{"id":1344,"date":"2011-06-05T02:07:23","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T02:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drconnieamundson.com\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2011-06-05T02:07:23","modified_gmt":"2011-06-05T02:07:23","slug":"breast-screenings-know-your-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heartmountainchiropractic.com\/es\/breast-screenings-know-your-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast Screenings: Know Your Options (June 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For every 2,000 women receiving a mammography reading throughout 10 years, only 1 will have her life prolonged. In addition, 10 healthy women will be overdiagnosed and will receive unnecessary treatment .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With annual mammograms recommended for women over the age of 40, breast cancer screening and technologies such as mammograms, MRI, and ultrasound have become indispensable to the medical community. Medtech Insight’s market analyst provided a report in 2008 stating that breast cancer screening is a $2.1 billion annual market projected to increase by 5.4% a year through 2013. Is it any wonder radiologists and the medical community are recommending these annually to every woman over the age of 40? Are these recommendations being made to best serve the patient or to better the market? You may think this is a very negative statement. However, before making a judgment, consider this: the American Cancer Society (ACS) has blatant conflicts of interest because of their close financial ties to makers of mammography equipment and cancer drugs.5 While mammograms has their purpose in certain circumstances, we need to consider that these invasive techniques may not be our only options.<\/p>\n

The recommendations are changing. CNN reports that in November of 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said that due to the less dense tissue of the breast under the age of 40, mammograms are less effective. The screenings become more accurate with older women. Therefore screening is recommended every two years after the age of 50 because it is currently well known that the more mammograms a woman has, the greater the chance she will get cancer due to the mechanical pressure and ionizing radiation from the mammogram procedure. However, the American Cancer Society did not<\/span> revise their recommendations for mammography. To approach the controversial affects of mammography, it is the patient’s right to know other options. The option known for its’ early detection, accuracy, and safety in the breast screening field, is known as thermography.<\/p>\n

Thermography technology, also known as thermal imaging, is a screening tool that has been approved by the FDA since 1982. Thermography provides a visual heat map of a patient’s image in real time without use of radiation. Areas of increased heat due to inflammation and increased metabolic processes can be an early detection sign of a more serious condition developing\u2026including cancer.<\/p>\n

Early Detection<\/h2>\n

How early can these blood vessels produced by malignancy show up? Growth of cancer cells take 5 years to reach 1 cm size which is the earliest size detected on a mammogram. However, thermography can detect physiological<\/span> changes within the tissue 8 to 10 years before a mammogram can detect a mass. This gives a patient much more time to make positive changes in one’s life to reduce tumor activity using less invasive interventions such as dietary change, hormonal balance, and physical activity.<\/p>\n

Advantages of Thermography<\/h2>\n