People over 40 should focus on these items during physical examinations to avoid premature aging.

A friend of Huazi's who is in his 40s went to the hospital for an electrocardiogram because of constant palpitations. The results showed arrhythmia and myocardial ischemia. He was later diagnosed with hypertension, which reached 180/120 mmHg. The doctor frowned and told him that his physical condition was similar to that of a person in his 60s. If he could find the problem in time through a physical examination and intervene as soon as possible, he could avoid premature aging.

A friend said that he heard that many medical examination institutions are for making money, and going for a medical examination is a "tax on IQ". Spending money does not achieve the purpose of a health examination, so he has been reluctant to go.

1. It is recommended that people over 40 years old have a physical examination every year. Huazi advises friends that some physical examination institutions do offer various "physical examination packages" for profit, and some items are not very meaningful for health care, but are expensive. However, it is wrong to resist health examinations for fear of being "cheated". For middle-aged people over 40 years old, a physical examination every year is an important means to maintain health and prevent aging.

If you do not trust the medical examination institution, you can choose a large comprehensive public hospital for the medical examination. Because public hospitals are non-profit institutions, the prices are transparent and reasonable, and the doctors responsible for the medical examination have more clinical experience, the probability of missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis is lower, and if problems are found, follow-up treatment is more convenient.

2. Items that need to be checked 1. Blood pressure: Hypertension is the most common chronic disease and the main cause of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, so blood pressure is a must-check item. It should be noted that you should not think that blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg means you are safe.

When blood pressure exceeds 130/80 mmHg, it is considered high, which means the risk of disease is increased. You should pay more attention to quitting smoking, drinking, limiting salt intake, losing weight, exercising more, and maintaining a stable mood to prevent your blood pressure from rising further.

It is recommended that people who find that their blood pressure is high should also test it at home. If the blood pressure shows a trend of rising, active intervention must be taken to avoid the occurrence of hypertension.

2. Blood sugar: Modern people eat too much and move too little, and the incidence of diabetes is increasing year by year. Diabetes is regarded by the medical community as a "critical disease" like coronary heart disease, and it can also cause serious damage to the kidneys, so blood sugar is also a must-check item.

It should be noted that blood sugar cannot be checked only in the fasting state. It is also necessary to check postprandial blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin in order to accurately screen for early diabetes.

Normal fasting blood sugar should be below 6.1mmo/L, postprandial blood sugar peak should not exceed 11.1mmol/L, and glycosylated hemoglobin should be lower than 6.5%.

3. Blood lipids: The level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in blood lipids is the main raw material for atherosclerotic plaques, and LDL-C is a relatively hidden indicator. Even if it is elevated, it will not show obvious symptoms. Only by taking a blood test can we know whether LDL-C is elevated.

For people who do not have the "three highs" chronic diseases, LDL-C needs to be controlled below 3.37mmol/L; for people with chronic diseases, LDL-C needs to be controlled below 2.6mmol/L; for people who have already suffered myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction, coronary heart disease and other diseases, LDL-C needs to be controlled below 1.8mmol/L.

3. Pay attention to oral and ophthalmological examinations. Normal health examinations include examinations of the heart, lungs, stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder and other important organs, but many people ignore oral and ophthalmological examinations. After the age of 40, you should pay attention to oral examinations and check the condition of your gums and teeth. If you have gum calculus, you should remove it in time to prevent tooth loss.

In addition to checking vision, ophthalmology examinations also include checking the retinal arteries at the fundus. Especially for people with high blood pressure and diabetes, the degree of sclerosis of the retinal arteries can be checked to assess the condition of the whole body arteries.

4. Pay attention to screening for common cancers. Beware of cancer after the age of 40, and people at risk of cancer should undergo screening during physical examinations. For example, regular smokers should undergo low-dose spiral CT to screen for lung cancer; people with hepatitis B and long-term alcoholics should undergo abdominal CT to screen for liver cancer and gallbladder cancer; if there are digestive tract symptoms, it is recommended to undergo gastroscopy and colonoscopy to screen for digestive tract tumors.

Men need to do a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer screening; women need to do a mammography X-ray for breast cancer screening and a cervical smear for cervical cancer screening. If you have a family history of cancer, you should also pay attention to screening for other cancers.

To sum up, the body of middle-aged people over 40 will start to go downhill. It is best to have a health check-up every year to deal with problems in time to avoid premature aging due to diseases. During the physical examination, pay attention to the "three highs" and cancer screening. It is recommended to see a doctor before the physical examination, and the doctor will formulate more targeted examination items according to the specific situation, so that the money for the physical examination can be spent on the "cutting edge". I am pharmacist Huazi, welcome to follow me and share more health knowledge.