For how we live.
European screening cut prostate-cancer deaths by 21% at 13 years, at the cost of overdiagnosis; a UK trial of a single test found no mortality benefit. US guidance now makes it a personal choice for men 55 to 69.
It is a surgical emergency in which a twisted cord cuts off the testicle's blood supply. Salvage rates fall from over 90% inside six hours to single digits after two days, so speed to surgery is the whole game.
Real deficiency shows as bone pain, muscle weakness or, in children, rickets. But US surveys suggest most people meet their needs, and both a 2011 and a 2024 review advise against routine testing in healthy adults.
A Cochrane review of 251,891 participants found no effect on total, cancer or cardiovascular mortality, at high certainty for the first two. The finding is about check-ups, not about all screening.
A Cochrane review of 11 trials found flight stockings sharply cut silent deep-vein clots. But across nearly 2,900 passengers, the trials recorded no pulmonary embolism, death, or symptomatic clot at all.
Expert guidelines back antibiotics for moderate-to-severe cases and simple measures for mild ones. The popular Pepto-Bismol prevention habit rests on 1980s data — and a 2025 trial could not confirm it worked.
Its 2024 guideline also advises against routine blood testing for vitamin D, on the grounds that no trial evidence supports it. The largest randomised trial found no effect on cancer, heart disease or fractures.
A Cochrane review of 64 trials found acetazolamide cut the risk of acute mountain sickness by about half. It is a genuine drug effect, not a folk remedy — and it is a prescription decision, not a supplement.
Coverage for adult vaccines like pneumococcal sits around a third of those eligible, far below targets. The evidence points less to refusal than to cost, insurance and the absence of a routine adult-vaccine visit.