It is easy to ignore the possibility of an illness when you are apparently healthy or keeping well seemingly. Moreover, you probably don’t want to worry about ailments unless you experience a symptom that you cannot ignore. It is natural to feel that way. However, given how easily different diseases and conditions are affecting people of all ages these days, going for regular health screening and being cautious is advisable. After all, prevention is better than cure.

Now, screening tests are often deemed concerning and you might be afraid of what the results might show. But that is not a good enough reason to avoid them. Remember that there are many advantages of health screening and they can give you an early warning about potential health issues. For example, studies show that breast cancer screening through mammography offers an impressive 41% reduction in women’s mortality in the following 10 years. We don’t need to tell you how helpful that is, right?

Also, the best part about health screening is that it allows early treatment, which reduces the possibility of a disease aggravating. To know more about the importance of screening test for our health, read on.

What is health screening?

Let’s start with the basics. Exactly what is health screening and when does the physician recommend it? A screening test is a kind of test done before you show any symptoms of a disease. It is conducted with the goal of detecting possible ailments or to find out if you are at risk of a certain disease.

Health screening tests are not a diagnostic tool to be exact, but they are used extensively by physicians to determine if you should be undergoing more specific tests to check if you have a particular ailment or if you are at a higher risk of contracting it.

It also makes sense to go for health screening tests at periodic intervals because the chance of being at risk of a certain disease despite screening is a small one. In other words, health screening protects you against potential risks that may otherwise lead to complications.

The importance of screening test for your health is greater when:

• You have a family history of specific medical conditions
• You cross a certain age
• Your lifestyle increases your health risks
• You have a medical history that increases your risk of getting specific diseases

Types of screening tests

If you have never been asked to go for a health screening test, you may not be aware of what they are generally like. There are many types of screening tests, and each one may need to be done with its own distinctive periodicity. Some types of screening tests, such as breast cancer screening, might be recommended after a certain age, for instance.

Even a physical exam by your doctor is a simple screening test example. The most common screening tests recommended by doctors are for:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Excess cholesterol
• Breast cancer in women
• Colorectal cancer
• Cervical cancer in women
• Obesity
• Lung health
• Liver health
• Kidney health
• Prostate cancer in men
• Osteoporosis

10 reasons why health screening is important

There are several reasons that help establish the importance of health screening. In general, the following are the most significant among the benefits of screening tests because they act as a guide for treatment.

1. Identifies underlying issues: One of the main advantages of health screening is that it allows you to spot when there is an underlying problem, one that has not yet manifested itself in the form of symptoms. There may be situations where you feel perfectly healthy and have not been experiencing any changes, but there may be something wrong with your physiology at a very deep level. You probably haven’t realized it or felt it yet. Hence, the importance of screening test lies in its ability to pinpoint such ‘invisible’ health issues.
2. Helps in early detection: Among the main benefits of screening tests is their usefulness in detecting certain conditions at early stages. When a condition is detected early, treatment can be started early too. This results in better, more positive outcomes, improving your chances of a full and quick recovery. Remember that early detection plays a significant role in reducing mortality and morbidity rates, which means that health screening may actually give you a new lease of life with a serious ailment.
3. Relieves anxiety: Especially in case of hereditary diseases that pass on from one generation of the family to the next, you might be highly anxious to know if you have the disease or not. This anxiety itself might lead to a slew of stress-related problems. The importance of screening test in such cases lies in the reassurance it can give you, so that you can stop worrying about a hereditary problem that you are not affected with. Early screening allows you to live a stress-free, healthy life, where you can pursue your dreams to the fullest.
4. Helps avoid unnecessary precautions: Often, you might hear so much about a specific ailment that you might take extra precautions to avert it, even going to the extent of changing your lifestyle or restricting it severely. However, that might not be necessary at all. So, one of the significant benefits of screening tests is that you can eliminate the possibility of such ailments so that you can stop taking unnecessary precautions that curtail your freedom.
5. Puts you in control: It becomes challenging to fight a disease when it has taken a strong hold of your system. Or you might end up needing serious medical intervention. However, when the same disease is detected at a very early stage, thanks to health screening, it enables you to get treatment on time and recover fast. So, in effect, one of the main advantages of health screening is that it gives you better control over your body and health.
6. Allows focus on crucial areas: A screening test throws light on specific health hazards that you are at risk of and it also tells the doctor what areas they need not be worrying about. This narrowing down of the potential risk areas allows the physician to work without distraction and focus where it is needed the most.
7. Catches the signs before complications: When it comes to health and wellbeing, you surely want to avoid emergency situations. And the simplest way to do that is by scheduling regular screening tests as suggested by the doctor. So, if you are wondering “why is health screening important”, one of the main reasons is because it identifies emerging issues on time before they lead to complications requiring emergency treatment.
8. Ensures early intervention and less invasive treatment: While this is not always true for all ailments, it does hold good for most. Be it simple health hazards, say high cholesterol, or more serious problems like colon cancer, early identification means the disease can be managed with simpler, less invasive treatment methods.
9. Helps you to take preventive care: As you age, your body’s defences also begin to break down. This is the reason why it is important to take better care of yourself when you get older. So, why is health screening important in this regard? It helps you to take preventive care and avert the possibility of common but dreaded diseases. For example, if your screening shows that your cholesterol levels are elevated, you can immediately start making changes to your diet and exercise regime, to prevent cardiovascular complications later.
10. Pinpoints ailments that are unexpected: You already know that lung cancer is a significant risk for smokers, but did you know that 10- 15% of non- smokers too suffer from this dreaded disease? What this data indicates is that even when you have no family history and no lifestyle factors contributing to a disease, it may still affect you. And the importance of screening tests lies in their ability to warn you of such diseases that may otherwise blindside you.

To conclude

Being healthy is the key to being happy, and the importance of screening test for our health cannot be emphasised enough. Apart from a number of advantages that it has to offer, as you can see, the importance of screening test lies in the fact that it gives you a stress-free life where you have the freedom to pursue your career and dreams without being bogged down by health concerns. With regular health screening, you can give yourself a better and healthier life.