When I criticize health screening tests, I am primarily referring to testing patients who show no symptoms of disease.

In other words, this is a case where you go to your doctor for a simple checkup and he or she wants to perform a screening test — ostensibly to identify a problem at an early stage.

I am not referring to a patient who has a specific problem or symptom. Nor am I criticizing the quality of such screening tests.

In fact, I used to recommend that my patients get a series of tests from a company called Life Line Screening. At the time, I thought the tests were providing value for their money.

The company’s website states, “We screen over 1 million people each year.” But does the screening improve their health, or are the tests just increasing healthcare costs without providing any measurable benefits?

In fact, there are no data indicating better outcomes from undergoing screening tests.

I recently decided to go to the company’s website and take the tests for myself. The first thing I was asked to do was fill out personal information about my height, weight, age, sex, etc.

I also answered a few questions about my health.

I have no current health problems — no diabetes, hypertension, or elevated cholesterol levels (even by conventional medicine’s standards). Yet the package of screening tests recommended to me included the “stroke, vascular, heart rhythm with osteoporosis, and six-for-life package.”

The price was $219. Remember, I’m a pretty healthy person!

Assuming the average person is recommended the same screening tests that I was provided, Life Line’s revenues would be $219,000,000 per year. That’s a lot of testing dollars.