Tag: breastcancerawarenessmonth

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there is a lot of push for women to go get mammograms in order to detect any signs of breast cancer. There’s an estimated 200,000 new cases of breast cancer every year in the United States. One in eight women will take on this disease and it is the leading cause of death in women from ages 40 to 55. Therefore, it’s not an issue to be taken lightly.

Taking care of yourself and taking precautionary measures in preserving your health are things that should be done, but have you ever questioned if the methods in which you do so could actually be hazardous to your health?

Studies in the past few years have shown that techniques such as mammograms might actually increase your risk of getting cancer. One mammogram can potentially give you as much radiation as 1,000 chest X-rays. 1,000! A Premenopausal breast is even more sensitive to this radiation and each rad of exposure can increase breast cancer risk by 1%. A decade of screening increases your risk to 10%, and some radiologists fear that it’s even more than that. In other words, by getting checked with mammograms annually starting at the age of 40, by 50 you are at least 10% more likely to get the disease that you are attempting to avoid. That means 37 million women are increasing their breast cancer risk every single year.

Important points to note about mammograms and detecting breast cancer:

• If you don’t have breast cancer when you receive a mammogram, you increase your risk every time you check again.
• If you don’t have breast cancer when you receive a mammogram but receive a false positive, you increase your risk even more with repeat, unnecessary screenings.
• If you do have breast cancer when you receive a mammogram, the compression of the machine can actually spread those cancerous cells.
• If you do have breast cancer when you receive a mammogram, it might not save you anyway.

A study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark suggested that those who had received mammogram screening only had a 1% reduction in risk of death as opposed to women who had not received screenings, whose risk was 2%. When you consider that you are increasing your risk 10% by just going to these screenings over the years, it starts to become apparent that you may, in fact, being doing much more harm than good.

So, are there other, safer alternatives to breast cancer screening? The answer is: of course.

Breast Thermography is a 15 minute, non-invasive method of testing one’s physiology in order to detect indications of early stage breast disease. It is a technique that was first introduced in 1956 and approved by the FDA in 1982. Thanks to technology advancement over the years, it is becoming a more reliable tool for detecting breast cancer. This procedure uses high resolution, digital, infrared cameras to detect heat patterns that may be indicative of breast abnormalities. The imaging can show very minute changes and patterns in temperature related to blood flow that might be related to the progression of tumors.

One study at the University Hospital for Tumors showed that Breast Thermography was even more sensitive and detected more changes than Mammography. Out of 26 patients, 31 changes were detected by mammograms while 37 were detected by Breast thermograms.

A standard Breast Thermography procedure goes a little something like this:

• Complete a breast health history form
• Meet with staff to go over procedure
• 15-minute wait to allow your body to reach a steady temperature
• Positioned in front of imaging system to capture your imaging results
• Meet with Thermologist to go over results

The findings can be rated in the below categories:

TH 1- Normal uniform non-vascular

TH 2- Normal uniform vascular

TH 3- Equivocal (questionable)

TH 4- Abnormal

TH 5- Severely Abnormal

It is important that you discuss the findings thoroughly with your Thermologist so that you understand what your results mean. You can also use the results to determine what your next best course of action is. At any rate, and even if you have to get a mammogram as a follow up, it is still safer to get 10 Thermology screenings prior to that mammogram, instead of increasing your risk of breast cancer 1% with every mammogram screening that you have instead.

Your body is a temple and should be treated as such. Ask yourself if traditional, conventional methods are worth putting your health at risk.

This October, protect yourself the healthy way! Look into Breast Thermology clinics near you.

 

 

Sources:

“Breast Thermography”. Pacific Chiropractic and Research Center. Last modified June 20^th, 2016. http://www.breastthermography.com/breast_thermography_proc.htm. Accessed September 6^th, 2016.

“What is Breast Thermography?” American College of Clinical Technology. http://www.thermologyonline.org/breast/breast_thermography_what.htm. Accessed September 6^th, 2016.

Kolaric D, Herceg Z, Nola IA, Ramljak V, Kulis T, Holjevac JK, Deutsch JA, Antonini S. “Ruder Bosković” Institute, Centre for Informatics and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia. Published June 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23941007. Accessed September 14, 2016.

Mercola, Joseph M.D. “Your Greatest Weapon Against Breast Cancer (Not Mammograms)”. Published March 3^rd, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/03/experts-say-avoid-mammograms.aspx. Accessed September 6^th, 2016.

Sircus, Mark, M.D. “3D Mammogram Technology – Dangerous or Safe for Breasts?” Published October 7^th, 2015. http://drsircus.com/medicine/3d-mammogram-technology-dangerous-or-safe-for-breasts/. Accessed September 6^th, 2016.