Health Assessments in Loughborough

Wellbeing is a combination of physical and mental health; we believe that understanding your personal wellbeing is a great place to start to improve it. Active Aims health assessments here at our Loughborough clinic provide you with a comprehensive overview, which is discussed during your consultation.

Blood Pressure

In Loughborough a high percentage of the population will suffer from high blood pressure at some point in their lives.

When your heat beats, it contracts and pushes blood through the arteries to the rest of your body. This force creates pressureon the arteries. This is called systolic blood pressure.

A normal systolic blood pressure is 120 or below. A systolic blood pressure of 120-139 means you have normal blood pressure that is higher than ideal, or borderline high blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure number of 140 or higher is considered to be hypertension, or high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease.

The diastolic blood pressure number or the bottom number indicates the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats.

A normal diastolic blood pressure number is 80 or less. A diastolic blood pressure between 80 and 89 is normal but higher than ideal.

A diastolic blood pressure number of 90 or higher is considered to be hypertension or high blood pressure.

Normal blood pressure is usually in the range of 120/80 mmHg (systolic/diastolic). In healthy people, especially athletes, low blood pressure is a sign of good cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) health. But low blood pressure can be a sign of an underlying problem – especially in elderly people – where it may cause inadequate blood flow to the heart, brain and other vital organs.

Since Loughborough is renown for its health education, we will ensure that you understand every aspect of your health check.

Lung Function

Many community members in Loughborough are keen runners, therefore it is important to keep our lungs functioning optimally

Peak flow test: this measures the fastest speed you can blow out. To do the test you take the biggest breath in that you can and then blow out as fast as you can. The results are useful in diagnosing asthma, this is a common disease which affects about 5 million people in the UK. Asthma affects the airways which become irritated in some situations. The airways become narrower and sometimes produce more mucus than usual, making it difficult to breathe.

Spirometry test: this measures your FEV1 – which is how much air you can expel from your lungs in the first second of breathing out. It can help tell whether your breathing is obstructed by narrowing of the bronchial tubes (as found in asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)). The FEV1 is useful in diagnosing COPD, telling how severe it is and how it might develop.

Lungage

This test is especially useful for smokers or people who live in the city, showing the biological age of your lungs compared to your chronological age.

Flexibility and Mobility

It is a well known fact that good flexibility enhances performance – important for our Loughborough athletes.

Flexible muscles and a full range of movement through the joints is an important part of good physical health. Poor flexibility and tight muscles can result in injuries and a feeling of stiffness.

Workout and sporting activities often overlook the stretching element of the exercise and it is not unusual to find young athletes with very poor flexibility.

People who play sports which require power, speed, agility and rapid turn of movement are often the ones who are inflexible, especially in the hamstrings and particularly if you are male.

Older adults would also be well advised to retain as much mobility and flexibility as possible as this will play a significant role in maintaining independence. Losing shoulder mobility restricts raising the arms above the head making it difficult to reach things in high cupboards, change light bulbs or even wash your own hair.

A comforting thought is that muscle flexibility can be increased and improved at any age, you just need the right programme prescription.

Balance

We often take balance for granted, but for many this attribute can be improved, giving you more control in your sport and everyday life.

Sports require balance, agility and control, kicking or hitting a ball when you are off balance results in lack of control and misdirection of the shot – if you find that fluffing a skill is a reoccurring theme; think about strengthening our core muscles and adding agility programmes to your workout.

Older adults also frequently lose balance and tasks like climbing the stairs, gardening or household chores can become a danger area for falling.

With practice the confidence and motor skills we require for balancing will improve. A combination of increasing overall strength, flexibility and balance will help older adults remain independent for longer.

Fat Percentage and Lean Tissue

Just like any other community in the UK, many of the Loughborough population are overweight or obese.

Obesity and excess weight are common issues for many people, however it is helpful to distinguish between fat tissue andlean tissue. Losing weight per se may not achieve better health or better body shape. Strict diets generally focus only on weight loss unfortunately most of this weight is likely to be lean muscle tissue and not necessarily fat tissue. Lean tissue weighs heavier than fat, therefore when you stand on the scales they will read lighter; keeping this weight off will be difficult as it is almost impossible to sustain a fad diet.

There are also several good reasons for retaining muscle mass, it provides shape and strength, additionally muscle is metabolic so it burns calories as it lives on your body. Fat is dead tissue and just sits on your body requiring no calories at all.

Waist: Hip Ratio

The waist: hip ratio is used to assess the amount of adipose (fat) tissue stored in the torso. It is widely considered that a larger waist than hip measurement increases the risk of heart disease, primarily because fat is deposited around vital organs.

It should be noted that the development of heart disease is increased as a number of risk factors associated with the disease accumulate, this might be being overweight, sedentary, adipose tissue stored in the torso, stress, poor diet etc.

Lifestyle Analysis

Loughborough is a lively and vibrant place, let us take the opportunity to see how you manage your lifestyle.

To ensure that we understand as much as possible about your overall health we also ask questions about your lifestyle; which provides an overview of how you manage your life including, sleep patterns, alcohol consumption, diet, fluid intake, mood, social interaction, relaxation, activity and exercise.

This analysis is detailed enough to help us to identify patterns which may contribute towards positive and negative health.

Lifestyle, habits and behavioural information helps to draw a picture about your health; if in addition we examine your stress responses and functional test results you will be able to recognise your psychological and physiological profile.

Stress Responses

The hardworking business people of Loughborough probably need to manage mindset!!

Wellbeing is a combination of physical and mental health and the way that we handle pressure can also impact on our overall health. Personal perception of pressure is unique for everyone, a situation which causes a stress response in one personal might not affect another and vice versa.

Stress responses are displayed in a number of disguises from behavioural, to psychological or physiological. Responses vary from person to person as do the causes.

This part of the health assessment explores how you deal and respond to pressure.

This information will enable us to identify and discuss with you where your wellbeing can be improved, additionally it will highlight habits and behaviours which have a negative impact on health.

For more information please call Loughborough (01509) 218700 04 Di on 07973 782 647