Would it be silly to save up and run the tests?

[sadkoala]

I'm not going to lie, I don't trust the NHS. I'm not bashing our nurses or doctors but I feel things are fundamentally wrong with the system. I have seen lots of firsthand examples over the years as well as read about people being dismissed despite many visits to GPs, prescribed wrong medication, not being tested for the right things, the list goes on and ultimately serious illnesses are diagnosed too late quite a lot.
This is my ultimate fear, that something like this might happen to me or DP ( or anyone really but it's missing my AIBU).
I have been lying in bed at night thinking about this.

I follow an European fitness trainer/diet specialist on SM. She's extremely busy but very year she takes out some time and goes to a private clinic and spends a full day getting all her health checks done. I am trying to find all the details out now but I know she has scans, blood tests and so on done ( this might be over longer than a day not sure how it works) to make sure she isn't just at peak health (which is her aim as a fitness person I assume) but also that there isn't anything going on in her body that she isn't aware of.

My friend has recently travelled to the EU and paid for a private full body or full back (I can't remember now) MRI scan as she was going to be waiting over 3 months to find out what's wrong with her back in the UK whilst her symptoms are worsening. She said it was the only clinic which will do a large area scan like that in one go as they have a brand new state of the art machine and that generally speaking a lot of their equipment and treatments are very advanced and even though it's private it's a lot cheaper that the UK.

I'm now thinking of putting some money aside and making the trip with DP to have an extensive health check and generally see how our bodies are doing.

Just to clarify I do not have health anxiety or anything like that but I am very aware that I have never really had an extensive look into general health and body and I keep thinking it would be good to do even if it's just to find out I need to become more active or do XYZ to feel better.

AIBU and weird?

Why travel? Private health checks are available in the UK.

I work in health care, I order tests. The problem with ordering tests you don't need is that you find things which may or may not be normal.
A full body MRI in someone without symptoms is likely to be normal, if its not normal, then what ever is found is more likely to be an incidentaloma (something which has been there for years and is not doing harm and is probably a variant of normal) then it is to be sinister. However an incidentaloma will cause worry and strain and possibly unnecessary procedures and treatment, as it can be hard to work out if something's sinister or not.
Don't do tests without thought as you may run into more troubles than needed.

How old are you OP? Unless you are 55+ I don't think this is worthwhile, the chances of finding anything wrong are very low if you don't have any symptoms. The other thing to consider is that it may throw up false positives particularly when it comes to musculoskeletal issues.

I trained as a health professional and we were told that if you gave MRI scans to a random section of the population, a relatively high proportion (sorry I've forgotten the stats) would show anomolies that could be "diagnosed", such as discs out of place, curvatures, etc. But only a small proportion of those people would actually have symptoms of back pain and most wouldn't go on to develop them. Conversely often people with the most crippling back pain show nothing on scans at all. This is why the NHS is reluctant to offer investigative scans for back pain.

Similarly, according to my MIL's doctor her hips look so bad on her scans he doesn't know how she can walk - she plays tennis twice a week and only gets the odd twinge.

You could end up setting yourself up with worries you don't need to have. My advice would be if you generally feel okay and are fit and healthy, save your money and relax.

Thanks for the insight.

Just to make things clear as well I wouldn't just be looking to have an MRI or focus on muscoskeletal health I am looking into an extensive health check .
The MRI my friend had showed 3 small hernias between her discs in 3 separate areas all along her spine and from what I have been told a standard test done in the NHS would only be carried out on one area of the back so bottom middle or top and I'm assuming they would have then focused on the one found and any pain could just have been assigned to that. She could have waited years between long wairing times for appointments, waiting for referrals etc before actually getting the whole picture.

Why dont you investigate Bupa or similar in the country that you live. Find out some prices. I don't know what your symptoms are, but have you looked at a chiropractor, physiotherapy, exercise. You could spend lots of money and not find out anything

You can have private health checks in the UK.
I’m not sure why you would do this if you have no symptoms, but it’s entirely up to you how you spend your money.

Does the European fitness trainer get commission from promoting these tests? In what way are they a diet specialist?

Who is it?

You can definitely get this done in Dublin because I heard it advertised on the radio:
www.materprivate.ie/dublin/centre-services/health-check/

Some workplaces have healthchecks anually for staff, basic tests free and a small amount for more indepth tests. Does you or your husbands workplace have anything like that?

The fitness trainer does not advertise the tests or get paid for promoting anything she just points out the importance of knowing how your body is doing. She is very successful and does a lot of free content for her followers including meal plans and workout content in general aside from her paid stuff.

Thanks I will check out that link.

And I don't have any symptoms or anything in particular I want to check. I just want a good in depth health check including blood tests etc testing for as much as possible to get a good overall look at my health.

If you aren't having any symptoms, then you already have a good overall look at your health.

The problem with going hunting around in your body is that you'll find stuff that would never cause you a problem - but the treatments might.

People tend to think that this sort of screening is going to find something to 'nip in the bud', but it is more likely to lead to anxiety and over-treatment.

This link will tell you lots more to help you make your decision: senseaboutscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Makingsenseofscreening.pdf

I can understand the frustration/worry, having waited way too long for a diagnosis.

Full body scans show up loads of anomalies, because we are all human, different, and a product of our genes. You'd be worrying forever.

I wish I'd had the ability put a couple of thousand to one side, so when I developed concerns and realised the length of the waiting lists, I could have specific scans and blood treats related to my symptoms, rather than an overall scan, which could have picked up loads of odd things, which could have got in the way of identifying and treating the actual problem.

Maybe that's an option? You can price average scans etc. and get an idea of how much you'd be looking at.

Yes YABU and weird. You’re being sucked into something by someone on social media.
As pp have said you could easily have full body checks done privately in the UK. Did you not realise this? If you feel the need to do it then why travel?

So, I just had a scan for something. They didn’t find anything they were looking for during the scan, but they found some of my organs were in the wrong place.
In nearly 40 years I’ve never had any signs or symptoms and the doctor said that this is true of lots of people and the first you know of it is during your autopsy.
Now I am worried about my organs being in the wrong place and what this might mean.
When I google it is says could be linked to other genetic problems.
I would have rather not known to be honest, as it’s causing me more stress and worry now I do know.