Prevention & screening: questions answered
What is worth checking, at what age, and which tests earn their place.
Do I really need sunscreen every day?
Yes, you need sunscreen every day if your day includes daylight. UVA passes through clouds and window glass year-round, quietly driving most of what we call facial aging and adding up toward skin cancers.
Are annual full-body checkup packages worth it?
Annual full-body checkup packages oversell what they can do. In people with no symptoms, whole-body scans and forty-test panels mostly find harmless quirks. Those quirks trigger anxiety and follow-up cascades, while the packages miss the point of screening.
Do I need a tetanus shot for this cut?
Whether a cut needs a tetanus shot depends on how dirty the wound is and how long ago your last booster was. The rule of thumb: clean minor wounds need a booster if your last was over ten years ago; dirty, deep or puncture wounds, anything with soil, rust, animal contact or crush damage, shorten that to five years.
What is my biological age, and how is it different?
Your biological age is an estimate of how worn your body is, rather than how many birthdays you have had. It is worked out from habits and numbers that long-term studies link to living longer or shorter, so a 50 year old who moves daily, sleeps enough and keeps blood pressure in range can score younger than a sedentary 35 year old.