Too Much Medical Testing Not Good

Monday, 02 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

How much medical testing is too much? With middle age comes the bombardment of recommendations for health screenings says the LA Times: Mammograms. Colonoscopies, Stress Tests. All of it can be quite stressful and some of it-quite a bit of it, actually—is unnecessary. The problem with over-screening, according to health experts, is that it often leads to over-treatment. And with the increasing sophistication of technology these days, finding the tiniest abnormality is becoming easier and easier. One reason the medical community has embraced screening is simply that the fear lawsuits if they don’t; Increased knowledge on the part of the patient and the fact that testing is easy had made the practice rampant.

The Times put together a nice list of advice to help you figure out what screenings are necessary and which ones to avoid.