Give Yourself a Makeover!

Take charge of your health! Dr. Mehmet Oz shares the ideal age when you should begin getting health tests for many serious health threats:

• Age 20: Cholesterol test
• Age 21: For women, gynecology exam and pap smear (get tested earlier if sexually active)
• Age 35: Blood sugar, anemia and thyroid exams
• Age 40: For women, mammogram (start at age 25 if you have had two female relatives with breast cancer). Also, for men and women, skin exam by partner (take pictures of moles) and baseline electrocardiogram (a test that records the electrical activity of the heart)
• Age 50: Colonoscopy (get one every five years). Also, for men, prostate test
• Ages 50–60: Exercise stress test or coronary CTA (if obese or diagnosed with type 2 diabetes)
• Ages 55–60: Thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test (used to detect problems affecting the thyroid gland); memory test (Tell a complex story and repeat key points or have someone tell you a phone number and see if you can remember it—if you can't pick it out of a list of numbers, this could be a sign of early Alzheimer's disease.)