Cara Santamaria

And this article's headline is Three Medical Routines That Older People May Not Need.

And the subhead is that some screenings and treatments no longer make sense for patients as they age.

Researchers have just added a few more to the list.

Now, the reason I thought this would be interesting to present is because it relates to some conversations that we've been having on the show lately about the change in age, in cancer screenings.

Do you guys remember the context?

Just last week we talked about this, didn't we?

I've been and I've also was thinking about the the we've talked quite a bit on the show about the calcium coronary CT.

And I was talking to my mother about this the other day when when I was driving, I was talking to my mom and I'm driving in my car.

And she was like, I should probably get that done.

And I was like, No, you shouldn't.

You are beyond the age at which this would be a helpful test for you.

And so we started engaging in a conversation about what that means.

How could I be too old to get a test?

Don't I need to know what's going on with me?

And it's like, well, you will have some amount of calcium in those coronary vessels.

And that's a process of aging.

And so it won't guide any treatment that you may already have.

So in this article, they talk about three specific screens or treatments that are thought to no longer make sense for folks as they reach certain ages.

And they they start with the story of a patient who is 85 years old and who is deciding whether or not to get a colonoscopy.

And so there's a lot of research showing that the benefits of a repeat colonoscopy after the age of 75 are actually quite slim.