The Importance of Your Annual Physical Exam

Despite this being one of the only times throughout the year many of us see our doctors, making time for your annual physical can feel a bit like an inconvenience. You may even view your routine checkup like you view getting an oil change—a necessary hassle.

However, your routine physical exam is vital to your lasting health and wellness. If you're thinking about making healthy changes in the new year, scheduling your annual physical exam is the perfect start to your wellness journey.

Your Annual Physical Exam

The goal of your annual physical exam is to detect any conditions as soon as possible as well as to encourage and support preventative care.

While the minimum suggested frequency for your physical exam is yearly, your routine checkup could happen multiple times a year depending on your age and risk factors.

The National Library of Medicine has different recommendations for health screenings based on your age and gender, but there are certain aspects of your screening that will be common no matter how old you are, including:

• Health screenings and blood work
• Assessing your risk factors for future medical conditions
• Discussing strategies for a healthy lifestyle
• Updating your vaccinations
• Checking your blood pressure

Depending on your age and medical history, you may also need to include other exams in your yearly regimen like an eye exam, a hearing test if you notice any hearing loss, a thyroid exam if you're at risk of thyroid disease or diabetes screening if you have obesity, high blood pressure, a close relative with diabetes or you are prediabetic.

Your Annual Blood Work

Screenings during your physical exam will most likely involve your doctor ordering a blood test. The most common types of blood tests are the complete blood count and complete metabolic panel.

The complete blood count test measures different aspects of your blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. This test helps detect things like infections, diseases impacting your immune system, blood cancers and can even help diagnose anemia.

Your metabolic panel will test the levels of eight different materials that are present in your blood, including:

• Glucose
• Calcium, sodium, potassium, carbon dioxide and chloride
• Blood urea nitrogen
• Creatinine

If you have too much or too little of these substances in your blood, it could be a sign that you have a serious health condition impacting how your kidney's function, your blood sugar levels, your metabolism or your electrolyte balance.

Additionally, your doctor may order a comprehensive metabolic panel which check the levels of additional substances and proteins that are found in the liver.

These tests can also help determine the health of liver and kidneys as well as your blood protein levels and the acid and base balance within your body.

In addition to these two blood tests, a lipid test is often also done as part of regular checkups to measure cholesterol levels. How often you need to have your cholesterol checked will depend on your family and health history.

Your Additional Annual Screenings

Depending on your gender and age, there are a number of additional screenings that may occur during your annual checkup. These can be based on risk factors established in your blood work or family history. They can also be based on your lifestyle and personal medical background.

You will likely get screened for the following at some point in your lifetime:

• Colon cancer
• Lung cancer
• Diabetes
• Hepatitis C
• Sexually transmitted infections, which may include a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test and a syphilis test

For women, additional screenings may include a mammogram to test for breast cancer, a Pap smear to test for cervical cancer, a pelvic exam for signs of any conditions and bone density scans to test for osteoporosis.

Men can expect to also get screened for prostate cancer and receive a testicular exam to check for lumps, size changes and tenderness.

An annual exam is the best way to understand your physical health. Through screening exams and blood work, your doctor can help identify preventative steps to make sure your health journey is as smooth as possible.

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