Taking stock of one’s health at year’s end or start

Just like the diligent grocer who takes an inventory of his stocks and sales as the year ends, a meticulous patient would seek professional assistance to assess his/her medical status.

Among senior citizens, record shows that 60 percent succumb to cardiovascular accidents (heart failure, cerebrovascular accidents, ruptured aneurysms). Thus they are advised to visit the cardiologist for proper guidance.

Diabetics and patients suffering from dyslipidemia (high in cholesterol), thyroid deficiencies, and renal conditions should consult their respective family physicians or internists for a progress report of their current medical status. To save a trip to their physicians, patients should prepare the results of their latest laboratory tests on:

1. Chest X-ray

2. Blood chemistry—fasting blood sugar, serum amylase for the pancreas, SGOT,

SGPT for the liver’s status, creatinine, BUN

for kidney performance, prostatic specific

antigen for senior males

3. Complete blood count—for a general

survey of nutritional anemia and the presence of infection.

4. Routine urinalysis for urinary tract infection, silent kidney stones or even bladder cancer.

5. Routine stool analysis for intestinal parasites, gastric ulcers or intestinal cancer.

For menopausal women with cancer history in the family, eliminate the most common malignancy in women (cancer of the breast) by having a mammogram. To clear themselves of the second most common neoplasm in women, get a papanicolaou smear or transvaginal ultrasound. Better still, to visit their gynecologist.

After all health evaluation procedures

are done, patients and their doctors can

sleep well and look forward to enjoy the next holiday season.

SANTIAGO A. DEL ROSARIO, MD, former president, Philippine Medical Association