So now I have reached the ripe old age of 46 I was asked to attend my first free NHS Health Check.
Apparently, this is currently being offered for people every 5 years between the ages of 40 and 74 to assess the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, kidney disease or diabetes. The QRISK2 assessment took no longer than 20 minutes with the nurse at the local doctor’s surgery and took basic measurements such as age, sex, family history, height, weight and blood pressure along with a blood test to check cholesterol levels.
Thankfully, with adjustments in my lifestyle this year, with daily walking, cutting out the Coke Zero out of my diet and increasing my intake of fruit and vegetables, I think the result was quite favourable. My cholesterol level was low and my BMI appeared to be in the required healthy zone. The only result which seemed to be of concern were the blood pressure readings which appeared to be a little high. The nurse advised me that I would need to cut down on my salt intake to bring my blood pressure down. It is amazing the list of foodstuffs they have provided me with that are typically high in salt and a large proportion are the ones I love! 🙁 I think I need to start preparing my meals from scratch so that I am able to know better how much salt is in my diet.
My results were as follows:
Resting heart rate: 68 beats/min
Blood pressure: 162/98 mmHg
Body mass index: 23.4 kg/m2
Cholesterol:HDL ratio: 2.4
QRISK2 10 year risk score: 2.88%