Health Matters: Be Proactive, Get Screened: It Could Save Your Life

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October is breast cancer awareness month, but staying up to date on all your cancer screenings can be life–saving.

Staying up to date on all of your cancer screenings is vital, but do you know when and what you should be testing?

I spoke with a radiation oncologist at Essentia and she recommends knowing the “Big Three.”

“Unless you’ve lived under a rock you’ve heard of a mammogram and as women you know you should get them,” says Dr. Joni Buechler-Price.

But do you know when?

“Maybe starting regularly with an annual exam at the age of 40,” says Bria Dimke of Fargo.

And that’s exactly it…40 years old is the recommended age to get your first mammogram.

“To me that seems a little bit old,” says Dimke.

Something Bobbi Dziuk thought as well, prompting her to get her first mammogram at 33.

“Just other friends having the issues and just thought it was a good thing to start,” says Dziuk of Shakopee, Minn.

Breast cancer is the number one killer in women and prostate is the number one in men. And tied for second, lung cancer.

“Lung cancer takes more lives than prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer combined,” says Dr. Buechler-Price.

A startling fact that can possibly be prevented.

If you fall between the ages of 55 and 74, have a 30 pack year smoking history and currently smoke or have smoked within the past 15 years, you can get tested.

“Detecting it early on makes it much more treatable,” says Dr. Buechler-Price.

And rounding out the top three deadliest cancers is colorectal cancer.

“A lot of people they get the colonoscopy at age 50 and that is the best screening tool.” says Dr. Buechler-Price.

Staying on top of your health, all the months of the year.

For prostate cancer originally doctors suggested for men to get a PSA drawn when they’re 50.

Now they encourage men to first have a conversation with their doctor to determine the next course of action.