Please read this whole article!  An acquaintance was diagnosed with Stage IV oral cancer because her dentist, an older gent, was not up-to-date with the latest information on checking for the disease.  Colored mouth patches, lumps, sores, loose teeth and unexplained bleeding are all symptoms, but he wasn’t checking!  The lesson here is that you’re in charge of keeping abreast of changes in health care to protect yourself.  For example, cardiac CT scans provide excessive amounts of radiation, though there are techniques that can cut exposure down by as much as 90%.  Small cavities and flat growths in the mouth can be painlessly removed with laser dentistry.  Minimally invasive breast needle biopsies are now the “best practice” for diagnosis, but 40 percent of biopsies are still done by digging out the whole tumor and biopsying it, leaving scars and longer recovery time! Insist on a reason for an open surgical biopsy or get a second opinion.  High-definition colonoscopy equipment finds 20% more polyps and smaller ones than the traditional kind, so seek a facility that offers this option. Throat polyps from thinning vocal cords or reflux usually DON’T have to be removed by surgery, yet most surgeons still do this.  (What the …k!?)  A short, in-office procedure called UOLS, using laser and local anesthetic, does a superior job and you’re back to work the same day!  Endometrial ablation for excessive menstrual bleeding in women over 40 has been refined to the point where it should be routine.  Older doctors still tend to perform hysterectomies, saying you may need one later, but in women over 40 that tends not to be true. The first time your hips are damaged by arthritis, consider having the femur bone capped or “resurfaced” if you are 40 to 55, active, and your bones aren’t thinning.  You’ll have better range of motion and you can have the hip replaced the next time, since it only lasts 15 to 20 years and we’re all going to live until 100!  And you might want to skip the steroid injections and disc replacement surgery for low back pain – heat, rest, and otc pain relievers and (preventatively) exercise like yoga and pilates show better results.