions: sexually transmitted infections, HIV.
- Increased prevalence of various types of cancers of the body.
Full-body check-up tests list. What does it include?
The full-body health check-up includes a combination of physical examination, diagnostic, and radio imaging tests.
1. Physical examination
This involves a manual, complete full-body health check-up for:
- Body Temperature, weight, and height.
- Colour and condition of the skin.
- The skin is checked for discoloration, bruises, loss of pigmentation, hyperpigmentation, patchy or hairy skin, hairless patches, new moles and warts, draining sinuses, swellings, skin tags, etc.
- Eyes’ colour, redness, swelling
- Evaluate all the lymph notes for warmth, swelling, or redness.
- Miscellaneous swellings in the head, neck, breasts, arms, legs, etc.
2. Diagnostic tests
Numerous tests are performed on fasting, stool, and urine samples:
- Cancer risk markers – kind of proteins made by abnormal cells to help detect the presence or possibility of developing tumours or cancers.
- Cardiac risk markers – it is a complete heart check-up along with the cholesterol profile of LDL and HDL cholesterol to rule out susceptibility to develop cardiac problems.
- Complete blood count/haemogram – checks for iron deficiency, abnormal cells, increased WBCs in the presence of infections, and ESR levels for chronic allergies.
- Diabetes – fasting blood sugar and hb1ac test for high levels of sugar in the blood
- Lipid function test – triglyceride and cholesterol count.
- Liver function tests – to evaluate the condition of your liver. It checks for enzymes, proteins, digestive substances, and fatty liver.
- A kidney function test – it is done to check the GFR of your kidneys (how well your kidneys flush out waste from your body.
- Thyroid function tests – t3 t4 tsh
- Witman toxic elements – it tests for lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and mercury levels in the blood.
- Pancreatic profile – it measures the amount of amylase and lipase in your body. These are enzymes that can help better the inflammation of the pancreas.
- Electrolytes profile – measures the amount of sodium and chloride in your body. Sodium and chloride maintain the fluid levels in our bodies. They also help regulate blood pressure and are involved in the functioning of muscles and nerves.
- Urine routine: it checks for colour, specific gravity, PH, presence of red blood cells or pus cells, presence of proteins, presence of sugar, and presence of any bacteria.
- BMI or Basal Metabolic Index – to help evaluate your healthy weight range, especially around the waist.
- Blood pressure test.
- Vitamin deficiency tests.
3. Radiology tests
Electro radiography of the chest – for cysts and tuberculous symptoms.
X-ray knee – symptoms of arthritis or other joint issues
X-ray lung and spine – helps evaluate any damage to the spine due to incorrect sitting postures or presence of any signs that show the possibility of developing problems like nerve compression or spondylitis.
Pulmonary function test – asthma, pneumonia, and post- covid signs and symptoms.
Echo treadmill test – helps evaluate heart health.
USG abdomen and pelvis – screening of all abdominal and pelvic organs (ovarian cysts, hernia risk, kidney health, bladder morphology, etc.)
Pap smear USG – early cervical cancer detection test.
Mammography breast cancer screening.
A detailed doctor’s consultation will follow up on all these tests.
Why should you do a full-body health check-up package?
Doing a full-body check-up can help you get a detailed report of your health condition. For example, it can show the presence of any infections. In addition, it can help detect any chronic health issues that can be taken care of by treatment advice from doctors. The Full-health check-up helps get the latest information on treatment plans and medications available for problems you may already have or can have in the future. It also helps to decide on further detailed medical tests that have to be advised by doctors if required. In addition, this test package helps check for early signs of various cancers like breast, testicular, and colon or prostate cancer.
What is the importance of a full-body check-up?
A full-body health check-up can be done for various reasons. The most important reason to do a full-body health check-up is to evaluate the current condition of your health. It will help you know why those long-standing mild symptoms like chronic allergies or chronic pains are everywhere in your body. It enables you to understand any lifestyle changes you need to make if you have a history of medical conditions in your family or if you are on the broad spectrum of genetic disorders. Finally, it can help you prepare and plan for cancer risks.
The full-body health check-up package is also helpful as a prerequisite to health insurance schemes.
What are the preparations needed to do a full health check-up package?
- A prior appointment is essential to do a full health check-up package.
- It requires a fasting blood sample, so you must be on an empty stomach for at least 10 to 12 hours. During this time, you can consume only water.
- At least four glasses of water should be taken three hours before the abdominal and pelvic scans.
- You should bring the stool sample in an adequately sealed closed container.
- It is required to avoid smoking, chewing tobacco, or consuming alcohol at least 24 to 48 hours before the test.
- It is advised to report your medical history in the admission form. For example, you should mention if you have diabetes, high or low blood pressure, cardiac ailments, or other previous/ genetic conditions. It is also important to note if you are on any medication for any illness.
- You should bring along all your previous medical reports, if any.
- It should be noted that pregnant women will not be allowed to undergo any scans or mammograms, so it is better to do a full health check-up after the baby is born.
How much time is needed to do the full health check-up package?
The full body check-up tests only need a day to be completed.
The Doctor’s consultation is scheduled for 3-4 days later, depending on the delivery of your health reports.
What is the age limit and frequency of doing a complete body check-up
There is no age limit to doing a full-body health check-up. Usually, it is prescribed by doctors for people above the age of 60 to be done once a year. There is an increased prevalence of allergic symptoms seen even in small children; therefore, there is no minimum age limit for these tests. It is also advised to be done yearly in the presence of any existing diseases or disorders under treatment. It is also recommended to do a full-body health check-up if you have a family history of genetic conditions. For example, people above the age of 45 with a family history of diabetes, blood pressure, or any genetic conditions with no existing symptoms are advised to do a full-body health check-up once a year.
Conclusion
The full-body health package should be done once a year to assess for a complete and detailed evaluation of body health. It does not have any age limit and can be done very efficiently in a short duration. You may find the full-body health check-up package to be very useful in evaluating existing health conditions and predicting health risks for the future.
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