Physical examination after the age of 60, just do five tests.

"Liu, what are you doing in the hospital again?"

"To do an anti-cancer physical examination, some experts said that the elderly are prone to cancer and should be examined more."

"Where did you read the rumor? Those tests are very radioactive. It’s not a good thing to do them often. Don’t get sick when you get sick."

"Don’t believe it, how to curse people? Anyway, it’s not me who will have cancer at that time. "

Lao Liu and Lao Li have completely different views on cancer screening. On the one hand, they support examination to prevent diseases, while on the other hand, they think that examination will cause diseases. Should cancer screening be done?

01

Academician bluntly said: It is not recommended that everyone do cancer screening.

The significance of cancer screening lies in the early detection of cancer or precancerous lesions, which can be treated early and reduce mortality. Cancer screening is recommended by authoritative organizations such as American Cancer Society and China Anti-cancer Association.

However, Academician Han Qide, an academician of China Academy of Sciences, said in a speech that cancer screening is not recommended for healthy people. Some cancers will not reduce cancer mortality after early screening. Such screening is not of great significance.

Academician Han also cited several authoritative surveys to illustrate. He said that a data of 76,000 people in the United States showed that there was no difference in the number of people who died of prostate cancer after 13 years. The same is true for breast cancer. Researchers in Canada have investigated nearly 90,000 women over 40 years old, half of whom have molybdenum target examination every six months, and the other half have no examination. The results showed that the detection rate of breast cancer in the inspection group increased by 27% compared with that in the non-inspection group, but there was no difference in mortality.

Academician Han Qide believes that everyone doing cancer screening may actually harm themselves. For example, some early cancer patients who will not develop into serious diseases themselves, having an operation is equivalent to getting a knife for nothing; The radiation in regular inspection will also bring a burden to health; Also, after cancer is detected, it will bring great psychological burden to people, and bad emotions will easily promote the development of cancer.

In the view of Academician Han Qide, we should avoid the move of "killing one hundred people by mistake rather than letting one person go" and do not recommend universal cancer screening for everyone. However, targeted examination can be carried out according to their own symptoms. Some patients who do not have any discomfort symptoms themselves are not recommended to be over-examined and treated, otherwise they will be prone to accidents.

In addition, Academician Han believes that the medical community should strengthen the research on cancer screening and narrow the scope of screening and intervention as much as possible. For some people who are unlikely to get cancer, there is no need to check, and the screening scope should be limited to high-risk groups as much as possible.

02

Physical examination after the age of 60, these five items cannot be less.

Many elderly people think that physical examination is useless. People who were good enough to go to the hospital will find out a lot of diseases and waste money. This idea is wrong.

According to the statistics of cancer incidence and mortality in China in 2016 released by China National Cancer Center, the incidence and mortality of cancer will increase with age. Among them, men aged 60-64 and women aged 75-79 have the highest cancer mortality.

With the advent of an aging society, not only will the incidence of cancer increase, but the number of elderly people suffering from chronic diseases in China is increasing. It is conservatively estimated that there are 180 million patients with chronic diseases in China. Don’t think that chronic diseases are a trivial matter. According to the data in the report on nutrition and chronic diseases of China residents (2020), in 2019, the number of deaths due to chronic diseases in China accounted for 88.5% of the total deaths.

The incidence of various diseases in the elderly is so high, what should be done to reduce the mortality rate? The answer is regular physical examination, even if you are unfortunately sick, you can find it early and treat it early.

What physical examination items should 60-year-old people do?

Everyone’s physical condition is different, and the required examinations are different. There is no uniform standard on this matter. Please consult a professional doctor for specific examination items. But these projects are what the elderly must do.

1. Routine physical examination items

Routine physical examination items include internal surgery, otolaryngology, ophthalmology and other general physical examinations; Routine hematuria, blood sugar and blood lipid, thyroid function and other biochemical tests.

2. Bone mineral density detection

After getting old, the bone mineral density will gradually decrease, and it is easy to have osteoporosis problems. Therefore, the elderly should be tested for bone mineral density and supplemented in time after finding bone loss.

3, gastroscope, colonoscopy

Gastroenteroscopy is the gold standard for the diagnosis of gastric cancer and intestinal cancer. Small lesions in the gastrointestinal tract can be found in time during the examination, and some small polyps can be directly removed during the examination to avoid malignant transformation.

4, liver function, lung function, kidney function

Liver, lung and kidney are all very important organs in the body, and there are generally no obvious symptoms when lesions appear in the early stage. Examination can help to find abnormalities in time.

5. Heart examination

Conventional ECG examination is difficult to find asymptomatic coronary heart disease and early myocardial infarction. It is suggested that patients with arrhythmia, chest tightness and shortness of breath should be given 24-hour ECG examination.

In addition, men and women should add some other items when checking. It is suggested that men should have reproductive organ examination, urinary system B-ultrasound and PSA examination, and women can have breast and uterine adnexa B-ultrasound and vaginal discharge routine examination. It is generally not recommended to carry out trace elements and gene screening projects, which are of little significance.

03

Physical examination found these four diseases.

Actually, there’s no need to cure it. Don’t scare yourself.

Older people will be more or less diagnosed with some diseases in physical examination, but if you are diagnosed with these diseases, you don’t need to worry too much, and generally it won’t have much impact on your health. Just follow up regularly.

erosion of cervix

Most cervical erosion is a normal physiological phenomenon, which is caused by the dynamic changes of two kinds of epithelial coverage areas in the cervix due to the changes of estrogen levels in women. As long as the results of cytological examination and HPV examination are normal, there is no need for special treatment.

thyroid nodule

Most thyroid nodules are benign, accounting for more than 95%, and will not evolve into cancer. After finding thyroid nodules, you don’t need to worry too much, just follow up regularly.

sinus irregularity

Most sinus arrhythmias are normal physiological phenomena and do not need treatment. This phenomenon is easy to occur when people are nervous and autonomic nervous disorder.

Asymptomatic prostatic calcification

Prostate calcification is actually a scar left by prostatitis. As long as the body has no other discomfort symptoms, it only needs regular review without special treatment.

For the elderly, physical examination is very necessary, which can help to find the abnormalities in the body in time and intervene as soon as possible. It is recommended to communicate with the doctor before the physical examination, explain your physical condition, such as what medicine you are taking and what chronic diseases you have, and then discuss with the doctor the physical examination items that suit you, so that it is better and more targeted.

References:

[1] Han Qide, academician of China Academy of Sciences: Why don’t I advocate cancer screening for healthy people! Probably hurt yourself! Health Times. 2017-08-17

[2] "China’s over 180 million elderly people suffer from chronic diseases! Teach parents these prevention knowledge quickly. Guangdong CDC. 2022-07-04.

[3] "Just say it once! Physical examination found these 9 diseases, basically no need to treat! Scare yourself purely. Popular Science China. 2019-10-14.

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Original title: "Physical examination after the age of 60, just do five examinations, you don’t have to do every examination, and spend less money."

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