Often times, people make a lot of excuses for deciding not to go to
their doctor. Just a few excuses include that they’re too young to worry about
it, they don’t have time and/or they already feel healthy. These are all bad
justifications for not going as research goes that even if you feel healthy,
regular check-ups saves lives, and you may not be as healthy as you think.
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Health Care |
As an example: According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), heart
disease claims more than 600,000 lives each year in the United States,
accounting for more than 1 in 4 deaths. This is brought up in the context of
getting regular check-ups for a very simple reason. A couple major risk factors
of heart disease are high blood pressure and cholesterol. While they have
virtually no symptoms, a regular check-up with a doctor can detect these
issues. If you don’t, you could be causing permanent damage to your arteries.
Of course you’ve heard the standard remarks that you need to eat better
and exercise to reduce health problems. Those are definitely very important in
the scheme of things, but did you know that sitting too much can cause severe
problems as well, even if you do exercise? In a recent study done by Kaiser
Permanente specifically on men, it was found that the men who were most
sedentary but also exercised the most still were 1.2 times as likely to develop
heart failure as those who exercised at a similar level but sat substantially
less. While the study was specific to men, they noted that the results were
likely transferrable to women as well. This issue is most often seen with
office workers since it is common to be sitting for eight hours or more. To
help curb this issue, it was recommended that for every hour at your desk, you
should be walking around for at least 10 minutes.
There are many more
maladies to be concerned about than just heart disease, but it makes an
excellent example for why going to your doctor can help detect if you have
warning signs. For this issue, and many others, your physician will likely be
able to give you ways to perturb the issue and get you back on track to a
healthier life.