We often hear the saying “Prevention is better than Cure” and we all know how accurate this saying is as some diseases are preventable by living a healthy lifestyle. In cases however where the disease is already present or is caused by unavoidable risks, all of us is left with one more option.
SCREENING.
Screening allows us to catch health issues at its early stage or better yet detect the possibility of acquiring a certain disease.
In our 11 years of facilitating medical travel to the Philippines, one thing is very clear. Most people seek medical tests only after experiencing symptoms. Some even dismisses symptoms and only seeks medical help when symptoms start hindering them from performing their day to day activities.
We often hear the lines like: “It could’ve been less costly if was treated early on” or “It could’ve been managed easily if they consulted at the first sign of symptoms” or the most heartbreaking line we’ve heard recently for an advanced stage patient who could’ve benefited from chemotherapy: “We can’t administer this type of treatment right away as we don’t have any basis to rule out presence of other disease”. The patient went through several tests with results that would be available after two months. The Doctors were left to let the patient take some medicines first for at least two weeks to try to protect him from possible side effects before the Doctors would give him chemo medicine on a trial basis. As it turned out, the patient wasn’t given treatment at all as he succumbed to his illness before the end of those two weeks.
If only said patient had health checks in the past, then they could’ve caught the disease before it became too advance and almost impossible to treat or at least the treatment could’ve been administered right away and may have helped in extending his life even for just a little bit.
This particular case left a mark to our hearts and inspired us more to encourage people to go see their Doctors and have themselves SCREENED at least annually.
If the lack of medical history prevents Doctors from administering treatment; the presence of it does wonders in making timely, effective and appropriate decisions in managing one’s health.
Go have yourselves screened today. There’s nothing to lose. Only so much to gain.
Health & Leisure Philippines 