Old age comes with many health conditions. Being elderly is a risk factor for many diseases, which is why it’s important for you to undergo regular health screening tests. Many conditions like high cholesterol or blood pressure can go unnoticed and cause significant damage to your body before symptoms develop.
Often, diseases that present late in the course are difficult to manage and in certain cases (such as cancer) downright untreatable. To avoid difficult and expensive treatments, it’s important that you catch diseases early, and so here are 5 essential health tests to take if you’re over 50.
- Colorectal cancer screening
Colorectal (or bowel) cancer is the third most common (and the third most deadliest) cancer worldwide. The earliest sign of colorectal cancer might be minute amounts of bleeding present in your stool. The amount of blood is so small that it’s impossible to see it with the naked eye, which is why it’s called occult blood.
Colon cancer screening involves detecting occult blood in the stool. You’re given a Fecal Occult Blood Test kit, and you collect your stool on a card for several days. This sample is then sent to the lab for testing. Now, if blood is found in your stool, this doesn’t mean you have cancer. Many other conditions (such as benign polyps) can cause blood to be found in your stool.
However, because the possibility of cancer does exist, your doctor might advise you to have a colonoscopy done, which involves insertion of a flexible tube and a camera in your rectum to look for (and biopsy) any growths. At other times, you might be advised to take the occult blood test again.
- Mammography
Breast cancer is the most common cancer of women worldwide, and early screening and detection can lead to better outcomes.
Getting screened for breast cancer has two benefits. One, it can detect in situ breast cancer — which you can think of as baby breast cancer — before it grows up and becomes an invasive cancer. And two, if you already have invasive cancer, mammography can help you begin treatment before it spreads (or metastasizes) to other parts of your body.
Mammography involves taking x-rays of each breast. Screening with mammography usually begins when you’re around 50 years of age and can be undertaken every three years until you’re 70 years of age.
And while most women receive normal results, you’ll be required to take further tests if worrisome findings appear on your mammogram.
- Screening for osteoporosis
As you age, your bones start losing strength. Most people achieve their peak bone density at around 30 years of age, after which slightly less than 1% of it is lost each year. This effect is more pronounced in women because after menopause, they lose the protective effect estrogen has on the bones.
Reduced bone density can lead to a condition called osteoporosis, which puts you at an increased risk of fractures (even from minor trauma). Particularly dangerous are the hip fractures that result from osteoporosis, having a significant mortality rate.
If caught early, osteoporosis can be treated with a class of drugs called bisphosphonates (along with other measures like weight-bearing exercise). This is why you should have regular bone scans after you hit 65.
- Hypertension screening
Hypertension means blood pressure that’s persistently elevated. Old age is a significant risk factor for hypertension because as you age, your blood vessels become stiff, causing pressure inside them to rise.
Excess alcohol intake, African American race, cigarette smoking, and an inactive lifestyle are additional risk factors, so if any of these apply to you, you’re at an increased risk for hypertension.
The thing to know about hypertension is that it’s a silent killer. It won’t cause any immediate symptoms but over time, continuously elevated pressure damages the walls of your blood vessels, leading to formation of fatty plaques. This is a condition called atherosclerosis, and it’s a major cause of morbidity and mortality around the globe.
Atherosclerosis can wreck your kidneys, give you a heart attack, and put you at an increased risk of stroke. And because it compromises blood flow to your genitals and legs, it can cause impotence as well as leg symptoms like pain and non-healing ulcers. Sometimes, it may even lead to amputation of your feet.
To avoid all these problems, be sure to get your blood pressure tested. If you’re diagnosed with hypertension, there are several approaches to treat the condition, including drugs and lifestyle changes.
- Testing for high cholesterol
High cholesterol (or hypercholesterolemia) is closely related to hypertension because it too can lead to atherosclerosis and all its consequences described above.
The most dangerous kind of cholesterol is LDL-cholesterol, increased levels of which are a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. That’s because LDL molecules are extremely vulnerable to damage, and once damaged, the body can not break them down. This leads to a build-up of cholesterol in blood vessels, leading to plaque formation (or in other words, atherosclerosis).
So make sure to get a lipid profile test done. Increased levels of LDL-cholesterol can be treated with lifestyle changes like exercise or a class of drugs called statins. Your doctor will decide the best treatment plan for you.
