Have you ever heard of someone getting an annual physical and thought to yourself, “that seems like overkill?” The truth is that more people skip the annual physical or don’t even think about it at all. But this could pose more of a risk to your health than you might think. Here are a few good reasons to make sure you get yourself checked out every year, as well as what the physical typically involves.

It’s the only way to protect your long-term health

The vast majority of health issues that really affect our quality of life are not sudden injuries or infections that come out of nowhere. Rather, they are the slow and steadily moving conditions that lie under the surface until they’re ready to leap out and really attack us. This is the case with the most common chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. There are signs that you might be developing these conditions, such as your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. However, you won’t know these signs if you don’t have them checked out by your doctor at least once a year.

A closer look at your senses

If you have never had your eyes or ears tested, now is the perfect time. When it comes to your ears especially, it’s important to have a baseline test so that, if it changes at all in the future, it’s easier to pick up. However, it’s also important since changes to your hearing and sight can be so gradual that you don’t notice them at first, even if they are adversely affecting your lifestyle, such as your ability to communicate. There are plenty of solutions you can quickly put in place, such as glasses and rechargeable hearing aids. As such, even if you get bad news from your eye test or hearing test, it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom. What’s important is that you start working to fix things before those issues get worse.

Watching your risk factors

Aside from chronic health conditions, there are also life-threatening diseases we should always be aware of when it comes to our risks. Cancer is the big one, naturally. People have different risk levels when it comes to different kinds of cancer depending on genetics, on lifestyle factors, on factors like sex, age, and a lot more. Men should always be aware of the risk of prostate and testicular cancer, for instance, while smokers should always know that they have a higher risk of lung or throat cancer. A physical with your doctor will often involve looking at these risk factors and performing the necessary checks to give you the all-clear.

As you age, the tests that you get during your annual physical will continue to change as different risk factors play a role in what is likely to be affecting your health. However, while the components of this yearly check-up may change, its importance to your overall health doesn’t so don’t skip it.