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The Simple Way I Choose Screening Tests For Patients · Doctor Turned Health Coach

• 0:21
  So just the other day, a family friend reached out and said,
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  hey, doc, what's going on?
• 0:28
  Just wondering what are some screening tests I should get next year?
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  Obviously, he knew that I know how old he is and everything.
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  So his understanding, his impression was that there are these baseline tests to get.
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  To screen for any kind of disease
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  and that he should be doing this every year so he
• 0:53
  was looking for basically a list of things that i could offer him unfortunately
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  real health doesn't work that way now it is true that the current modern health
• 1:02
  care system has sort of evolved into this algorithmic care where every woman
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  gets a mammogram and a pap smear every man gets a psa test,
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  Both get colonoscopies, and then you get annual cholesterol and blood sugar
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  tests, and then daily, or not daily, but every time you go to the doctor,
• 1:23
  you get your blood pressure checked.
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  Most of this is not evidence-based, meaning that if we actually dissected the
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  evidence, most people would not benefit from this kind of screening.
• 1:34
  I'm not going to get into the details of it during this podcast episode,
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  but it is important to know and understand that if you really want to get the
• 1:44
  most out of your preventative visits, the most important thing that you can
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  do is actually prevent a disease that you,
• 1:53
  not me, are at risk for.
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  If you're at high risk for prostate cancer, gallbladder disease,
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  gallbladder cancer, dementia, or some other type of kidney or lung disease that
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  is super unique based on your history, family history.
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  Lifestyle then somebody has to discover that
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  with you and truly it's not that easy it
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  is kind of nuanced that physician would have to spend a bit of time doing research
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  and understanding your particular case once the research is done then they have
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  to figure out what is it you're really willing to do if you are not capable
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  of changing your diet because your diet's already really good for you and if
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  you change your diet you don't feel as good,
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  they may not be able to change your risk with a dietary strategy.
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  So maybe for you, the next step is to actually screen for that disease with MRI,
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  ultrasound, CT scan, lots of different things that are not at all listed in
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  the USPSTF, which is basically the Bible of screening tests, right?
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  That's the one that says who should get a PSA, who should get a colonoscopy,
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  who should get a mammogram and a pap smear.
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  But really, we want to decide that on an individual basis.
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  Those guidelines are great as a guideline, but if they replace the actual decision-making
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  you have with your own doctor, it really is not going to serve you that well.
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  For example, the classic one is diabetes.
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  Every year, you should get screened for diabetes.
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  And if you do get screened for diabetes, you're essentially just catching diabetes,
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  and then you have to set out to treat diabetes.
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  But maybe a better strategy would be to prevent
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  diabetes and that's a much better use of your
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  time rather than going into the doctor constantly and getting
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  screened now of course here today i'm
• 3:47
  only talking about screening tests screening tests
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  are tests done when you don't have any symptoms if you actually have a symptom
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  then you're getting a workup for your symptom a screening test is a test that
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  is designed to catch something early so that we can start the treatment for that disease early.
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  And fortunately, the majority of these screening tests are for conditions that are preventable.
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  And again, I know I keep repeating it, but prevention is so much more powerful
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  than treatment, or I should say than diagnosis.
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  So that's the strategy to use if you really want to stay healthy.
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  And maybe don't think about your regular appointments with your doctor as a
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  way to just catch disease, screening for disease.
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  Maybe consider a way to assess your individual risk so you know what steps to
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  take in your lifestyle, diet, maybe supplements.
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  And then on top of that, build a strategy to screen for conditions that you
• 4:52
  really might be at a very high risk for.