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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Thermography offers breast cancer screening tool breast screening tool by the FDA since 1982 — an adjunct to mammography — but I’ll bet you’ve My first hint of the importance never heard of it. What a shame. of breast thermography came Thermography is a non-invafrom Dr. Christiane Northrup sive imaging technology that, during a PBS pledge drive several Northrup explained, picks up years ago. I don’t recall her exact anomalies in the breast better words, but I certainly remember and earlier than they show up on stopping in my tracks when I mammograms. heard them. And I’m so grateful How much earlier? Eight to 10 I did, because as I mentioned last years! No cancer-causing radiaweek, breast cancer doesn’t just tion! No painful squeezing of the run in my family, it gallops. breast! Unlike mammograms that Northrup is a well-known we now know are problematical authority on women’s health — for women with dense breasts, author of “Women’s Bodies, Wom- thermography works on all women’s Wisdom” and “The Wisdom en. And thermograms can detect of Menopause” — and on this par- abnormalities near or below the ticular day, she was doing her best armpit, where mammograms to convince viewers that mamnever go. mograms were underperforming Thermograms. Write it down, and over-diagnosing when it look it up, check it out. That’s came to detecting and preventing what I did after I first heard breast cancer ... and that there Northrup, and now I’ve had two was something else out there we of them in my home state of New should all know about. Mexico, where Dr. Kathryn Ater, That something else is state-of- D.O.M — a Doctor of Oriental the-art thermography. It’s been Medicine — has worked long and approved as a safe and effective hard since 2007 to develop her
By Marilynn Preston CREATORS.COM
expertise in interpreting thermograms. You can read more about her on her website thermographynewmexico.com, where she explains that while “breast thermography is not a replacement for mammography,” it is an essential tool to help women “take control of their own health.” I’m for that. Conventional breast-screen techniques (mammograms, ultrasound, MRIs) are structural, meaning they look for abnormal structures — masses or densities — in breast tissue that may or may not turn into a cancer. Thermography is a physiological test. It uses a thermal imaging camera to detect abnormal activity in the breast — increased heat, blood flow or changing vascular patterns. All of these are early indicators that something suspicious is happening in the breast tissue. “Pre-cancerous and cancerous masses need more nutrients than normal tissue in order to maintain their growth,” Ater explains. If
she sees a troubling hot spot in a woman’s thermogram, she helps her patients think through their options for follow-up. For some women, an ultrasound is the next best step, but most doctors and insurance companies will insist on a diagnostic mammogram first. Other women will take a wait-and-watch attitude. And still others will drastically change their lifestyle in ways that fosters breast health and can keep abnormalities from growing into malignancies. “This is why thermograms are so preventative,” says Ater, who has seen patients improve dramatically by following her breast health protocol. It’s too extensive to cover here but includes: a clean diet, stressing high-fiber, low sugar, non-processed foods; getting enough sleep; managing stress; exercising; and boosting lymph flow. And now for the bad news. Thermography is where acupuncture was 30 years ago. Mainstream medicine has billions
of dollars invested in standard screening techniques, and radiologists don’t study — and therefore don’t trust — breast thermography, which is why most insurance companies refuse to pick up the cost of a $200-$300 thermogram. Ater admits it is a “loose and unregulated” industry and finding an expert thermographer can be difficult. That’s why she lists three excellent sources for further study: DrNorthrup.com, Drmostovoy.com and Mercola. com. I don’t know if thermography will save my life, but it has certainly given me a new lease on life. I don’t like getting mammogams every year. All that radiation scares me. My annual thermograms focus on breast health, and I trust Ater to identify abnormalities before they develop into serious problems. So why has your mainstream doctor never mentioned thermography? That, dear reader, is a problem you can fix.
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