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If you're at risk for heart disease, you may need additional testing before a hip replacement or other major surgery.

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All surgery, even minor procedures like cataract removal, involves a certain amount of stress. People facing surgery might experience emotional stress related to their illness or condition, often coupled with concerns about their recovery.

Some of the most common noncardiac surgeries done in older people, such as a hip replacement or gallbladder removal, can also put physical stress on the heart. Anesthesia and the operation itself can causes changes in heart rate and blood pressure as well as unmask previously undiagnosed heart disease.

What to do when routine test results are at the high or low end of the acceptable range.

Catching early changes in blood work may help prevent chronic disease, such as diabetes.听
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As a smart medical consumer, you know it's important to look over the results of your routine blood work, even when the numbers are all within the normal range. But what if you notice that some results are at the high or low end of that range? Should you be concerned about this?

Some procedures may help you escape the need for glasses.

Monovision LASIK and lens replacement surgery may help you see more clearly.
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You cannot avoid declining vision. After age 40, everyone begins to experience some form of presbyopia, a condition coined from the Greek words for "old sight."

The idea of having a knee replaced is daunting. But what if both of your knees need repairing? Is one visit to the operating room better than two?

If you are otherwise in good health, it's a conversation worth having with your doctor and rehabilitation team. There are some benefits to replacing both joints during a single surgery (called simultaneous replacement). These include undergoing anesthesia only once, fewer days in the hospital, and only one (albeit prolonged) rehabilitation that lets you resume normal activities sooner than two separate ones.听

Advances in imaging, measuring, and lenses are making the procedure even better.

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A cataract鈥攃louding of the lens inside the eye鈥攊s a common cause of poor vision and blindness among older adults. But cataracts can be removed and replaced with artificial lenses. Sound scary? It's not. "Cataract surgery is something that just about everyone will need if you live long enough. Thankfully, with all of the tools and technologies at our disposal, much of it has become fairly routine. The vast majority of people have excellent outcomes with improvement in their quality of vision," says Dr. Christian Song, a cataract and refractive surgeon at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Typical surgery

Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure. To remove the cataract, the surgeon makes a circular incision around the eye's lens, and then uses ultrasound technology to break up and remove the cloudy lens. After that, a new lens is slipped into the eye.

A mail-order saliva test marketed to consumers may make some promises it can't deliver.

A new mail-order genetic test called StatinSmart bills itself as the first test to identify a person's risk of experiencing muscle pain from a statin. That sounds like potentially helpful information, given that up to half of people who are prescribed statins quit taking them because of perceived side effects鈥攎ost often muscle pain. Others avoid statins altogether because of that worry.

But here's the rub: muscle problems can range from mild to serious, and the terms experts use to describe them can be confusing. The StatinSmart website says 29% of people who take a statin develop "statin-induced myopathy," which they define as muscle aches, pains, weakness, or cramps.

A study in the December 2015 issue of The Lancet Oncology found that a new test, called STHLM3, is more helpful at detecting aggressive cancer than traditional tests for prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

The STHLM3 test is a blood test that analyzes a combination of six protein markers, more than 200 genetic markers, and various clinical data, such as age, family history, and previous prostate biopsies.

Ask the doctors

Q: I'm expecting and want to have a vaginal delivery, but many of my friends have had cesarean sections lately. Is this a preference, or are there medical reasons to have a cesarean?

A: The health of the mother and baby, the family's personal preferences, and the hospital in which a woman delivers her baby play a role in determining whether she has a cesarean. Common medical reasons for cesareans include fetal malpresentation (when the baby is turned so that its feet or buttocks will come out first), pelvic disproportion (a birth canal that is unusually shaped or too small in relation to the size of the baby), and a past cesarean. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2015 suggests that such commonly cited medical issues may account only partly for high cesarean rates.

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Targeted cancer therapies have limits, but some may offer a better option than standard chemotherapy.

Mention cancer treatment, and most men think of chemotherapy鈥攃omplete with hair loss and extreme fatigue. But for some men, there is another option. Targeted therapies can sometimes treat certain cancers with fewer side effects and better outcomes.

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Cardiologists expect wider use of the less-invasive technique鈥攌nown as TAVR鈥攊n the near future.

The one-way valve inside your aorta opens to allow blood to surge from the heart to the rest of your body. But as you age, the valve's leaflets may stiffen and become clogged with calcium deposits, restricting blood flow. About 12% of people ages 75 or older have this condition, known as aortic stenosis. Symptoms include feeling dizzy, faint, tired, and breathless. Unless the valve is replaced, half of people with symptoms from aortic stenosis die within two years.