breast thermography
“It takes years for a body to develop a tumor that is noticeable by a mammogram. In the intervening years, the tumor’s growth is fed by an increased blood supply that creates heat in the breast tissues. Thermography images the heat from the budding cells associated with the earliest stages of breast dysfunction.”
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affordable
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no skin contact
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no compression
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no harmful radiation
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painless
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safe
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benefits of breast thermography
Breast Thermography is a 15-20 minute affordable, no compression, no radiation, painless, non-invasive, and safe thermal imaging procedure to measure breast health.
A Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera (DITI) that images for thermal heat abnormalities in the breast region. It is a valuable, state-of-the-art imaging procedure that records temperature changes.
Breast Thermography images the chest area up to the base of the neck and underneath the arms unlike mammography which only images the tissue that can be pressed between the two compression plates making it less effective for patients with small breasts. Thermography works for women with all size breasts and is 100% safe.
Thermography is an excellent adjunct imaging tool for women over the age of 25 and particularly useful for women who tend to have more dense breast tissue making Mammography less effective.
Thermography can also see the heat abnormalities in breasts with implants, fibrocystic breasts and inflammatory breast cancer (not visible on a mammogram).
what is breast thermography?
How does breast thermography work?
If you saw a volcano from a satellite image like the one below, you might think there is nothing to be worried about because it looks dormant. However, you have no idea what is happening below the surface. If you had looked at an infrared image of that same volcano, you would see heat patterns below the surface indicating suspicious activity.
Every cell in our body naturally gives off a small amount of metabolic heat that increases when an abnormal condition (inflammation) occurs.
Thermography detects temperature changes and makes it possible to detect the heat from abnormal activities in the breast tissue 8-10 years before a lump/structure would be detected by a mammogram.
Excess heat in the body is indicative of inflammation which is the base of all chronic disease states.
Thermography allows doctors to detect thermal abnormalities in the body which can indicate early onset of disease. Since these thermal abnormalities show before symptoms begin to present, doctors are able to intervene sooner and lay out a careful treatment plan.
The beauty of knowing this information early is often with proactive measures like dietary changes, stress management and reducing your toxic load, this inflammation can be reversed.
Who Chooses breast thermography?
Women with Dense or Fibrocystic Breasts
Dense breast tissue contains more glands and ligaments and less fat. Mammograms have trouble seeing through dense tissue; while thermograms can easily evaluate dense breast tissue. Breast cancer tends to grow almost twice as fast for women under the age of 50 due to the density of the breast tissue.
Women with family history of breast cancer
Annual breast screening is not usually recommended until age 40; however, if you fall into the high risk category, thermograms should be started in the mid 20's in order to obtain a baseline for all future comparisons.
• Breast Thermography has an average sensitivity and specificity of 90%.
• An abnormal thermogram is 10 times more significant as a future risk indicator for breast cancer than a first order family history of the disease.
• A persistent abnormal thermogram carries with it a 22x higher risk of future breast cancer.
• When used as part of a multimodal approach (clinical examination + mammography + thermography) 95% of early stage cancers will be detected.
Younger women who want to limit radiation to the breast
A routine mammogram consists of two views of each breast and contains up to 0.2 rad per x-ray. Radiation accumulates in breast tissue, and each 1.0 rad of exposure increases the risk of breast cancer by 1%. Because thermography images thermal heat from the body, there is no radiation risk whatsoever.
Women with surgical implants
The risk of an implant rupturing during a mammogram is small, but a valid concern. With thermography there is no compression and no risk.
• Women with inconclusive mammograms
• Women who have had a mastectomy
• Women struggling with hormone imbalance
• Women who want a baseline for overall breast health
• Anyone woman or man concerned about breast health
***After the initial Breast Thermography ($175) the client must have a one-time 3 month breast follow up to establish an important baseline (cost $90). Thereafter, a yearly Thermography is $175.
How is Thermography different from Mammography, Ultrasound and MRI?
Mammography, Ultrasound, and MRI depend on finding a physical structure while Thermography detects the heat produced by increased blood flow to dysfunctional areas in the body. Tissue temperature change is one of the first things that occur in the disease process and is the body's way of signaling that the immune system is busy fighting. Early detection of abnormal heat may help prevent unwanted health conditions from even developing in the first place.
By the time a tumor reaches the size of a pin head (approximately 2 years into its growth) it can no longer be sustained by the normal blood supply so it develops its own. The development of that blood supply is called angiogenesis. Because Thermography is based on recording temperatures it has the technology to detect the heat from angiogenesis. In the intervening years, the tumor’s growth is fed by an increased blood supply that creates heat in the breast tissues.
A cancerous tumor has been growing 8-10 years before it is large and dense enough to be detected by mammography. That is why the treatment at that stage is so drastic - removal of breast, underlying muscle, lymph nodes, chemotherapy and radiation. Thermography captures vascular pathways being established 8-10 years prior to actual mass forming.
Mammograms, Ultrasounds, nor Thermography have the capability to diagnose cancer.
A biopsy is the only tool that can diagnose.
Breast Thermography offers women the chance to become aware of worrisome physiological changes in the body before the possibility of a diagnosable cancer, which is when risk-reduction strategies such as diet, exercise, and stress reduction are most effective. It provides risk information and a much needed piece of the puzzle along with early warning signs to your doctor for further follow up.
Pictures of digital infrared thermal breast images
As you already know, breast health is incredibly important, and breast problems can develop silently for years before anything can be picked up on a mammogram!
Approximately 1 in 8 women in the US will develop breast cancer during her lifetime and 1 in 39 women will die from breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, except for skin cancers.
On average, every 2 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S.
Women, especially between the ages of 25-50 where mammograms are not typically indicated yet, can benefit immensely from this proactive risk assessment tool!