What is a routine physical examination

The core of routine physical examinations is to screen for health problems that are highly prevalent in the general population and can clearly benefit from early intervention. The more expensive the program and the more comprehensive the coverage, the better. Many people choose luxury packages worth tens of thousands when they first come out. In fact, most of the money is wasted.

Last week, I accompanied my distant uncle to the community hospital to get a physical examination. When he came up, he pointed to the "Full Body Cancer Screening Package" on the brochure and asked for payment. He said that his neighbor was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer and he wanted to check all cancer-related items. I stopped him for ten minutes before I persuaded him to stop. He kept muttering that I was reluctant to spend money on him.

Actually, I am not reluctant to give up. The items set for routine physical examinations are based on evidence and are not just piled up casually. As for the height, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate that are measured before entering the door, many people just skip it because they find it troublesome, thinking that they are fine if they don't feel uncomfortable. In the past two years, I had a young man in the same department, who was only 28 years old. He avoided the blood pressure measurement table every time he had a physical examination. Last winter, he suddenly felt dizzy and couldn't stand and sent him to the emergency room. When he checked, his systolic blood pressure was 180. He was already a grade 2 hypertension. He will have to take medication for life. If he had paid attention to the blood pressure value in the physical examination two years ago and adjusted his work schedule to lose weight, he would never have reached this step.

Those tubes of blood drawn on an empty stomach are not randomly drawn. A routine blood test will check for anemia and invisible infection. Liver and kidney function are to "take a snapshot" of your metabolic organs. People who often stay up late, like to drink, and take painkillers for a long time, what's the point of staring at the changes in these items? They are all accurate, and blood lipids and blood sugar are the "hardest hit areas" for young people today. I read the summary of physical examination reports at work last month and found that one-third of people born after 1995 who just joined the company had excessive triglycerides. Most of them still have milk tea and fried chicken every day, and they don't take it seriously at all.

As for whether people are confused about chest X-ray or low-dose lung CT, there is no one-size-fits-all view in the industry. If you are under 40 years old, do not smoke, and have no family history of lung cancer, regular chest X-rays are enough and there is no need to pay extra for CT. But if you have a long-term smoking history and have immediate family members with lung cancer, you can just choose low-dose CT. The radiation dose is only one-fifth of that of ordinary CT. The probability of early screening for nodules is much higher than that of chest X-ray, which is more cost-effective.

There are also medical and surgical palpations that many people find embarrassing and skip. In fact, it is very cost-effective. An experienced doctor can detect many early abnormalities by touching the thyroid, breast, and listening to the heart and lungs. I used to volunteer at a physical examination center and met an aunt who originally did not want to undergo surgical palpation. The doctor persuaded her to find a breast nodule with poor mobility. She went for further examination and it happened to be early-stage breast cancer. She recovered very well after the surgery. If you have a history of thyroid nodules or breast nodules, just take the initiative to get an ultrasound of the corresponding parts. It costs about 100 yuan, which is much more useful than looking at a mess of items.

As for the full set of tumor markers, which has been extremely popular in the past two years, there are indeed two different views in the industry. One group believes that routine examinations for ordinary people are completely unnecessary. The false positive rate is too high. It is nothing to do originally. However, when a certain value is higher, it scares people to death and makes a lot of extra work. In the end, the examination is just caused by staying up late or catching a cold, which purely increases anxiety; the other group believes that adding CEA and AFP, which cost tens of dollars, is enough, which is helpful for early screening of digestive tract tumors and liver cancer. There is no need to check a full set of more than a dozen items, which is a waste of money.

For my annual physical examination, I choose the basic package of more than 300 yuan from the community hospital, plus a thyroid ultrasound - after all, my mother has a history of thyroid nodules. I don't choose other genetic tests or whole-body cancer scans. The money I save is better than buying some sports equipment and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.