10 instant health checks

4. Breast checks
One in nine women will develop breast cancer, but early diagnosis often leads to a cure.

• examine your breasts regularly
• get to know their normal look and feel
• look out for any lumps, dimpling, thickening or change in shape and size
• attend free breast screening if you are between 50 and 70 years old
• if you notice any changes contact your GP straight away

5. Urine colour and smell
Check the colour of your wee when you visit the loo. If it's pale in colour and relatively odourless, you're well hydrated. If urine is dark and scant, you are likely to be dehydrated. Aim to drink at least two to three litres of fluid per day. If urine smells unpleasant, burns or stings, you could have a urine infection. In this instance, take a sample to your GP for a check. If you are always thirsty, passing lots of urine and it smells sweet, get checked for possible diabetes.

6. Vaginal discharge
A healthy discharge is pale white/cream and smells fresh. If it is discoloured, copious and smells unpleasant (yeasty or strongly fishy), visit a genito-urinary medicine clinic for a check-up in case you have a bacterial imbalance (bacterial vaginosis), Candida, or a sexually transmittable infection such as Chlamydia.

7. Check feet and toes for fungal skin/nail infections
Having checked your finger nails, don't forget your feet. Fungal nail and skin infections often lurk here. Look for white/yellow discolouration of nails, vertical splits in nails, and rashes on the soles of your feet, and between your fourth and fifth toes. Treat with antifungal agents to prevent it spreading.

8. Skin pinch test for hydration
If you pinch the skin on the back of your hand, then let go, does it instantly snap back into place, or drop back rather sluggishly? The latter can suggest dehydration, or loss of skin elasticity due to premature skin ageing, which may have been caused, for example, by excessive sun exposure over many years.

9. Now check the skin all over your body, by standing naked in front of a large mirror or get your partner to check places you can't see easily, such as your back, for you. Look for moles or other blemishes that seem to be changing. While in many cases, the lesions will turn out to be harmless, skin cancer is on the increase. If diagnosed early, it is often curable. Warning signs to look out for are a mark that starts to:

• get bigger
• turn darker
• go scaly
• itch
• weep
• crust over or scab without healing
• develop a raised, rolled edge
• an ulcer or sore that gets worse or fails to heal within three weeks

10. Take any niggling symptoms seriously
Recurrent aches, pains, coughs, discharges, changes in bowel habit, lumps or odd sensations are often ignored in the hope they will go away. These can be signs of problems needing medical investigation and treatment, so don't ignore them. Make an appointment to get them checked out as soon as possible.