Breast thermography is a quick, painless, no contact imaging technique that can be part of an early detection program for breast cancer.  Using no radiation, thermography picks up heat using an infra-red imaging system.  Physiologic changes such as infection, inflammation or increases in blood flow are often the source of abnormal heat patterns that may encourage cancer or be present during very early stages of cancer. The diagnostic quality when screening for breast cancer has improved to a level where it is comparable to mammography, particularly given the limited sensitivity of mammography in young women and those with dense breast tissue.  Thermography may be performed years before standard mammograms are ordered thus allowing increased screening. Also, they pick up functional changes that may predate the development of cancer thus providing an opportunity to prevent cancer development in the first place.  This gives patients an opportunity at targeted behaviors that can truly lower the chance of developing cancer, such as improving their diet, exercising more, or stopping smoking.  Of course these are things we should all be doing anyway, but sometimes screening tests are motivation for change.  Also, conditions such as estrogen dominance may be suggested by a thermogram and this … Continue reading Breast Thermography