To be on the safer side, women should undergo some preventive health checkups. This is for few reasons. The most important one is that in many cases, symptoms of illness become visible after the disease has taken firm root in your body. Secondly, modern diagnostic tests can be veey accurate and pick up early signs of  any disease, giving a full opportunity to reverse it, even disease like cancer. And third, lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high BP and cholesterol need to be managed immediately. If not, they could lead to  serious complications such as heart attacks, kidney failure or a stroke and paralysis.

Here are the most important preventive health tests for women:

* HAEMOGLOBIN AND GENERAL BLOOD COUNTS - To help detect anaemia at early stages and rebuild the blood count.

*BLOOD SUGAR TESTS - Readings taken over 3 months will give you a complete picture of high levels of sugar while they are still in the pre-diabetic stage, so you can manage them before you become diabetic.

* PAP TEST - To pick up early signs of tumours in the female reproductive system (cervix)

*LIVER FUNCTION TESTS - These note even very small changes in liver functions, which can be easily corrected with lifestyle and diet changes.

* LIPID PROFILE - This is a profile of blood fats (lipids)  which tells you about imbalances in cholesterol and triglycerides, to help you control these early cintributors to heart disease.

* THYROID TESTS - To spot low thyroid levels and correct them immediately.

* KIDNEY FUNCTION TESTS - To spot early signs of a weak kidney that can be managed with lifestyle and diet changes.