'I tried Nuffield's 360 Health Assessment and the results shocked me'
Nothing has the power to make you bump ‘book doctor’s appointment’ from the bottom of your to-do list to the top like the health traumas of people you love. And lately, they’ve been coming thick and fast. My neighbour has been diagnosed with breast cancer. My cousin is battling bowel cancer. And a former lover recently had a heart attack.
Together with the fact that my two children are at the all-consuming ages of one and three, lately, I’ve been feeling every one of my 37 years. So when an invitation to trial the 360 Health Assessment from healthcare charity Nuffield Health landed in my inbox, the litany of intel it promised was music to anxious ears.
While you can get health checks on the NHS every five years once you turn 40 (which is estimated to save 10,000 lives a year), I’m just below that age, meaning to get answers, I’d need to pay for them – an uncomfortable choice that more of us are making. While lengthy NHS waiting lists are a catalyst, those on the front line of this trend point to an increasing demand for health data, too.
‘The rise in health influencers and the high volume of health-related content on social media may make people more aware and inclined to investigate their health,’ says health psychologist Dr Sula Windgassen. ‘But decades of data also shows there’s a culture of dismissal within the healthcare system that disproportionately affects women, so they may have an increased need to pay money in order to be listened to.’
At £765, the 360 assessment from Nuffield will be out of reach for many. But there are things that set this experience apart from other healthcare providers. Nuffield is
a charity, and any profit it makes is reinvested into clinical research, free-to-access community programmes and its core services, which does take the sting out of the price tag.
The two-hour session is split in two: a wellbeing physiologist takes my blood and I give a urine sample; they measure my body fat via bioelectrical impedance (which sends a painless electrical current through your body to gauge how much of it is fat-free), mobility through functional movement tests and monitor heart activity with an ECG. Then, in hour two, you discuss the results with a GP, alongside having a smear test and breast exam.
Spoiler alert: I have a relatively healthy lifestyle. I strength train three times a week, I run and I also fit in the odd Pilates session. So I was reassured to learn that most of my measurements were good. A healthy BMI and weight, with a bit more around the waist than ideal – a hangover from two pregnancies in three years.
In fact, most of my results were normal, which was kind of what I expected. Except for one – my cholesterol. The data showed I have raised levels of LDL cholesterol (read: the bad kind), but this was likely triggered by pregnancy and breastfeeding, during which levels increase. It's something the GP tells me to get retested in a year's time. So far, no cause for concern.
What did shock me though was having to get my heart rate results sent off to a specialist. I've always considered my cardiovascular health to be pretty robust, so a rogue dip in my heart rate, which needed further examination, floored me. It took a few weeks for my results to be analysed by a cardiologist, but they were finally deemed normal. I was relieved – I'm not generally an anxious person but it's hard not to worry when test results are pending.
What this experience made abundantly clear is that having this data is only useful if you can understand it. No wonder then that critics of health screenings point to a risk of exacerbating health anxiety when you’re not equipped to interpret the numbers and graphs.
That my blood samples were analysed on site meant I could discuss results with a GP then and there, rather than interpreting them later, unsupported. Although I was nervous about the results from the cardiologist, having an expert assess them and deem them normal was incredibly reassuring.
What's more, getting a doctor to show me how to properly check my breasts was also super helpful – even if the main thing I learned was that they are 'naturally lumpy'.
But my main takeaway was that I need to start putting my wellbeing first for a while. Seeing my health summed up in stats before me was ultimately both reassuring and reproachful. It's the reminder I need that these numbers should be top of my priority list from now on.
Nuffield Health’s 360 Health Assessment costs £765. For more information and to book, visit nuffieldhealth.com
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