Preventable diseases can only be discovered by doing the right tests before any disease has set in. Common test, if done on a regular basis, can greatly enhance your longevity factors and prevent disease states from becoming uncontrollable and causing an early demise. We only have one life, and if you want to keep it for as long as possible, these simple tests can do that for you, but only if you use them.

Hey, everybody, clinical nutritionist, Keith Klein, here with Lean Body Coaching once again. I’m actually going to be bringing you a little bit of a different message. I know that I often like to talk about the psychology and often talk about other things, but today, I really want to talk to you about preventative medicine. I think we all want the same thing, right? We want to be happy, we want to live a harmonious life, we want low stress, but the other thing we all really want is greater longevity and quality of life. At the end of the day, if we don’t take care of ourselves today, our bodies may not take care of us tomorrow. And there’s many different ways we can do that by eating right, exercising, drinking plenty of water, avoid smoking drinking, but another one is to make sure that we have regular exams when we need to have them. At periodic moments in our life, we’re going to need to have a colonoscopy, a prostate exam, we need to have skin cancer checks. But let me share with you something that happened not too long ago.

A very good friend of mine,Rocco Kun, was stepping out the front door of his house when he saw his neighbor next door, he waved and said, “Hey, Bill, how are you?” and Bill responds, “I’m not doing so well,” and Rocco says, goes over and says, “Man, what’s going on?” he goes, “Listen, I’ve got colon cancer and it’s spread everywhere.” And it turns out this gentleman was in his 60s and never got a colonoscopy, this was his first.That shocked Rocco so much that when he got back to his office, because he was way past time to have his first colonoscopy, had never had one, that he scheduled an appointment the moment he got back to his office. When that appointment approached, he got so busy he realized, “I’m too busy to do that,” so he pushed it off another couple months. By the time that happened, his next-door neighbor had passed of cancer and he realized he really needed to do this colonoscopy thing. So, he made another appointment, he showed up for it, he went in, they did the colonoscopy, and when he woke up, the doctor leaned over the gurney and said, “Rocco, you need to sign these papers right now, you have a massive growth, a massive tumor in your colon, it’s cancerous, we’ve got to remove it,” he was dumbfounded, totally shocked, right?

So, they went ahead and did the colon resection surgery, they removed the tumor, and today, Rocco’s is actually cancer-free. But they told him that that cancer was about ready to burst, it was… it was probably one of the biggest ones they saw.And so, at the end of the day, it saved his life, right? And you have to wonder how many other lives could be saved just by taking a moment out of their busy schedule to go get something checked and quit putting it off. I go in once every two years for a total skinsto make sure I have no cancers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been doing your body composition in my office and I’ve seen a very suspicious mole and I tell the client, “Listen, you need to go get this checked.” And in several instances over 40 years timespan, we’ve caught several cases of melanoma. Mammograms, prostate exams, you know, look, if you’re not getting regular bloodworkups, particularly for you men, how would you know whether or not your PSAis jumping up, right? It’s not the number of the PSA that matters as much as the rate at which it’s climbing, and when it takes a big leap, that’s a warning sign. But if you’re not getting blood workup done at least once a year or every maybe twice a year and you’re doing once every 3 years, you completely miss that number and not realize that something serious has been going on in your body for the last few years.

So, my message today is to be sure to think about what tests have you been avoiding? Is there any test that you need to go get?And, again, let’s set up appointments for that. Now, my colonoscopy is set up for this year, but listen to this, I didn’t wait ‘til I was 50 to go have my first colonoscopy, not because I enjoy it, I look forward to it, because I see too many clients in my clinic that have had colon… colon cancer at the age of 30. So, in my 40s, I went ahead and did my first colonoscopy. Doctor said, “Hey, listen, man, don’t come back for 10 years, everything’s fine,” I didn’t wait 10 years, I went back after 5. And again, second time, doctor said, “Listen, man, you don’t need to come back for 10 years, there’s nothing wrong,” again, I went back after 5 years, nothing was wrong. When I was 55, I went in for that particular colonoscopy, and when I came out, just like Rocco, the doctor leaned over my gurney and said, “Nothing’s wrong, everything looked great, you don’t have to come back for 10 years, but we did find 1 little polyp, we snipped it, we’ll call you on Tuesday, but it looks fine, doesn’t look like anything, don’t worry about it.” On Tuesday, he called me and said,“Keith, I am really glad you came in today because it turns out that particular polyp is precancerous,” and he says it’s… if you hadn’t come in, you probably would have had a case of colon cancer in 3 years.” So, you see, I don’t put those things off because 1 of my… actually 2 of my objectives today at my age is not just to be healthy and fit, but to have higher quality of life and longevity.What kind of quality in my life would I have if I had cancer, right? And for those of you that are embarrassed about getting a colonoscopy or getting a prostate digital exam or whatever it is that embarrasses you, I wouldn’t focus on the embarrassment that you might feel, I would focus on the pain and suffering you would feel in a long-term state if you came down with cancer later for not having these things checked out, because that would be much more devastating than a little bit of embarrassment to go in and get these things checked.

So, my message today is that if you want to have longevity, you have to take care of yourself, not just by working out, drinking water and avoiding other things, you must take care of yourself by getting these exams checked when the time is due.So, don’t put it off, everybody, and I hope to save some lives, alright? For, everybody out there, stay healthy, for Lean Body Coaching, I’m nutritionists, Keith Klein.