by Michael Gerber, MD, HMD |
For more than 50 years heat pictures have been used in the military, law enforcement and in health care. The evolution of breast thermography imaging has been growing especially rapid in the last 20 years with French physicians leading the way. Patterns of heat given off by the breast can predict disease far in advance of the usual mammography without the pitfalls of radiation exposure to the breasts and the painful compression of the breast during the examination both of which have been a deterrent to many thoughtful women. In the last several months Federal guidelines have been issued for women to begin routine mammography at age 50 instead of 40 because it produced many false positives that resulted in needless breast biopsies, and invasive therapies, which also traumatized the patients. The more important issue is the impressive radiation dose. Each picture taken in a mammogram has at least 35 times the radiation of a chest x ray.
The beauty of thermography is in spotting abnormalities in blood flow. The most common cause of abnormality is an excess of estrogen and its breakdown products that have been directly linked to fibrocystic (lumpy) breasts and breast cancer. Abnormal blood vessels can also be seen that are feeding a tumor.
A good test can also be helpful for what it doesn’t find. For example a 37-year-old mother of three came into the clinic with a painful egg sized lump in her right breast. The lymph nodes in her armpit were also painful and enlarged. She volunteered that she had been off her diet, eating lots of sugar and fast foods and that she had not been taking supplements or her topical, bioidentical progesterone cream for some time, and was under terrific stress. Her OBGyn Physician explained to her that a needle biopsy would be the standard course to follow to determine if the lump was cancerous. She promptly did the breast thermography and the results came back as a class one, normal. Since she was concerned that a biopsy might spread a cancer she decided to follow a conservative approach, resuming her progesterone, supplements, and doing lymphatic drainage. Within 10 days the lump and painful nodes had all disappeared.
In this case thermography was very helpful to head off unnecessary, invasive procedures such as a needle biopsy.
This approach to breast health is very appealing because when alerted to abnormal changes in breast thermography her progesterone, supplements and doing lymphatic drainage. Within 10 days the lump and painful nodes had all disappeared. In this case thermography was very helpful to head off unnecessary, invasive procedures such as a needle biopsy.
This approach to breast health is very appealing because when alerted to abnormal changes in breast thermography the woman can then change her body chemistry to promote a normal scan on follow up evaluation, usually in three months time. It is truly a revolution in breast health care by not only helping the physician; patient team to be proactive, but also in avoiding exposure of the breasts to radiation that some studies have shown actually increase the incidence of breast cancer. The FDA has approved breast thermography since 1983 for adjunctive screening for breast cancer.
Recent studies have shown 97% sensitivity for detecting breast malignancy. Breast thermography has been researched for over 30 years with over 800 peer-reviewed studies existing in the Index Medicus of well over 250,000 women with an average sensitivity and specificity of 90%. This is preventive medicine at its best!
References:
- Am. J. Surgery. 2008 Oct. 196 (4): 83-6
- Am. J. Radiology: 180 January 2003
For more info, contact Michael Gerber, MD, HMD of the Gerber Medical Clinic at (775) 826-1900.
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