Most serious illnesses often start with minor symptoms which are often ignored and left unattended to.
I generally like to be the bearer of good news, “You’ve got a clean bill of health” or “ You’re as fit as a fiddle”. So it’s disheartening to see people with severe complications of diseases they didn’t even know they had or thought weren’t serious. I often ask, “Why leave it till now?”.
Preventive medicine is gradually becoming the ‘in-thing’. Doctors are hardly magicians. When the chips are down and the severe complications have set in, there is a limit to what doctors can do. At times, this may just be palliative care to postpone the inevitable.
The real meaningful intervention and life saving act is when a disease is detected early even before symptoms appear. I love it when I tell a patient, “Thank God we caught it early. The prognosis is excellent”.
Most visits to a doctor won’t turn up a diagnosis and most tests actually come in normal. But the knowledge that you are healthy and fit is refreshing, invigorating, and makes you feel as though you have something worth living for.Simple clinical examinations and routine check ups like blood pressure checks, routine blood tests, mammograms or urine tests should be done regularly. These tests screen for diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, chest diseases, Kidney diseases and other common maladies, which if undetected on time may cause life-threatening complicatios to your health. Coronary heart disease (heart attack), Kidney failure, Strokes and various cancers are some complications of these diseases that could have been detected early and adequately managed.
It’s important you see your doctor regularly. Once or twice a year for a check up and update on tests and conditions may just be all that is required of you in order to maintain health. When you are ill for a length of time, it is necessary to see a doctor to ensure that what is really going on is not something worse than you envisaged.
Don’t wait till you are elderly and retired, as you might have wasted valuable time. Many heartaches and regrets could be prevented by regular visits to your doctor.
Regular medical check-up is a favour that each and every person owes themselves and the family that they love.
Prevention is better and much cheaper than cure.
InformationNigeria
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