SKIP These Cancer Screenings?! (SENIORS ONLY)

Mainstream medicine preys on the weak and vulnerable.

And some of the most vulnerable among us—elderly individuals in poor health—are getting taken advantage of every day by the very system they turn to for help.

It’s all in the name of your health—but it’s really only about the bottom line—especially when it comes to cancer screenings.

I’ll tell you when you should GET them—and when you should SKIP them.

When it comes to cancer screening, some tests are beneficial (like colonoscopies) while others do more harm than good (like mammograms).

But I don’t care what cancer screening you’re talking about… no one who is old and sick needs to be screened for a disease that they couldn’t or shouldn’t be treated for anyway.

Yet thousands of seniors are needlessly subjected to these tests every day.

After reviewing over 176,000 patient histories, researchers determined that too many people are receiving cancer screenings that wouldn’t do them a darn bit of good.

Once people hit 75 years old…

• 60 percent of men and 56 percent of women were over-screened for colorectal cancer.
• 46 percent of women were getting over-screened for cervical cancer.
• 74 percent of women were getting over-screened for breast cancer.

These percentages were based on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which only recommends colorectal screenings up to age 75, breast cancer up to 74, and cervical cancer up to 65.

The screenings themselves carry some degree of risk (like perforation of the bowels in a colonoscopy, for example), and the possibility of side effects only increase with age.

But the bigger question is, what if cancer is detected?

Cancer treatments are grueling even for a healthy individual. They could be deadly for someone who’s already old and sick.

You also have to factor in the stress and discomfort, the anxiety, the false positives, and then even MORE follow-up procedures.

And for what? There’s been ZERO PROOF that these tests improve life expectancy after the upper age limits mentioned above.

If someone is nearing the end of their lives, chances are they’d die of other causes long before the cancer would kill them.

The bottom line is that in many cases it’s risky and pointless to get screened.

But you can’t just go by the age on someone’s driver’s license to determine if they should get screened or not.

A 75-year-old in great health could reasonably have 15 or more years left to live. For that person, screening could make sense.

A 65-year-old with severe COPD and only a year or two left to live, on the other hand, should probably skip it.

In other words, don’t just follow some random organization’s guidelines. Use your common sense when making these decisions for yourself and your loved ones.

After all, your best advocate is you.