Why have a health assessment ?

The benefits and reasons

Regular health assessments, or health screening, can help to identify aspects of your lifestyle that are detrimental to your health. For example, high cholesterol has no symptoms—yet people with abnormal blood cholesterol are three times more likely to develop heart disease than normal (INTERHEART study). Here in the UK, we have one of the highest cholesterol levels in the world with two-thirds of the population having cholesterol above the healthy level of 5.2 mmol/l. Average total cholesterol level in Glasgow (taken from MONICA, 2006) is 6.1 mmol/l.

• Excess body fat has been directly linked with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, insulin resistance, hyperglycaemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hyperuricemia, poor self esteem, erectile dysfunction, and reduced quality of life.
• The latest Health Survey for England (HSE) data shows that in 2009, 61.3% of adults (aged 16 or over), and 28.3% of children (aged 2–10) in England were overweight or obese. Of these, 23.0% of adults and 14.4% of children were obese.
• The Foresight report, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices project, published in October 2007, predicted that if no action was taken, 60% of men, 50% of women and 25% of children would be obese by 2050.
• A greater waist to hip ratio has been directly associated with coronary artery disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia.
• 37% of men and 34% of women in the UK have high blood pressure.
• 1 in 3 people die from cardiovascular disease. (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011.)
• Deaths from respiratory diseases (including influenza, pneumonia, chronic lower respiratory disease, bronchitis, emphysema and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and asthma) are higher in the UK than in any other EU member state. (Office of National Statistics, 2010.)
• Asthma levels rose by 114% in males and 165% in females between the 1980s and 1990s.
• Cholesterol is the single greatest risk factor for the nation’s biggest killer, coronary heart disease, contributing to almost half of all coronary heart disease-related deaths in the UK. Cholesterol is also a major risk factor in stroke, and it contributes to the increased risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease) associated with diabetes and obesity. (Department of Health, Health Survey for England 2003, Volume 2, Risk factors for cardiovascular disease.)
• Diabetes currently affects a known 2.8 million people. By 2025, an estimated 4 million people in the UK will have diabetes. (Diabetes UK.)

The doctor has been taught to be interested not in health but in disease. What the public is taught is that health is the cure for disease.

Convinced ? Then don’t delay !

If you see the value in having a health assessment, don’t put it off until next week or next month—contact us today to make an appointment or get more information. There’s no time like the present to get on the road to a healthier lifestyle!