Many-if not most-people believe that they should have ‘a thorough check-up’ now and again. There is a widely held misconception that a doctor (usually a general practitioner) can do a kind of 10,000 miles service of everything that really matters and do it in a few minutes. This is totally untrue. Even a very lengthy clinical examination by a highly expert physician might well miss even quite obvious disease which cannot be picked up by his or her bedside diagnostic skills. The problem with such examinations, even if they are very well done, is that if given an ‘all clear’ patients imagine themselves to be well and may as a result actually take less care of themselves because their current lifestyle, they argue, appears to be doing them no harm.

Young children and the elderly need more regular professional examinations because they get ill more often and can go downhill very quickly once something starts. Physical examinations in middle age are more worth while than in younger people because of the higher rates of heart disease and cancer.

Obviously it makes sense to limit physical examinations to those periods of life at which they are most likely to produce results. A thorough physical examination at birth and periodically throughout early childhood makes good sense because so much is going on developmentally that it is reasonable to try to pick up abnormalities so that they can be dealt with quickly. It is probably sensible to have a physical examination every five years after this up to the age of 40 and then every other year up to 65.

*31/72/5*

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