Health Check - what to measure?

3 watchers

Kieren Oct 2012 3:26pm, 26 Oct 2012 3,505 posts	0 Kieren My employer is thinking of offering this as part of a flexible benefits package. The idea an an annual health check appeals to me for health reasons obviously but also to see any changes when altering training / diet etc. I hear that 'blood work' can test for markers of disease. I think horizon covered that on their fasting episode, where certain markers for bad health were reduced as part of a diet change. I have no idea what this 'blood work' is though. Does anyone have these done or can recommend some sorts of things that are interesting to track over time?
HellsBells Oct 2012 3:31pm, 26 Oct 2012 13,271 posts	0 HellsBells anything that has any evidence base and is of any practical use is offered by the NHS. Screening has a flip side. Anything that is done to an individual with no symptoms should not cause harm. Anxiety and stress provoked by meaningless "abnormal" results followed by unecessary and possibly invasive investigations, by definition causes harm. Most of these health checks are run by the private health companies as an income generator
Kieren Oct 2012 3:39pm, 26 Oct 2012 3,506 posts	0 Kieren The thing is, i have never had a health check on the NHS or would I request one. For a healthy symptom free person, something like this is a curiousity and should come out of your own (or in my case works pocket - which is still essentially my own). In a private study I was found to have an abnormal heart a few years ago. This doesn't affect me day to day but is nice to know, although I have to admit - during the waiting testing there was a lot of anxiety and stress on my part. The NHS would never have picked up on this unless treating symptoms around the same area.
WobblingTime Oct 2012 3:47pm, 26 Oct 2012 1,033 posts	0 WobblingTime In what way is your heart 'abnormal'? You can get a health-check from the NHS once you hit 40, but I echo what HB says. My experience of these privately offered 'health checks' do more harm than good, giving the 'worried well' something to fret themselves into a tizzy about. MrWT had one a few years back - the daft bint doing it didn't tell him he needed to fast before his cholesterol test. His results were therefore very worrying and it was only after seeing his GP, some days later, and explaining the test was just after lunch (chicken and bacon sandwich, lots of mayo) that he was reassured that he wasn't a heart attack waiting to happen.
DeeGee Oct 2012 3:55pm, 26 Oct 2012 13,017 posts	0 DeeGee I had a medical once when I signed up for a surgery when I was living in Sevenoaks. They gave me a BP test, and found me to be hypertense. I used to have to go back once a month to have it monitored, which I did after work on a Thursday when the surgery was open late. I was always hypertense. I had blood tests, but nothing was found to be terribly abnormal, just the sort of markers you'd have found in most men of my then weight. After the blood tests, I had an appointment on the Thursday morning instead, they discussed my results and gave me another BP test which was found to be normal. It was decided to just concentrate on my losing weight for fitness. I'm not hypertense now. What nobody had thought about during all this was the fact that my commute was a 35 minute standing room only one, and my doctor's surgery was a 20minute walk uphill.
HermanBloom Oct 2012 4:00pm, 26 Oct 2012 2,216 posts	0 HermanBloom I had the opposite experience to worrying after having a medical through my company. Got told I was in tip-top condition, so I immediately went home and had a tub of Ben and Jerry's to celebrate. Cookie Dough btw.
Kieren Oct 2012 4:03pm, 26 Oct 2012 3,507 posts	0 Kieren I guess an an analogy, a lot of runners are stats geeks and at a most basic level will track race times. Fetcheveryone has some great times to compare how you trained from one race to the next. Resting heart rate is something I loosely track. It's been as high as 70bpm and as low as 35bpm and now hovers around the low 40s which I take as a measure of health, however I'm don't think a heart rate of 70bpm would raise any eyebrows. I can test for body composition myself with calipers / scales. I can also get a very good idea of vo2max & lactate threshold with coopers run and Conconi Test. I guess my angle is from a point of general interest rather than with any specific health concerns
ChrisHB Oct 2012 4:08pm, 26 Oct 2012 8,070 posts	0 ChrisHB Approaching 60, I had one earlier this year, and the benefit it did me was to make me feel very pleased with myself. But when it came to "any further questions" at the end, the doctor could only offer to recommend a private this-or-that-ologist. I won't have another. But it must be optional whether the NHS offers them - my surgery doesn't.
Kieren Oct 2012 4:10pm, 26 Oct 2012 3,508 posts	0 Kieren WobblingTime, it's massive - common in anyone that does regular endurance work (cycling to work, running etc) and the right ventricle beats out of sync - which can also happen in endurance athletes. I found the following list of tests on a no doubt expensive private medical site. It lists the tests that were done in the book, The Four Hour Body. Some might be useful, some not at all. Without going back to the book (an interesting read) I am not sure why you might want to track changes in any of the values below. Testosterone (total and free) Estradiol Luteinizing hormone (LH) Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) Prolactin Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) Progesterone Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA-S Pregnenolone Cortisol IGF-1 Four Hour Body Recommended Tests for Females: Estradiol LH FSH Prolactin Thyroid panel DHEA and DHEA-S Progesterone Iron Cortisol Four Hour Body Recommended Tests for Inflammatory markers: These tests are used to assess your risk for heart disease and diabetes. C-Reactive Protein (CRP) Homocysteine Fibrinogen Glyco A1C Basic blood chemistry panel: red and white blood cells, metabolic profile, cholesterol, lipids (LDL, HDL, triglycerides) Liver enzymes: alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) Other Recommended Tests: Bod Pod body fat testing in Arizona Vitamin D status Berkeley Heart Labs or Advanced Cardio Lipid Panel Food Allergy Testing Doctor’s Data Urine Toxic Metals view sample test results Comprehensive Stool Analysis and Parasitology SpectraCell Nutrient Testing
bigleggy Oct 2012 4:12pm, 26 Oct 2012 4,062 posts	0 bigleggy My PCT offered me an 'MOT' cos I'm over 40. No symptoms of anything but one of the blood results came back funny and now I'm waiting to find out if I have something wrong with my kidneys. I have no idea if I'm glad I found out early or if I was happy living in ignorant bliss. Guess that will all depend on what they find (if anything)