Regular Health Checkups: Your Routine Safety Net

Chapter 36 · Vihang Rahul Vasa

There are a few simple checkups that your doctor will guide you on. These are not alarming: they are just part of staying one step ahead. Think of them as routine servicing for your body, just like you would service your car.

• Eyes: A comprehensive eye examination at least once a year by an ophthalmologist.

• Kidneys: Periodic kidney checks, a Renal Function Test (RFT, a blood test for serum creatinine and urea) and a separate urine albumin test, to ensure your kidneys are working comfortably. These are simple blood and urine tests: nothing to worry about.

• Liver: Since diabetes and fatty liver travel together, periodic liver checks, a Liver Function Test (LFT), an ultrasound (USG), and a Fibroscan where your doctor advises, catch silent liver changes early (see Chapters 7 to 9).

• Heart: Since diabetes can gradually affect cardiovascular health, a periodic cardiac checkup (ECG, lipid profile, 2D Echo, carotid Doppler) is a wise habit to adopt. This is purely preventive and keeps you informed.

• General Health: People living with diabetes can be slightly more susceptible to all types of infections. Stay up to date on your health. Regular health checkup recommended by your doctor is a small step that offers big protection.

Your doctor will set the right frequency for regular health checkup based on your individual health. The key message here is simple: stay in touch with your doctor regularly, and you will always be in safe hands.

One practical word before we leave this chapter, this is my personal view, from my own experience, about the test packages that laboratories and diagnostic centres offer, though no one is ever forced to take them. I understand the appeal: for the same money, more tests feels like a better deal. But please pause and think about what you are actually testing. A package is a bundle of tests, not medical advice: it includes many tests your doctor never asked for, and often misses the very examinations you truly need. And there is a heavy penalty that nobody mentions: several dozen results, with a few stray values printed in red or bold, landing in the hands of a person who is already worried, with no doctor sitting beside them at the very moment of receiving the report to explain that most of it means nothing. That is not information; that is fuel for fear and sleepless nights of searching the internet, trying to understand every number printed in red or bold letters. The wiser path is simpler and usually cheaper: do exactly the specific tests your doctor has prescribed, at the frequency your doctor has set: nothing more, nothing less. Your doctor does not need dozens of numbers; they need the right ones. So make this your rule: speak to your doctor before booking any test, take their guidance, and do exactly as your doctor says, and you keep your peace of mind.

A word of balance:

Packages themselves are not to be blamed. A well-curated, customised preventive health package, offered by a proper medical centre and taken under your doctor’s supervision, can be a convenient way to complete the very tests your doctor wants done, and can prove genuinely valuable in detecting a silent condition early, while there is still ample time to correct its course. The difference lies in who designs it. Let your doctor choose the list.

Illustration: Chapter 36 illustrated summary. Checks chosen for the individual include eyes, kidneys through blood and urine, liver, heart and general health.

Chapter 36 Checks chosen for the individual include eyes, kidneys through blood and urine, liver, heart and general health. Tests and timing are doctor-selected.

Chapter at a glance: an AI-generated illustration to be read with the chapter, not instead of it. The people shown are not real.