Nov. 19, 2009

If you’ve always followed the religion of annual mammograms and now you’re confused by recent government guidelines recommending fewer mammograms over a woman’s lifetime, you’ve come to the right place.

This is the second part of a three-part series that began with an article discussion the dangers of mammograms.

Thermogvrams are a safe and effective alternative to mammograms.

Here’s some information on thermograms from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom, a book I wrote two years ago with Dr. Ben Johnson:

Thermography is absolutely the best preventive tool because it can pick up a potential problem long before a mammogram might, yet, unlike a mammogram, it is noninvasive, painless and exposes you to no radiation.

Thermography has been FDA approved for more than 30 years and can be used for all types of body tissue, not breasts alone. A thermogram offers information about your breasts that no other technology can provide. Its best use is as a preventive tool to track a woman’s breast health over a period of years and to catch potential problems before they become big problems.

Thermography is an infrared heat digital imaging system. The machine does not even touch your skin. It shows color images of heat in the tissue and gray scale, which shows vascularity or circulation in the breast.

How thermography works

A thermogram is made by a specialized type of digital camera that captures an image of the circulation of blood in your tissues. Having a thermogram is as easy as having your picture taken.

Normal tissue has a blood supply that is under the control of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS can either increase or decrease blood flow to cells. Abnormal (cancerous and pre-cancerous) tissue, on the other hand, ensures its own survival by secreting chemicals that override this ANS regulation, thereby ensuring its own steady blood supply. Cancer can be thought of as being “off the power grid” of the body.

A thermogram monitors changes in circulation that can signal the presence of a tumor.

Thermogram benefits

Breast thermography does not diagnose breast cancer. Instead, it detects changes in breast tissue that indicate the presence of cancer or pre-cancerous states.

Breast thermography has several unique abilities that make it well worth your while:

• It can give tumor warning signals far in advance, up to ten years ahead of invasive tumor growth.
• Unlike after-the-fact warning when a tumor is already present like you’d get with a mammogram, ultrasound, MRI or CT scan, thermography can assess a woman’s risk of developing a tumor and can also assess her hormonal status.
• It can also distinguish between fibrocystic breasts and cancerous tumors.
• It can examine breasts with implants, which cannot be adequately screened with routine mammography because the compression could damage the implant and because the implant can actually block the view of deeper parts of the breast.
• It is effective for breasts of all sizes. Women with very small, very large breasts or very dense often do not receive adequate images from mammograms.
• The rate of false negatives and false positives is less than 10 percent, much better than for mammograms.

What an abnormal thermogram means

Women with a family history of breast cancer are at greater risk of developing the disease, but 75 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease. Regardless of your family history, if your thermogram is abnormal, you run a future risk of breast cancer that is 10 times higher than someone with a first degree relative (mother, sister or daughter) with the disease.

Thermography is the only technology to provide women with a future risk assessment.

The luxury of time

If a thermogram shows a woman is at risk of developing breast cancer, this can be a warning she needs to work to improve her breast health.

Monitoring with regular check-ups and thermography will show improvements with time or possibly the earliest signs that a problem may exist. This information lets a woman and her doctor know when or if there is a risk of a problem developing and measures like those we discuss in this book can be taken to prevent a tumor from growing and spreading.

Since one of the greatest risk factors for the development of breast cancer is total lifetime exposure to estrogen, normalizing the balance of the hormones in the breast may be the first and most significant step in prevention. Breast thermography is the only known non-invasive procedure that can detect estrogen dominance in the breasts.

Correct hormone imbalances

If a woman’s thermographic images suggest a relative progesterone deficiency (estrogen dominance), treatment of this condition may play an important role in prevention.

With treatment from her doctor, a woman can use this information to balance the hormones in her breasts. Follow-up thermograms are compared to the baseline estrogen dominant images as part of the treatment monitoring process.

All women can benefit from thermography, but those between the ages of 30 and 50 have the best results because their breast tissues are more dense than those of older women and therefore other screening methods can be less exact.

Watch for more tomorrow on what to expect when you get a thermogram.

–Kathleen Barnes

The dangers of mammograms have been somewhat lightly addressed by the recent government recommendation that women need fewer of them over their lifetimes.

Despite the outcry that fewer mammograms will kill women, the truth is that mammograms endanger your health.

I’ve talked about the dangers of mammograms and the
benefits of thermograms in the first two articles in this series.

If you’ve decided to schedule a thermogram, congratulations!

If you’re not sure yet or you don’t know where to get one, read more here.

Here’s what to expect when you have a thermogram.

Preparing for a thermogram

1. Avoid natural or artificial tanning for one week prior to your thermogram.
2. Refrain from saunas, steam baths, and hot or cold packs for at least 24 hours prior to your thermogram. Do not bathe, shower, or exercise during the hour prior to your thermogram appointment. Wait for 36 hours after a high fever before having a thermogram.
3. Refrain from using any tobacco products and consuming any caffeine including caffeinated coffee, tea, or sodas for two hours prior to your thermogram.
4. Remove large jewelry prior to imaging; however, small necklaces actually enable the thermogram technician to sharpen the focus of your thermogram.
6. Avoid shaving your underarms or applying any underarm deodorants or antiperspirants in addition to all powders, creams, or lotions on your arms or chest on the day of your thermogram.
7. Do not exercise, or engage in any activities that will increase your blood pressure.
8. Do not smoke or drink alcohol for a minimum of 24 hours before your appointment.
9. Take only medications that you take regularly. Your physician can give you further information.
10. Wear comfortable clothing that covers your arms and legs to your appointment. A lose button-front shirt is great.
11. Avoid confrontation or emotional stress on the day of your thermogram. That can quite literally raise your skin temperature.

What happens during an exam

When you arrive at your appointment, you be asked to take off all clothing and jewelry above the waist.

You may be asked to wait in an environmentally controlled room for about 15 minutes to get your skin temperature to a definable level.

When you are brought into the imaging room, you’ll be standing in front of the camera with your fingers clasped behind your head, elbows pointing out to the sides. Between 7 and 9 views of your breast will be taken, depending on the size of your breasts.

A second set of images is sometimes taken after your hands have been submerged in cold water for one minute.

Results

Your thermogram will be read by a licensed thermologist and, usually, by your doctor as well. Breast thermograms receive one of five ratings that range from TH1 (no detectable thermal abnormalities) to TH5 (detection of thermal abnormalities correlating with very significant risk for breast cancer).

Any positive result signals a need for further evaluation. Early thermal abnormalities may result in a recommendation to repeat thermography for comparison in 60-120 days.

Depending on the thermology rating and other forms of evaluation, a referral may be made for targeted ultrasound or to a breast specialist.
Doctors trained in holistic medicine may also recommend nutritional, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle interventions to address early thermal abnormalities.

Cost of a thermogram

The cost of the thermograms is reasonable, generally between $100 and $200, depending on where you live.

Many insurance companies will cover thermography, but since there seems to be an endless variety of insurance plans, be sure to check with your insurer and the provider of the thermogram.

If your insurance plan includes “out-of-network” and non standard-of-care benefits, you will probably receive some insurance reimbursement. Your insurance company may require a referral from your doctor or pre-approval or authorization.

For your doctor’s information, the billing code (known as a CPT code) is 93762. Knowing this number will help you get reimbursement.

If you’re at high risk…

If you are at high risk for breast cancer (biggest risk: breast cancer in your mother or sister and, if you know, the presence of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes) or if you underwent radiation therapy of the chest, your doctor and your insurance company agree that annual MRI screening is warranted. An estimated 1.4 million American women fall into this category, but that doesn’t mean their health insurance companies . will automatically cover the $1,500-$4,000 cost of an MRI. Prepare for at least a minor skirmish, if not a major battle, to get an MRI if you and your doctor think it is necessary.

Some ammo for your battle: Guidelines from the American Cancer Society recommend annual MRI scans in addition to mammograms for all women at high risk of developing breast cancer, starting at age 30.

–Kathleen Barnes
co-author, with Dr. Ben Johnson, of The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom(Morgan James, 2007)

Nov. 17, 2009

The new government recommendation that women don’t need mammograms before age 50 and then only every two years is a smart one, but not for the reasons cited by the government panel.

The whole thing is explained in simple terms in a book I wrote with Dr. Ben Johnson two years ago.

Here’s an excerpt from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom (Morgan James 2007):

Doctors and the medical community have pounded this into our heads throughout our reproductive lives:

We think mammograms are highly detrimental to your body, mind and spirit. We recommend that you avoid them at all costs.

Fortunately there is a safe and effective alternative to mammograms that few of know about, let alone our doctors.

I’ll post in detail about thermograms tomorrow. Stay tuned.

–Kathleen Barnes

The House of Representatives has voted to make the new credit laws effective immediately in the face of flagrant abuses by credit companies hoping to beat the February deadline by raising interest rates into the stratosphere.

The Senate has not yet taken up the measure, and it is uncertain what will happen there, but Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) is pressing for legislation that will freeze interest rates on existing balances until the new law takes effect.

The Federal Reserve has released a bank survey in which 50 percent of the banks responding admitted they are increasing interest rates and reducing credit lines even on credit card holders with good credit scores.

Even more disturbing is a study by the Pew charitable trusts reported by the New York Times on Nov. 9 “Concludes that the 12 largest banks issuing more than 80 percent of all credit cards, are continuing to use practices that the Fed considers ‘unfair or deceptive’ and in many cases have been outlawed by Congress.”

What can you do?

Contact your Senators and urge them to make the new credit card law effective immediately, as the House has done.

Nov. 11, 2009

Yes, everybody’s talking about the swine flu and whether or not we should get vaccinations or even if they’ll be available.

I’m not going to go elaborate on the politics of the vaccine and the profits Big Pharma is going to make on the vaccines without any liability, thanks to protection from liability given to pharmaceutical companies by the U.S. Congress.

We all want to stay healthy.

The best way to stay healthy is to embrace a healthy lifestyle and keep your immune system strong. It all sounds so very simple. It is!

Yet we are all exposed to viruses and sometimes they get the better of us. I remember that dreadful year my husband taught elementary school when we couldn’t seem to crawl out from under the increasing heap of fast mutating viruses until school was mercifully dismissed for the summer.

We all know now about handwashing and coughing into our sleeves to prevent the spread of viruses. It goes without saying that you’re eating a healthy diet and getting lots of exercise, right?

Here are four ways you may not have encountered that will help strengthen your immune system and help you fight off viruses when they come your way:

1. Salt water washes: Dissolve a teaspoon of unrefined sea salt into a cup of warm water. Gargle morning and night and wash out your nose. If you’re able to use a neti pot or “drink” the water through your nose from a glass, do so. If not, dip a Q-tip in the salt water (after your gargle, please!) and thoroughly swab out your nose twice a day.

2. Get some sunshine: Vitamin D is one of the most effective immune system enhancers known and sunshine is the best way for your body to manufacture the vitamin D that provides a plethora of health benefits, including immune system enhancement. True enough, it’s hard to get enough sunshine in the dead of winter, which is one of the reasons why we are more susceptible to viruses at this time of year. In that case, vitamin D supplementation is the way to go. Dr. Joe Mercola recommends at least 3,000 IU of Vitamin D3 a day at this time of year and more if you have chronic illnesses.

3. Get enough sleep: Studies has shown that people who get fewer than seven hours of sleep a night are three times more likely to catch a cold or flu. If you get sick, it will take longer for your to recover if you don’t adhere to the seven-plus hours of shuteye every night.

4. Try Thieves Oil: This powerful blend of essential oils is reputed to have protect grave robbers form catching the bubonic plague during the Middle Ages. True or not, this sweetly scented blend does really seem to help if you rub it on your temples, under your nose or even gargle with a few drops of the oil added to water a couple of time a day. I’ve found Thieves especially effective in confined places, like the airplanes I needed to ride, somewhat unwillingly, four times in the past three weeks. You can also buy Thieves blends in cleaning products, hand soap, toothpaste and more. Here’s here you can find Thieves.

–Kathleen Barnes