Blog Archives - Insurance Physicals and Employee Screening

Veterans and Cancers

We close out May with the observance of Memorial Day. A day to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and our freedom. Not all war casualties occur on the battlefield or during active fighting. Sometimes the death can occur years later. Even 30+ years later due to conditions, they endured during their time overseas.

As the veteran population ages, various cancers are emerging.

Cancerous tumors

According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is “a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells.” Cancerous tumors can form in almost any part of the body and occur when normal cells begin to grow out of control. There are many different types of cancer, each named for the part of the body where it starts. Cancer can be caused by a variety of things, including exposure to certain chemicals or radiation.

Cancer in Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates there 40,000 new cases per year of cancer in veterans. This is because they were exposed to a number of cancer-causing agents during their service. Some of these agents include:

Pesticides: Pesticides are chemicals that are used to kill insects, rodents, and other pests. Many pesticides are cancer-causing agents.

Burn pits: Burn pits were used during the Gulf War to dispose of waste materials. The burning of these materials created cancer-causing chemicals that were inhaled by nearby soldiers.

Depleted uranium: Depleted uranium is a type of uranium that is used in some types of armor and ammunition. When depleted uranium is used in combat, it can create cancer-causing particles that are inhaled or ingested by soldiers.

Symptoms of cancer

Cancer can cause a wide variety of symptoms, depending on the type of cancer and where it is located in the body. Some common symptoms of cancer include:

Fatigue
Weight loss
Fever
Night sweats
Loss of appetite
Pain
Changes in bowel or bladder habits
Unexplained bleeding or bruising

If you have any of these symptoms, whether you are a veteran or a civilian, it is important to see your doctor right away. Early detection is key to the successful treatment of cancer.

Treatment of cancer

Cancer treatment depends on the type of cancer and how advanced it is. Some common cancer treatments include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Newer cancer treatments, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy, are also showing promise in treating cancer.

Most veterans’ medical treatment is covered by the VA. But cancer affects civilians too. If you are suffering from any of the above symptoms, please seek medical treatment. If you are in need of blood draws and lab work, IPE Screening can provide these services at a savings. No appointment necessary.

For the families of the heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, you have our eternal gratitude. Your loss is immense and can never be repaid.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Sexual assault is a crime that has no age limit on its victims. Youngest reported is just over a week old. Even women in their 90s aren’t off-limits. People with developmental disabilities have an increased risk of being abused. Some of these predators are complete strangers who just randomly select someone off the streets. Wrong place, wrong time.

According to statistics published by the National Sexual Violence Research Center, shockingly, 80% of the time, the victim knew the attacker. With children and teenagers, often it is a family member or trusted authority figure in the role of predator. They are rarely isolated incidents. In many instances, the assaults continue, sometimes for years. Leading to mental health issues, understandably. Adult women often report having been intimate with their attacker before the incident.

It doesn’t help that there is still a high Neanderthal quotient hanging around in society spouting such gems as “Rape can’t cause pregnancy”. A stupid notion first popularized in the 13th century by British legislators. The fact is that about 5% of rapes do result in pregnancy. In America, approximately 32,100 pregnancies occur as a result of sexual assault.

Many of the women didn’t discover the pregnancy until the second trimester. Of those, only 38% of the pregnancies are carried to term, with 6% of those being surrendered for adoption. 50% were terminated with an abortion. 12% resulted in a spontaneous abortion.

For all the parents whose daughters are getting ready to go to college, 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted while in college. Arm them with the knowledge of how to protect themselves and avoid potentially dangerous situations.

Buddy system. When going out, it is best to be in a group, and stay with your people.
Keep doors and windows locked in your apartment. Don’t be in the laundry room at night alone.
Avoid alcohol and drugs. A lot of bad decisions are made when alcohol and drugs are involved. This is a big curiosity for a lot of students being away from home and having unexpected freedom for the first time. They don’t know their limits.
Trust your instincts. If you have a bad feeling about a person or situation, listen to it and get out.
If the worst happens and a situation that started out as fun gets out of hand, fight back. If they are not listening to your verbal protests, get physical. Aim for between the legs or a good eye gouge should get their attention.

I highly recommend you all read this article from the Charlotte, NC police department: https://police.charlotte.edu/safety/sexual-assault-prevention/reduce-risk-becoming-sexual-assault-victim

Just in case you need a little push, at one University, 63% of the men attending the University who self-reported acts of rape or attempted rape, reported that they did it repeatedly.

If you or a family member finds yourself in the group of the 38% of women who decided to carry the pregnancy to term, but you want justice as well, IPE Screening has a DNA Paternity test available that can be used in legal proceedings. No appointment is necessary.

Have a Healthy Holiday!

Chocolates and candies and cakes, oh my! We are entering the season of overindulgence. Thanksgiving kicks it off with turkey, ham, potatoes, casseroles, rich gravies, and an array of pies. Leading up to Christmas, which is a parade of Christmas cookies and other homemade goodies. Temptation is everywhere. People bring yummies into the office to share in the spirit of the holiday season! You don’t want to be rude, you’ll just have one. Unfortunately, all those “ones” add up. How are you supposed to remain healthy through the holidays with all that delicious temptation?!

Next are all the holiday parties. More food. Also, the possible addition of alcoholic beverages. All of this leads up to the big Christmas Day dinner. Yet more rich foods, and so many choices! A lot of holiday dinners have “only on holidays” dishes. You certainly don’t want to miss out on those! You start with an empty plate, take “just a bit” of all your favorite dishes, and before you know it, the plate is overflowing and there are still things you want to try. How do you stick to your diet and stay healthy through the holidays with all that wonderful food?!

After you awaken from your food coma feeling like a beached whale with horrible heartburn, you regret some of your food choices. Also possibly some of your adult beverage choices, or at least the number of them consumed. You remember your doctor telling you to avoid some of those foods you ate. He also might have mentioned something about the numerous evils of overindulging in alcohol. It does take some discipline and effort to stay healthy through the holiday.

Here are some tips to assist you in your quest to remain healthy through the holidays:

All things in moderation! You’ve heard it a million times, but for good reason. It is the key to enjoying but not overdoing it.
Don’t skimp on sleep! Rushing around trying to get everything ready for the holiday, staying up late visiting with relatives, or putting together Santa’s toys can be draining. Try to find the time to get enough sleep. Your body needs sleep to repair itself and function properly.
Try to stick with your exercise routine. Exercise is important to your overall health. Skipping the trip to the gym to take care of holiday tasks can extend to two trips, then a couple of weeks, then you get out of the habit completely. It is a slippery slope.
Keep your stress at a manageable level. Stress causes health problems and aggravates already existing conditions. Family get-togethers can be challenging. Try to avoid those subjects you know are going to start fires.

The biggest tip to staying healthy through the holiday season that we here IPE Screening can give you is to know your numbers. Is your sugar level hovering at the high end? Are you pre-diabetic? Perhaps you don’t really want to eat that entire batch of holiday cookies. We have screening panels specially formulated for men and women to provide information relative to common health conditions.

The female health panel, at a cost of $160, covers the following tests:

Chemistry panel
DHEA-S
Estradiol
TSH
FSH/LH
Progesterone
Urine

The male health panel, costing $180, includes the following tests:

Chemistry panel
DHEA-S
Lipid Profile
CBC
PSA
Testosterone
Urine

IPE Screening wants to help you and your loved ones stay healthy through the holidays! We have gift certificates available so you can give the gift of health to someone you love this holiday season. Knowing your numbers that relate to your health helps you to make better-informed decisions about what you eat and drink, and your overall lifestyle choices. Contact IPE Screening today to schedule your own health panel screening or to get gift certificates for those special people on your list.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Breast Cancer Screening – Have You Had Your Ta-Tas Tested Lately?

Breasts! You couldn’t wait to get them! Then you were waiting for them to get bigger. As big as the popular girls in school. The ones all the boys noticed. It’s a fact, boys are obsessed with boobs. They are one of the major differences between the sexes.

Developing breasts is part of “blossoming into womanhood” in our culture.

Some of the Boob Benefits:

They are useful for getting out of parking tickets.
Sometimes, they can get you free drinks at the bar.
They are a nice feature for attracting a mate. (Those little boys grow up, but do not outgrow the obsession.)
Boobs, apparently, are also capable of selling just about anything since they are very prolific in advertising.
Breasts are capable of providing sustenance to a newborn infant. How amazing is that?!

In our society, they are part of a woman’s identity, part of what makes you a woman. Because our society makes such a deal of “the twins”, it can be devastating to be told one or both will have to be removed. Breast Cancer is a terrifying diagnosis. Perhaps it runs in your family. Have you lost a sibling, mother, aunt, or grandmother to this grim reaper? Do you want to spare your own family from dealing with the ordeal of treatment? Early detection is the key to beating the odds.

Why Is It Important to Examine Your Breasts?

Interesting Fact: “Less than 1% of all breast cancers occur in men. In 2021, about 2,650 men are expected to be diagnosed with the disease, and an estimated 530 men are expected to die from breast cancer. For men, the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer is about 1 in 833” (breastcancer.org). So men are not immune the cancer.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, early detection increases the odds of survival by 99%. You were taught the self-exam method when you entered womanhood. You may or may not do this regularly. There are mammograms. If you’ve had one, you know how pleasant those are and how much you do NOT look forward to the next one. The problem with these detection methods is that they can only find cancer AFTER it has formed a tumor.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a relatively painless way to detect breast cancer before those lumps you are searching for appear? Science has developed a blood test that can detect potential cancer up to 5 YEARS earlier. Imagine the advantage 5 years would give you. Your doctor could come with a plan to deal with cancer before it ever got a foothold in your body. No debilitating chemo treatments, no hair loss, no unplanned breast reductions.

With a 5 year advantage over the enemy, you will make sure you are:

There for your children’s high school and college graduations.
At the wedding to see those children walk down the aisle with their chosen lifemate.
Around to spoil and enjoy your grandchildren and pump them full of sugar right before returning them to their parents. (Payback time. 🙂
Still around to watch those grandchildren grow into young, independent adults.
There to hear your children admit that you were right about your parenting decisions from their childhood.
Enjoying the retirement you have planned with your spouse.

Make sure you are here for all your future life plans. Make an appointment with IPE Screening today for a Breast Cancer Blood Test. A small needle prick instead of a vise grip. We have two tests to choose from: The CA 27-29 and the BRCA Gene tests. Do it for yourself, do it for your family. Call (417) 881-2522 Today to make your appointment. Give yourself peace of mind knowing you will be around for your family’s future.

Father, You Make a Difference

Families come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. Historically, it was the woman’s job to raise the children while the man was off earning the money needed to provide for the family. No one would argue that the bond between a mother and child is important to raising a well-adjusted child. Single mothers are amazing and some of their accomplishments are nothing short of incredible! However, the bond between a father and child is every bit as important. As society has evolved, fathers are getting more involved in all aspects of child-rearing, not just discipline and providing material things. “Wait til your Father gets home!” is still a popular phrase, no doubt, but studies have shown just how great an impact an involved father can have on the healthy development of a child.

According to the Child and Family Research Partnership of the University of Texas, (https://childandfamilyresearch.utexas.edu/5-things-you-should-know-about-importance-fathers) children who have a father involved in their life while growing up reap the following benefits, just to name a few:

They are twice as likely to attend college and find a good, stable job after graduating high school. Lessening the likelihood that they will be moving back in with you when they are 30.
They are 39% more likely to be good students, earning mostly A’s in their classes. This will make getting into college much easier and, bonus, maybe even a scholarship!
The chance of them repeating a grade is reduced by 45%.
They will be much better behaved. The chance of them being expelled from school for behavioral issues is reduced by 60%.
Teen pregnancy risk drops by an astounding 75%!
There is an 80% reduction in the risk of spending time in jail or prison.

With so many benefits available to your child by including the father who wants to be involved in his child’s life, it is worth whatever steps are necessary to legally identify all involved parties. The first step in this process would be a DNA paternity test. Regardless of the circumstances that led to the miracle of a new life coming into the world, that child deserves every advantage you can give them. Giving the father a chance to be involved in the child’s life would be a great gift to your child.

The process is quick, easy, and painless. A DNA paternity test can remove any lingering doubt from delicate situations. A lot of men would step up and be great dads if they were given the chance. True, some men are glad to walk away and not be burdened. But a lot of men are not told and given a chance to step up. Life is hard enough. Children deserve every benefit we can give them. If you think you may be a dad and want to be involved with the healthy development of your child, protect your rights to do so. Not being married to the child’s mother doesn’t mean you can’t be involved with your child’s life. IPE Screening can help with a DNA paternity test if you live in the Springfield area.

Covid and Drug Testing

We all know that Covid-19 turned all of our lives upside down. From the entire country shutting down, losing jobs, not being able to see loved ones, and having to deal with the effects of a virus that has horrible symptoms.

Covid-19 Increased the levels of Substance Abuse in our Loved Ones

One of the unpleasant side effects of the Covid pandemic is an increase in substance abuse in the country. Covid, both the virus itself and the unanticipated effects from the containment strategy, drastically increased everyone’s stress levels. Some people lost their jobs, others lost their entire business. Families found themselves spending ALL their time together. Parents have to manage to have their children home all day while they are also trying to work from home. Not having enough computers for everyone to do their work. The internet is down!! Problems that existed before the pandemic, seem amplified in the restricted environment.

The Effects of Extra Stress

People need relief from all that stress! What’s a person to do when you normally go to the gym to work off the stress, but the gym is closed?! Getting together with your friends to vent about the spouse and kids, going out to a movie, or just going out anywhere is no longer an outlet. Many healthy methods of dealing with stress were not available during the pandemic due to restrictions and business closures. Sadly, some people could not find healthy coping strategies and many turned to drugs and alcohol. For others, that was already their coping mechanism. The Centers for Disease Control reported a 13.3% increase in people who chose substance use for their Covid coping strategy.

Then there are the people who were struggling to overcome their substance abuse through treatment. Many had their treatment program interrupted because restrictions closed the recovery facility. Sadly, this contributed to an increase in overdose deaths (18% nationwide). When a person who has been recovering from substance abuse hasn’t been used in a while, their bodies are no longer used to the effects. Their tolerance is significantly decreased, but they resume at the old usage level. It is too much for their body to process and ends in an overdose death.

Other Effects of Substance Abuse

Then there are the innocent victims of substance abuse. The babies born into the world are already dependent on the mom’s substance of choice. The increase in addicted baby births was already alarmingly on the rise prior to the pandemic. Although no official numbers are available yet, hospital and health care workers have noticed a further increase since the onset of the pandemic.

When Knowing Matters

Covid restrictions are lifting and life is getting back to “normal”. This is the time when knowing matters the most. We need to keep our loved ones safe from themselves and get them the help they need immediately. If you suspect anything, you should have that difficult conversation, get them tested, and get them into the appropriate program to support their needs.

If you are a business owner, hopefully, things are looking up for you. Business is ramping back up and you are ready to add more employees. If a drug screening is not already part of your hiring process, you may want to consider adding it to protect your investment. Detecting substance abuse before you hire an employee will save you money and time.

Are you worried a family member you are responsible for may be struggling with a substance abuse issue? We can set your mind at ease and answer that nagging question. Give us a call or fill out a lab test request form.

Private and Simple Paternity Testing in Springfield MO

We understand that life happens.

Paternity testing at IPE screening is a private and straightforward office visit.

With a couple of swabs in cheeks, you can have answers to your questions with 100% certainty.

Located on the Southeast corner of Campbell and Sunshine between Whole Hog Café and McAlister’s Deli and offering more than just paternity tests, your privacy is super secure because we offer blood tests, DNA fitness tests and more.

Complete Blood Count: What is a CBC Test?

Do you feel lethargic, maybe got clammy hands, kind of a bluish tinge on your lips, pale skin, and just plain out of it for quite some time?

When you’re lacking that rosy hue on your skin or you aren’t exactly an Energizer bunny lately, a trip to the doctor’s clinic may end up in a stopover to the laboratory for a CBC test.

See, your blood tells so much about your symptoms and why you’re feeling a certain way. It could be your red blood cells are running a little low, your white blood cells count is a little elevated, or there are other things going on about your blood. Whatever it may be, getting your blood checked is a quick and simple way to know what’s going on in your body.

Cholesterol Levels and Your Health

When you have a clogged drain in your kitchen or bathroom, it takes a long time for water to flow down smoothly. The same happens when the veins in your body are clogged due to elevated cholesterol levels; Nutrients, oxygen, and blood fail to flow efficiently, causing disturbances in your body processes and overall health. This is why it is best to be aware of how much bad and good cholesterol are in your body, and then you can take necessary actions.

What are the Uses and Benefits of Paternity Testing?

Is there a medical condition you’re predisposed to because it runs in the family?

Or perhaps you are adopted and never knew your parents?

Paternity testing can give you all the answers you need.

Learn what exactly a paternity test is, what its uses and benefits are, and how it is done.