Doctor: Many prostate cancer screenings involve only a blood test
DETROIT (FOX 2) - When it comes to detecting prostate cancer, it can be a little confusing. Like what does the screening involve and who should get screened, and when?
"It's not a death sentence, it's a life sentence," said Dr. Michael Lutz. "It's important to get screened and know if you're at risk."
Big picture view
Lutz, the president of the Michigan Men's Health Foundation, says there is plenty of living to do after a prostate cancer diagnosis. You have to catch it early.
Who's at greatest risk?
"We know there are certain men at risk," he said, "Family history, African American, firefighter, fighter pilot - these are going to increase risk."
Screening for prostate cancer involves a blood test, the PSA and now Dr. Lutz says the slightly uncomfortable part of the exam, might not be needed.
"A lot of men don't want to get screened because of the digital rectal exam rather get a rectal exam - they would rather get bit by cobra," Lutz said. "Get the PSA blood test first. If its low you don't need rectal exam."
For those at higher risk, screening can start at 40. Those with average risk it's recommended men start screenings at 50.
But the recommendations get murky when it comes to men over the age of 70. Lutz says be your own advocate and ask for the screening no matter your age.
"Don't let your chronological age be your determining factor," he said.
This weekend, on Father's Day - the Run for the Ribbon is happening at the Detroit Zoo. Everyone is welcome to celebrate survival of prostate cancer.
Get more info by tapping HERE.Then in September - get ready for the annual Men's Health Event at Ford Field. Some of the money raised at run for the ribbon will fund the Men's Health Event at Ford Field.
That's an incredible event that offers life-changing screenings.
The Source
This report was based off an interview with Dr, Michael Lutz.
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Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Government's reversal on COVID-19 shots for pregnant women is alarming
Illinois has been a leader in identifying the causes of maternal mortality and creating solutions that would address the causes. Last year, the University of Illinois at Chicago was designated a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health, building on the state's successes and allowing us to invest in the next generation of researchers, connect community members with research and investigate the impact of stress on birth outcomes. We understand our efforts can be upended by an emerging crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is a key example. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health's most recent Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report (2023), the number of women who died during or within a year of pregnancy from 2020 to 2022 was well above the average of deaths during the five years prior to the pandemic. While we anticipate that the next report will detail how COVID-19 impacted pregnant women in Illinois, we already know from national data that maternal deaths increased by 33% after March 2020 and that the mortality risk of pregnant patients with COVID-19 infection at delivery was approximately 14 times higher compared with those without. As a physician researcher, I have seen the importance of gaining the trust of patients and the public. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's announcement that COVID-19 vaccine boosters will not be recommended to pregnant women, which was done without consulting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, left clinicians to navigate a situation in which research is being actively disregarded by those setting federal policy. Not recommending this vaccine jeopardizes insurance coverage of the vaccine and clinicians' ability to gain the trust of pregnant women for vaccines at a time when they are at risk for adverse outcomes. How can we expect pregnant women to trust clinicians if we recommend vaccines that they may not be allowed to access? Are we to advise patients to disregard CDC recommendations? How do we train future researchers and clinicians if epidemiologic data is ignored? We need to listen to research and learn from data. Barring pregnant women from accessing the COVID-19 vaccine is not clinically sound and will negate our collective efforts to improve maternal health in Illinois and nationally. This will have a chilling effect on efforts to investigate and address causes of maternal morbidity and Father's Day here, I am once again reminded of the father I was blessed with. My mom and dad had five girls. Sadly, their first baby was stillborn, and at the ages of 19 and 26, my parents had to bury their little girl, marking her grave with a small headstone for little 'Linda Jean.' They then had four more girls — I was the second of the four, born in 1950. My dad was a mail carrier all of his working days and oftentimes found it hard to make ends meet. We didn't have the best of everything, but we had all we needed — most importantly, his devotion, his time and his unending love. As kids, we didn't realize that times were so tough. The one story that I remember most vividly was when Dad drove me to my piano lesson. At the time, the lesson was $2 for 45 minutes. I happened to look over when he was getting the $2 out of his wallet one week and saw him pull it out — all folded up in a neat little square in the corner of his wallet. The rest of his wallet was empty. You see, Dad got paid only every other week. It was many years later that I realized on the off days of the month, his wallet was empty — except for the $2 that he had set aside so I could take piano lessons. How blessed I was!I started teaching in 1975 and walked away from the classroom this year. After 36 years of teaching high school and 25 years as a college adjunct, I have some unsolicited observations and advice for the fathers out there. In all my 50 years involved with teenagers, I have never met a messed-up kid who had a good relationship with his or her father. Granted, I have met some problem children with wonderful moms, but then I met the dads, and the source of the kid's anger and unhappiness became clear. I also should point out that not all of the kids who had terrible fathers had difficulties, but those kids with bad fathers who turned out OK usually had a positive father figure there for them — a grandfather, an uncle, an older sibling, a stepdad. Over the years, I've heard all of the excuses for fathers not being involved with their children: 'The ex is difficult,' 'I have to work too much,' 'I have a second family to raise now,' 'My kid doesn't respect me,' 'My kid is angry.' But all of the excuses fall before this one simple truth: That child is a part of you walking around out there, and he or she needs you to assist him or her on the way to a healthy adulthood. Another truth I've learned is that, despite acting like their intent is to spend all of their parents' money, the thing that most kids really want is time. No one really has enough time or money, and how we spend our time and our money is a pretty good indicator of what we value. Instinctively, kids know this. So, this Father's Day, if you are a father and your relationship with your child is not the best, vow to work this year to improve that relationship. Don't blame the ex or the child or the circumstances. Just be a better dad. Be there for looking at the footage of President Donald Trump recently speaking to the German chancellor regarding D-Day, nothing these last few months surprises me except the behaviors coming from the White House. I am the proud daughter of my late dad, who was a bombardier with the 8th Army Air Corps who flew 35 missions over Germany in a B-17 bomber. My late father-in-law fought at the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, my late uncle was wounded at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and my husband's great uncle was a sailor whose warship was sunk by the Japanese in 1942 and whose headstone may be found in Manila. My friend's father-in-law was the groom in a wartime wedding in which my mom was the maid of honor. This man was an Army paratrooper who was later killed on Omaha Beach and never met his child. The point is that these brave men fought and many died in defense of our nation and the world. The president spoke as if a war between nations was similar to a fight between brawling children. For all of those involved, the remembrance of D-Day was not a great what I needed, a huge belly laugh while reading the Tuesday Tribune article ('Judge denies Madigan's motion for new trial') about former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's approaching sentencing. Through his defense attorneys, he stated that he amassed a personal fortune of $40 million by choosing 'frugality over extravagance, remaining in the same modest home for more than fifty years while making prudent savings and investment choices.' Hey, that's the same lifestyle my husband and I have chosen over our 38-year marriage! Living that lifestyle has not brought our personal fortune anywhere near $40 million. Maybe Madigan can busy himself during his retirement teaching all of the hardworking, frugal, living-below-their-means folks his personal tricks to growing our income to be multimillionaires. Let us in on the little secrets of the good old politician's club for growing your own personal Pope Leo XIV in that White Sox cap leads me to believe that someday he'll replace St. Jude as the patron saint of lost causes.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Fox News' Bret Baier Shares How Teen Son Paul's Emergency Open Heart Surgery Changed Him as a Parent (Exclusive)
Bret Baier shares an update with PEOPLE one year after his 17-year-old son Paul's fifth open heart surgery. Paul was born with five congenital heart defects, and had his first surgery right after he was born. One year after a scary aneurysm necessitated another emergency surgery, Bret says Paul is doing well, making college plans and enjoying life "like a normal kid."Bret Baier enters viewers' homes every weeknight as the host of Fox News' Special Report. And over the last few years, he's brought PEOPLE into a part of his own home life, sharing the story of his 17-year-old son, Paul. Paul was born with five congenital heart defects and, as Bret has previously explained to PEOPLE, "his heart was essentially pumping the wrong way, and we didn't know before birth.' Shortly after Paul's birth on June 29, 2007, he had his first open-heart procedure, then three more at 10 months old, 6 years old and 13 years old. After his surgery at 13, Paul's family thought that they would be done with the frightening hospital stays until he was in his 20s. Then in 2024, Paul came down with a common cold and, as a precaution, his mother, Amy, took him to the doctor. He had a chest X-ray, then an MRI. That's when the family faced another scary diagnosis. "The MRI comes back, and they sit me down and say, 'This is a really big deal. This is an aneurysm the size of a golf ball that has formed off of his heart,' " Bret told PEOPLE at the time. "And they didn't know whether it might burst, but if it did, it might have been fatal in a matter of minutes." Yet another open-heart operation followed, this one even more dire than the ones that came before. 'It was exponentially more stressful and emergent, and we weren't prepared for it,' Bret, 54, now recalls in a conversation ahead of Father's Day. 'This happened literally within 12 hours…so it was a heavy lift.' Thankfully, the surgery was successful, and a year later, Paul is doing just fine and thinking about his future. 'The recovery was awesome. The doctors and nurses at Children's National [Hospital, in Washington D.C.], as always, were fantastic,' Bret praises. 'And Paul is in the mind space [that] he just plows through it now. And I think, knock on wood, that that's the end of the open heart surgeries.' 'He may have to have little things going forward, angioplasties, which are not little, but it's exponentially less than an open heart surgery,' he adds. Fox News' chief political correspondent proudly shares that even though his eldest son 'missed a lot of school' due to the surgery, he recently finished his junior year of high school and has started to look ahead at colleges. 'Bottom line is, we want him to be a normal kid,' Bret says of his and Amy's hopes for Paul in the years to come. 'Seventeen years ago, we would be really, really happy to be right here — after that first surgery as a baby.' 'While we have in the back of our minds, [that he's] been through all of this and we're afraid of whatever could happen, we also know that it's better for him to be a normal kid and to be with his friends and to drive when they drive,' he continues. 'He does sports, he's very active, and once we got over that last hurdle last year, it's back to normal, so he's still beating up his little brother and the whole thing.' Bret and his family — Amy, Paul and 14-year-old Daniel — recently took a trip to the Masters golf tournament, a shared passion as Paul plays on his high school golf team. Next up is an overseas vacation to celebrate the start of summer. It'll be a nice break for the reporter, who has interviewed some major political power players already in 2025. He sat down with President Donald Trump just last month, and interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy right after his tense White House meeting with the president in February. 'I think world leader interviews really move the needle, not just here in the U.S. but obviously around the world,' he shares. 'I'm really trying to interview President Xi Jinping from China. I've been working on that for a long time, and would love for it to come together.' Bret also has the latest book in his presidential biography series, To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower, due out on Oct. 21. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. With so many balls in the air, the journalist admits that he 'rarely' gets a chance to unplug. But when he does, looking at what Paul has been through in just 17 years of life helps him focus on what matters most. 'Everybody has something they're dealing with in their family,' Bret reflects. 'This was our something.' 'It gives me perspective about what's important,' he adds. 'I fully unplug and plug into my family, put the phone down if I can, and try to make those quality times. We've been through a lot to get there, and now we're trying to enjoy it." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
A beautiful bond: Loss, love and blessings on Father's Day
When I was 18-years-old, newly graduated from high school and excited about going to Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, we got the news. My healthy, fit daddy was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma. The prognosis was not good. Though it has been 52 years since that summer, I still recall vividly how conflicted I was about even leaving home for college, something I had aspired to and my mother insisted upon. By the grace of God, the stamina of my father, and the remarkably good care he received those long years ago from my mother and his medical team, he ended up living well beyond my college years into his 80s. His beloved oncologist called it a miracle, and so did we. What I am realizing as this Father's Day approaches is that every child is not so fortunate as was I. There are countless children, my own father included, who lose a father way too early and have to learn to live with a void that is at best painful. That pain is intensified when the loss is traumatic, as is true for the children of the two fathers who were killed in our community during the horrific April 17 shooting at FSU. Like Mother's Day, Father's Day is not as simple as it seems. On this day set aside to honor and remember our fathers, some of us recall a father who grounded us, gave us a sense of security, and encouraged us to dream dreams and become our best selves. Others of us remember a father who, for whatever reason, could not or cannot bless us, the absent father, either emotionally or physically, the one we longed or long to impress, but it seems we never could. Still others remember a father who was somewhere in-between. And some of us sadly honor fathers who were cruelly taken from us. What we have learned about the fathers who were tragically killed at FSU, is that they both were fathers who blessed their children. My friend, Robert Morales, was thrilled from the moment that he learned his wife, Betty, was pregnant. And when the sonogram indicated that they were having a girl, his joy intensified. The bond between Robert and his lovely daughter, Alicia, could not be stronger or sweeter. Without a hint of jealousy, Betty says that their relationship is special and deep. When his beloved daughter, Alicia was born a uniquely beautiful bond was formed between them. He was the father that every child deserves: safe and steady, endlessly kind, deeply understanding, unshakably encouraging, and delightfully funny. Alicia was Robert's greatest pride. I am reminded of author, Sam Keene, telling about his father who took great delight in his children. As he was visiting with his father just before the older man died, he had occasion to look back over their life together and to thank his father for the excellent job he had done. He told his father, "You have always been there whenever any of us children needed you. And across the years, you have given us the best single gift that any parent could give, you took delight in us. In all sorts of ways you let us know that you were glad we were here, that we had value in your eyes, that our presence was a joy and not a burden to you." And that sense of delight in her was what Alicia felt from her father. Fathers delighting in their children is a tremendous and lasting gift. Theories abound about the importance of the father's blessing and the life-long yearning for acceptance that some experience in its absence. It has been a joy to me to see the engagement of the young fathers in our family and in the families of their friends, regarding the care of their children. Far more engaged than many fathers of my own generation, it seems to be more socially expected and endorsed for fathers today to be as attentive as mothers. An opinion column in the New York Times on April 30, 2025, affirms this engagement of fathers. Titled 'A Great Leap Forward for American Fathers,' the author states that American dads are still spending more time with their children than they were pre-COVID. Citing data from the University of Kansas Care Board, 'fathers of children ages 10 and under were doing about seven minutes more per weekday and 18 minutes more per weekend day, for a total of 1.2 hours more child care a week.' The National Institute of Health reports that involved fathers have a significant positive impact on children's development, including higher academic achievement, better social skills, fewer behavioral problems, and improved emotional well-being. In studies measuring father involvement in childcare activities, play and affection, household chores, and early learning activities, the positive impact on children, mothers, as well as fathers, is significant. Years ago, when my oldest grandchild was only 4, she had her first ballet recital. Her classmates, ranging in age from 3 to 5, were precious in their lime green leotards and feathered tutus. During the grand finale, all the dancers were on the stage for a final bow. Each carried their floral bouquet except for one young child who was fighting back the tears and looking bereft. I am certain I was not alone in wishing I had a bouquet to give her. In what seemed like an eternity, but was in fact only a few moments, a man hurried down the aisle and made his way to the stage, calling to his daughter. He handed her a bouquet, and she hugged him fiercely. The audience cheered with relief. It was a poignant moment of a father blessing his daughter. It is my prayer that we all might be sensitive to the many ways that Father's Day is experienced and especially sensitive to those who are missing a father. May we all be willing to be a blessing to the children in our lives and may all fathers feel honored on their special day. Happy Father's Day! The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: A Father's blessing: Managing loss and love on Father's Day