Physicals

What are physicals?

Physicals are thorough health and well-being reviews where your Diligence Care Plus provider looks for early signs of health issues. Anyone can benefit from an annual physical, which detects diseases before you develop any symptoms.

Physicals for specific purposes are also available, like pre-employment and insurance health checks and school, sports, or camp physicals. Well-man, -woman, and -child exams are also physicals, each focusing on conditions that only (or are more likely to) affect these groups.

What can I expect when I have a physical?

The procedure your physical follows varies depending on its purpose and information from your medical history that shows if your risk of particular conditions is high. Diligence Care Plus physicals usually begin with a vital health indicator check covering:

• Blood pressure
• Heart rate
• Respiration (breathing) rate
• Temperature
• Reflexes

Your provider listens to your heart and lungs, detecting abnormal sounds or rhythms requiring further investigation. They also go over your body in detail, looking at particular areas like the head, lymph nodes, joints, and feet, feeling for lumps or other abnormalities.

Meanwhile, they’re checking your psychological alertness and mood, how freely you move, and your mental and physical reactions. Your provider takes blood and sometimes other samples for lab tests. They may also order diagnostic imaging tests such as X-rays, a CT, or an MRI.

Women might undergo a cervical cancer screening procedure (Pap smear), while men might require a prostate exam.

If I feel fine, do I need a physical?

The idea of a physical is to identify health problems before they reach a dangerous stage. Many conditions cause few symptoms for months or even years. During this time, they worsen significantly and become much harder to treat. These conditions include:

• Coronary artery disease (CAD)
• Peripheral artery disease (PAD)
• Carotid artery disease, the primary cause of strokes
• Cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Liver disease
• High cholesterol
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Hypertension and high cholesterol don’t usually cause symptoms until they trigger a heart attack, stroke, or other life-threatening event.

As you can see, physicals are well worth having, even if you feel in great shape, to prevent the devastating consequences of undetected disease.

Call Diligence Care Plus to learn more about the benefits of thorough physicals or schedule a consultation using the online booking tool.