Invest In Your Health Today: The Role Of Health Screening
Invest In Your Health Today: The Role Of Health Screening
15 May 2023 | Article is written by Dr Lee Wang Loong (Chief Medical Officer (Southern Region), BP Healthcare Group)
(Image credit: Tirachardz/Freepik)
On 14 May 2013, the world was shook when pop culture icon Angelina Jolie shared the news of her bilateral risk-reducing breast removal surgery due to having detected – through screening – a gene mutation that increased her cancer risks. Having lost her mother to ovarian and breast cancer, she spoke of her decision to undergo testing for the BRCA1 gene (Breast Cancer gene 1). Her testimonial brought about a worldwide increase in awareness towards health screening and its role in making informed medical decisions pertaining to health risk reduction – a phenomenon widely known as the “Angelina Jolie Effect”.
Closer to home, the Department of Statistics Malaysia listed ischaemic heart disease as the leading cause of death – accounting for a whopping 18,515 deaths in 2020 (17% of total deaths in that year).
A recent data collected amongst 545 sudden natural autopsies gathered over a period of 5 years from the University Malaya Medical Centre shows that sudden cardiac deaths accounted for 65% of sudden natural deaths. One of the top mortality causes in government hospitals is from cardiovascular diseases with up to half of the patients who had the first heart attack died before reaching treatment facilities. How fragile life truly is, that it can be snuffed out with little to no warning!
The rise in the number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension presents a big challenge to the healthcare system. However, the truth remains that a lot of these diseases CAN actually be prevented by making deliberate lifestyle choices such as smoking cessation and increasing physical activity. To help us better make these informed choices, a thorough health screening is imperative.
Health Screening Process
(Image credit: Freepik)
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines screening as
“the presumptive identification of unrecognized disease in an apparently healthy, asymptomatic population by means of tests, examinations or other procedures that can be applied rapidly and easily to the target population.”
Many health conscious Malaysians do practise annual blood tests to screen for diseases such as diabetes. However, a more comprehensive approach may yield better outcomes due to the fact that there are a lot of “blind spots” not covered by blood tests:
- Tumour markers do not test for all cancers. They may be normal in many instances of early cancers. They may also be elevated in a lot of non-cancerous conditions.
- Ischaemic heart disease often has an insidious start, often undetectable through blood tests until the heart tissues die, by when it would have been too late.
- There are many diseases that cannot be detected by blood tests - asthma, gallstones, breast cysts, etc.
Many factors need to be taken into account when deciding which tests would be suitable for you. For instance, if you are a middle-aged man who is also a casual smoker, with a strong family history of heart disease but is otherwise completely well, your doctor may wish to include the following in your health screening program:
- Blood pressure measurement
- Body Mass Index (BMI) calculation
- Cholesterol test
- Fasting blood sugar test
- High-sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP)
- Treadmill ECG stress test
- Chest X-ray
You are also encouraged to get our DNA Wellness Profiling package to check your genetic predisposition towards a variety of health concerns including but not limited to nutrigenetics, weight management,sports genomics, allergies, personality and many more!
Early detection to prevent complications
- Undiagnosed and untreated diseases such as diabetes can have many facets of complications such as heart disease, kidney failure and stroke.
- Early cancer detection (ideally before its spread) ensures a higher success rate for both medical and surgical treatments.
- Early detection for sexually transmitted diseases so that you can protect your loved ones.
- Detection of other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis enables you to institute further steps to contain it e.g. quarantine.
- It costs far less to do yearly health screening and institute appropriate lifestyle modifications than to treat diseases lifelong i.e. medical insurance, hospitalisation bills, medication bills.
- If you are sick, your work productivity will be greatly reduced due to sick leaves, further debilitating your financial status.
- Detection of hereditary diseases such as thalassemia enables married couples to have an open discussion regarding starting a family and appropriate close follow-up for any child that is afflicted with the same disease.
- Diseases such as hypercholesterolemia are notorious for being asymptomatic yet widely prevalent among the community. Early detection opens up a window of opportunity of lifestyle modification - negating the need for medications.
It is hoped that through this simple sharing, you are able to gain valuable insight into the rationale of health screening and its multitude of benefits. It is not an exaggeration to say that a timely and well-planned health screening can potentially save your life. Take charge of your health with BP Healthcare, starting today!