When you bring that new car home, you go through the owner’s manual and make sure the car gets the tune-ups and routine services it needs to give you years of trouble free service. Unfortunately we are not born with a similar owner’s manual and many people use their bodies for years and decades without thinking that it may need a routine checkup or a tune-up. In fact many go to a doctor only when their body starts malfunctioning.

Physicians are required to learn the human body's owner manual in medical school. A raised blood pressure, an abnormal heart beat, asthma or bronchitis, a breast lump, an enlarged prostate, an abnormal thyroid and a myriad of other problems can be detected when your doctor examines you. A cholesterol check during your teenage years may prevent heart disease later on. An annual pap screen can detect abnormal cells even before they get a chance to become cancerous. Routine breast examinations and mammograms may detect breast cancer at a very early and treatable stage. Similarly Diabetes, heart disease, prostate cancer, colon cancer and many other problems can be detected early and complications prevented.

A yearly check up with your physician should be part of your routine. Just like your car, these tune-ups may prevent major breakdowns.