It’s October, which means beautiful changing colors, crisp air and fall activities around every corner. I love October for all those reasons but also because there is an increase of information about breast cancer. Awareness surrounding breast cancer is incredibly important as early detection can catch the disease when it is most treatable.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women after skin cancers. While that is scary, there are more than 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S., which means that women are experiencing better outcomes as a result of early detection.
For the past 35 years my primary focus has been educating the community on achieving optimal health with diet, detox, and lifestyle changes to transform cells before they become cancerous. We teach clients to focus on overall health and ways to prevent cancer at a cellular level.
Because we offer thermal imaging for breast health, one of the frequently asked questions we hear is, “Do I need to get a yearly mammogram to see if I have breast cancer?”
After extensively researching that very question, I always tell clients that getting a mammogram is a personal choice. I personally opt out of that modality. I then ask clients, “if there is a cancerous tumor in your breast and they compress that tumor with 40 pounds of pressure, is it possible that if it bursts, existing malignant cells could lead to a lethal spread?” The answer is always “yes” because anything is possible when compressing a tumor.
Throughout my years of learning, I was taught that the goal is to support prevention and I’ve found the best way to do that is through thermography and ultrasound. Mammograms are built to support detection and my goal as a health coach is to help clients prevent cancer rather than just detect it.
While researching mammograms, thermography, and ultrasound for breast health, I learned that mammograms include low levels of radiation with aggressive compression. Mammograms look at anatomical changes and detect masses or lumps in the tissue.
Thermography looks at vascular changes and detects blood flow patterns, inflammation, and asymmetries. Thermal imaging has no radiation, no compression, and is a tool that creates a map of heat patterns. It uses a scanning-type infrared camera that measures surface temperatures, presenting the information as a digitized image. Thermography, combined with noninvasive, painless, and radiation free ultrasounds is how I chose to monitor my breast health.
So where do you start? Find out if you have inflammation before it becomes a major problem. Inflammation is the single most significant early signal to the development of any cancer and chronic inflammation is a precursor to many diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure,