Breast Thermography: A Powerful Tool

By Author: Melanie River
Total Articles: 223
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In today's world, there are a lot of absolutes being tossed around that don't necessarily have meaning any more. For example, you will find "Seattle's Best Coffee" being roasted and served in quite a few different locations in the city, not to mention the number of companies marketing it for national sale, and is really more of a company name than a title they can claim. Can you really be considered the best if best is just a word that anyone can use? How about promises of the most powerful antioxidant blend available? The only pain reliever you'll need? How many times a day do you hear an absolute that has no definitive meaning? It's more frequent than we even realize, and the sad thing is that not everyone recognizes it for what it is, marketing. What would be preferable would be for people to have the opportunity to take a look at everything that is available to them and see how it fits in with the other tools already in the bag. In an ideal world, we would have completely honest information, but ours is an economy built on competition and marketing. This is not, however the way we want to feel about our medical or health ...
... care options. The best thing you can do is arm yourself with information about what is available to you, and what is helpful and useful for your doctor. In the world of breast health, cancer and detection, you and your doctor have a new tool that really can be an asset to your health care providers. The breast thermography center should be added to your regular list of health care providers, particularly if you have increased risk or concern of breast cancer.

Breast thermography is one great example of how you can and should use all the tools available to you. Thermography is infrared thermal imaging, and when used to monitor breast health it can show changes in breast physiology earlier than any other technique. Breast thermography can detect changes so early on, you could be looking at something that will be gone in six months, or you might be looking at changes in the blood vessels that comes prior to a fibrous growth or cyst in the breast- which could also be the very earliest beginnings of cancer. In order to be sure, other tests do need to be done to give a definitive diagnosis of a problem, just because you can see that a change is occurring it does not give you any more information than that. Until that change in blood flow develops into something that can be detected and investigated with another modality, you can only know that the change has occurred. But there are benefits to knowing a change is occurring, because if detected early enough, lifestyle changes can be made that might be able to prevent a problem from developing. The key to breast thermography's success and usefulness includes getting annual screenings so that your doctor has something to compare your results to, allowing them to see changes early on.

This makes an annual trip to the thermography center a clear part of your whole health care and screenings. You still want to do self-exams, at least once a month, and you still should undergo physical doctor examinations of your breast tissue (which you should get with your annual pap test). Once you reach the age recommended by your doctor, you should also be getting your mammograms as well. Thermography is not a replacement for mammography, in fact they are used together. If something is found on your breast thermography scan, the next step is normally a mammogram to verify the findings. Many people are looking to avoid mammography and with good cause- radiation and compression of breast tissue are not desirable, or comfortable. They are still, however, diagnostic tools that we don't yet have a replacement for. What we have in breast thermography is an early warning system that may even be early enough that the necessary lifestyle changes can be made so that it never gets to the point of needing a mammogram or cancer treatment.
When it comes to your breast health, your doctors have a powerful new tool in breast thermography. The infrared thermal imaging allows your doctors to see changes in blood vessels and breast tissue even before a tumor develops. Thermography is not a replacement to mammography, but with annual trips to the Breast thermography center, along with your regular self-exams, and doctor physical examinations, your doctors will be able to detect changes even before a diagnosis could be made with a mammogram.