ADULT & HEALTH

PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE FOR THE SMART ADULT

You are ultimately responsible for managing your own health and wellbeing. Being exposed to the stresses and unhealthy habits of the daily urban lifestyle can only threaten your wellness and reduce the quality of your life.

Most of the time, it is only when one is unwell that medical attention is sought. Malaysians in general do not receive all the important preventive services they need - that is, screening tests for early detection of disease, immunizations and education about healthy habits. Our Wellness Doctor, Dr Fariz Sazadilla(Assunta Hospital) shares a few screening tests or routine test for the everyday folk to get in touch with their health and wellbeing.

1. BLOOD PRESSURE MEASUREMENT  

    (to detect hypertension)

Who needs: All adults.

How often: Once every 2 years for those with normal blood pressure.

Comments: More frequent monitoring is required for those with readings over 140/90 and have existing co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes and heart conditions.

2. THYROID DISEASE SCREENING

Who needs: Woman 50 and over; those with high cholesterol, family history of thyroid disease or other risk factors.

How often: On professional advice.

Comments: If you feel you are susceptible to getting thyroid talk to your doctor about risk factors and getting screened.

3. CHOLESTEROL MEASUREMENT

Who needs: Men aged 35 and older (men should be screened from age 20-35 for those with the risk of coronary heart disease). Woman with risk of coronary heart disease should get screened from the of 20-45 or from 45 years old onwards if normal otherwise.

How often: Once every 5 years. More often if any results are abnormal or you have other risk factors.

Comments: Those at high risk for heart disease needing medical advice about lifestyle changes and possibly drug therapy and diabetics.

4. BREAST CANCER SCREENING (MAMMOGRAPHY)

Who needs: All woman 50 to 75; those in their forties or over 75 should discuss screening with their doctors.

How often: Every 1 to 2 years.

Comments: Certain women at high risk should also have both MRI and mammography starting at 30. Clinical breast exams are important to raise awareness. Consult your doctor should you fall under the high risk category and this includes previous history of invasive breast cancer or benign breast disease, a "first degree relative" with breast cancer.

5. GLAUCOMA SCREENING

Who needs: People at high risk, those over 65, very nearsighted or diabetic; those with sleep apnea or family history of glaucoma.

How often: On professional advice of eye specialist.

Comments: Most eye specialists advice testing all adults 40 and over every 3 to 5 years.

6. DIABETES SCREENING 

    (fasting blood glucose test)

Who needs: 1. A person with diabetic symptoms such as lethargy, weight loss, increase in urination and thirst. 2. A person with risk factors such as, above the age of 35 years, a BMI reading above 23kg/m2, family history of diabetes within 1st degree relatives, history of gestational diabetes mellitus and hypertension among others. 3. Pregnant woman above 24 weeks of gestation.

How often: Every 2 to 3 years.

Comments: Screening can be done using random blood glucose with a glucometer as well.

7. COLORECTAL CANCER SCREENING 

    (fecal occult blood test, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy)

Who needs: Everyone 50 years old and over; earlier for those at high risk. Most should stop at age 75.

How often: Fecal occult blood test annually plus sigmoidoscopy every 5 years or colonscopy every 10 years for those at higher risks. The high risk group includes those with a history of colorectal polyps/cancer/irritable bowel syndrome, family history of colorectal cancer and lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, alcoholism and a sedentary lifestyle.

Comments: Those with abnormal results need more frequent testing. X-ray with barium enema may also be done.

8. BONE - density testing

Who needs: Woman 65 and over; younger woman at high risk for bone loss; men above the age of 70 years.

How often: On professional advice.

Comments: Risk factors include being small-boned, sedentary, a heavy drinker or a smoker or having a personal or family history of osteoporosis.

9. STD TEST (sexually Transmitted Disease)

Who needs: Sexually active women 24 and younger; older women at increased risk (such as multiple partners).

How often: Annually or more often.

Comments: Men who have unprotected sex should also be tested.

10. PAP SMEAR (for early detection of cervical cancer)

Who needs: All women, starting at age 20 or when they are sexually active. Most can stop after 65.

How often: If results are normal, every 2 years until 30, then every 3 years after 30, if a woman smokes or has multiple sex partners or other risk factors, we recommend HPV DNA with testing.

Comments: Women can stop at age 65 if they have had normal result for 10 years, unless they are at high risk. Women who have had their cervix removed do not need to be tested.

11. PROSTATE CANCER SCREENING(prostate specific antigen or PSA)

Who needs: Men starting at age 50.

How often: PSA on professional advice.

Comments: Discuss the pros and cons with your doctor should you have a family history of cancer. Men should stop screening at age 75. 


 

Tips Living a Healthy Lifestyle

The year 2012 has seen the amount of women succumbing to lifestyle connected diseases rise outrageously. According to recent medical research, two out of every seven women die each year from diabetes, cancer, and/ or heart attacks. The results of such deaths are deprivation and frustration in families that are left while not mothers. Thus what will it very take to leave a healthy life? Is it that hard? Read on to search out out simply how you'll live a healthy lifestyle and ensure that you just shield your family from these lifestyle monsters.

Merely put, a healthy lifestyle consists of a healthy diet, no smoking, healthy weight, and a nutritious diet. As easy as this may sound, the trick is actually creating the tiny changes such as deciding to ditch the juicy burger for a healthy apple, get the drift?

To start off, living a healthy lifestyle is inclusive of a healthy diet. Sadly, most folks tend to consider a healthy diet as some boring diet filled with green tasteless veggies. Quite contrary to the current belief, you'll make your diet attention-grabbing and delicious. With the countless health recipes doing rounds on the web, there is no way you'll be able to miss a way to make a healthy meal that suits your style buds additional.

Exercise is also an essential part of each healthy lifestyle. Any movement that you make is indeed an exercise; the additional you make the higher for your body. It therefore goes unsaid that you must continually think about ditching the lift for the steps, take slow walks within the evening, and walk more usually. Keep in mind that for each 50 meters that you just walk, you truly scale back the risk of obtaining a heart attack, stroke, or diabetes by twenty%.

In addition to the healthy diet and exercise, you need to try and do away with unhealthy habits. A smoke here and then may seem harmless and pleasurable at the moment, however, what you're truly doing is sending yourself to a slow painful death. The same goes for alcohol; you need to reduce the intake of those 2 lifestyle dangers if not quitting all of them together.

Lastly, do way with stress. Being among the leading causes for lifestyle diseases, it is most advisable for you to look in to ways in which of relieving and managing stress. Just a heads up, bottling all the stress and pretending that everything is fine won’t do; instead it can only work to frustrate you additional. Taking a while off from your busy life to meditate and replicate on your life will do wonders in alleviating your life from stress.

So there you have it. Living a healthy lifestyle is neither as expensive as they make it sound nor does it include major transformations. You only need to take small effective steps that will eventually create a huge distinction in your life. Don’t be too scared to make changes in your life, it all starts with that initial step.

Breast Cancer Lumps for Men

The first step is a physical examination which man could perform on his own. If there is any lump it could be easily noticed as there are much less breast tissue in men than women. And if the cancer has advanced men could ...

Breast cancer as we all believe could occur in women only but reports have suggested that though the percentage may be quite less but yes men too could suffer from breast cancer. And often it is more deadly for the simple reason that it is too late when diagnosed. It is approximately at 60 years of age when it is diagnosed and by that time the tumor has grown very large. They become later stage tumors and involve lymph nodes and spread to other body parts as well.

As women are encouraged to go for frequent mammograms when they reach the age of 40, so the cancer gets diagnosed before and could be treated. There is much need for encouraging men also to undertake the mammogram to increase the survival rates. Some symptoms could also help men to diagnose whether they suffer from breast cancer. Though it would be the doctor who would give the final word but you would notice the first signs. Let us know what the symptoms are.

Though mammograms are a sure short way to diagnose this cancer but every man need not undertake this test. The first step is a physical examination which man could perform on his own. If there is any lump it could be easily noticed as there are much less breast tissue in men than women. And if the cancer has advanced men could notice it easily. The lump would appear red and there would be some irritation near the lump area. There would be no pain as the lump of breast cancer is not painful.

Whenever you notice any new lump formation in your breast, you should not waste time and report the matter to your doctor. He would examine you and would also collect information like any family history of breast cancer and also could ask you about any radiation exposure in the past. Even if you have taken medicines like antiandrogens or estrogens you could suffer from breast cancer as such medicines have a direct and powerful impact on the male hormone levels. .

If the doctor smells of something suspicious he could advise you to undergo a mammogram or a breast sonogram to clear any doubts. And if the lump appears to be cancerous the doctor might even ask to do a biopsy. It is important that even men increase their knowledge about this cancer and whenever they notice any abnormal change in the breast area, they should go to the doctor and talk to him. It could be a non cancerous lump which could be formed due to other health issues you have. But yes do not ignore them.