The Importance of Cardiovascular Screening For Your Overall Health
Health screening for a variety of conditions becomes more important as we age. However, if you know you have a family history of a certain condition or disease, the impetus for regular health checks and tests becomes even more significant.
Testing for cardiovascular illnesses (those diseases and conditions that affect the heart) is a great way of getting peace of mind on various fronts. On the one hand, it can simply confirm a suspicion that there is something wrong. On the other, it can give you a clean bill of health – but with a caveat to get another health check further down the line.
Why choose cardiovascular screening?
The heart is a complex organ and believe it or not, the way illnesses such as heart attacks and other cardiovascular incidents affect men and women can differ greatly.
Women are much more likely to suffer from ‘silent’ heart symptoms, such as repeated attacks of indigestion, anxiety, palpitations, heart flutters, and cold sweats – which of course can be passed off as other illnesses and sometimes ignored. It’s important to seek help from a healthcare professional if you’re female and have any of the above symptoms that have come on suddenly or are unexplained.
Men, on the other hand, are more likely to suffer the better-known symptoms such as chest pain and pain in the left arm and therefore be diagnosed with a heart attack at the emergency room, or during other routine health checks.
Opting for cardiovascular tests, whether you’re male or female makes a great deal of sense. Undergoing a full health screening with Echelon Health is a way of putting your mind at rest. It can pick up heart conditions before you notice the symptoms, and you can also be tested for a variety of other illnesses too.
Better management of cardiovascular health
If a cardiovascular disease of some kind is found during a routine screening, it doesn’t mean there’s cause for panic. Rather, it means that if steps are taken to improve your health and lifestyle, you can have a better quality of life and hopefully avoid the need for long-term treatments.
Some dietary changes, and tweaks to your exercise routine are sometimes all that is needed to reduce blood pressure and lose a little weight. This can be enough to help with mild to moderate cardiovascular issues. Cessation of smoking and cutting back on alcohol can also help. Though there is evidence to suggest that an occasional small glass of red wine can be beneficial to your heart health.
Longer term and more complex interventions can be necessary if cardiovascular disease is more advanced. Here, medications like a daily dose of aspirin, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and statins can be used to help with high blood pressure, heart failure, or higher than average cholesterol levels.
If you’re at all worried about your heart health, it’s better to be safe than sorry and get checked out. Whilst screening for any health condition is great and very beneficial, it’s also good to be aware of your own body and any signs and symptoms of illness.
