Over screening for cancer is nothing short of a national disaster.

PSA tests and mammograms have created a generation of men and women battling the lifelong side effects of devastating treatments they didn’t need because the cancers never would have hurt them in the first place.

But there’s one screening that’s different — a screening that can detect a deadly cancer and remove it at the same time.

And if you’re like most people, it’s the very one you’ve been avoiding: the colonoscopy.

Now, a landmark new study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows why you shouldn’t be avoiding yours. In fact, these findings may have you calling your doctor today to schedule it — because data on 2,602 patients tracked for 15 years finds that colonoscopies can slash your risk of dying of colon cancer by 53 percent.

But despite the fact that colonoscopies save lives, only half of the people who should get scoped actually do.

It’s not hard to see why. A colonoscopy sounds about as pleasant as…well…a colonoscopy.

In reality, it’s not nearly as bad as you’d think.

Thanks to the anesthesia, you won’t feel a thing during the procedure itself. The worst part is actually the night before, when you’ll have to take a preparation that’ll empty your bowels.

All I can say is, get a good book and stay close to a toilet.

To make it easier on you, schedule your colonoscopy for first thing in the morning. Since you can’t eat until the procedure is done, you won’t spend the day hungry — and you won’t spend the day stressing over it, either.

But that’s not the only reason you want to be the early bird on this one: Several studies have shown that doctors detect more polyps early in the day than they do in the afternoon.

Finally, some doctors offer a less-thorough version of the colonoscopy called the sigmoidoscopy. Others will try to get you to pay extra for a “virtual” colonoscopy.

Both of them may be tempting. They both might sound a little more comfortable and a little less invasive.

Don’t fall for it. When it comes to colon screenings, nothing beats the real thing: A genuine colonoscopy by a competent doctor.

If you’re past 50 and haven’t had one or are overdue for your next one, no more excuses. Pick up the phone and schedule yours today.

The best way to protect your prostate is to keep it far away from doctors who want to screen it — and even further from the surgeons who make a living off prostate cancer procedures.

Not long ago, this was considered a rogue approach.

Today, it’s mainstream science — and another study confirms again that all the screenings in the world don’t save lives.

Simply put, the government-funded study of 76,000 men who were tracked for 13 years finds that annual PSA tests don’t make a bit of difference in determining who lives and who dies.

It’s not hard to see why: PSA tests can’t sort the rare, aggressive and deadly tumors from the ones you don’t need to worry about — and even when they do detect high-risk cancers, it’s too late.

As a result, men in both groups — those who were screened every year, and those who were not — died of the disease at the same rate, according to the study results published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

But don’t be fooled by the scare tactics: Most men who have prostate cancer live with it for years or even decades, and eventually die of something else entirely.

And until screenings came along, most of these men never even knew they had prostate cancer.

Ignorance was truly bliss.

Today, when men find out they have the disease, they panic and get treated for it — but if it doesn’t reduce the death rate, why bother even finding out in the first place?

That’s the bottom line here, and if you’re thinking “better safe than sorry,” think again. Prostate surgery won’t keep you safe… and it’ll almost certainly leave you sorry — sorry you ever agreed to surgery.

The procedure that’s been proven NOT to save your life can ruin it more than your doctors will ever let on. Men who wake up after prostate surgery often find they’ve lost all control “down there” and face long battles with incontinence and impotence.

Plenty of men never recover.

When you consider the decades you can live after a prostate cancer diagnosis — with or without surgery — that could add up to a quarter of your life or more, in diapers and unable to have sex.

Of course, you’ve probably heard commercials and seen ads for newer “robot” procedures that make it sound like they have fewer of these risks — but that’s just not reality.

Keep reading for the truth behind robot-assisted prostate surgeries.

Exploitation — it’s the only word that comes to mind here.

Even as the mainstream moves away from routine cancer screenings for men and women alike, there’s one group of Americans that are still getting screened regularly for cancers that almost certainly won’t hurt them.

And that’s the elderly.

These are the people least likely to need treatment even if a cancer is detected — and least able to withstand the traumatic surgeries, dangerous drugs, and toxic chemotherapy often used to “treat” those cancers.

But the numbers don’t lie — and the newest numbers show that 57 percent of men between the ages of 75 and 79 were screened for prostate cancer, while 42 percent of men older than 80 were actually given PSA tests.

You have to wonder what the doctors are thinking here: They know these cancers can take decades to develop, decades an 80-year-old doesn’t have. They know that even younger men have nothing to worry about in most cases. They know that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended doing away with the PSA test altogether.

They know all this… yet they’re screening anyway, and not just men.

The same study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 62 percent of women between the ages of 75 and 79, and 50 percent of women older than 80 have been given mammograms over the past two years.

And if PSA exams are useless for men, mammograms are every bit as useless for women — so useless that even mainstream docs are backing away from them.

That’s because all the mammograms in the world have barely made a dent in the breast cancer death rate. These screenings have succeeded in finding harmless cancers, which then end up being treated with disfiguring surgeries and dangerous radiation.

Similarly, the study also found that 53 percent of women between 75 and 79 and 38 percent of those older than 80 were given pap smears to test for cervical cancer.

It’s ridiculous — and even the mainstream groups that normally back most cancer screenings agree. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends ending pap smears as early as 65, while the American Cancer Society says there’s no benefit after the age of 70.

In reality, many of these screenings have no benefit at any age. But for seniors, many of whom are already fighting health issues, these screenings, biopsies, and inevitable cancer treatments can turn the golden years into a living nightmare.

Skip ‘em — because in this case, what you don’t know almost certainly won’t hurt you.

The mainstream is engaged in one of the biggest turnarounds in medical history–and it’s almost complete.

Two new studies show yet again how prostate cancer is badly overtreated, exposing millions of men to expensive, life- ruining surgeries and deadly radiation for absolutely no reason.

The first study finds that men who’ve survived one prostate treatment only to see the disease return are still far more likely to die of anything other than the cancer.

Kind of makes you wonder if that first treatment was even necessary, doesn’t it?

More than 600 prostate cancer patients who had been treated with either surgery or radiation were tracked for up to 16 years. During that time, 62 percent died–but just 12 percent of those patients died of prostate cancer, according to the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

You might think that’s a win for “life-saving” treatment… but don’t celebrate it just yet–because it turns out even those who suffered cancer recurrences survived the disease long enough to die of something else.

Roughly 37 percent of the surgery patients saw a return of their cancer–but since that’s based on the same PSA levels that have led to the overtreatment of this cancer in the first place, it’s hard to take that number too seriously.

In any case, nearly 80 percent of the patients who suffered this “biochemical recurrence” were still alive 15 years later.

Again, it begs the question: Was that first surgery really necessary?

Nearly half of those treated with radiation–48 percent– suffered a recurrence, and 80 percent of them were still alive 10 years later, while 58 percent managed to live through 15 more years.

You have to wonder what role radiation played in the cancer’s return… and the slightly higher death rate.

Meanwhile, a new study in the Journal of Urology finds that most men who undergo prostate cancer surgery get too many PSA tests afterwards.

Researchers examined data on 2,219 men who underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic, then were given PSA tests every three months for a year, every six months for the second year, and then annually after that.

Just 6 percent of the patients experienced that so-called “biochemical recurrence.”

Researchers say that clearly, too many men are getting too many tests.

I agree–because most of these men had one test too many to begin with: The one that led to their first cancer treatment. PSA tests are inaccurate, unreliable and the very embodiment of everything wrong with a system that profits off treating a disease that rarely kills anyone even when it’s left alone.

But while prostate cancer usually isn’t worth worrying about, one rare and deadly form of cancer is. Keep reading to find out how you can lower your risk.