Thermography is Key for Early Detection of Breast Cancer

Thermography offers the opportunity for much earlier breast disease detection than is possible through self-examination, doctor examination or mammography alone because the procedure can detect the subtlest of physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease. 

Essential #7 of my "7 Essentials System™", an evidence-based approach to support and help heal the body naturally, is "Early Detection." In my opinion, Thermography is a major component for Breast Cancer prevention. When I was in active practice, Thermography was a vital part of the evaluation of my patients' health and to this day I highly recommend it to my coaching clients and on my website. In a mere 15 minute non-invasive, painless test, a Thermography scan can alert you to changes that may indicate early stage breast dis-ease. Although Thermography cannot diagnose cancer, a scan might detect tumor development when it is the size of a pin head. That is 3 to 5 years before a mammogram can do so!

What Is Thermography?

With this early detection possibility, why aren't women lining up to get their annual Thermography exam instead of their annual mammogram? The reason has to do with education, plain and simple. Many women still do not know that this safe, effective breast health monitoring tool even exists.

Thermography offers the opportunity for much earlier breast disease detection than is possible through self-examination, doctor examination or mammography alone because the procedure can detect the subtlest of physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease.

Thermography uses an infrared scanning device to convert infrared radiation emitted from your skin's surface into electrical impulses that are visualized in color on the monitor.

This visual image graphically maps body temperature (the map itself is call a thermogram). The spectrum of colors on the screen indicate an increase or decrease in the amount of infrared radiation being emitted from the body surface. Since there is a high degree of thermal symmetry in a normal body, subtle abnormal temperature asymmetries can be easily identified.  Once identified, your doctor can then plan accordingly and lay out a careful program to further diagnose and /or monitor your progress.

Research Shows Thermography Works

A 2008 study at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell found that Breast Thermography had a 97% sensitivity in discovering malignancies; the use of a Digital Infrared camera identified 58 out of 60 malignancies in breast tissue. According to the medical researchers involved in the study,

"DITI (Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging) is a valuable adjunct to mammography and ultrasound, especially in women with dense breast parenchyma."

Surprisingly, with all the medical and media hype about mammograms, there have been only eight internationally-controlled clinical trials regarding this traditional procedure, involving about 500,000 women. Furthermore, recent analysis of these trials concluded that only 2 of those studies were statistically valid. Based on these two trials, involving approximately 66,000 women, study authors Gotzsche and Olsen concluded,

"There is no reliable evidence that screening decreases breast cancer mortality– not even a tendency towards an effect."

Thermography, on the other hand, has been researched for over 30 years and has over 800 peer-reviewed studies listed in the Index-Medicus. And since 1982, there have been doctors around the globe that have offered this life-saving test.

A Breast Thermography exam is completed by a certified technician who takes the images. Then the images are read by a certified and licensed medical Thermomologist. For more information on Thermography and to find a certified technician in your area, visit the American College of Clinical Thermology Inc. (ACCT) website at www.thermologyonline.org.