{"id":519428,"date":"2010-04-07T15:45:33","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T19:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f20\/skip-screenings-save-your-own-life-41943\/"},"modified":"2010-04-07T15:45:33","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T19:45:33","slug":"skip-the-screenings-save-your-own-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519428","title":{"rendered":"Skip the screenings, save your own life"},"content":{"rendered":"
Skip the screenings, save your own life<\/p>\n

<\/b>I’ve been fighting the over-testing of America for decades — but now, my solo performance is turning into a chorus as more people realize they aren’t being helped by these things.<\/p>\n

"More care is not necessarily better care," wrote Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine, in a recent editorial.<\/p>\n

Haven’t I been saying that all along?<\/p>\n

Americans are being hurt by all these extra tests — and not just with a sucker punch to the wallet, either. All these screenings, proddings and lab visits add stress, come with risks and many even expose patients to radiation.<\/p>\n

Just look at President Obama — he wants to cut medical waste and limit access to health care to millions of Americans, yet he submits to a full battery of pricey and unnecessary exams.<\/p>\n

Hail to the chief, right?<\/p>\n

Obama’s physical included a PSA test, which is never necessary, and a "virtual" colonoscopy. The guy’s only 48, for Pete’s sake!<\/p>\n

Even when you do need a colonoscopy — one of the few cancer screenings I fully endorse — a "virtual" one adds cost, increases risk and is less accurate… and often ends in a traditional colonoscopy anyway.<\/p>\n

The president was also given an unnecessary cholesterol test and a heart scan to look for calcium deposits in his arteries — again, entirely unnecessary, and even the mainstream experts agree on that
\nSkipping the scans and screenings,<\/p>\n

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skip the screenings, save your own life I’ve been fighting the over-testing of America for decades — but now, my solo performance is turning into a chorus as more people realize they aren’t being helped by these things. "More care is not necessarily better care," wrote Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the Archives of Internal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}