Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order. . . Unless You Know to Ask [Paperback]

David Johnson Ph.D. (Author), David Sandmire M.D. (Author), Daniel Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2004

You may be at high risk for a deadly disease without knowing it. And in this case, what you don't know can kill you. This important book can help save your life. For the first time, two doctors inform us about lifesaving medical tests that can diagnose deadly diseases--including various cancers, heart disease, aneurysm, and stroke--at their earliest stages when they're most likely to respond to treatment. Some of these tests are so new that your doctor may not know they exist!

This book will help you construct your Personal Risk Profile-based on your age, gender, ethnicity, family medical history, and environmental hazards. You'll then use this profile to determine exactly which medical tests to take-and you'll learn how taking these tests can rescue you from an avoidable, premature death.

Dedicated to improving the quality of care available to all patients, Drs. Johnson and Sandmire guide you through each of these tests, explaining the process, cost, reliability, and potential health risks in language that you can understand. They also offer strategies for persuading your doctor to order the tests and convincing your insurance company to foot the bill. And if your insurer won't pay, they'll let you know where to go to get the tests for a reasonable price.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . a fresh and welcome guide that will certainly enhance and improve the doctor/patient relationship . . . this book will change . . . lives." -- John Caramagna, D.O., Diplomate -- American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians

". . . a literary triumph in preventive medicine . . . an honest assessment of our current healthcare system, and an easy-to-understand self-help manual . . ." -- Alan N. Weiner, D.O., Portland, Maine-based specialist in nutritional and environmental medicine

"A great resource for the American healthcare consumer that explains complex medical conditions in understandable language." -- James M. Blum, Ph.D., chief executive officer and manager, Marshall-Blum, Herbal Research Clinic

"This book tackles many of society's medical issues and transforms them into one easily readable format." -- Terence K. Gray, D.O., Clinical Fellow, Harvard Medical School

About the Author

David Johnson, Ph.D., author of Feel 30 for the Next 50 Years, is associate professor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, University of New England, and adjunct professor at Boston University School of Medicine.

David Sandmire, M.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New England, where he teaches neuroscience, anatomy and physiology, and cardiovascular physiology. Both authors live in Kennebunk, Maine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (August 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157954732X
• ISBN-13: 978-1579547325
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could have read this several years ago, October 14, 2004

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order. . . Unless You Know to Ask (Paperback)

Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order... Unless You Know to Ask is exactly what as the title states. Inside are nineteen conditions that are often not tested by doctors. Each of the conditions gives a description of the physical condition, risk factors (separated by those that you can modify and those that you can't), your risk level, and tests you may want to request. After the condition is explained in detail and the appropriate tests suggested, the book ends with a section that describes the tests including what the test checks for, how reliable it is, health risks, and approximate cost. The final part of the book covers the standard treatment for the various conditions once they have been verified.

One of the reasons these tests are often not given by doctors is because they don't show many symptoms until they are well advanced. So how do you know you should request one of these tests? The authors provide some of the circumstances under which you might want to request the test. For example, hemochromatosis is most prevalent in people with a Celtic ancestry. If you have a different ancestry you are unlikely to need to have the exam taken.

Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life is a highly recommended book although I will have to admit that I am somewhat prejudiced. I have several relatives whose lives would have been much better if someone had ordered the test for hemochromatosis earlier in their lives.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Must Know What Doctors Won't (Or Can't) Tell You, December 18, 2005

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medical Tests That Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests Your Doctor Won't Order. . . Unless You Know to Ask (Paperback)

When most patients visit a doctor, they go either for a routine checkup or to investigate a specific complaint, perhaps chest pain. What these patients do not know is that after the patient has finished being examined by that physician, this physician may not order a test that conceivably could prove helpful in either detecting or diagnosing a disease. In MEDICAL TESTS THAT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE, David Johnson and David Sandmire outline a series of tests that might just do what the title implies. The authors suggest that physicians refrain from mentioning these tests, not out of meanness, but mostly because these tests range in price from the reasonably cheap to the outrageously expensive, and insurance companies would be quick to place over eager physicians on their "do not use" list. The answer, the authors suggest, is for the self-informed patient to bite the bullet and pay for needed tests out of pocket. Clearly, what a patient needs is a ready reference. Johnson and Sandmire have filled the gap with their eminently readable and useful text that does far more than list test names. They begin by telling the reader how to create a personal risk profile that sets forth not only the reader's medical history but that of the reader's first degree and second degree relatives. They also urge the reader to describe any pertinent patient use related to tobacco and alcohol use. Helpful notes on general diet and exercise would also help a patient convince a physician to listen more attentively to a need for costly tests. Johnson and Sandmire also point out that a physician is more likely to pay attention when a patient sounds knowledgable about matters medical.

Most of MTTCSYL outline some twenty diseases that are unfortunately common with America's overfed and underexercised adult population. The reader is free to browse them and note illnesses that range from colorectal cancer to hepatitus C to prostate cancer. Each disease discusses risk factors both modifiable and nonmodifiable and a handy chart that uses a point system that enables the reader to identify a potentially significant risk level. Once that reader has been honest enough to do so, then the authors list the appropriate medical tests. Fully one half of the text is devoted to these tests. The authors consider what these tests are, how they are administered, what they cost, and how reliable they are. For patients who are motivated enough to do their homework before stepping into a physician's waiting room, MTTCSYL can be a life saving read.