preventive health check up for parents :: Article CreatorWhy Is A Full-body Checkup Important For Parents?
A full-body checkup is an essential part of preventive healthcare, especially for ageing parents. It helps identify potential health issues early, allowing for timely intervention and better management of chronic conditions.
Many people only seek medical attention when they feel unwell, often neglecting the importance of preventive healthcare. However, waiting until symptoms arise can lead to missed opportunities for early detection and intervention. Preventive healthcare is a proactive approach, and regular full-body checkups are an essential part of it. These checkups can identify underlying health issues before they become serious, ensuring that necessary treatment is administered promptly.
For elders, like our parents, regular checkups are even more important. As they age, they become more vulnerable to chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. A full-body checkup offers a comprehensive overview of their health, helping to detect and manage potential risks early, ultimately improving their quality of life and ensuring longevity. Those in the city can easily schedule a full body checkup in Kolkata for their parents via Apollo. Read on to learn more about the significance of a full-body checkup for parents.
What Does a Full-Body Check-up Include?
A full-body checkup offers a complete evaluation of your overall health and typically includes a range of tests and screenings. These tests assess various vital functions of the body to detect early signs of potential health issues. A standard full-body checkup may include blood tests (to check for conditions like diabetes, cholesterol, and liver function), blood pressure monitoring, ECG (to assess heart health), chest X-ray, kidney and liver function tests, urine analysis, and imaging tests like ultrasound or CT scan (if necessary). These screenings provide valuable insights into various organ functions, helping doctors diagnose any underlying conditions and offer preventive advice.
Importance of Full-body Checkup for Parents
Full-body checkups are crucial for parents as they age, offering a comprehensive assessment of their health and preventing potential complications. Here's why regular health checkups are essential for them:
Early Detection of Chronic Diseases As parents grow older, they become more vulnerable to chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and respiratory conditions. A full-body checkup can detect early signs of these diseases, allowing for timely intervention and better management, which can slow disease progression and improve overall outcomes.
Monitoring Age-related Conditions Ageing brings with it inevitable wear and tear on the body. Issues like osteoporosis, arthritis, and declining vision or hearing may develop gradually. A full-body checkup helps track these conditions over time, providing an opportunity for early treatment and improving the chances of maintaining mobility and independence as parents age.
Prevention Through Lifestyle Adjustments Regular health checkups enable doctors to offer personalised advice on lifestyle changes, such as exercise, diet, and medication management, that can help reduce risks and enhance quality of life. For example, parents may be advised to follow a heart-healthy diet or start a gentle exercise regimen based on test results.
Cancer Screening Many cancers, such as prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer, are more prevalent in older adults. A full-body checkup typically includes essential cancer screenings, which can detect abnormalities before symptoms appear, leading to early treatment and a higher likelihood of successful outcomes.
Medication Review and Management Many older adults are on multiple medications, which may lead to side effects or harmful drug interactions. Full-body checkups provide an opportunity to review prescribed medications, adjusting doses or prescriptions as necessary to minimise risks and ensure that all treatments are appropriate.
Enhanced Quality of Life Regular checkups offer parents a proactive way to manage their health and stay informed about their body's needs. This reduces hospital visits, improves life expectancy, and ensures that they continue living a healthier and more active lifestyle with their family.
Savings on Long-Term Healthcare Costs Regular full-body checkups can help identify health issues in their early stages, often before they become serious or require expensive treatments. By catching diseases early and managing them proactively, parents can avoid costly hospitalisations, surgeries, and long-term care expenses. Preventive healthcare not only improves their well-being but also significantly reduces the financial burden on families in the long run, making it a cost-effective strategy.
Periodic full-body checkups play a critical role in safeguarding the health of our parents as they age. These checkups allow for early detection of chronic diseases, offer opportunities for preventive care, and provide valuable insights into maintaining their overall well-being. By staying proactive with preventive healthcare, such as scheduling a full body checkup in Kolkata, families can ensure their parents enjoy a higher quality of life, while also saving on long-term healthcare costs.
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The Parent Mental Health Crisis: What Do Parents Need?
A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of the parenting vortex: the hours between 5 p.M. And 8 p.M. Where I battle to feed my daughter, myself, and the dogs; clean the house; prepare for the following day; and decompress from a full day of seeing clients. Of course, on this particular week, my partner was also traveling. I calmly acceded to every request my 2.5-year-old daughter bestowed upon me, eventually pouring her a cup of chocolate milk hoping to sit down for a brief respite as she drank it. Instead, my daughter let out a little chuckle as she impulsively poured it on my head. With milk streaming down my face, I urged myself to take a breath, remind myself of the impulsive nature of toddlers, consider the developmental need to test boundaries, and remain regulated. Instead, I screamed, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"
Source: Family First/Stocksnap
The next morning, the U.S. Surgeon general released a statement warning Americans of the mental health crisis for parents. The report discussed parents' increasing stress, heightened risk for anxiety and depression, concerns about economic instability, loneliness, and cultural pressures that parents face (Roeloffs, 2024). I could still smell the chocolate milk on my hair as I sat with the news and was overcome with a sense of relief and validation.
I have had the unique perspective of serving as an educator and play therapist before having children of my own. With years of education, experience, and research under my belt, I toted the title "child expert." In my work with children and families, I naively believed that if only parents could just x, or if only parents knew y, then maybe parenting wouldn't be so hard for them.
Then, in December 2021, with the birth of my daughter, I was violently humbled. Everything I knew about children, development, and my own role as a parent was tested. The first year of my daughter's life included ER visits, cardiologists, seven hours of crying a day with no known cause, a deep belief that I would never be good enough, and comparison to all of the other moms in my life who looked like they had it all together. Through those grueling months, I didn't want to hear solutions or another lecture about what I wasn't trying. Not only did this experience humble me, it made me rethink everything I had ever ignorantly said to parents in my role as a therapist.
Source: Direct Media/Stocksnap
Parenting is a moving target. It is personal, and it is arduous. And though it is incredibly rewarding and an exceptional gift, it doesn't mean that it is easy. Parents today are struggling with decision fatigue, economic pressures, fear for their children's safety, and a host of individual challenges that no expert can narrowly correct without first empathizing with each unique experience that parent faces. Though there may be simple solutions to common parenting difficulties, these approaches don't always resolve the underlying anguish of feeling like you are failing at the most personal job you have ever held.
Today, parenting is more public than ever before. With social media at our fingertips, we are consuming perfect family portraits, reminders of all of the things we should be doing for our children, and experts convincing us that we are failing in order to sell us a 10-step guide to self-improvement. Within seconds, we can consume a video with creative ideas for Elf on the Shelf, reminding us that we are behind on planning for the holidays, paired with frightening reminders of the dangers from which we cannot always protect our children. We are bombarded with messages reminding us that we will never be good enough, organized enough, or patient enough with our children while also being reminded that we cannot guarantee their safety. With the recent surgeon general warning, parents collectively breathed a sigh of relief that they aren't alone in their feelings of overwhelm and that maybe everyone else is struggling too. It isn't just that we are failing because we cannot keep up, but circumstances outside of our control have led to this collective crisis.
Highlighting the problem is validating, but with the pressures parents are facing today, what parents need more than ever is empathy. My clinical work focuses on working primarily with parents, and I find that the most effective conversations I have with caregivers are ones that humanize the parenting experience and remove the obligation to be perfect. A complete overhaul of discipline or stories about my own (nonexistent) successes with bedtime are invalidating and push parents deeper into the belief that they will never measure up.
Admitting that my daughter threw milk in my face, or that sometimes I have to sleep in her bed because an extra hour of sleep is worth pushing the boundaries allows for vulnerability and takes the shame out of parenting missteps. If parents are continuously bombarded with what they are doing wrong, the parent mental health crisis will only worsen. What parents need is unconditional acceptance that they make mistakes, but they are doing the best they can. There is no perfect parent. There isn't even a reliable measure to assess parenting ability, so our perspectives are subjective and rooted in a belief that everyone is doing a better job than we are. Judgment and shame in response to stories of missteps only serve to push parents further into silos, and parenting is isolating enough.
Even as I write this post, I consider the ways that discussing my failures so publicly may lead to judgment and impending shame. So please, tell me your kid has thrown chocolate milk at your face too.
Local Experts Are Giving Tips On How To Keep Children Safe This Halloween
Delmarva – Trick or Treat, that's what kids will be chanting for the next few days, and the biggest concern is; How many treats are in fact, tricks? From goblins to ghouls Halloween is a night that's supposed to insight fright, but as a parent, you want your kids to have a treat not be tricked.
Nothing can be scarier than something happening to your child says Protection Services Manager at Tidal Health Nanticoke Chris Martinez. He says there's a host of things parents to be aware of on Halloween night when it comes to their child's safety.
Cars & Candy
"It's a way for kids to come and get candy and goodies, and things like that, without having to worry about being in a dark area, or unsupervised… There are people in vehicles who just aren't paying attention, and that's also a danger as well at least in this environment there won't be any vehicles moving through our trunk or treat area, it's going to be all on foot," says Martinez. "The biggest one of course is the peanut allergens; you've got Snickers and Almond Joys. So, it's important for parents to pay attention to what their kids are getting."
Candy or Cannabis?
Substance Prevention Coordinator for Wicomico County Health Department Cynthia Shifler says drugs are more of a concern than people realize, and many may not be able to tell the difference between a snack and a spoof. She says there is no way can know how much marijuana an item contains.
"There's a lot of things people can do to candy, and there's a lot of candy that looks like drugs and vice versa… If it's something that has marijuana in it, they should be able to smell that… People think we're still talking about the marijuana of the 1970's. The Tetrahedra cannabinol is a lot higher now, and a lot of things, especially in edibles, they can't figure out the exact amount of THC that's in that candy."
Caution with Children
They both said growing up, apples had razors, and kids were kidnapped, and times haven't changed so much. Martinez says parents need to bring back some of their old school traditions. "When I was Trick-or-treating, we didn't touch that candy until we got home, and again, my mother went through it all very thoroughly, and I think it's very important that that happens. Again, with the times that we live in, we have to be extra careful."
The Wicomico County Health Department says some of those spoofs include Pop Tarts which can be labeled as "Pot Tarts" which are in fact edibles. They say this is a concern for both elders and children, and that caretakers should stay vigilant.
Tidal Health will host their own Trunk or Treat October 29th in Seaford from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and officials say there won't be any cars, cannabis, or criminal activity.
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