Do I Need To Do Anything Beforehand?
Before having your health exam done for the life insurance company so that you can begin your coverage as soon as possible, there are some things you want to do so that you are prepared. Being prepared means allowing the process to go as fast as possible and as smooth as possible. It also means yielding the best results so that you can obtain the lowest premium possible.
So the first thing you want to do is make sure you have a thorough family health history. You should know your own. Make sure you write everything down so that you don't forget. And make sure you have your family's history in order by looking up any information that you need to look up and talking to any family members you need to talk to.
Prepare Your Body
There are some health conditions that simply cannot be hidden and may force you to consider no exam policies. However, you don't want your health to appear worse than it is either. For instance, not getting a good night's sleep can cause a little bit of elevation in your blood pressure or cause something else to come across wrong.
Another area that is very important is that of your blood glucose. The blood test wants to see what your blood glucose level is when you are fasting. This means not eating or drinking anything for 8 hours prior to the exam. If you do eat or drink anything, then this could show a false number. If the number would be above the preferred fasting level, you could be falsely shown as diabetic.
If your fasting number is too high when the blood glucose level is checked, this will raise your premium above what it should be for someone who has a normal level. So whatever you do, don't eat or drink. If you must drink, make sure it is nothing more than water. This means avoiding caffeinated drinks, even if they have no effect on your blood glucose level.
The reason why you want to avoid caffeinated beverages is because they artificially raise your heart rate. In other words, your heart rate is elevated in an unhealthy way and a high resting heart rate is not good. This could be viewed as a health issue rather than a caffeinated beverage issue.
You also want to make sure you avoid lots of salt and high cholesterol foods 24 hours before the exam. Salt can cause an elevation in blood pressure. Again, this is one of those issues where a reading could be artificial. Your blood pressure may not naturally be high, but the high salt foods made it look that way. As for the cholesterol, it does not completely process in the body yet and can cause a false high cholesterol reading.
And if you think exercise is going to help, you shouldn't engage in any strenuous activity the day before the exam. This can have an influence on the body that alters readings. Although exercise is good, it is not good in this case.
During the Exam
If you did have to engage in strenuous activity or forgot to not drink something or eat breakfast prior to the exam, tell the examiner. This will most likely result in a rescheduled exam because everything needs to be accurate. The exam has to be fair and accurate so that the insurance company can properly assess the results and determine what premium you are going to pay. Just make sure you learn how to prepare for a medical exam and are as truthful and accurate as you can be, even if that would result in a reschedule.
