What is a health Check?
The NHS Health Check is a free check-up of your overall health. It can tell you whether you are at higher risk of getting certain health problems, such as: Heart Disease, Diabetes, Kidney Disease or Stroke
What does it involve?
- The health professional asks you some questions about your lifestyle and family history.
- They measure your height and weight, take your blood pressure and finally, do a blood test. The blood test consists of a tiny blood sample from your finger to test cholesterol ratio between HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Your blood test also shows blood sugars to identify diabetes related issues.
- The results are shared with you during your health check.
- Research shows that your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease increases with age. There are certain things that will put you at increased risk. For example, high cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugars. You may have one of these conditions and not realise it.
- Both men and women can develop these conditions and having one could increase your risk of developing another in the future.
- The NHS health check will put you in control. It will also provide you with timely advice and a referral pathway to address any issues identified as early as possible.
Who can have a health check?
If you are aged 40 or above and have not been diagnosed with diabetes, stroke, heart, and kidney disease or are not being treated for high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels you are eligible for a free NHS health check. It is only completed once every 5 years for general population.
To find out more about NHS health checks and to see if you are eligible please click "find out more" below
