Although much of what you need to do to prevent illness is up to the lifestyle you choose, the help of a Health care provider, for example, a physician or licensed nurse practitioner, is also important. A routine physical exam will include a detailed medical history, a check of your blood pressure, weight, and various laboratory tests, including a blood lipid profile. A lipid profile is recommended for adults over age 20 every five years—or more often if indicated. The profile will help you to assess the risk of cardiovascular diseases by including at least a measurement of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. A wide variety of other tests for cardiovascular disease and screening for cancer may be indicated. Depending on age, sex, and individual circumstances, other screening tests and preventive measures are likely to be indicated. These tests will help you use the Lifestyle Checklist to monitor risk and track improvements in your level of risk after lifestyle modification.
In addition to helping identify aspects of your present lifestyle that are harming your health, a medical evaluation may also help guide just how and how much you need to change to minimize these risks and if any medications are needed, for example to help control blood pressure or blood cholesterol. Age and gender-specific recommendations on ways to stay healthy can be found at Healthfinder.gov. In my next blog I will present an easy way to monitor your health risks with a Lifestyle Checklist.
This blog presents opinions and ideas and is intended to provide helpful general information. I am not engaged in rendering advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures and suggestions in that are presented are not in any way a substitute for the advice and care of the reader’s own physician or other medical professional based on the reader’s own individual conditions, symptoms or concerns. If the reader needs personal medical, health, dietary, exercise or other assistance or advice the reader should consult a physician and/or other qualified health professionals. The author specifically disclaims all responsibility for any injury, damage or loss that the reader may incur as a direct or indirect consequence of following any directions or suggestions given in the book or participating in any programs described in this blog or in the book, The Building Blocks of Health––How to Optimize Wellness with a Lifestyle Checklist. References for most of the health related information in this blog can be found in the book, The Building Blocks of Health now available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Health-Lifestyle-Checklist-ebook/dp/B08RC3XRCY/. Copyright 2020 by J. Joseph Speidel.
