As a runner, you eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly, but sometimes you need to do more to protect your health. For best results, healthy living should be combined with preventative care such as screenings, preventative tests and vaccinations. Preventative care helps you detect medical conditions early and can even prevent them from happening in the first place.

Prevention can be applied to any part of your health regimen. For instance, did you know that the health of your teeth and gums can affect more than just your oral hygiene? Tooth decay and gum disease can cause the deterioration of your eyesight and scientists have also found that taking care of your vision and oral hygiene can lessen the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other similar conditions. This means that preventative dentistry and any other preventative care should be an essential part of your healthy habits.

Bestmed believes that prevention is better than cure and therefore Bestmed provides product offerings with a wide variety of preventative care benefits, including preventative dentistry, various vaccinations and immunisations, pap smears, mammograms, PSA screenings and biometric screenings.

Bestmed members also have access to the Health Check wellness programme which offers a free biometric screening every year. The screening includes the following tests:

• Glucose levels
• Cholesterol levels
• Body Mass Index (BMI)

The screening also includes a detailed questionnaire to assess your health status, in order to determine if you need health interventions such as dietary counselling sessions.

Make preventative care a part of your running health programme. These benefits need to be considered when choosing your medical aid. Here are 10 must-knows when choosing your next medical scheme.

Bestmed is voted the number-one Product Supplier of 2015 in the industry and is also one of the Top500 best managed companies in South Africa.