Speaker 1: Most people, if you ask them to confirm, would agree
Speaker 1: that health is in fact one of the most important
Speaker 1: things in their lives, perhaps the most important. And by
Speaker 1: now many of you would already know that maintaining a
Speaker 1: good lifestyle, eating well and exercising regularly is crucial for
Speaker 1: being healthy. In fact, preventing yourself from getting health problems,
Speaker 1: doctors say, is much better than trying to treat them.
Speaker 2: Definitely, prevention is always better than cures, So that has
Speaker 2: been the suggestion by doctors. And of course all these
Speaker 2: lifestyle changes that we do talk about is towards preventing
Speaker 2: any serious ailment.
Speaker 1: That's the Indian expresses Anonadat, who covers health for the paper,
Speaker 1: and she tells us that besides our lifestyle, another key
Speaker 1: aspect of what they call preventative health is regularly going
Speaker 1: to the doctor, which for a lot of people can
Speaker 1: be a fairly anxious experience.
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of people might hesitate to go to
Speaker 2: a doctor. In fact, most people tend to go to
Speaker 2: a doctor only when they have some health problem or
Speaker 2: something that's bothering them, So routinely going for a health checkup.
Speaker 3: Is not something that a lot of people do.
Speaker 2: However, what doctors tell me is that there is an
Speaker 2: increasing trend, especially after the pandemic, people have become more
Speaker 2: serious about remaining healthy rather than you know, going to
Speaker 2: the doctor when they have any ailment or any problem.
Speaker 2: So more and more people are getting preventative health checkups
Speaker 2: and going to doctors for a visit without any condition.
Speaker 1: And an apart from the fact that you can probably
Speaker 1: catch something in time, one would imagine that it probably
Speaker 1: also saves a lot of money, right.
Speaker 2: It does, yes, So I will take the example of
Speaker 2: say cancer you detected early, treatment would be much easier.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't need you know, second line therapies and difficult surgeries,
Speaker 2: so the cost of treatment goes down. I took cancer
Speaker 2: because that's like quite an extreme example, but that's true
Speaker 2: of most conditions. Even for say diabetes, you would require
Speaker 2: lower doors of medicines. You can start your lifestyle intervention
Speaker 2: quick enough, and in fact, in some people who are
Speaker 2: early on or people who are pre diabetic, it can
Speaker 2: actually reverse. So detecting early of course makes you healthy, yes,
Speaker 2: but also brings down your cost of treatment and cost
Speaker 2: of disease that you would experience through the life.
Speaker 1: So listeners, in this episode, we are taking a break
Speaker 1: from our usual programming to bring you a complete guide
Speaker 1: on what to keep in mind when going for a
Speaker 1: health checkup based on your age, sex and lifestyle. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Chushang Bargin and you're listening to three Things the
Speaker 1: Indian Express News show, so Anona. When we talk about
Speaker 1: regular health checkups, at what age do doctors recommend you
Speaker 1: start doing them?
Speaker 2: So typically doctors would say that at around the age
Speaker 2: of thirty years you start getting certain screening done. But
Speaker 2: more and more over the last decade or so, doctors
Speaker 2: are now noticing a lot of heart attacks and stuff.
Speaker 3: And young men.
Speaker 2: So even at the age of about twenty five or so,
Speaker 2: people are experiencing heart attacks, which means they also are
Speaker 2: likely to have other conditions that lead to heart attacks,
Speaker 2: like hypertension or diabetes. All these diseases are happening at
Speaker 2: a younger age now, which is why doctors suggests, at
Speaker 2: least for men, that you start getting screened at about
Speaker 2: twenty five, you start doing it.
Speaker 3: Women can relate a little bit.
Speaker 2: More, but at around the age of thirty, I think
Speaker 2: people should start getting their regular health checkups done.
Speaker 1: And should people have a goal in mind, You know,
Speaker 1: while getting a health checkup. Is there an end goal
Speaker 1: so to say?
Speaker 3: So, there is no end goal per se.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be that we have to have
Speaker 2: a certain number on a test.
Speaker 3: That is not the goal.
Speaker 2: The goal is that you keep a record of how
Speaker 2: your health has been for years together, so in case
Speaker 2: when you have a condition, your doctor knows exactly what
Speaker 2: has been going on in your body. And also it's
Speaker 2: a way to sort of keep yourself in check. You
Speaker 2: would know that, okay, my sugar is going up, so
Speaker 2: then you would take steps accordingly and you would intervene early.
Speaker 2: So it's also like keeping in mind what is going on.
Speaker 2: But no, there shouldn't be an end goal that, okay,
Speaker 2: all my numbers have to be perfect.
Speaker 3: This is not a report.
Speaker 1: Card, okay. So if you're a man, you started twenty five.
Speaker 1: If you're a woman, you started thirty. So what should
Speaker 1: a typical health check up for these ages look like?
Speaker 2: So there are three key tests that you have to get.
Speaker 2: One is of course checking your blood pressure. The second
Speaker 2: is checking your blood glucose levels, and you can do
Speaker 2: an HbA one C to see how they have been
Speaker 2: over say a three month period. Then the other thing
Speaker 2: is checking your cholesterol levels. So these three because these
Speaker 2: are risk factors for several other diseases. It can lead
Speaker 2: to a heart attack, it can lead to long term
Speaker 2: chronic heart diseases, it can lead to a stroke. So
Speaker 2: it's risk factor for a host of diseases. So these
Speaker 2: three are the key tests that you should get and
Speaker 2: that would keep you informed about how your whole system
Speaker 2: is doing.
Speaker 1: Also, when we talk about these three tests, what kind
Speaker 1: of importance do they have in the Indian context?
Speaker 2: These tests are extremely important, especially in India, Like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: we get heart attacks and hypertension as well. We get
Speaker 2: it a decade younger than our Western counterparts. So you know,
Speaker 2: we would see people very young at you know, twenty
Speaker 2: five getting heart attacks. And if you get a heart
Speaker 2: attack at twenty five, you are much more likely to
Speaker 2: die than if you get a heart attack at say fifty,
Speaker 2: And there are signs behind it. That's because by fifty
Speaker 2: you develop these you know, different blood vessels in your
Speaker 2: heart that could carry the blood even if there is
Speaker 2: a lockage in one particular vessel.
Speaker 1: And this is something that seems so counterintuitive because you know,
Speaker 1: one would imagine that if you're older, you're more at
Speaker 1: risk and if you're young, you know you should be
Speaker 1: able to take it.
Speaker 2: Yes, and which is why we need to say that
Speaker 2: you know, it is essential that you get your checkups
Speaker 2: done even when you're young, because if you get a
Speaker 2: heart attack at a young age, you're much more likely
Speaker 2: to die. So it is counter intuitive, but at a
Speaker 2: older age you do have these other blood vessels that
Speaker 2: can save your heart muscles even if one of them
Speaker 2: gets blocked.
Speaker 3: Which you do not have as a younger person.
Speaker 2: So you know, if one vessel gets blocked, it's blocked
Speaker 2: and your heart muscle dies, so you're much more likely
Speaker 2: to die in such a heart attack.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got a blood glucose levels, we've got
Speaker 1: a blood pressure, we've got a cholesterol What other things
Speaker 1: should one be looking at?
Speaker 3: Other than that?
Speaker 2: The doctors recommend that you could get all your the
Speaker 2: basic blood tests, which if you go to any of
Speaker 2: the you know, testing centers or hospital, they have a
Speaker 2: list of tests that you can get in a single.
Speaker 1: That draw and is that CBC. Basically CBC.
Speaker 2: You can also do like KFT LFT to know how
Speaker 2: your liver is functioning. So all of these tests are
Speaker 2: not as necessary as I mentioned the three key tests,
Speaker 2: but these are something that you can do to again
Speaker 2: keep a track of how your organ systems are behaving
Speaker 2: and in case you have a problem later on, then
Speaker 2: these can be referred to.
Speaker 1: And we shouldn't stereotype young people, but a lot of
Speaker 1: young people do develop certain bad habits. I mean there
Speaker 1: is eating poorly, but also smoking and drinking can start
Speaker 1: at an early age. Is there any particular thing that
Speaker 1: especially those who smoke and drink should keep in mind
Speaker 1: while getting these tests?
Speaker 2: So the left, for example, would tell you how your
Speaker 2: liver is doing based on how much you are drinking.
Speaker 2: And one of the again big problems that we're seeing
Speaker 2: in India, again a decade earlier than the Western counterparts,
Speaker 2: is the non alcohol fatty liver disease, which is essentially
Speaker 2: you getting fat around your liver, but that's not happening
Speaker 2: because of your drinking habit. And then there is of
Speaker 2: course alcoholic fatty liver disease, where you get the fat
Speaker 2: because of drinking. Now people might think, okay, it's just fat,
Speaker 2: why is it important. It's because that fat actually leads
Speaker 2: to a lot of inflammation in the liver and so
Speaker 2: it becomes carred and once it's carred, it doesn't do
Speaker 2: its function properly, which means you start losing bits of
Speaker 2: your liver and you would end up in a bad
Speaker 2: state and could even require a transplant. And also if
Speaker 2: your liver gets injured, you're much more likely to get
Speaker 2: than liver cancer.
Speaker 1: And right now we're basically talking about both men and women.
Speaker 1: But are there any specific things that young women should
Speaker 1: include as part of their health cut.
Speaker 3: Cups, definitely.
Speaker 2: So now, of course there's a lot of talk about
Speaker 2: HPV vaccination, but when I was growing up, it wasn't
Speaker 2: as common.
Speaker 3: I do not have a SVV vaccination done.
Speaker 2: So for women who haven't been vaccinated, it is very
Speaker 2: important that they get pap smear tests done. This will
Speaker 2: detect any pre cancerous lesions that they might have and
Speaker 2: it has been shown to reduce the mortality due to
Speaker 2: cervical cancer. And cervical cancer is very common, so it's
Speaker 2: the second most common cancer among women in India.
Speaker 1: And again something related to young people, you know, those
Speaker 1: who are sexually active, especially those who might have had
Speaker 1: multiple partners, anything they should look.
Speaker 2: Out for, I mean, getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases
Speaker 2: is very important and of course being safe while doing
Speaker 2: any activity, so they have to take protective measures other
Speaker 2: than that. Of course, there's a panel that you would
Speaker 2: get at any of the testing centers. They would offer
Speaker 2: an STD panel. That's good enough if you get it done,
Speaker 2: I mean, depending on how sexually active you are. But
Speaker 2: I guess once a year should be good for that too.
Speaker 1: And what about the other checkups we are talking about.
Speaker 1: Are we basically looking at getting them done annually?
Speaker 2: Yes, So people have different recommendations for different conditions. So
Speaker 2: let's start again with cancer. If you have a family
Speaker 2: history of different cancers, then you would require more frequent
Speaker 2: checkups than somebody who doesn't. So say, if you get mammography.
Speaker 2: Mammography is usually recommended at the age of forty to
Speaker 2: about sixty nine, you would do an annual checkup if
Speaker 2: you are at risk of getting breast cancer.
Speaker 3: But if you don't have family.
Speaker 2: History, et cetera, so you can do that at about
Speaker 2: say two years or five years gap you can do that.
Speaker 2: So then there's cervical cancer. So for cervical cancer pap
Speaker 2: smear tests that is recommended, say about once in three years,
Speaker 2: and that again you have to keep doing till about
Speaker 2: the age of fifty or sixty years, which is when
Speaker 2: you have the highest risk of getting cervical cancer, and
Speaker 2: the rest of the tests. Of course, that would be
Speaker 2: good if you do it annually.
Speaker 1: Okay, So right now we are talking about people between
Speaker 1: the ages of twenty five and thirty thirty five maybe,
Speaker 1: But when do things change? What is the next age
Speaker 1: group we should be looking at? When other tests are
Speaker 1: also required?
Speaker 2: So, like I mentioned three key tests, as soon as
Speaker 2: you're like, say twenty five to thirty year old, forty
Speaker 2: five is when you would start being more serious about it.
Speaker 2: You would start getting the other tests a little bit,
Speaker 2: you have to add on those tests if you haven't
Speaker 2: been doing it. And then at about that age you
Speaker 2: would also start looking for say prostate cancer in men.
Speaker 2: Fifty is usually when you would say fifty plus you
Speaker 2: would do prostate cancer tests.
Speaker 1: And this age group forty to fifty, I suppose that's
Speaker 1: when you're also at the highest risk for kidney diseases, diabetes,
Speaker 1: heart diseases.
Speaker 2: So this is the age where you would see these
Speaker 2: diseases the most, but you know, the damage happens much earlier.
Speaker 2: It is when it you know, this is the age
Speaker 2: when it manifests, so if you have kept a tab
Speaker 2: of your health, you would already know how you are doing,
Speaker 2: so it won't necessarily drastically change during this age group.
Speaker 2: But yes, we do see a lot of heart attacks, stroke,
Speaker 2: a lot of cancers as well happening in this age group.
Speaker 1: And what about after fifty when we're talking about say
Speaker 1: fifty to sixty five for example.
Speaker 2: So like I mentioned, for men, you have to do
Speaker 2: prostate cancer screening. For women you have to start doing
Speaker 2: heart checkups because once they hit their menopause, their risk
Speaker 2: of heart attacks is similar to men because estrogen plays
Speaker 2: a protective role, and untill they're menstruating, there's a little
Speaker 2: bit more protection that they have than men. They can
Speaker 2: still have heart attacks. It's not that they can't have
Speaker 2: a heart attack. At thirty, it's much less likely than
Speaker 2: a man. But once they hit menopause, that's when their
Speaker 2: protective effect of the hormones go away, so you are
Speaker 2: as likely to get heart attack. So that is something
Speaker 2: that women have to keep in mind.
Speaker 1: And the screening for breast cancer continue at this age.
Speaker 2: So for breast cancer you would screen it till about
Speaker 2: sixty nine years of age. Mammography works better when your
Speaker 2: breast issues become loose, so you would do it at
Speaker 2: about I mean, of course you should start doing it
Speaker 2: at forty, especially if you are a high risk patient,
Speaker 2: but in this age group you would get better results,
Speaker 2: and you have to again for I think doctors recommend
Speaker 2: that you do it once in five years if you're
Speaker 2: not at high risk, and it should continue in this
Speaker 2: age group as well. Another very important test that you
Speaker 2: have to look at during this age group is your
Speaker 2: bone density test, because a lot of people start suffering
Speaker 2: from osteoporosis, which is thinning of your bone and which
Speaker 2: makes you prone to breakages. So if you fall, you
Speaker 2: can snap your bones pretty easily.
Speaker 1: And one thing is that initially it starts out pretty painless, right,
Speaker 1: so it's tough to even detect.
Speaker 2: Yes it is, I mean, you wouldn't realize that you
Speaker 2: have a problem till a lot of your bone has
Speaker 2: already been damaged. And once the bonus damaged, it's not
Speaker 2: growing back. So if you have osteoarthritis, you might need
Speaker 2: like knee implants and stuff later on in life. And
Speaker 2: of course you can't completely prevent that, but you can
Speaker 2: take steps to reduce bone density loss and that is
Speaker 2: something that the tests can preempt during this age group.
Speaker 1: And now let's talk about senior citizens, those above the
Speaker 1: age of sixty five. What are the things that they
Speaker 1: should keep in mind because this is the age group
Speaker 1: you know that is vulnerable to a lot of different diseases.
Speaker 2: Yes, so in the elderly, of course, you'll have the
Speaker 2: risk of all the diseases that we talked about so far.
Speaker 3: You would have heart attack strokes.
Speaker 2: In fact, chronic heart conditions would increase by this age.
Speaker 2: You would have osteoarthritis that you have to deal with.
Speaker 2: This is also an age group where you would start
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of dementia, Alzheimer's. These Again, it's not
Speaker 2: a very definitive test, right Like, it has to be
Speaker 2: detected by family members who recognize that you know, there's
Speaker 2: a problem in your cognition, and then they take you
Speaker 2: to the doctor. So this is something that you know,
Speaker 2: geriatric clinics should screen for. And that's why it is
Speaker 2: important that you're in touch with your doctor through this
Speaker 2: age group. So you get screened for any cognitive impairment
Speaker 2: that you have. Again, you get screened for all the
Speaker 2: bone related issues because the risk of faults go up
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 3: In the elderly.
Speaker 2: You are faced with muscle loss, so you're losing strength
Speaker 2: which will keep you stable, so you're much more likely
Speaker 2: to fall and also break your bones when you fall.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of hip fractures that you see.
Speaker 2: And you know, the surprising thing is if you have
Speaker 2: a hip fracture, your risk of mortality goes up, surprisingly.
Speaker 1: Right, because a lot of people after they get a
Speaker 1: hip fracture, they get bed ridden.
Speaker 2: Yes, so they would remain in bed and then of
Speaker 2: course that would lead to a lot of conditions. And
Speaker 2: with elderly people, the problem is they have several conditions together,
Speaker 2: so managing it becomes difficult. You have to create a
Speaker 2: perfect balance of the medicines, of the kind of lifestyle
Speaker 2: that they're following, the kind of food that they are having,
Speaker 2: and anything changes.
Speaker 3: And it all goes for a toss.
Speaker 2: So it's very essential that the elderly actually go to
Speaker 2: geriatric clinics and you know, keep screening things, keep check
Speaker 2: on whether all their conditions are managed, whether you know
Speaker 2: the blood glucose levels are in control, whether you know
Speaker 2: cholesterol levels are in control, because it's very easy for
Speaker 2: everything to go wrong, right and.
Speaker 1: This is also the age when your vision and you're
Speaker 1: hearing deteriorates, and so a lot of geriatric clinics they
Speaker 1: also take care of that.
Speaker 3: Yes, so geriatric clinics.
Speaker 2: I will talk about one specifically at the All India
Speaker 2: Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. They have center for
Speaker 2: Geriatric Care and they do a bunch of tests as
Speaker 2: soon as anybody comes to them, which would include, you know,
Speaker 2: looking at whether people are able to balance themselves and
Speaker 2: if they have, say balance issues, that could be loss
Speaker 2: of muscles. It could be because of your vision, it
Speaker 2: could be because of your hearing, because hearing also is your.
Speaker 3: You know, how you walk out, you balance yourself.
Speaker 2: So all of that is screened for as soon as
Speaker 2: you go into the clinic.
Speaker 1: And the other thing to keep in mind about this
Speaker 1: age group are the vaccinations that they can benefit from,
Speaker 1: like the flu shot and the shingles vaccine that you
Speaker 1: recently wrote about.
Speaker 3: Actually so again in the elderly. Two things.
Speaker 2: One is they are at a higher risk of getting
Speaker 2: the infection and getting a very severe disease when they
Speaker 2: get an infection. Two, they are already suffering from, like
Speaker 2: I mentioned, a lot of comorbidities so again, as we
Speaker 2: saw with COVID, if you have these comorbidities, you're much
Speaker 2: more likely to die of an infection. So there is
Speaker 2: a lot of infections that we see in the elderly
Speaker 2: and infections that kill them as well. For example, let's
Speaker 2: take a very simple infection like urinary tract infection. It's
Speaker 2: a big problem in the elderly. You know, once they
Speaker 2: get it, it's extremely difficult to treat and in fact,
Speaker 2: people have to get hospitalized to take care of it.
Speaker 3: So infections are a big challenge.
Speaker 1: But uts, for example, are very common in younger women
Speaker 1: as well. But why is it harder to treat them
Speaker 1: in the elderly.
Speaker 2: The antibiotics just don't seem to work as well, and
Speaker 2: you know, especially if you are in a hospital, then
Speaker 2: again you have the risk of getting other infections while there,
Speaker 2: so it just becomes very difficult to treat. And the
Speaker 2: immune system is not the same as it was when
Speaker 2: you're thirty. So all of these things come together to
Speaker 2: make it very difficult to treat infections in the elderly,
Speaker 2: and that's why it's better to prevent the infection, and
Speaker 2: there are several vaccines that are recommended for elderly. One
Speaker 2: is of course the flu shot which comes every year,
Speaker 2: and that reduces the risk of the seasonal influenza.
Speaker 1: And the risk of hospitalization as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, so this is not about preventing of course, it
Speaker 2: is about preventing the infection, but it's mainly about stopping
Speaker 2: them from getting a severe disease, getting hospitalized and dying
Speaker 2: off the condition. So you get influenza vaccine. There's also
Speaker 2: neumococcal vaccine that can be given to prevent.
Speaker 3: Pneumonia in the elderly.
Speaker 2: Then there is this shingles vaccine which has I mean
Speaker 2: it has existed before, but recently there was a new
Speaker 2: vaccine that has entered the market, so now there is
Speaker 2: more evidence to show that apart from shingles, which is
Speaker 2: a recurrence of the infection that causes chicken pox, so
Speaker 2: the second time around, it's a painful rash over one.
Speaker 3: Side of your body. Of course, this vaccine prevents.
Speaker 2: That, but also there's now some evidence to show that
Speaker 2: it reduces the risk of dementia. It protects the heart
Speaker 2: somewhat about so there was a study from South Korea
Speaker 2: recently which showed that it protects the heart for up
Speaker 2: to eight years after vaccination. So because you're already suffering
Speaker 2: from a lot of conditions, these vaccines also help in
Speaker 2: preventing the infection and keeping you healthy from these other
Speaker 2: conditions as well.
Speaker 1: And we were talking about vision in relation to the elderly,
Speaker 1: but how often should younger people go to an eye doctor?
Speaker 2: So that would depend on how good your eye is,
Speaker 2: do you have power, do you have certain conditions, because
Speaker 2: some people would have I mean, dry eye is something
Speaker 2: that's become very common now because of the use of
Speaker 2: computers and screens.
Speaker 3: Essentially, then once you get.
Speaker 2: Slightly older, you would also have conditions like glaucoma and
Speaker 2: cataract that would happen. So again these are conditions which
Speaker 2: you have to keep an eye on. So it suggested
Speaker 2: about once in two years you should definitely go to
Speaker 2: an eye doctor to get it checked.
Speaker 1: And the other thing we haven't talked about is our
Speaker 1: oral health. Now, there is this old adage that you know,
Speaker 1: you should visit the dentist every six months, and recently
Speaker 1: that has been questioned. So how often should one go
Speaker 1: to the dentist.
Speaker 2: Again, that would depend on the condition of your teeth
Speaker 2: and whether you have certain problems that you're already suffering from.
Speaker 2: If you have problems, you would have to go more
Speaker 2: frequently to ensure that there is no deterioration in your condition.
Speaker 2: But in general, for a healthy individual, you can go
Speaker 2: like once a year or once in two years, and
Speaker 2: that should be fine.
Speaker 1: And we are talking about all these health checkups and
Speaker 1: now a lot of places end up recommending these whole
Speaker 1: body CT scans and MRIs for screening cancer. Should one
Speaker 1: get those done?
Speaker 3: No, not at all.
Speaker 2: These are highly specialized tests and you should do it
Speaker 2: only when your doctor recommends it, and the doctor would
Speaker 2: wreck commend if they are suspecting something.
Speaker 3: Blindly doing a test does not.
Speaker 2: Help because it's likely to throw up stuff which may
Speaker 2: not be important at all, which may not be affecting
Speaker 2: you at all, but now you know that there is something,
Speaker 2: and you'd be worried about it for no reason. In fact,
Speaker 2: there has been an ongoing discussion about, you know, whether
Speaker 2: or not to remove certain tumors or cancers which have
Speaker 2: been spotted on a pet city. Now the problem is
Speaker 2: that cancer might not I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 2: say cancer because people get scared whenever.
Speaker 3: We say cancer.
Speaker 2: But some tumors are actually not growing and it would
Speaker 2: take years for it to grow and cause you any problem,
Speaker 2: and you might just be healthy and you might not
Speaker 2: need any kind of intervention for those tumors. But now
Speaker 2: that you've seen it, you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2: So that's a challenge. So going in blindly does not help.
Speaker 2: It should be recommended by your doctor. Again, depending on
Speaker 2: the kind of symptoms you're experiencing and whether that whatever
Speaker 2: is there in your body is actually causing you any trouble.
Speaker 3: That's when you get those specialized tests.
Speaker 1: But you know, what's the harm if someone does want
Speaker 1: to get that tumor removed, even if it's not growing,
Speaker 1: they might not want that thing inside.
Speaker 2: Them because any kind of surgery that you do, you're undergoing,
Speaker 2: you're under anesthesia, you would have a cut, you would
Speaker 2: have to suture that. So that's a trauma for the body.
Speaker 2: And why do it when you don't need it and
Speaker 2: it comes with a lot of risks. No surgery is
Speaker 2: without its risks, So you know, you can be that
Speaker 2: one in like a million complication and that can happen,
Speaker 2: So why do it unless it's absolutely necessary?
Speaker 1: And and a lot of people get these home tests
Speaker 1: done right, especially when it comes to blood work. Now
Speaker 1: you can receive the reports and usually they provide a
Speaker 1: healthy range. Right now, Obviously, if something is off, you
Speaker 1: would go to the doctor. But what if everything is right,
Speaker 1: should you still go to the doctor.
Speaker 3: Yes, you should definitely go to a doctor.
Speaker 2: So when I say that you should have preventative health screening,
Speaker 2: I mean it's tests plus going to a doctor who
Speaker 2: would actually look at those tests, who would look at
Speaker 2: how you're living your life, what all is going on
Speaker 2: in your life, and make a diagnosis based on that. Yes,
Speaker 2: you can check your numbers against the parameters given, but
Speaker 2: they might see something that you cannot, because you know,
Speaker 2: years of training, they've seen so many cases. So here
Speaker 2: I would cite an example of this. One doctor told
Speaker 2: me about a case where a man in his say forties.
Speaker 2: The only problem in his test parameters was a slightly
Speaker 2: lower hemoglobin count, and it wasn't too low. It was
Speaker 2: like nine or ten, which is within the normal range.
Speaker 2: But usually men do not have a very low hemoglobin count.
Speaker 2: And combined with weight loss and other lifestyle changes that
Speaker 2: he'd seen in that patient, he just asked that patient
Speaker 2: to get a colonoscopy and turned out he didn't have
Speaker 2: colon cancer, so.
Speaker 3: You will miss that. That's why there's an expert there.
Speaker 1: And you know, a couple of tests that we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about. One is your serum calcium and victimin D test,
Speaker 1: iron test, and your thyroid profile. How important are these ones?
Speaker 2: So these are some things that you would see in
Speaker 2: the normal blood panel that you get done. Thyroid test
Speaker 2: is important again because we have a lot of people
Speaker 2: who live with hypothyroidism and that's a problem.
Speaker 3: You would need medication for that.
Speaker 2: But usually in that case, you start feeling certain, you know,
Speaker 2: like you will feel lethargic, you'll start putting on weight,
Speaker 2: so you do have a trigger to you know, get tested.
Speaker 2: Then we talk about serum calcium. That's again something that
Speaker 2: has to do with your bone health. It would tell
Speaker 2: you how you're doing there. But one test that you
Speaker 2: raise which is very important is the vitamin D levels,
Speaker 2: which is low for I think everybody who gets the
Speaker 2: test done, I mean everybody gets a result of flow
Speaker 2: vitamin and you would be recommended vita mean you get
Speaker 2: those shots or you even get tablets, et cetera.
Speaker 3: But there is an ongoing.
Speaker 2: You know, debate in there because some people say that
Speaker 2: these levels were decided based on a not very good
Speaker 2: data at that point, and B also most of it
Speaker 2: was based on you know, Western populations, not Indian population.
Speaker 2: We do not know what a good vitamin D level
Speaker 2: is for Indian population. So there are doctors who would
Speaker 2: say that there is an impact on say your blood
Speaker 2: glucose levels, there's an impact on your bone health. You know,
Speaker 2: vitamin D does a lot of these processes in the body,
Speaker 2: but there is no consensus on how much is the
Speaker 2: good amount that you need to keep you know, these
Speaker 2: other conditions at bay.
Speaker 3: So there's that ongoing debate about it.
Speaker 2: But for now, if it's not harming, I would say
Speaker 2: it's okay, you can take the vitamin D supplements.
Speaker 1: And no, no, no. We've been talking about the benefits of
Speaker 1: getting a health checkup done, but what are its limitations?
Speaker 1: What are the things that a health checkup can't do
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 2: So one of the big questions is that, okay, now
Speaker 2: you know the numbers, then what and then what is
Speaker 2: the same In any case, you have to manage your
Speaker 2: life cell that's the recommendation after most of these numbers.
Speaker 2: So your cholesterol level is high, you have to exercise,
Speaker 2: you have to eat right your BP is high, same,
Speaker 2: you have to reduce your salt intake perhaps if your
Speaker 2: sugar is high. Yes, you have to avoid you know,
Speaker 2: the sweet foods, certain other fruits, et cetera. And exercise
Speaker 2: and you know, make these lifestyle changes. So yes, most
Speaker 2: of the time the intervention remains the same, but it
Speaker 2: is just a way to keep a check on what
Speaker 2: is going on in your body, which is why you
Speaker 2: do these preventive checkups. And of course you know, to
Speaker 2: pick up certain things that might be going wrong. But well,
Speaker 2: in most cases it's all right, and that's the limitation.
Speaker 2: People do not want to get tested because yes, everything
Speaker 2: is fine, but it's a record of your health and
Speaker 2: it is important to keep checking it for that once
Speaker 2: that it would not be normal.
Speaker 1: You were listening to Three Things by the Indian Express.
Speaker 1: Today's show was written and produced by me Shashang Bargov
Speaker 1: and was edited and mixed by Srieshbawar. If you like
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