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SARATOGA SPRINGS – At age 28, medical student Benz Pimsakul had his cholesterol checked. It may be one of the smartest things he's ever done.
"I found out that my cholesterol was pretty significantly elevated," Pimsakul recalled. "From that, I did a little more digging into my family history and I found out that I had multiple men in my family who had had heart attacks and heart disease around the ages of 40 and 50."
Today, Pimsakul is a family medicine specialist with Intermountain Health based out of Saratoga Springs. He's quick to tell anyone who will listen to not put off regular screenings.
"The reason to do a yearly screening is because there are a lot of diseases and illnesses that you may not know you have, or that can cause significant changes in your life," Pimsakul said.
He recommended families use the back-to-school time to be sure everyone in the family has a scheduled checkup.
"We try to accommodate everybody, to come in at the same time which can make it a little bit easier," Pimsakul said. "If you're already scheduling well-child checks for your kids, it's probably a good idea to get in yourself."
It's simply a matter of scheduling. Of course, the reasons for screenings are many.
"Just one example is your cholesterol, but things like a diabetes screening, cancer screenings for colon cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer," he said. "If there's disease occurring with high sugar in your body you might not notice it at all physically until something really bad happens that's irreversible like a heart attack or stroke."
