Echocardiograms for healthy people? Fuhgaddeboutit
Thinking of having an echocardiogram to ferret out those chest pains? Or an annual pap smear, if you're a 30-to-65-year-old woman? Or a CT scan of your son's head after he falls off his bike? Fuhgaddeaboutit. A new study has found that doctors are saying that everything from using feeding tubes in people with advanced dementia to CT scans for minor head injuries is not necessary and should not be done, according to a story by Bruce Japsen at forbes.com. He writes that doctors themselves recognize the lack of necessity for many tests that have been routinely done for decades. In fact, Japsen writes, they've come up with 90 tests that we're all better off not having. On the same topic, flu shots arenot working in patients over 65, the most vulnerable age group. Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press reports that, "the vaccine is proving only 9 percent effective in those 65 and older against the harsh strain of the flu that is predominant this sea...