Originally published December 26 2008
Thermograms are a Much Safer Alternative to Mammograms
by Barbara L. Minton
(NaturalNews) After a lifetime of mind indoctrination and brainwashing by the disease establishment, it is often next to impossible to break away. We have been taught throughout our lives that the answer to our physical problems resides in our doctor's office. We've been made to believe that science reveals all answers and our own innate common sense is worth nothing. It is just this type of mind control that compels women to line up for mammograms, even though their common sense tells them that radiation causes cancer. The good news is that now there is a much safer alternative scientifically proven to be effective at early detection. For women who feel they must spend their time looking for lumps, two recent studies have documented the value of thermography
Breast thermography uses heat to detect abnormalities
The thermogram is a test using heat radiating from your own body to detect problems in the breast. It involves no contact with the body, no compression, and is completely painless. A thermogram combines advanced digital technology with ultra-sensitive infrared camera imaging. It does not use radiation, and can be done as frequently as anyone thinks is necessary. Thermograms work by creating infra-red images (heat pictures) that are then analyzed to find asymmetries anywhere in the chest and underarm area. Any abnormality that causes change in heat production is seen on a thermogram, so any source of inflammation such as infection, trauma to the breast, and even sun burn will cause abnormality in the thermal picture.
Breast thermography detects patterns of heat generated by the increased circulation produced by abnormal metabolic activity in cancer cells. This activity occurs long before a cancer starts to invade new tissue. A breast thermogram has the ability to identify a breast abnormality five to ten years before the problem can be found on a mammogram.
There is science behind this process
Normal tissue that is non-cancerous has a blood supply under the control of the autonomic nervous system. This system can either increase or decrease blood flow to cells. However, abnormal tissue indicating cancer or pre-cancer ensures its own survival by secreting chemicals that override the autonomic nervous system regulation, thereby creating its own steady blood supply. Cancers can be thought of as off the power grid of the body.
When a woman’s hands are placed in cold water, an autonomic nervous system reflex occurs in the breasts. This reflex causes the blood vessels in non-cancerous tissue to constrict, but does not result in constriction of blood vessels supplying any cancerous growth. The resulting difference in blood flow can result in cancer showing up as hot spots on thermograms.
A study reported in the American Journal of Surgery, October edition, included 92 women who had undergone a breast biopsy based on prior mammogram or ultrasound results. 60 of the biopsies were malignant, and 34 were benign (two of the women had two biopsies). These women were then given thermograms. Results indicted the thermograms identified 58 of the 60 malignancies for a sensitivity rate of 97%.
Another study reported in the May-June edition of the Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, reported a study of 15 women with palpable breast cancers who were preoperatively thermogrammed with three different infrared cameras - micro bolometer, quantum well, and photo voltaic - to compare the ability of these cameras to differentiate breast cancer from normal tissue. The quantum well and the photo voltaic cameras demonstrated the frequency difference between normal and cancerous breast tissue, with the photo voltaic camera displaying the greater clarity. The researchers reported that with selected image processing operations, more detailed frequency analyses could be applied to any suspicious area.
What goes on during a breast thermogram
Thermograms are taken at thermography centers. The woman disrobes above the waist and acclimates to room temperature for ten minutes after which the first of two series of images of the breasts is taken. Then the woman places her hands in cold water for one minute, after which the second set of images is taken. The images are evaluated by thermologists using signs and criteria established by the American Academy of Thermology to interpret thermogram data.
Breast thermograms do not diagnose breast cancer. They simply detect physiological changes in breast tissue that have been shown to correlate with the presence of cancer or pre-cancerous states as do mammograms. Breast cancer is only diagnosed by pathologist's microscopic examination of breast tissue.
Thermography centers have been around for several years in most major cities. They are definitely the wave of the future for early breast cancer detection. Amazingly, most traditional physicians do not know anything about them and continue to recommend mammograms.
Positive results suggest the need for further evaluation
Althouth a breast thermogram is a much safer form of screening that a mammogram, it too is just a screening. A thermogram evaluation yields a score ranging from 1 to 5. A rating of 1 implies no detectable thermal abnormalities, while a ranking of 5 suggests thermal abnormalities correlating with very significant risk for breast cancer. Positive results on a thermogram suggest the need for further evaluation as do positive results from a mammogram.
Early thermal abnormalities may result in a recommendation to repeat the process in 60-120 days. Depending on the rating score and clinical findings, a referral may be made for targeted ultrasound or to a breast specialist for possible biopsy. At this point, any practitioner so trained may recommend nutritional, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle interventions to address the thermal abnormalities.
Many providers of thermograms accept self-referrals as well as referrals from healthcare practitioners. However, they are not as readily covered by insurance, in keeping with the trend in the insurance industry to cover toxic treatments but not procedures geared to keeping us healthy.
A recent study suggested that many breast lumps disappear on their own
Scientists who completed a recent study on the effects of mammograms concluded that some of the cancers detected could spontaneously regress if they were not discovered and treated. This conclusion appeals to common sense, because we know one of the basic principals of function in the body is constant striving to heal and restore homeostasis.
The disease establishment wants us to devote time and energy in a continuous search for breast lumps. We are told to examine ourselves every morning, and get as many mammograms as we can. After all, the sooner we can find the tiniest lump, the sooner we can be herded into the great cancer machine, and more money will be available to feed that machine. Yet when we are finally spit out the other end of that machine we are often ruined and unable to ever regain our health. Women have been turned into recruitment agents for this machine. We have been programmed to the point that many women never go a day without worrying about breast cancer.
As a people we tend to have limits to our physical, mental, emotional and psychological resources. How we direct these resources is our choice. We can spend our resources taking tests, examining ourselves for lumps and worrying. Or we can spend our time and resources raising our health status to the level where breast cancer becomes a non-issue.
Sources of information about thermograms:
Breast Thermography, Great Smokies Medical Center.
Thermography, Integrative Longevity Institute of Virginia.
About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.
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