WEBMD – A yearly checkup will include some discussion with your doctor about your health and certain physical exams.
History. This is your chance to mention any complaints or concerns about your health.
Your doctor probably also will quiz you about lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, sexual health, diet, and exercise. The doctor will also check on your vaccination status and update your personal and family medical history.
Vital signs. Some vital signs checked by your doctor include:
- Blood pressure: Less than 120 over 80 is considered normal blood pressure. Doctors define high blood pressure (hypertension) as 130 over 80 or higher.
- Heart rate: Values between 60 and 100 are considered normal. Many healthy people have heart rates slower than 60, however.
- Respiration rate: For a healthy adult, 12-16 breaths per minute is a normal rate. Breathing more than 20 times per minute can suggest heart or lung problems.
- Temperature: The average temperature is 98.6 F, but healthy people can have resting temperatures slightly higher or lower.
- General appearance. Your doctor gathers a lot of information about you and your health just by watching and talking to you. How are your memory and mental quickness? Does your skin appear healthy? Can you easily stand and walk?
Heart exam. Listening to your heart with a stethoscope, a doctor might detect an irregular heartbeat, a heart murmur, or other clues to heart disease.
Lung exam. Using a stethoscope, a doctor listens for crackles, wheezes, or decreased breath sounds. These and other sounds are clues to the presence of heart or lung disease.
Head and neck exam. Opening up and saying “ah” shows off your throat and tonsils. The quality of your teeth and gums also provides information about your overall health. Ears, nose, sinuses, eyes, lymph nodes, thyroid, and carotid arteries may also be examined.
Abdominal exam. Your doctor can use a range of examination techniques including …
