HOW A REGULAR SCREENING COULD BE KEY TO SAVING YOUR LIFE

Irish Daily Mirror- Demelza de Burca - 30/10/2008

It’s the law that you cannot drive a car that hasn’t passed a full NCT. For a lot of us this can lead to sleepless nights fretting over whether testers will fail you for those slightly dodgy break lights.

However when it comes to our bodies Irish people have a very lax approach to health screenings. But it doesn’t have to be a scary process. Health screenings are in preventative measures to ensure that our bodies are in tip top condition. Irish adults are being encouraged to take a proactive approach by undergoing one of the many health screening options available.

Early detection is critical to the diagnosis and treatment of many illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Irish women should be extra vigilant as 2,000 of us are diagnosed with breast cancer every year which results in 650 deaths. Meanwhile, the number of women dying from cervical cancer in Ireland has increased by 1.5 percent every year since 1978. In Europe, a woman dies from cervical cancer every 18 minutes. In Ireland, 180 are newly diagnosed with cervical cancer and 73 women, on average, die from the disease each year.

This is scandalous when you consider that cervical cancer is a preventable disease.

With these facts in mind I booked an appointment with the Charter Medical Group for a “Medi Screen” and I was told to fast for 12 hours in advance (that’s for your blood glucose levels) and to wear clothes that you can easily slip on and off. Charter Medical was set up in 2005 by businessman and developer Paddy Kelly and John Gallagher.

The company’s vision was to create effective “patient centred” healthcare systems in partnership with the public and private sectors.

I am immediately put at ease when I arrive at the clean and queue free €20 million facility in Smithfield, Dublin. The everyday horrors that exist in Irish hospitals are nowhere to be found here. Medical team nurse Maura MacMahon fills me in on the two hour procedure. “A standard health screen assesses the risk of developing cardiac problems by checking body mass index and testing cholesterol levels and blood pressure. We will also assess kidney, liver and lung functions as well as provide advice on cancer awareness, diet and weight management, stress management and osteoporosis prevention”. These criteria have been developed to highlight the factors that cause medical complications which appear in otherwise healthy people. I am then introduced to Dr. Michelle Fahey who will be carrying out some of the tests.

Carried out in three parts- first I filled out a brief questionnaire on personality type.

Then Dr. Fahy took my body weight, body mass index and blood pressure, an ECG, taking blood for a full blood profile (that is cholesterol, blood count, gout, diabetes, liver and kidney function, haemo-chromatosis) and full physical examination.

Nurse MacMahon conducted eye and hearing check, urinalysis, lung test, a smear test and an ovarian tumour marker. The third part was a health lifestyle and dietary consultation where I was free to ask questions and talk about anything that was worrying me about my body and lifestyle. Every test was painless (although smear tests are an uncomfortable necessity) and it was over before I could worry about it.

My advice to anyone undergoing a health screen is to make a list of the things that you want to discuss with the doctor before you go into the clinic as they may slip your mind. There is really no excuse for not getting checked up- the peace of mind that all my parts are in mint condition is priceless.

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