Medical Tests You’d Be Smart To Do at Home

Have you ever wondered about your own body? You might be fit, young, and generally have good health, so illness might not have you running off to the nearest doctor’s office. That said, you may often be curious about your risk factors and lab values. The good news is that these days, there are more and more things you can test for in the comfort of your own home. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Perimenopause  — The Run-Up to Menopause

If you’re a female of a certain age, you might start to be concerned about “the change” as our grandmothers called it. There is a menopause test that you can take that will let you know if you’re entering the perimenopause stage of your life. Perimenopause is the period of time leading up to menopause, which is defined as going an entire calendar year without menstruating. However, for a few years before that milestone, you can be in perimenopause and skip periods or even have them more frequently.

Cholesterol

We all know that we should have our cholesterol checked periodically. Due to the smart technology that we have these days, we no longer need to go to a lab, hospital, or clinic, or even get our blood taken for this.

You can purchase a home cholesterol test kit right online. That said, be advised that these kits don’t test your LDL. If you want to do this yourself, be sure to purchase a device that will test triglycerides and HDL.

Stool Sample — Gut Check

This particular test you can do at home should fall only under the category of “for curiosity.” For less than $75 you can mail off a sample of your own feces to receive an analysis of all of the microbes that are currently living right in your gut. You just need to have a certain sort of motivation to be able to collect a sample of your own stool.

Genetic

There are businesses popping up all over the place that offer genetic testing at a low cost. All you have to do is swab the inside of your cheek, and within just a matter of days, you’ll know if you happen to be at risk for a wide variety of conditions, such as Tay-Sachs disease. Are you worried that you might pass something like Maple Syrup Urine Disease down to your kids? For about $100, tests like these can give you the answers you’re looking for. Keep in mind that genetic tests might satisfy any curiosity you might have, but they aren’t for those who are unprepared for the results emotionally.

EKG — On an iPhone

It’s easy to go online and buy yourself an EKG machine. But if you did, would you have the space in your home to store it? There’s an alternative, though. If you’re curious about the electrical activity of your heart, you can use your iPhone to run a rhythm strip. To do this, you just need to download a heart monitor app to the device. The catch is that you typically need a prescription to download these apps. However, there are certain Smartwatches that run them without a prescription.

Body Fat

If you have a trainer you work out with every week, they might measure your body fat on a regular basis. For some people, this can keep them healthy more than simply watching their weight. Even if you aren’t exactly a fiend for working out, there are body fat monitors you can get for as little as $30 that can help you keep track of it.

It doesn’t matter if you’re bored or are attempting to track your health more closely; the current craze for at-home medical testing is only growing. Techies are constantly coming up with new devices and apps that make these tests more accessible and less expensive.