by Simon Evans

Just as your car’s annual MoT should ensure safe driving, so giving your body a regular check-over can make your life healthier and happier.

Though we have never been better informed about our health, it is easy to become overwhelmed with information. Seeing the wood for those proverbial trees becomes ever more difficult. The secret of good health is to know what the common ailments are in our particular age group and how to prevent them occurring. We also need to be able to recognise symptoms when they occur and pick up on those tell-tale warning signs.

Doctor Roger Henderson

The GP’s advice

“The secret is being aware of your health - and not panicking”

It’s a good idea to have the occasional health MoT, especially when it comes to detecting ’silent’ illnesses, like high blood pressure, which usually shows very few symptoms, if any. That’s the advice of Doctor Roger Henderson, author of ‘Over-50s Men’s Health Check’.

Keep a check on that cholestera

“People perhaps won’t realise they have a problem until they have suffered a stroke or a heart attack,” he says. “You also need to be regularly tested for high cholesterol. In itself, high cholesterol is all right, but it is a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease, especially if your parents suffered these conditions.

“Diabetes is another example. Although it can give classic symptoms of thirst, and passing water a lot and weight loss, for many people it doesn’t, they just feel slightly tired. There’s probably about a million people out there, aged 50 plus, who have diabetes and don’t realise it.