Screen for deadly diseases in your local neighborhood! Detect plaque in your arteries before you have a stroke – and potentially save your life! Find out if you have a lethal aneurysm in your abdomen – before it’s too late!
Life Line Screening has brought the power of diagnostic tools into the hands of the general public and enabled people to purchase noninvasive testing with little risk, while reaping the supposed benefits of averting medical disasters.
There’s just one catch – $199 for 10 minutes of testing, and it won’t save your life.
Along with many of you, I got a letter in the mail last week from Life Line Screening. Half a dozen patients have called my office asking if the tests were a good idea. Granted, there is no harm in doing an ultrasound; it’s noninvasive, and it doesn’t hurt. Testing blood pressure in various parts of the body might pinch for a moment, but it doesn’t involve needles. Even doing an electrocardiogram takes a few minutes, and has no harm associated with the procedure.
So why not just do the screening at the Hawaii Kai Library, Ewa Beach Golf Course, or the YWCA?
Programs like Life Line Screening — and the direct-mail hype — are simply unnecessary. It’s all part of an effort to convince people to pay for testing they don’t need, offering a supposed peace of mind that can’t be bought with medically unnecessary tests.
Let’s look at the facts.
Most packages offer four to five tests deemed “essential” to good health.
First up, an ultrasound of the carotid arteries to see if there are blockages in these vital vessels to the brain. Who needs to be tested? Well, according to Life Line, anyone. But what does the Society for Vascular Surgery say? Only those with symptoms should be tested.
Why wait?
Because the risk of stroke with a narrowing in the arteries, even while factoring in varying degrees of blockage, ranges from 1.6 percent to 3.2 percent annually. The risk of a stroke during surgery to remove the blockage if it’s found, 3 percent. Therefore, even with the best of intentions, doing a procedure to treat a blockage that is not causing symptoms is just as likely to cause a stroke as to prevent one.
A better option: Check your blood cholesterol. If it’s high, work on diet and exercise, and use medication if necessary, to reduce the chances of having a stroke from any cause.
The second test touted as lifesaving is for peripheral artery disease, or PAD. Basically, it’s comprised of blood pressure testing in the legs. Seems easy enough: Use the same blood pressure cuff that is in any doctor’s office, put it on the ankle and see what results you get. Changes in the pressure between the ankle and the arm are considered to be a risk factor for blockages in the arteries to the legs.
This is thought to be a marker of atherosclerosis – or hardening of the arteries from hypertension and cholesterol plaques.
So, does checking blood pressure in the legs help to diagnose PAD?
No, according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force. This is not a needed exam. Early diagnosis does not lead to any more effective treatment than lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, something almost everyone should do. That and quitting smoking. This, above all else, is the best thing a smoker can do to prolong his or her life.
If there is a problem with blood flow of the legs, what can be done about it? There is only one proven effective treatment – go for a walk. Exercise helps to promote blood flow and is free. $199 can buy several pairs of sneakers, too.
Next up, bone-density testing, or screening for osteoporosis. For women over 65, or 60 with risk factors, this test makes sense. But for everyone else, no. Even if it were to be done on selected people, ultrasound is not used to diagnosis bone density deficiencies. DEXA scans are used. These are expensive machines, and considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of osteoporosis. Medicare and other insurance companies pay for the test when it’s medically necessary. But not for an ultrasound of the heel, as Life Line Screening does. The most accurate location to test is the hip or the spine, where people have fractures. Not the heel.
Another unnecessary test is screening EKG — a helpful test for some, but basically called an atrial fibrillation detector. For those who want to know if they have an irregular heart rate, this test claims to find it. But an EKG takes a snapshot of the heart beat for 12 seconds.
Want a more effective way to see if you have a problem? Learn how to check your pulse. It’s easy, can be done anywhere, at any time, and it’s free. If it’s regular, then there is no fibrillation. No need for further testing. If it’s not, let your doctor know. He or she can listen to your heart, which tells a lot more than just the pulse.
Last but not least is the screen for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. This bulging artery in the belly can rupture, and if it does, is almost universally fatal. On this, the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery agrees with screening ultrasounds for certain people. Medicare even pays for it. But not for everyone. For men over 65, or women of the same age who smoked, this test is covered. Family history and risk factors also play a role.
But testing everyone at any age just because it’s available does not save lives and it doesn’t make sense. Especially not if people are paying for a test they don’t need, done with equipment that is not the same in quality as in a medical facility.
As a physician, I am all for empowering people to take responsibility for their health and doing the testing they need to stay well. But to sell unnecessary medical procedures as some type of life-saving preventative measure bothers me. It’s a wonder that so many people sign up to pay $199 for nothing.
The best way to stay healthy is to stick with the basics. Keep cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar levels low, don’t smoke, and exercise daily.
$199 might not seem like a lot of money, but it can definitely cover the copay of any visit to your primary care provider who can order the tests you really need to stay well.
If you get a letter from Life Line Screening, do what I did — throw it out.
