8 Medical Tests You Should Do To Prevent Illnesses Early On

Nov 20, 2018

In order to reduce your risk of serious disease and enjoy continued good health, you should ensure you’re getting the proper screening tests each year.

Screening tests are used to alert you and your healthcare provider to existing, potential, and borderline health problems.

The earlier many of these health problems are identified, the more treatable and manageable they are in many cases. So, what screening tests do you need to know about?

Family history and medical history of disease often results in some people needing earlier and more frequent screenings, but there are also some screenings that all adults, regardless of age or history, should be completing yearly. Let’s explore the top eight:

The American Cancer Society estimates that around 3.3 million Americans per year are diagnosed with skin cancer.

Once you’re 18-years-old, you should begin doing self-checks every month of your skin, especially if you’re exposed to the sun frequently, have fair skin, or have many moles. Look for unusual skin discolorations, lesions, bumps, and changing moles.

Schedule an appointment with a dermatologist immediately upon finding anything unusual. You may need a routine screening with a dermatologist if you have a personal or family history of skin cancer or blistering sunburns.

During a professional skin cancer screening, the dermatologist will examine suspicious growths, moles, lesions, and discolored areas across your entire body. If nothing is found, you should be done in about 20 minutes.

If the physician suspects a problem area, then he may want to take a closer look with a lighted magnifying glass called a dermatoscope. The dermatologist may also want to take a biopsy, which is a skin sample, of any suspect areas.

Cholesterol screenings can be done at walk-up clinics, which are commonly set up at retailers and health fairs, or by appointment at a doctor’s office.

It involves a simple blood test that measures your triglycerides, LDL (bad cholesterol,) and HDL (good cholesterol) to provide a total cholesterol level. You want this number to be under 200 mg/dL.

Sometimes, your doctor may ask you to abstain from food and drink nine to 12 hours before the test. Otherwise, you shouldn’t try to alter your diet before the test.

Cholesterol screenings every four to six years are recommended by the American Heart Association for those age 20 and above if you have risk factors like diabetes, tobacco use, obesity, or a family history of stroke or heart disease.

If you don’t have any of the risk factors for high cholesterol, then the recommended age to start cholesterol screenings for all adults is 35-years-old and up.

Women should have these tests every three years once they turn 21-years-old. The tests look for cellular changes that are indicators of cervical cancer and determine the need for further testing, such as through biopsy.

Catching cervical cancer early is vital to treatment and prognosis. Thanks to the Pap smear, the cervical cancer death rate has declined by about 70% since the introduction of the test (otherwise knows as the "Papanikolaou" test) in the 1940s.

There are five types of hepatitis. While similar, they require different treatments and recovery times.

The CDC estimates that 4.4 million Americans have hepatitis B or C, many of whom are completely unaware they have it.

This inflammatory liver condition is most commonly caused by a viral infection. Untreated hepatitis, especially hep C, can deteriorate your immune system and leave you open to liver cancer or cirrhosis.

The CDC has testing recommendations based on a list of criteria for both one-time and routine screenings.

Like cholesterol screenings, basic diabetes screenings are also commonly available at walk-up health fairs and booths. Of course, your primary care physician can perform the screening, too. At a physician’s office, you may be asked to have an A1C blood test, undergo a glucose tolerance test, and/or a fasting plasma glucose test.

All adults should get a diabetes screening twice per year. Keep in mind that diabetes in young people are often symptomless or attributed to other lifestyle factors. Early signs may include insatiable thirst, fatigue, weight loss and more that you can find on the NHS website. 

Any time you suffer urinary problems and every time you have your annual physical, you should have a urinalysis screening. This test enables doctors to identify urinary tract infectious processes, and it’s also a useful tool for early detection of everything from kidney and liver disease to diabetes.

Lab personnel will visually examine the color and consistency of the urine, test it chemically for disease processes, and then look at samples through a microscope to detect cellular abnormalities.

An abnormal urinalysis may require subsequent screenings through blood, X-ray, and urine culture.

Your yearly physical should include a blood analysis to detect blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and determine how far they’ve spread into the body if they do exist.

All adults should get an annual bone density screening. Almost 10 million of all elderly Americans, most of whom are women, are affected by bone weakness and deterioration. It can be a cropping and life-altering ailment.

The good news is that a simple bone density test can help identify bone loss and enable treatment to prevent further deterioration. A urine sample and x-ray measure your bone mass and rate of loss. If the bone density is low, signaling osteopenia or pre-osteoporotic states, your doctor might recommend calcium and vitamin D supplements.

Did you find this list of adult screenings useful? If so, pass it along to friends and family so they can get busy on their screenings, too. Leave us your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation by your doctor. Your health is important to us!