At least one Calgary doctor thinks Mayor Naheed Nenshi may be sending the wrong message to men under the age of 55. 

Dr. James Dickinson, family physician and instructor of preventive medicine at the University of Calgary, says men under the age of 55 should be worrying more about living a healthy lifestyle instead of having PSA baseline tests done to screen for prostate cancer.

Nenshi and a number of other City of Calgary employees had the tests done to mark the mayor’s 40th birthday Monday.

“Screening too often is dangerous,” Dickinson said. “The harm comes if (PSA levels are) raised. That takes people along the escalator of intervention.”

Dickinson’s main concern is the over treatment and trauma of a false positive.

Aware of the possibilities of false positives that have been associated with the test, Nenshi conveyed his confidence in Canadian health care professionals before having his test done Monday.

“Here, if your PSA levels are elevated, the recommendations are to find out more,” he said. “And I think finding out more is not ever a bad thing.”