Lung cancer scans good idea for some
Unfortunately, until recently, only 16 percent of lung cancers were diagnosed early. That’s one reason lung cancer is up there with digestive cancers as the most lethal; 155,870 people are expect to die from the disease in 2017.
The great news is that if you’re at high risk for lung cancer, you can have a lowdose CT scan and detect the disease early on. That slashes the risk of death from lung cancer by 20 percent! To spread the word, the American Lung Association has launched Saved by the Scan. It urges you to go to www. lung.org and take a quiz to see if you’re a candidate.
What puts you at high risk? Quitting smoking recently is a reason to get tested, especially if you smoked in the past 15 years or smoked one pack per day for 30 years. So is chronic exposure to secondhand smoke or to radon), exposure to certain industrial pollutants — asbestos, chromium, arsenic and nickel — and a family history.
And remember, it’s never too late to quit. Go to www. lung.org to join “Freedom From Smoking” or search for YOU Can Quit at sharecare.com.
Lower back pain
Over 80 percent of Americans contend with lower back pain at some point, often from arthritis, heavy use at work, doing sports or following an accident. So what’s been the go-to solution? First a NSAID or other anti-inflammatories, then a scan and opioids. They are the treatments that Medicare and insurers push.
Well, that’s about to change — we hope. New clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Physicians recommend that doctors move away from scans and prescribing drugs and embrace nonmedicine based treatments, including yoga, mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Why? According to a Canadian review, for 95 percent of lower back pain patients medical interventions are no more effective than placebo! This echoes a study from
2016 in the Annals of Internal Medicine that found that massage, tai chi, yoga, physical therapy and acupuncture were effective therapies.
So if you’re knocked off your feet with lower back pain, ask your doc about nonmedicine-based treatments. If the pain lasts more than six weeks, then you should be referred to a specialist and get an MRI. We bet Medicare and insurers also will embrace this effective, cost-saving approach! The problem costs the U.S. over $100 billion annually, twothirds of that in lost productivity and decreased wages.
Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.