(cnn)i usually think of april as tax month, but it seems to be morphing into national get tested month  dallas mavericks owner mark cuban advised twitterers to have their blood tested for everything availableand to do so every three months following her mother's cancer diagnosis, singer taylor swift urged her fans to remind their parents to get screening tests  and arizona gov doug ducey signed legislation to allow arizonans to get any lab test without a doctor's order freedom of informationalways sounds like a good thing but there are many lab tests to order on yourself: medicare's clinical diagnostic laboratory fee schedule lists over a thousand  they are not all blood tests, but a lot of them are  and since blood tests require blood, you would surely develop at least one medical problem if you actually followed mr cuban's advice to get them all: anemia a frothy private sector is gearing up to serve the 'test me' market  in those states that allow itand over half dolaboratories are offering walk in and online services to individuals who want to check their own lab values  (and if you want to get in on the ground floor of this business, check out the franchise opportunities at any labtest now, fastest labs, and all labtests fast) some might argue that this freedom to test is the path to a healthier society but the primary effect won't be more health, but rather more medical care  fundamentally well people will appear in doctors' offices with 'abnormal' results  abnormalities are common in normal people, as we learned when whole body ct scanning was in vogue a decade ago (thankfully, only briefly)  so doctors will increasingly face one of two options: take the time to reassure these new patients that their results aren't really that abnormal or chase down abnormal results with more testing further testing will often make clear that the initial results were false alarms  or it will confirm the presence of abnormalitymost of which will be minor abnormalities  often it won't be clear what to do, but doctors will be pressed to do something  that's when the real problems begin will anybody be helped? maybe  will anybody be hurt?  definitely  the disturbing truth is that it is hard for us to make well people feel better  but it's not that hard for us to make them feel worse decades of research have shown that there are real side effects to testing the well: more anxiety (that can't be good for your health), more procedures (which often involve needles, pain and can even lead to complications like collapsed lungs) and more treatment for 'disease' not destined to cause problems (as in over a million additional american men treated for prostate cancer, ditto women for breast cancer)  to see how far wrong testing can go, check out south korea: where ultrasound screening has increased the amount of thyroid cancerand thyroid cancer surgeryby 15 fold i can tell you one thing for sure, the freedom to test won't save money  sure, a competitive market will drive down prices for individual tests   but advertising will drive up the volume of testing  and then there are all the office visits and subsequent testing for the abnormal results  this will cost people real moneyeither in terms of higher insurance premiums or higher out of pocket costs maybe this kind of freedom of information isn't such a good thing of course, there have been genuine advances in diagnostic testing  diagnostic tests can be extremely useful in sorting out acute medical problems  but if you feel well, don't think that testing will make you feel better the biotech sector is excited about testing well peopleit's a huge marketand is developing lots of new product  now you can sequence your dna, soon you will be able to monitor your immune system's signature  now you can monitor your vital signs on your smartwatch, soon you will be able to test your breath for lung cancer on a phone app  they are even implanting thermodynamic sensors in a bra to test for breast cancer a breast cancer monitoring brai can't make this stuff up should we outlaw an individual's freedom to test?  no we don't need another victimless crime  but it is certainly an area that demands regulation  the food and drug administration has a longstanding mandate to protect us from snake oil treatments  now it needs to start worrying about snake oil testing it's also an area that demands education  the public needs to know that while medical data can be very useful, that doesn't mean they are routinely useful  abnormalities in sick patients mean something different than the same abnormalities in well people  it is easier to collect data than it is to know what the data meanmuch less what to do about the results freedom is a good thing  but feel free not to exercise your freedoms  just as carrying a gun doesn't necessarily make you any safer, testing yourself doesn't necessarily make you any healthier
every quarter gilbert welch mark cuban
mark cuban said people should have their blood tested every quarter  gilbert welch: giving people more tests will increase health spending, but it won't make us healthier