Why You Should Go For Annual Physical Tests?

Do you know why people opt for annual physical examinations? Do you know why physicians suggest these tests to their patients? An annual physical test is the medical exam that you have to opt for every year. This comprehensive exam is essential for your health. How? Here is the answer.

To detect any existing disease or their symptoms – To control any disease and to avoid complications, it is vital that it is diagnosed and detected at an early stage. And, these medical exams can detect any existing or a disease that might occur in future. You need to opt for this healthcare option, so that physicians can detect any disease at an early stage.

If they find any disease or symptoms, then the doctor might recommend you for further tests or screenings from healthcare specialists, so that you get the best medical care on time. Your medical history as well as your family’s medical history is also evaluated in order to find any genetic diseases.

To ensure good physical health – Annual medical exams are essential to ensure your good physical health. It includes a variety of tests such as check up of the respiratory system, nervous system, cardiovascular system along with all the major organs. All these exams are performed to make sure that all the systems, organs are working property and are in good condition.

To make certain of your overall health – Annual tests are also vital to ensure your overall health. They are not focused solely on the physical health, but also on mental and emotional wellness. Physicians ask questions about your diet, lifestyle and habits like alcohol & smoking. Doctors make sure that your overall health is good.

Furthermore, you can get boosters for the vaccination of various infections or diseases during these medical tests. It ensures your good health for long term as it protects you from various infectious diseases.

Annual Physical Test: Purpose and Some Tips

You probably can cut off seeing your doctor if you're a healthy adult with no particular symptoms and chronic conditions. Annual physical tests will provide you with useful information even before symptoms start up.

The Purpose of an Annual Physical Exam
A physical examination helps your primary care physician to find the general status of your health. Through the exam you get the chance to talk to your physicians about any ongoing pain or symptoms that you are experiencing or any other health concerns that you might have.
A physical examination is suggested at least once a year.

These exams are used to:
•    Check diseases to treat them as soon as possible
•    Get the necessary immunizations
•    Problems that may be of high concern in the future
•    Ensure  that you follow healthy diet and exercise routine
•    General physical exam
•    Pelvic exam
•    Review of your health history
•    Update of current medications and supplements

These exams can also be helpful to check cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. These levels may get serious without you ever showing any signs or symptoms. Regular screening lets your primary care physician to treat these conditions before they become severe.

Before you schedule your annual physical test, follow the following tips that can help you in safe and benefit test. Schedule an appointment will the physician of your choice. If you have a family physician, they can provide you with a physical examination otherwise, you can contact your health insurance for a list of physicians in your area. To avoid any issues get the following data before your physical examination:

•    List of current medications and herbal supplements
•    All the symptoms you experience
•    Results of recent tests
•    Medical and surgical history
•    Previous doctor’s prescription

You may want to dress in comfortable clothing and prevent excess jewelry or makeup that would prevent your PCP from fully examining your body.

Understanding Glaucoma - The Eye Disorder

Glaucoma is an eye-disorder, which often causes blindness, if not prevented beforehand. Glaucoma can damage the eye’s optic nerve and deteriorate vision over time. This is associated with abnormally high pressure inside the eye.

Causes of glaucoma

According to theories, glaucoma might be due to abnormal eye development, eye infection, drugs, or no supply of blood to the eye. However, the exact reasons behind optic nerve damage are still not certain.

Symptoms of glaucoma

Gradual loss of vision is a major symptom of glaucoma. A few other symptoms that might also cause glaucoma include-

• Severe headache
• Sudden loss of eyesight
• Nausea and vomiting
• Flashes of light
• Redness of eye
• Severe eye or eyebrow pain
• Hazy or Blurred vision
• Appearance of rainbow colored circles around bright lights

Risk factors of glaucoma

As signs and symptoms are not easily apparent, it is difficult to know if anyone is suffering from glaucoma. Following are a few possible risk factors about which one should be aware-

• Age – People around the age of 40s or 60s and above are at a risk of glaucoma.

• Family history – This is a genetic problem. If anyone in a family is suffering from glaucoma, then it is possible that other members in the family may also develop this disorder.

• Medical conditions – Medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart diseases are also the reasons behind glaucoma. People suffering from these health issues are prone to the glaucoma problem.

• Long-term medication use – Intake or use of medicines such as eye drops for a longer duration of time can also cause glaucoma.

• Other risk factors – Besides the above mentioned risk factors, a few other risk factors that can cause this problem include-
• Contraceptive medications
• Nearsightedness
• Sleep disorders
• Migraine

Diagnosis process

Medically there is no cure for glaucoma eye disease. The only way to prevent is regular examination of eyes. Eye specialists recommend people to go for regular eye tests in every three to four months.

Glaucoma tests include following medical testing procedures-

• Tonometry - Examining the inner eye pressure
• Ophthalmoscopy - Examining the shape and color of the optic nerve
• Perimetry -Examining the complete field of vision
• Gonioscopy –Examining the angle in the eye where the iris meets the cornea
• Pachymetry –Examining the thickness of the cornea

Mild Cognitive Impairment- Sign of decline in cognitive abilities in an individual

With age, memory tends to lapse. But sharp decline in memory loss is a symptom of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

People suffering from MCI experience trouble while remembering names and often conversation. They have to rely on written notes to remember their daily activities.

Symptoms

Mild cognitive impairment is classified in two parts-

• Amnestic MCI- Person when starts to forget important information (appointments, conversations, or recent events) suffer from amnestic MCI.
• Non amnestic MCI- Thinking ability of a person when gets affected is said to be suffering from nonamnestic MCI.

Diagnosis

Determining the cause of MCI is yet not possible, but yes, diagnosis is done to make a judgement about person’s symptoms.

A medical checkup of a person suffering from MCI includes-

• Review medical history- This includes reviewing family medical history, previous illness of patient, and physician documents.
• Assessment of daily activities of patient- Focus and judgement is made on changes in patient’s daily activity.
• Assessment of mental status- Evaluation of memory, ability to understand, visual ability, and other key thinking skills is done.
• Neurological examination- Checking functioning of nerves, movement, coordination, balance, and senses.
• Laboratory tests-Preparing patient for blood tests and brain structure imaging.

If all these aforementioned evaluation tests does not work, doctor recommends neuropsychological testing (thinking ability test that comprise of series of written or computerized tests)

Causes and risks

The causes of mild cognitive impairment are still not determined, but person suffering from this problem is at a risk of suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.

Few possible causes that lead to risk factors of MCI include- advancing age, family history, and cardiovascular disease.

Treatment and outcomes

For the mild cognitive impairment treatment, there are no medications or drugs, which could prevent person from it.

However, still few medical procedures are followed that helps slow decline in thinking skills-

• Exercise regularly helps keep heart fit, which eventually keep the brain active by providing proper blood flow.

• Controlling cardiovascular risk factors eventually benefits brain functioning.
• Participate in activities that require brainstorming. This keep brain active and keep an individual mentally stimulating and social engaged.
• Patient should go for evaluation test after every six months. This helps determine whether the problem has declined, it is same, or it is growing or worsened.

Preventive healthcare-The perfect solution for overall wellbeing!

Each year, millions of people die due to various health problems and disease, as a result preventive healthcare is very important. Preventive healthcare means maintaining the good health of the body in order to prevent different diseases. In other words, it generally helps in managing and preventing an individual from certain factors that may lead to disease or infection.

Another motive of getting a preventive health care service NYC is to find and treat diseases as soon as possible. The preventive healthcare service deals with various kinds of screenings and tests for different medical conditions, which help, in maintaining overall good health of an individual.

The preventive healthcare includes number of different services, such as-

• Provides immunization vaccination for various disease- The preventive healthcare services includes immunization vaccination for various different diseases such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, tetanus, influenza, and so on. These vaccinations are very important to ensure prevention from infection and viruses. 
   
• Diet counseling- Diet counseling is another service that is included under preventive healthcare. The counseling is basically for those individuals who are at higher risk of certain chronic disease. A highly educated professional is appointed for the job that provides guidance to the patients regarding healthy diet and healthy lifestyle. A separate diet chart is also provided and the patient is strictly required to follow the instructions in order to live a healthy life. 
   
• Cholesterol screening- The cholesterol screening is for adults of certain ages or for those who are at higher risk of this problem. Cholesterol screening is very important because too much cholesterol in the blood is a sign of heart attack or stroke. Therefore, make sure to get the cholesterol checked regularly. 
   
• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm screening- The abdominal aortic aneurysm screening is specifically for those people who are regular smokers. Therefore, if you have ever smoked, you must discuss with your doctor about abdominal aortic aneurysm. There is no exact symptom for this disease; therefore, it is better to consult your doctor early to ensure good health.

Furthermore, all the medical tests under preventive healthcare are different for each people depending on their age, and sex. However, you should consult your doctor immediately if you detect symptoms of any serious disease. Also, make sure to visit a preventive healthcare physician regularly even if you are healthy.

What are the various reasons for which blood tests are performed?

Blood test is an important laboratory analysis that is performed to detect different medical issues. The different blood tests are performed to identify the existence of various ailments of the body. The different tests also help in determining the pathogens in the body.

Blood draw service is basically performed for following reasons- 

 

• To detect any health problem- Whenever a person is suffering from bad health, he/she goes to the doctor. In most of the cases, the doctor before starting the diagnosis takes the patient’s blood sample to check it. The different blood tests are performed to detect any type of health issue. It is always advisable to have regular blood tests to detect risk factors and symptoms to prevent serious complications such as high level of cholesterol, heart attack or stroke or different cardiovascular diseases.
• To detect the main cause of sickness- Blood tests are commonly performed to detect the main cause of patient’s sickness. For example- the glucose test is performed to identify the blood glucose level in a patient’s body.

The doctors prescribe blood tests only if they notice that an individual is suffering for certain kind of disease.

• To detect any blood related problem- These tests are also performed to get information about the different body fluids in the body. It includes red blood cell counts, white blood cell counts, hemoglobin level, and platelets level in the body. Moreover, with the help of blood tests, one can also determine the blood group or type. Some of the tests also help to detect different types of disorders such as leukemia and anemia.
• To detect some existing problem- Doctors prescribe different blood tests on a regular basis to be sure about the patient’s health. Through regular tests, it becomes easy for the doctors to prescribe the necessary medications accordingly.

Doctors usually prescribe blood tests if they find anything that you need to worry about. Apart from the aforementioned reasons, these tests are performed to detect possibility of any infection in the body. Illness such as diabetes and those related to thyroid glands can also be looked at. Sometimes there are abnormalities that are caused from the lack of excess of chemicals, hormones etc that can be revealed through blood tests.

Everything that you need to know about Glaucoma and its treatment

What is glaucoma?

Glaucoma is the most dangerous eye- disorder and is the foremost cause of blindness. In this damage to the optic nerve takes place due to abnormal high pressure inside the eye. If no proper treatment is taken, it can cause permanent loss of vision.

What are the causes of glaucoma?

The glaucoma is caused due to abnormal eye development, eye infection, drugs, no supply of blood to the eye etc. However, the exact cause to this dangerous disease is still not understood.

What are the common symptoms of glaucoma?

The main symptom is the gradual loss of vision while some other symptoms include-

• Sudden severe headache
• Redness of eye
• Severe eye or eye brow pain
• Hazy or Blurred vision
• Loss of eyesight
• Nausea and vomiting
• Flashes of light
• Appearance of rainbow colored circles around bright lights
• Sudden sight loss
• Tunnel vision in advanced stage.
  
  
  

What are the risk factors of glaucoma?

Anyone can suffer from glaucoma. However, one should be aware of the following risk factors-

• Age – Age factor matters a lot. People of around 40 or 60 years and above are at more risk of glaucoma.
• Family history- This problem is genetic which means if anyone in your family has suffered from this problem then you have a greater risk of developing it.
• Several medical conditions- people suffering from several medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart diseases are the reasons for this disease.
• Long-term medication use- Using medicines such as eye drops for a long period is a common reason.

Some other risk factors include –

• Contraceptive medications
• Sleep disorders
• Migraine
• Nearsightedness

Diagnosis and treatment

There is no cure for glaucoma however, it can be effectively managed, and loss of sight can be minimized. Regular examination of your eyes is the only diagnosis option. People should have a regular test in every three to four months. There are number of hospitals that provide glaucoma test NYC.

The main treatment options include

• Eye drops
• Laser treatment
• Surgery

If you find any of the aforementioned symptoms, it is imperative to seek immediate medical attention.

What are annual physical exams and how do you prepare for it?

Did you know that even if you have no present symptoms of health issues, you might still have some underlying medical conditions? Yes, it could be something serious like high blood pressure or something minor that could lead to serious medical condition. Therefore, it becomes vital to understand the importance of annual physical exams. Yes, it is one of the finest ways to prevent many health issues and promote good overall health.

What are annual physicals?

Annual physicals are the exams that are performed once every year to ensure good overall health of the patient. These exams include thorough checkups of an individual’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Health experts recommend these tests to promote healthy living by identify underlying diseases and prevent further loss. Therefore, to undergo these tests, you do not necessarily need to feel sick.

How to prepare?

Firstly, you need to speak with your family to gather information about their health history. Yes, your physician may ask you numerous questions associated with you and your family’s medical history. You also need to provide information about any over-the-counter or prescribed medications that you might be taking. You can consult your doctor whether you need to fast for few hours for any of your annual physical blood test. You need to be honest with your doctor in answering questions whether it is about your mental health, sexual activity, smoking, or drinking habits of yours.

What will be checked?

Even though annual physicals may vary from doctor to doctor, but it can include the following-

• Checkup of vital signs like blood pressure, heart rate, etc
• Checkup of the cardiovascular system
• Full checkup of major organs
• Diet and lifestyle habits
• Blood tests to check cholesterol, glucose levels, etc
• Tests of vision
• Checkup for HIV
• Vaccination status for certain diseases

At the end, we can say that you should schedule your annual physical without any delays, as it is all about your health and wellbeing. Remember, your ultimate goal behind undergoing these tests is to ensure that there are no existing diseases and if there are any, they should be treated immediately.