Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order... Unless You Know to Ask

When most patients visit a doctor, they go either for a routine checkup or to investigate a specific complaint, perhaps chest pain. What these patients do not know is that after the patient has finished being examined by that physician, this physician may not order a test that conceivably could prove helpful in either detecting or diagnosing a disease. In MEDICAL TESTS THAT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE, David Johnson and David Sandmire outline a series of tests that might just do what the title implies. The authors suggest that physicians refrain from mentioning these tests, not out of meanness, but mostly because these tests range in price from the reasonably cheap to the outrageously expensive, and insurance companies would be quick to place over eager physicians on their "do not use" list. The answer, the authors suggest, is for the self-informed patient to bite the bullet and pay for needed tests out of pocket. Clearly, what a patient needs is a ready reference. Johnson and Sandmire have filled the gap with their eminently readable and useful text that does far more than list test names. They begin by telling the reader how to create a personal risk profile that sets forth not only the reader's medical history but that of the reader's first degree and second degree relatives. They also urge the reader to describe any pertinent patient use related to tobacco and alcohol use. Helpful notes on general diet and exercise would also help a patient convince a physician to listen more attentively to a need for costly tests. Johnson and Sandmire also point out that a physician is more likely to pay attention when a patient sounds knowledgable about matters medical. Most of MTTCSYL outline some twenty diseases that are unfortunately common with America's overfed and underexercised adult population. The reader is free to browse them and note illnesses that range from colorectal cancer to hepatitus C to prostate cancer. Each disease discusses risk factors both modifiable and nonmodifiable and a handy chart that uses a point system that enables the reader to identify a potentially significant risk level. Once that reader has been honest enough to do so, then the authors list the appropriate medical tests. Fully one half of the text is devoted to these tests. The authors consider what these tests are, how they are administered, what they cost, and how reliable they are. For patients who are motivated enough to do their homework before stepping into a physician's waiting room, MTTCSYL can be a life saving read.

Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order... Unless You Know to Ask is exactly what as the title states. Inside are nineteen conditions that are often not tested by doctors. Each of the conditions gives a description of the physical condition, risk factors (separated by those that you can modify and those that you can't), your risk level, and tests you may want to request. After the condition is explained in detail and the appropriate tests suggested, the book ends with a section that describes the tests including what the test checks for, how reliable it is, health risks, and approximate cost. The final part of the book covers the standard treatment for the various conditions once they have been verified. One of the reasons these tests are often not given by doctors is because they don't show many symptoms until they are well advanced. So how do you know you should request one of these tests? The authors provide some of the circumstances under which you might want to request the test. For example, hemochromatosis is most prevalent in people with a Celtic ancestry. If you have a different ancestry you are unlikely to need to have the exam taken. Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life is a highly recommended book although I will have to admit that I am somewhat prejudiced. I have several relatives whose lives would have been much better if someone had ordered the test for hemochromatosis earlier in their lives.