08 Feb 2023

The Full-Body Check Up - A Great Addition To Your Life

As we exit from the pandemic, people everywhere are paying more attention to their health. No matter what your age or your lifestyle, having a regular full body check-up is a great way of reassuring yourself that all is well. It’s also an excellent way of picking up any signs that something may be wrong at an early stage before things become more serious. Many diseases can be cured if only they are caught early enough.

Having your health constantly monitored can help you improve your life expectancy because as well as diagnosing any problems early, you can receive tips from the doctor about lifestyle changes that may make all the difference to how long you live and how well you are. More and more people are realising the value of having a regular full body health check as the testing can flag up any underlying problems, early.

There are several very compelling reasons why you should make sure that you have a full medical check up each year

Some people think they don't need it because they're young and it's true that the older we are the more likely things are to go wrong.

That does not mean to say that nothing ever goes wrong in a young body, of course it does and starting early with a lifelong commitment to our health through a yearly check-up is a great habit to be in.

For example, the measurement of blood glucose levels. If yours has been found to be a bit on the high side, although you are not a diagnosed diabetic, knowing that your glucose levels are rising will enable you to make the tweaks you need to your lifestyle and diet. This will help you to bring those glucose levels back into normal range before they push you into diabetes.

Early Diagnosis

Early diagnosis of any problem is always the best course of action; an ounce of prevention is   worth a pound of the cure. Easy diagnoses allow medical professionals to identify a problem where a more serious condition is likely to develop and take action to ensure that it doesn't.

It is easy to brush off things like feeling tired or sluggish or having regular headaches, as just being overworked or with 100 other excuses, but surely it would be better to know for sure that nothing is wrong. 

Having a yearly full body check-up will reassure you and help you make changes to your lifestyle or any habits that may be contributing to your symptoms, or at worst might diagnose a developing problem and allow you to get early treatment

Detecting issues in our family medical history

There are some diseases that are genetic, meaning that they are passed down through the generations. Some of these such as heart disease, psychological problems and diabetes have been found to have quite a strong link to our inherited health. 

When you have a yearly full body check-up, your doctor will keep any family medical history in mind when he examines you and especially if you report any particular symptoms that might be an indication of the onset of a familial condition

Checking all our vital signs 

There are some baseline investigations that are always undertaken by doctors because they give them a very good indication of our general condition. Heart rate, temperature in blood pressure are some of these baseline investigations, and you will find in a full body check-up they will form part of the examination. 

By measuring the health of our hearts we can have various investigations such as pre and post exercise heart monitoring, which will give doctors a very good idea as to how the heart is performing.

Cancer checks

What we know as cancer is actually a situation where the cells of our bodies divide too rapidly causing a tumour to form, made up of these excess cells. Cancer is still a major killer but without doubt early diagnosis will make the prognosis much better. Some cancers can be classed as being hereditary although science has not gone as far as to say definitively, that family history is the cause. 

Some of the most common cancers with a familial link are breast cancer in women, colon cancer and testicular cancer in men. A yearly full body check-up can be invaluable in spotting in the early signs of these cancers so that the sufferer can be treated promptly. If there is a history of cancer in your family it is even more important that you check your own health on a regular basis.

Getting older puts us more at risk of developing conditions that are associated with ageing. As we age it may be a good idea to have health screening twice a year so that our respiratory health and body mass index can be monitored and our doctor can advise us on health and lifestyle issues that we may need to change. 

Are you experiencing any of the symptoms outlined in this article?

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Full Body Check-up Tests

As well as a very thorough physical examination and a discussion of your social and family history and your own medical history, and along with an ECG (electrocardiogram) A total of around 45 blood tests will be taken within the basic full body check. This number will increase with the extra levels available. 

These tests will be:

• Your full blood profile where all elements of your blood will be examined
• Inflammation and infection markers
• Screening for cholesterol; the levels of LDL which is known as ‘bad cholesterol’ and the levels of HDL known as ‘good cholesterol’, and your triglycerides levels
• The function of your kidneys will be measured including their hydration and filtration functions that perform the task of ridding the body of waste
• Your liver function, Gamma GT, ALT, and AST enzymes all of which are found in liver cells and which will leak into our blood when there is liver damage. Albumin and bilirubin will also be measured.
• Any markers that highlight muscle damage and can help by indicating damage to the heart.
• Screening of Calcium levels, for conditions of the heart, nerves, the bones, teeth and kidneys.
• Levels of Potassium
• Levels of Sodium
• Iron Profile including Serum and Ferritin levels
• Glucose levels to check the blood for any signs of diabetes
• Levels of vitamin D
• A full screening of thyroid function including levels of TSH, T4 and T3
• A full urine analysis that will highlight any signs of infection, sugar or protein

PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen test for men) That will check protein in the blood that is produced by non-malignant or malignant cells in the prostate gland to check for early signs of prostate cancer.

• An HPV and a smear test for women to screen for all types of HPV including high risk
• Full screening of hormone levels, to include testosterone, oestrogen, prolactin and progesterone Hormone Screen: Including oestrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and prolactin

According to the finding of the first blood tests your doctor may order some additional testing for cancer markers, deficiencies, food intolerances and for any allergy profiling that is necessary

Book your full body check-up today with a call to our knowledgeable team.

Our packages for Full Body Check-up

There is no doubt that following the pandemic, people have been focusing more on their health and we have seen more and more people booking full body check-ups at our clinic.

With the time during the pandemic having given us time to concentrate on our health people are making efforts to adjust their lifestyles and to really look at their health and the problems they may be storing up for themselves in the future.  We can help this process by offering a full body check-up that will give you complete peace of mind and reassurance or indicate areas in which you need to pay attention to possible.

Our full body check-ups ensure that of the body is scrutinised for any signs of early problems, malfunctions or abnormalities, so that we can take action before the situation gets any worse. 

Our full body check-ups are comprehensive and we can customise health screens to address any specific worries you may have:

1. To check the abdomen: You will have an ultrasound of your abdomen and pelvis too check the health of your internal organs such as the spleen, go bladder, kidneys liver and the pelvic area in general.
2. Urine and Blood testing: Kidney function as well as any evidence of blood clotting assessment of metabolic rate etc. can be assessed with these tests.
3. BMD. (Bone Mineral Density): With this test any bone loss will be measured.
4. Testing for the heart: On ECG as well as 2D echocardiography and a chest X-ray will all help the doctor to assess heart rate function and structure. CT Coronary Angiography is a test to that identifies blood supply through the arteries.
5. CT Screening of Neck Vessels (Carotid):  This test assesses the health of the internal carotid artery while CT calcium storing can indicate whether or not the carotid artery has been blocked by plaque
6. Testing for diabetes: Fasting blood tests will be done to check for blood glucose levels
7. Eye health: In this test the artist will be checked to see that there are no problems and that vision is good with or without correction
8. Hepatitis testing: This is a test for the presence of hepatitis B
9. Kidney Function testing: This test will check uric acid, serum creatinine and blood urea, markers that are used to assess the function of the kidneys and to assess the presence of any infection.
10. Lipid Profile Testing: This form of testing will check cholesterol levels
11. Liver Function: This test will assess the number of enzymes in the blood and if the liver function is optimum. 
12. Prostate PSA testing: This is a test to measure the levels of PSA in men to assess the health of the prostate gland
13. Lung Function Testing: Test that will assess how well the lungs are working
14. Mammography & Smear testing: The breasts and the cervix respectively can be assessed with these tests to detect any abnormalities.
15. Thyroid Function: This is a series of thyroid assessment tests done to check on various levels within the thyroid
16. Body Fat Percentage testing -This test is used to measure the total amount of fat in a person’s body.
17. Vitamin assessment - This is a test used to assess levels of vitamin within the body and identify any deficiencies.

Where to Get a Complete Health Check

For a full body health check, do your homework and read the reviews of private clinics in London offering this service. A Google search will bring up local clinics in your area that offer this service.

Concerned about any of the issues raised in this article? It's well worth undergoing a full body health screening to check for underlying issues, with 4 GP appointments included in all Advanced and Elite MOTS throughout 2023.

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Finally:

Making time each year to have a full body check-up really can be the difference between good health and suffering with illness that could have been prevented had you been able to take action in time.  Whether you are young or old, male or female, everybody can benefit from a regular check on their health, rather than waiting until symptoms become obvious to see a doctor. Making adjustments to your lifestyle and diet may be all that is needed when you are younger but as we age we run more of a risk of developing health problems and these can also be highlighted and caught in time when you have a regular full body check-up each year.