Having a healthy lifestyle and taking measures to prevent illness whenever possible is the best way to ensure a long and healthy life. Talking about taking measures to prevent illness, one of the best things you can do to keep the diseases at bay is get physically examined every now and then. A vital part of preventive medicine, a physical examination is important for all people regardless of their age, activity level, or gender. Following is a detailed look at this.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), every adult including healthy individuals should undergo a physical examination at a frequency recommended by their primary care physician or another healthcare provider. There are many reasons a physical exam is necessary including:
- Screening diseases
- Updating vaccinations
- Maintaining a relationship with a doctor in case of illness
- Encouraging a healthy lifestyle
- Assessing the risk of future medical problems
Over time, the performance of preventive services has changed considerably. Today, these services are customized according to the personal and family health history, risk factors, and the health status of an individual. Let’s now take a look at the why a physical exam is important.
Why A Regular Physical Examination Is Important
Vital for assessing the current health of an individual, a physical examination helps to detect preventable diseases early on. Additionally, the exam gives an individual and his/her doctor the opportunity to draft a personalized health plan that advocates healthy lifestyle choices and suggests the required behavior modifications. Examinations are something most people especially the healthy ones often forego. However, this should not be the case as these exams can help a person to live a longer, healthier life.
As mentioned above, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) highly recommends examinations. The reason for this is simple: a physical exam allows a person’s physician or healthcare provider to compare measurements of cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and body mass index (BMI) and recommend the required behavior/lifestyle changes. There are many benefits of undergoing the aforementioned examination. Following are some of them.
Physical Exam Forms
Screening Of Diseases
The first and foremost benefit of undergoing the aforementioned examination is disease screening. The screening tests are an important part of the exam process. By detecting the treatable diseases early on, the screening tests help prevent them. Most diseases are treatable if they’re detected early on. However, if screening tests are not performed, the diseases will go undetected till they reach a critical level and become life threatening.
Part of the examination process, preventive screenings generally follow age and gender-specific guidelines. However, there are times when physicians recommend screening tests based on the unique needs of the concerned individuals. Regardless of how they’re performed, the screening tests included in the examination process can help a person to prevent/ delay a number of diseases. Following are some of the screening tests included in the examination process:
- Diabetes
- Hearing and vision loss
- Osteoporosis
- Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
- High blood pressure and cholesterol
- Certain types of cancers such as prostrate, breast, skin, colorectal and cervical cancer
Risk Factors Assessment
Another benefit of the aforementioned examination is the assessment of risk factors. Factors that indicate a person’s risk of developing certain medical conditions include glucose levels, measurements of blood pressure, cholesterol, family health history, BMI, and lifestyle behaviors. During the physical exam, physicians discuss all of the aforementioned risk factors with patients. By assessing the risk factors in patients, physicians are able to suggest ways of managing/controlling the risk factors for diseases.
Modification Of Lifestyle
Behaviors that contribute to a long and healthy life include not smoking, avoiding, or minimizing the intake of alcohol, getting enough sleep, consuming a healthy diet, maintaining an active lifestyle and achieving a healthy weight. After addressing these behaviors during the exam process, patients, and physicians can discuss related opportunities, obstacles, and changes.
Vaccination Updates
Receiving immunizations that protect against serious, preventable diseases is important for each and every individual. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), preventable diseases cause a significant number of disabilities, illnesses, and deaths. Here preventable diseases mean diseases that could have been prevented with vaccinations. A physical exam gives physicians an opportunity to find out and discuss the immunizations required by patients. This is turn allows the patients to keep the preventable diseases at bay and stay healthy for longer.
Patient/Physician Relationship
The final benefit of undergoing the aforementioned examination is maintaining a patient-physician relationship. The exchange of information between an individual and his/her doctor is the most important part of the examination. By regularly visiting a physician for a physical exam, an individual will develop a relationship with him/her. A trusted physician who knows everything about your health can effectively address your medical questions and concerns. This in turn allows you to maintain a healthy weight.
There you have it—five benefits of undergoing a physical exam. Take measures to prevent illness is one of the best ways to ensure a long and healthy life. Getting yourself physically examined on a regular basis is an effective preventive measure to prolong life. For this reason, regular examinations should be a healthy priority for you. Now that we’ve discussed the importance of a physical exam, it’s time to take to look at how you can get the most from the examinations.
Physical Exam Templates
How To Get The Most From An Exam Process
As mentioned above, the interaction between patient and physician is the most important part of the exam process. Preparing well for the interaction with the physician is how a patient can get the most from an exam process. A good way to prepare for the interaction with the doctor is collecting important information including a list of current concerns, list of all current medications and supplements, and a list of questions to ask the doctor.
In addition to the above, a patient should be ready to discuss any new diseases or conditions that have occurred among his or her family members since the last exam. This is important because family history can affect the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and various cancers. Individuals should note the aforementioned changes and inform the physician about them during the exam process. To get the most from an exam process, lifestyle behaviors that affect the health of an individual such as tobacco and alcohol use, stress level and drug, activity level and diet should all be discussed in detail during the process.
It is important for the doctor to know how individual lives, works and plays. Only after knowing these things, the doctor will be able to assess the risk of certain conditions and diseases and develop an effective heath plan. Finally, patients must provide accurately and the most up-to-date information if they want to get the best possible guidance. Physicians use a physical examination form to note down all of the information provided by patients. Take a look at a physical examination form template if you want to know what’s included in the form. Talking about templates, today the templates of many medical forms are available online including a eye test forms.
Coming back to the subject at hand, regular examinations provide physicians the opportunity to discuss and advise patients on the aspects of their lifestyles affecting their health. Topics that are likely to be discussed during the examination include injury prevention, safe sex practices, substance abuse, exercise, and nutrition. An important part of the examination process, the counseling session allows physicians and patients to discuss the obstacles, opportunities, and changes faced by the latter. If you haven’t done it already, make an appointment for a physical examination today. By doing this, you will be able to find, diagnose and treat problems early on. This in turn will allow you to live a longer and healthier life. Now that we’ve discussed how to get the most from an exam process, it’s time to take a look at what physical examinations address and entail.
Sample Physical Examination
What Does The Examination Address And Entail?
The general purpose of an examination is determining how the body of an individual is performing. However, your doctor may choose to focus on certain areas. For example, the examination process may include additional cholesterol and diabetes screenings, blood tests and blood pressure checks if heart disease runs in your family. Also, your doctor may use the physical exam as an opportunity to discuss future prevention measures based in your personal health history, age, and test results. Generally, the following things are included in an examination:
- Updated healthy history: This includes changes and new developments in your health history including information related to medication, supplements, allergies, and recent surgeries
- Vital sign checks: This includes checking your respiratory rate and heart rate and taking a blood pressure reading
- Visual exam: This includes reviewing your appearance for signs of any potential conditions. In the visual exam, the doctor will check the different parts of your body including eyes, chest, head, abdomen, nervous system functions, and musculoskeletal system
- Physical checks: This includes palpating or touching parts of your body, testing your reflexes and motor functions, examining your rectum and genitalia, and checking your skin, hair and nails
- Laboratory tests: Laboratory tests are the final part of the examination. The tests include a complete metabolic panel, a complete blood count, and a lipid panel
The majority of the examinations are performed in the doctor’s office. However, the examinations may be completed at a hospital or imaging center when additional imaging or screening tests are recommended. Regardless of where they take place, examinations are recorded using a physical examination form. So, what does this form include? Let’s take a look.
A form used during a physical exam, a generic physical examination form includes the following things related to the patient:
- Name
- DOB
- Gender
- Age
- Height
- Weight
- Pulse
- Blood pressure
In addition to the information related to the patient, the form includes a list of diseases which are marked as normal or abnormal depending on the condition of the patient. The last part of the form includes the physician’s signature, the physician’s address, and the date. Hopefully, now you know what an examination and the form used to record it addresses and entails.
Generic Physical Examination
Do you want to live a long and healthy life? If yes then you must take appropriate measures to avoid the preventable illnesses. One of the best things you can do to prevent/delay illnesses is undergo a physical examination. By getting yourself physically examined on a regular basis, you will ensure that your doctors know about your health problems, family health history, and risk for various conditions and diseases. Once your doctor knows about all these things, he/she will be able to suggest you the changes in behavior or lifestyle required to prevent diseases, overcome health problems, or lower the risk for chronic conditions.
In order to record the information revealed during the examination process, your doctor will use an examination form. Take a look at the physical examination form template available online to find out what the examination form entails.
Physical Examination Video