The oft-repeated saying that a fire is better extinguished in the form of a small fire has always been, is and will always be true. But finding the disease in the bud seemed at first, and until a few decades ago, to be "scifi". But it is not so long ago that medical methods began to gradually emerge that are able to find the disease at the beginning. The first full-body prevention, the so-called "shield" scan, fought tuberculosis. This insidious bacterial disease has disappeared from our lives not only as a result of searching, but also thanks to vaccination.
Today, we take it as normal to send blood and other body fluids for laboratory tests, to undergo various kinds of imaging methods, and to be able to grow and thus detect dangerous bacteria from all parts of the body.
The range of examination methods is constantly expanding. BUT : what good is it to use ever smarter and more expensive methods when in most cases they are used when the disease has already broken out. If a disease is only verified by modern medical methods at a stage when a person has clear clinical symptoms at the same time, the whole progress is only in making the diagnosis more accurate, but at the same time many times more expensive.
The range of examinations that can detect the disease at an early stage, before the onset of clinical symptoms, is expanding. It is possible to detect early signs of cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, and the early stages of certain cancers. Even a freshly born baby today routinely undergoes several tests while still developing in the womb, followed immediately after birth by others. This saves a lot of distress, but it also saves money in the true sense of the word.
For breast cancer screening. 62% women came forward, which resulted in a 30% decrease in breast cancer mortality
However, many people persist in the thought patterns of our grandmothers. "I won't go to the prevention clinic, they'll find something else". "I want to live without worry now and when I get sick I'll just pack it in and die". "When I get sick, I'll go to the doctor and he'll give me a pill." Avoiding responsibility for your own health is a sign of immaturity. Belief in pills is an infection of sorts. There is a fundamental difference in attitude to health between citizens who lived most of their lives before 1989 and those who were born around 1989. They were born into a different world, which, although full of opportunities, is also much more complicated and therefore more difficult to live in. Suddenly, health seems like a treasure to be protected.
It is true that it is not possible to find in time all the types of diseases that may befall us. But for most of the diseases that occur most often, we have a search test. These are mainly the laboratory and imaging methods already mentioned. Every general practitioner is obliged to inform people who have registered with him or her about the possibilities of prevention, and every person should ask his or her doctor if he or she is interested in his or her health. The most common causes of death in the Czech Republic are vascular diseases or heart disease. Every fourth person in the Czech Republic dies of a malignant tumour. There are well-developed preventive examinations for both groups of diseases. There is no statistical record of how many people have their blood pressure measured and blood tests after the age of 50. But it is known quite accurately how many people go for prevention of the most common cancers. Around 25-30% of the population attends colon cancer screening, women are much more responsible, with 100% more women attending for prevention than men. However, about 4 thousand men and 4 thousand women get colon cancer every year. About 50% women participate in cervical cancer prevention. The best attended is breast cancer screening. 62% of women came forward, which translated into a 30% decrease in breast cancer mortality. All screening programs should see an increase in attendance, capacity is ready.
The first step to taking care of yourself is to realize the value of health. Think about what the quality of life is if we can live it in full health. The second step is to overcome the barrier of fear and have your health checked regularly. If the check-up detects a disease in the bud, there is a real hope of returning to full health.