The Danger in Health Precautions

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Each year, seven billion people die from a tumorous disease that invades normal body functions. This disease is the worlds leading cause of death resulting in thirteen percent of deaths worldwide (“Cancer”). What kind of disease is capable of causing so much devastation? That disease goes by the name of cancer. Cancer comes in many different forms like: breast, lung, prostate, skin, and leukemia. Cancer gets harder to cure the later it is found so the sooner it is found, the better. Most common people believe that one way to prevent cancer is by getting screenings early. Getting these screenings is a beneficial way to stay on track with one’s health, but only in moderation. Receiving an excessive amount of cancer screenings can indeed be harmful and it is actually recommended not to overdo screening. Cancer screenings can be detrimental if taken too frequently because they are expensive, unreliable, and in some cases, harmful.

First of all, cancer screenings are expensive, and the more screening a person gets; the more the bills pile up. Everything costs money, and something like personal health is something that anyone would pay large amounts of money for. Why are these screenings so expensive? People believe that receiving screenings will help them prevent cancer(which is untrue), but doctors have started to realize that people would pay anything to keep themselves “healthy”. This gives doctors the option to make these screenings much more expensive (Jameson). Also, the fact that people are uninformed about different screenings makes getting them expensive. A commonly heard screening for colon cancer is known as a colonoscopy. On the bright side, this test detects if cancerous cells are in the colon, but the negative is that ...

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...All in all, cancer screenings are like cookies. They appear good and tempting to have, yet too much of a good thing...isn’t always good.

Works Cited

Brawley, Otis. "The Benefits and Harms of Cancer Screening." NCI Cancer Bulletin. 27

Nov. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

“Cancer.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Jameson, Marni. "Are Cancer Screenings Overdone?." Orlando Sentinel. 30 May. 2013:

A.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

LeWinne, Howard. "Doctors Often Don’t Reveal Cancer Test Overtreatment and Harms."

Harvard Health Publications. N.p., 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Rabin, Roni C. "Why People Aren’t Screened for Colon Cancer." Well Why People Arent

Screened for Colon Cancer Comments. N.p., 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

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