Regularly check up on your health with annual physical exams.
Annual physical exams are a vital part of a preventative illness measure taken to ensure a long and healthy life. While parents often make sure that their children receive an annual exam, these checkups in adulthood is just as important. While nothing can replace the importance of daily exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, and following a healthy diet, health professionals can use an annual exam to keep ahead of serious illnesses.
Your doctor will ask about your family history in these exams, noting your vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature. These are the typical exams you may experience in your annual exam.
- General Appearance: Your doctor gathers a large amount of information about you and your health by simply watching and talking to you. How is your memory and mental quickness? Does your skin look healthy? Can you easily stand up?
- Heart Exam: Your doctor will listen to your heart through a stethoscope, listening for an irregular heartbeat or murmur.
- Lung Exam: Using a stethoscope, a doctor will listen for crackles, wheezes and decreased breath sounds. These and other sounds are clues to the presence of heart of lung disease.
- Head and Neck Exam: Your doctor may inspect your throat and tonsils, the quality of your teeth and gums, and ears and nose.
- Abdominal Exam: Your doctor can use a range of examination techniques to detect liver size and presence of abdominal fluid.
- Neurological Exam: Nerves, muscle strength, reflexes, balance, and mental state are often assessed.
- Dermatological Exam: Skin and nail findings could indicate an issue or disease in the body.
- Extremities Exam: Your doctor may look for physical and sensory changes. Pulses can be checked in your arms and legs. Examining joints can assess for abnormalities.
Male Physical Exam
An annual physical exam for men may include:
- Testicular Exam: A doctor will examine each testicle for lumps, tenderness or changes in size. Most men with testicular cancer notice a growth before seeing a doctor.
- Hernia Exam: Your doctor can check for a weakness in the abdominal wall between the intestine and scrotum.
- Penis Exam: A doctor might notice evidence of a sexually transmitted infection such as warts or ulcers on the penis.
- Prostate Exam: Your doctor can feel the prostate for its size and any suspicious areas.
Female Physical Exam
A woman’s annual exam might include:
- Breast Exam: A doctor may feel the breasts for abnormal lumps which could indicate breast cancer or even benign breast conditions. The doctor will also check the lymph nodes under the arm to ensure they are in good condition.
- Pelvic Exam: The pelvic exam allows examination of the vagina, vulva, and cervix. Routine checks for sexually transmitted infections are done and a Pap test is done to indicate if there is any sign of cervical cancer.
Make sure that you speak with your doctor about any questions or concerns you have about your health, regardless of how minor they may seem. Take your doctor’s warnings seriously.
Your health is something that should matter to you. Contact the insurance professionals at Donald Weiss Insurance Services in Santa Monica for all of your health care needs throughout Southern California.
