Comment by sn9

9 months ago

Health guidelines take into account when screening/testing is a net harm or benefit for patients in general, and when they move from being a net harm to a net benefit conditional on specific factors like existing diseases, obesity, etc.

Any decent doctor should be at least following those, and you can pretty easily find them from the major disease-focused organizations.

Importantly, there are also recommendations for how often you see a doctor based on things like age and known disease risk. You might discover you have risk factors that are genetically resistant to lifestyle factors, and the earlier you find out, the more leverage you have to decrease your lifetime risk with appropriate medication.

I'd check out the Barbell Medicine podcast episode on the health priorities they recommend patients focus on: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/where-should-my-priorit...