Think of the NHS Health Check as a midlife MOT.
It’s not only an opportunity to put right emerging problems, but to get personalised advice on keeping yourself healthy and active in the future.
The NHS Health Check is based on the best scientific evidence from Britain and around the world and can transform people's lives.
It provides a rare opportunity to sit down with a health professional and talk about your health requirements. Afterwards, you will be more confident and know more about your health. You should also receive a wellness plan, tailored specifically to your needs.
“The NHS Health Check is free and should not be missed," says Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS. “It will give you the knowledge you need to take control of your health”.
Goes to the heart of things
Our bodies have many important systems, but one that is central to all of them is our vascular or circulatory system.
At its centre is our heart, pumping blood every second of every day through a 100,000-mile network of veins and arteries, which, if lined up end to end, would circle the equator four times.
It’s not only a system that all others depend on, but one that suffers wear and tear. This can lead to a range of debilitating, sometimes life-threatening, conditions such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of dementia. Together, these conditions are the biggest cause of preventable deaths and disability in the UK.
The vascular system is what the NHS Health Check is designed to monitor and protect. It tells you how well your vascular system is performing and predicts how it will hold up in the future.
Most importantly, it points out changes you can make to get your vascular system running more efficiently, which will reduce wear and tear.
“One of the wonderful things about the vascular system is that there are many things we as individuals can do to improve its functioning,” says Sir Muir. “This test is not just giving you important results. It’s giving you results you can act on.”
Find out more about the vascular system and diseases.
Find out more about the NHS Health Check tests.
If you're over 30, take the online heart age test now to see how healthy your heart is.
Learn your vital stats
The NHS Health Check gives you an overall score that you can keep track of and improve over time. Some think of this as their “heart age”.
This single figure is calculated from up to 20 other snippets of information about you, but there are three important statistics that you should know and, from time to time, monitor.
These are your:
blood pressure
BMI (body mass index)
cholesterol count