If you are over 40, you are eligible for a free NHS health check every five years. (Image: Getty)
Forget invitations for expensive private health checks that come through the letterbox or land in your email. The Royal College of General Practitioners has warned that “they could do more harm than good”.
Because these health MOTs are not only stressful for patients – they can also prompt unnecessary follow-up tests by GPs.
If you are over 40, you are eligible for a free NHS health check every five years which looks at your risk of heart disease, stroke and other serious health conditions as well as the potential impact of unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking too much and not getting enough exercise.
The test takes around 20 to 30 minutes and will include measuring your height, weight, waist, blood pressure, cholesterol and, sometimes, a finger-prick blood test to check your blood-sugar levels.
Your answers and test results are used to calculate your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes or kidney disease in the next 10 years – and how to reduce it.
Don’t miss… All the signs and symptoms of heatstroke as UK set to bake in 30C heat
Your waist measurement can reveal how much abdominal fat you are carrying. (Image: Getty)
There are also many simple tests that you can do at home, as well as free Health MOTs on the high street by pharmacies such as Boots, which provide important clues to your health and risk of a wide range of problems including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, dementia and falls.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, visiting professor of general practice at the University of Huddersfield, says: “There are lots of checks which can give you a good idea about your health that cost nothing.”
So how can you check how your health shapes up?
Waist time
“Body Mass Index (BMI) looks at whether you are a healthy weight for your height. While it can be misleading if you are very muscular, for most people it’s a pretty good proxy for the state of your health,” says Dr Jarvis.
However, your waist measurement can be even more revealing as it shows how much abdominal fat you are carrying, which is a big factor in your risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
To measure your waist, find the point halfway between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips. Dr Jarvis says, “This is usually in line with your belly button, but in those who are overweight, the belly button can be lower. Breathe out, and measure the largest point – there is no point breathing in and fooling yourself.”
For men of South Asian and Afro-Caribbean descent, a measurement of 35 inches or more indicates an increased risk, for any other men it’s 37 inches. Women increase their odds of health issues if their waist measurement is more than 31.5 inches, regardless of their background.
String time
Your waist to height ratio is an even better health test, and a simple way to check this is to cut or mark a piece of string to measure your height, fold it in half and try wrapping the folded string around your waist. If it doesn’t meet, you are carrying excess belly fat. For a more accurate check, measure both and divide your waist circumference by your height.
Anything between 0.5 and 0.59 is a sign of excess belly fat and increased risk of health problems.
A ratio of 0.6 puts you at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other problems. Losing weight and increasing your activity levels will help you to reduce your risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes and other health issues.
Leg it
How long can you stand on one leg?
If you’re over 50 and it’s less than 10 seconds, research shows your chances of dying in the next 10 years is 84 per cent higher than someone who can keep their balance for more than 10 seconds.
Dr Jarvis warns: “One in two women and one in five men will break a bone due to osteoporosis, and standing on one leg is a really good test of your risk.
Exercises to improve your balance will improve your general health and mobility and reduce the risk of falls.”
Pressure points
Our blood pressure rises with age and this also pushes up the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and some forms of dementia. As there are no warning signs that your blood pressure could be high, it’s wise to have regular checks.
Many GP surgeries have a pod where you can check your readings, and some high street pharmacies offer free blood pressure tests. If there’s a family history of hypertension, you may want to check readings more regularly. The British Heart Foundation sells inexpensive and accurate monitors you can use at home.
Readings can be slightly higher when someone else is doing the test — a phenomenon known as white coat hypertension.
So your blood pressure would be classified as high if the reading taken at a GP surgery or pharmacy is 140/90 or more, or 135/85 and above, on average, if it was taken at home.
Simple steps to reduce your blood pressure include cutting back on alcohol and salt, and doing more exercise.
The Stroke Association advises that eating one more portion of fruit or vegetables could reduce your risk of stroke by as much as 10 per cent. Foods that are rich in potassium, such as bananas, spinach, oranges and tomato juice can also help maintain healthy blood pressure.
Hear, hear
Take advantage of one of the high street offers of a free hearing test, or try the Royal National Institute for Deaf People online hearing test, because multiple studies show hearing loss is linked to dementia, particularly if you don’t use hearing aids.
A study of more than 500,000 people published earlier this year found hearing loss raised the risk of dementia by 20 per cent, but this could be cut to six per cent when people used aids.
Earlier research found an even stronger association, finding that mild hearing loss doubling the risk of dementia, moderate hearing impairment tripling the chance of problems and severe hearing loss leading to a five-fold increase in the odds of developing the condition.
The of your grip provides clues to your nutrient status and overall health. (Image: Getty)
Shake on it
How strong is your handshake? A number of studies have shown that the strength of your grip provides clues to your nutrient status and overall health.
Scientists at Queen Mary University Hospital in London have shown that a weak grip can be a signed of a weakened heart, which is less efficient at pumping blood around the body.
Scans revealed it can also be a sign of heart damage. Lead researcher, Professor Steffen Petersen says: “A better hand grip strength is associated with having a healthier heart structure and function.” Grip strength declines with age and a large Canadian study showed that each 5kg (11lb) fall in grip power increased the odds of a fatal heart problem by 17 per cent and a stroke by nine per cent. This may be due to hardening of the arteries reducing muscle strength, or the gradual loss of muscle mass, known as sarcopenia, which is associated with ageing.
The good news is that any exercise, particularly activities which involve resistance, will combat sarcopenia and help reduce your risk of heart disease as well as falls. The British Heart Foundation website shows how to exercise using a resistance band.
On the scent
Covid has muddied the waters, and it’s not unusual to lose your sense of smell when you have a cold or hay fever, but a number of studies have linked a rapid decline in the ability to identify common smells with an increased risk of dementia.
Smells can often bring memories flooding back, and scientists at the University of Chicago have confirmed that there is a link between loss of smell and reduced grey matter in parts of the brain which govern memory and our olfactory senses.
Professor Jayant Pinto says: “Rapid decline in the sense of smell is a really good indicator of what’s going to end up structurally occurring in specific regions of the brain.”
A Chinese study confirmed that the ability to identify the smell of peppermint was as important as vascular disease in terms of identifying people at higher risk of dementia.
Scent therapy is now used in some nursing homes and a small American study found when older adults used diffusers to release a range of different strong scents as they slept, their scores on learning and memory tests improved by 226 per cent in six months.
Scents used in the study were rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary and lavender.
