Health is the essence of a healthy marriage be it spiritaully or physically.

There is only one health and once it is lost, it never come back. There will be times it will but the person will have to go through a very hard time, sometimes even painful.

When we are unwell, we can’t possibly do the many things we want. When we are healthy, we may more probably be taking our healthy boides for granted.

How many times have we reminded ourselves to exercise? Many times perhaps.

And how many times did we actually followed our exercise routine? For those of you who said “yes”, I would like to congratulate you. However for those who said “no” just like me, it is neevr too late to start right now.

I remembered a friend mentioned to me that she was unwell even though she is still young. She spent a year in recovering and her body was very frail then. It was just nightmare in reality. She almost thought that she could have died any time.

Such incidents are common in our world especially we have to work so hard, not for ourselves, but for the companies we are working for. Some work nine hours a day whereas others work 20 hours a day.

Some can rest on weekends but others have to work 365 days in a year with no break.

There may be difference in the salary. Some directors earning big bucks may defend that if he works hard now, he can retire early. This is based on the assumption he still has his health by then.

My father worked very hard too. He works from day to evening and guided me in my schoolwork after dinner. And after I slept at eleven, he resumed his accounting work till 3am just to earn more money for his family. However, he passed away due to poor health many years ago.

In Hong Kong and Japan, I had read news about white-collar workers who literally work to death. They didn’t know they overwork. Some just collapsed and died.

Others who got so stressed by work, suffered from depression, anxiety and other mental disturbance and even eventually committed suicide.

The rationale behind sharing these true stories with you is a gentle reminder to take care of your body.

After one got married, he is not just accountable to himself, he is accountable to the whole family.

Thus, I would urge that you and your spouse go for a regular full body check-up every 5 years and especially if both of you may be planning to have your baby.

The full body check-up (about S$80) can be done at any normal clinic in Singapore and this is what it consists of:

(Again, do check with your own clinic for their packages.)

1. Blood test
– full blood examination
– liver fucntion test
– renal function test
– cholesterol check
– diabetic screen
– gout screen
– syphllis screen

2. Urine test
– urine microscopy for kidney stones, infection, kidney failure

3. Electrocardiogram (ECG)
– Machine tracing of the ehart activity to check for heart diesease and heart attacks

Other available checks (with additional costs):
– HIV I & II antibodies (S$10)
– Prostate cancer, breast/ ovarian cancer. liver/ testicular cancer, colon cancer (S$20 each)
– Stool, Hepatitis A & B screening (S40 each)
– Gastric pain screen (S$40)