Breast Cancer and Thermography

This weekend we adventure to Saskatchewan to get a Thermography and I decided to Blog about this experience because I feel more women should know about this alternative of breast cancer screening.

THERMOGRAPHY is a form of thermal (infrared) imaging. It is based on the principle that chemical and blood vessel activity in both pre-cancerous tissue and the area surrounding developing breast cancer is typically always higher than in normal breast tissue. Since pre-cancerous and cancerous masses are highly metabolic tissues, they need an abundant supply of nutrients to maintain their growth and this can increase the surface temperature of the breast. Heat is an indication that inflammation exists, and typically inflammation is present not only in cancerous cells but is also present in torn muscles and ligaments as well as arthritic joints, which Thermography can also detect.

The most promising aspect of Thermography is its ability to spot anomalies years before mammography. Nowadays, women are encouraged to get a mammogram, so they can find their breast cancer as early as possible, but mammograms are not only painful, they lead to a high percentage of invasive treatment due to wrong diagnosis . It's well known that excessive doses of radiation can increase your risk of cancer. And this doesn't even include the harm done to the body from unnecessary biopsies, mastectomies, chemotherapy,etc.

Thermography is very safe- it's even safe for pregnant and nursing women. It's really just an image of the heat in your body...and it does not hurt!!!

The kind of procedure I did is called CRT 2000 Thermogram that is a little different but follows the same principles as the imaging Thermography. I just had to follow a couple of easy directions: not taking a shower, not wearing a bra, not drinking or eat anything hot or cold at least 4 hours before the thermo-gram, not exercise; massage or any kind of body therapy 48 hours prior and that is it! for the Test they measured 119 points within my body initially with my clothes on, then you have to undressed and wait for 10 minutes in a room that has a lower temperature (Brrr, Brrr); they then proceeded to repeat the measurement of the temperature points within my body...and I was done!

Dr. Brian from Life Health Services always leaves me amazed by the amount of knowledge he has and how accurate He is at reading this scan...Which also reminds me to tell you that like any other procedures; who reads it is as important as the test it self; so if you are considering to have a thermography you should know the credentials of the interpreting physician.

So this month I encourage you to do something for your beautiful self...besides checking out Thermography, why not implement lifestyle changes that can improve the health of your breasts proactively (Pass me the green juice! :))