{"id":752258,"date":"2026-06-21T20:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/752258\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T20:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:48:24","slug":"how-much-preventive-health-screening-should-i-be-getting-well-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/752258\/","title":{"rendered":"How much preventive health screening should I be getting? | Well actually"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn\u2019t help but roll my eyes when tech entrepreneur and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson posted<\/a> about his girlfriend\u2019s \u201cvaginal microbiome report\u201d in April. (He said it was in the \u201ctop 1% of vaginas\u201d.) While the vaginal microbiome<\/a> is genuinely interesting, most clinicians don\u2019t routinely recommend this test to patients.<\/p>\n

As medical technology has become more powerful \u2013 and more marketable \u2013 the line between helpful screening and unnecessary testing has blurred.<\/p>\n

Of course, some medical testing helps prevent premature disease and death. But the direct-to-consumer testing<\/a> industry is increasingly promoting tests that promise reassurance but often deliver ambiguous findings. The results may lead to expensive follow-ups or leave people with the creeping sense that their body is full of hidden dangers.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about screening tests.<\/p>\n

What is medical screening?<\/p>\n

Screening is medical testing that looks for medical conditions before you have symptoms. The best kinds of screening tests find treatable conditions before they\u2019ve caused too much damage, and enable clinicians to reverse or cure the condition to prevent premature disability or death. Importantly, good screening tests don\u2019t themselves cause harm, whether by breaking the bank or by causing new problems.<\/p>\n

Blood sugar tests and blood pressure checks are examples of great screening tests. The conditions they flag \u2013 diabetes and high blood pressure \u2013 have long asymptomatic periods, causing damage to tiny blood vessels in the eyes, kidneys, brain and heart for years before people notice them. If screening finds these conditions early, treatment can stop them in their tracks. If not diagnosed early, these diseases take<\/a> decades<\/a> off people\u2019s lives and cause blindness, kidney disease, strokes, heart attacks and other issues.<\/p>\n

These screenings are cheap and easy. In addition, interventions to prevent these diseases from progressing \u2013 dietary and exercise changes, and medications that have been safely in use for decades \u2013 are way less likely to cause harm than good.<\/p>\n

Is more screening better?<\/p>\n

If knowledge is power, it might seem logical to get as much information as possible about your body. But that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n

Experts use the term \u201coverscreening\u201d to describe overzealous testing that finds things that are untreatable, don\u2019t need to be found or raise even more questions, requiring additional costly and potentially harmful interventions with unclear benefit.<\/p>\n

It can be hard to get your head around the idea that more testing isn\u2019t always better. Full-body MRI scans<\/a> are a nearly perfect example. Popularized by techno-optimists and celebrity endorsements, they are sold by for-profit companies as a proactive way for healthy people to identify \u201csilent killers\u201d like aneurysms and solid tumors in their early stages.<\/p>\n

Graphic with three lines of text that say, in bold, \u2018Well Actually\u2019, then \u2018Read more on living a good life in a complex world,\u2019 then a pinkish-lavender pill-shaped button with white letters that say \u2018More from this section\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

MRI technology is great at detecting atypical anatomy, but it\u2019s often unable to determine the significance of it. An astonishingly high proportion of the findings these tests identify are \u201cincidentalomas\u201d \u2013 tiny cysts, nodules or anatomical quirks of unclear significance. In one review<\/a> of studies evaluating whole-body MRI screenings, 95% of participants had abnormal findings, about a third required further investigation, and fewer than 0.5% had findings suspicious for cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans are full of abnormality, particularly as they age,\u201d says Gilbert Welch<\/a>, a researcher of overdiagnosis at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston. Many findings are irrelevant to a person\u2019s health, but clinicians don\u2019t know which are \u2013 so they often act on all of them.<\/p>\n

What are the harms of overscreening?<\/p>\n

By definition, incidentalomas are unlikely to cause harm. But they trigger cascades of additional testing, biopsies and specialist appointments \u2013 which all cost time and money, and may lead to discomfort and medical complications.<\/p>\n

Even established tests can be applied too broadly or too frequently. For decades, experts have been<\/a> arguing<\/a> about<\/a> the best cadence for screening mammograms, which look for breast cancers in otherwise healthy, low-risk people. Long-term data suggest that more frequent mammography screening substantially increases breast cancer diagnoses, especially of early stage disease. However, the practice leads to much smaller reductions<\/a> in advanced cancer, and its effects on overall mortality are uncertain<\/a>. Additionally, a large share of what these screenings find may never progress to cause harm. For older patients, more frequent screening may even raise risk<\/a> of unnecessary invasive medical procedures.<\/p>\n

Overscreening also creates worry and a sense of ill health, says Suzanne O\u2019Sullivan<\/a>, a neurologist at London\u2019s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Before a hypothetical screening MRI, she said, you might feel perfectly healthy and happy. After a finding of uncertain significance? \u201cI won\u2019t feel healthy any longer,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When it comes to more routine screenings, note that for those with certain family and medical histories, experts typically recommend earlier and more frequent tests. For example, experts recommend earlier and more frequent colonoscopies<\/a> for people with a close relative with colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan thinks elaborate screening tests might be more useful when we understand disease progression better. In the meantime, \u201csomeone\u2019s making an awful lot of money pretending to keep people healthy\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n

What should you do before signing up for the latest trending screening test?<\/p>\n

Most primary care clinicians are well-versed on which screening tests are best for you at different stages of your life, and use evidence-based<\/a> guidance<\/a> to make their recommendations. They may also serve as a resource before you shell out for a direct-to-consumer (DTC) test.<\/p>\n

The FDA doesn\u2019t review<\/a> all DTC tests, and it can be hard to find independent evaluations of each test\u2019s accuracy and usefulness. You can also pose several questions to whoever\u2019s selling a test you\u2019re considering: does this test reduce deaths or disability, or just increase diagnoses? How often does it produce false positives or overdiagnosis? And is the treatment for what it finds safer than leaving it alone?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, says Welch, the path to health involves doing \u201cthings your grandmother might have told you: eat your fruits and vegetables, go play outside\u201d, and find meaningful activity and connection with others. \u201cWe\u2019re teaching the next generation the path to health is by collecting data on yourself,\u201d he says, but \u201cyou can\u2019t test yourself to health\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I couldn\u2019t help but roll my eyes when tech entrepreneur and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson posted about his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-752258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}