How Much Do You Really Know About Your Body?

Why Preventative Health Screening Matters More Than Ever

Not everyone wants to know exactly where their health is at, and I understand that. For some people, uncertainty feels safer than answers. But I see health through a very different lens, shaped by personal experience, clinical training, and years working with people whose symptoms were dismissed until they became impossible to ignore.

After being unwell for 18 years, I was eventually told I had a tumour in my bile duct and required emergency surgery. It turned out to be a very rare choledochal cyst, and my doctor told me that without surgery I may not have lived past 30 years old. In addition to this, I also found my mum unexpectedly after she passed away, with no known cause identified even after an autopsy. These experiences fundamentally changed my relationship with health and prevention forever.

They are the reason I believe so strongly in preventative medicine.

Preventative health is not about fear. It is about awareness, time, and choice.

What Is Preventative Health Screening

Preventative health screening aims to detect structural, metabolic, genetic, or inflammatory changes before symptoms develop or before disease becomes advanced. Many chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and metabolic disease, develop silently over many years before they are clinically apparent.

By the time symptoms appear, opportunities for early intervention are often lost.

Preventative screening shifts healthcare from a reactive model to a proactive one, allowing earlier lifestyle intervention, medical surveillance, or treatment where appropriate.

Targeted MRI and Why It Matters

This week, I underwent a targeted MRI as part of my health screening at HealthScreen.

Unlike broad full body MRI scans, targeted MRI focuses on key areas of the body where disease is most likely to develop, using specialised imaging sequences tailored to each region. These areas include the brain, spine, chest, abdomen, pelvis, and major blood vessels.

This approach matters for several reasons:

• Higher image resolution and clinical relevance

• Reduced incidental findings, which can cause unnecessary anxiety and downstream testing

• Doctor-led interpretation, ensuring findings are contextualised appropriately

• Radiation-free imaging, making MRI suitable for preventative use

Research shows that incidental findings from indiscriminate imaging can lead to overdiagnosis, unnecessary procedures, and psychological harm without improving outcomes. Targeted, clinically guided imaging helps balance early detection with medical appropriateness.

A Doctor-Led Model of Screening

One of the most important aspects of comprehensive screening is medical oversight.

A doctor-led process ensures that results are interpreted in the context of personal history, risk factors, and current evidence. It also means that if something does appear, the next steps are coordinated rather than leaving individuals to navigate complex medical systems alone.

Preventative screening should never be about delivering raw data without support. It should be about actionable insight.

Gut Microbiome Testing and Long-Term Health

In addition to imaging, I completed advanced gut microbiome testing, using a stool sample collected at home.

The gut microbiome plays a critical role in digestion, immune regulation, inflammation, metabolic health, and even brain function through the gut-brain axis. Disruptions to microbial diversity and function have been associated with obesity, insulin resistance, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, mood disorders, and cardiovascular disease.

Modern microbiome testing goes beyond identifying which bacteria are present. Advanced platforms now assess microbial activity, metabolic pathways, and inflammatory signalling, offering insight into how the microbiome may be influencing health long before disease develops.

This is particularly relevant in the context of modern diets, chronic stress, antibiotic exposure, and ultra-processed food intake, all of which are known to negatively impact microbial diversity.

Biological Age Testing and Ageing at the Cellular Level

I also completed biological age testing via a blood test.

Biological age differs from chronological age. It reflects how quickly or slowly your cells and tissues are ageing based on molecular markers, particularly DNA methylation patterns. These epigenetic changes are influenced by lifestyle factors such as nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress, smoking, alcohol intake, and metabolic health.

Research shows that accelerated biological ageing is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, cognitive decline, and all-cause mortality. Importantly, biological age is modifiable. Lifestyle interventions including improved diet quality, resistance training, cardiorespiratory fitness, sleep optimisation, and inflammation reduction have all been shown to influence epigenetic ageing trajectories.

Understanding biological age provides insight into long-term health risk and where targeted lifestyle changes can have the greatest impact.

Genetic Screening for Inherited Risk

Genetic screening was completed using a simple mouth swab, analysing genes linked to inherited cancer and cardiovascular disease risk.

While genetics do not determine destiny, early knowledge of inherited risk can meaningfully change outcomes through earlier surveillance, targeted screening, and preventative strategies. For example, certain genetic variants may inform earlier colonoscopy screening, cardiovascular monitoring, or lifestyle modification.

Crucially, responsible genetic testing should always include genetic counselling, ensuring results are interpreted accurately and without unnecessary alarm.

Prevention Is Not Anxiety Driven

Preventative health screening is not about searching for problems. It is about reducing uncertainty, identifying risk early, and making informed decisions.

In my clinical experience, people who understand what is happening in their body are more empowered, more engaged in their health, and more likely to make sustainable lifestyle changes. Knowledge creates agency.

Waiting for symptoms is not a strategy. It is a gamble.

Final Thoughts

We live in a time where we have access to extraordinary medical and scientific tools. The challenge is not technology. It is how we choose to use it.

Preventative healthcare done properly is evidence based, doctor led, personalised, and focused on long-term wellbeing rather than short-term reassurance.

For me, prevention is deeply personal. It is shaped by lived experience, clinical science, and a belief that people deserve answers before it is too late.

For more information about preventative health screening and the services discussed in this article, visit healthscreen.com.au.

 

Scientific References

1. Horvath S. DNA methylation age of human tissues and cell types. Genome Biology. 2013.

2. Lu AT et al. DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. Aging. 2019.

3. Valdes AM et al. Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health. BMJ. 2018.

4. Cryan JF et al. The microbiota gut brain axis. Physiological Reviews. 2019.

5. Welch HG et al. Overdiagnosis in cancer screening. BMJ. 2011.

6. O’Sullivan JW et al. Prevalence and outcomes of incidental findings in imaging. BMJ. 2018.

7. Khera AV et al. Genetic risk and prevention of coronary disease. New England Journal of Medicine. 2016.

8. WHO. Cardiovascular diseases fact sheet.

9. Deakin University Food and Mood Centre. Diet inflammation and mental health research.