By TobiasHealth screenings are absolutely critical — why wouldn’t they be? After all, if you had a chance to see ahead of time that you were headed towards harming yourself, you would naturally want to take steps to avoid that type of pain in your life. It’s just common sense.
Unfortunately, the world of health care can be a tricky world to navigate through, as there’s a lot of things that you will need to figure out. One thing that you can do to boost your health is to start thinking about the type of screenings that you can do on your own in order to make sure that your health is headed in the right direction.
The first thing that you really want to be aware of is what you’re eating. A lot of people think that they know exactly what they’re taking in everyday, but after you keep a detailed food diary for a week you might be surprised! The other benefit of having the food dairy is that you can actually have your doctor look over it with you in order to make changes.
However, that’s not the only thing that you need to focus on. Your blood pressure matters as well. In order to really make sure that you will be able to get things under control, you need to have a blood pressure cuff. The digital versions aren’t expensive, and it’s a good way to make sure that you aren’t super stressing your body. The harder your heart has to work, the higher risks you’re taking of having problems as time passes.
What’s “normal” for your blood pressure? Well, the number that your doctor will be looking for is going to be about 120 / 80. Anything higher than that is going to make your doctor concerned and want to do more tests. Start taking your blood pressure from day to day and tracking it. If you see it getting higher, it’s time to set up another appointment with your doctor.
The last thing that you will want to make sure that you check periodically is your blood sugar. Unfortunately, diabetes is on the rise and you really have to make sure that you are watching out for excessive sugar in your life. The truth is that we really don’t need sugar — we just feel that we do. If you decide to make sugar part of your life, then you have to monitor your blood sugar to make sure that your body is still processing the sugar appropriately.
Believe it or not, blood sugar meters (glucometers) are not as expensive as they used to be. In fact, they’re very cheap — some of them even come with mail in rebates and discounts on the testing strips. The slight prick of pain that you experience from poking your finger will be well worth it when you can view your readings from day to day.
Like with all of these options — if you start noticing the results you’re getting aren’t where you would like them to be, it’s time to get a doctor involved.