Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, has recently emerged as one of the most important preventative factors in our health. While it can be provided in foods and supplements, sunlight is the best and only natural source of vitamin D. Ninety percent of our vitamin D is made naturally when our skin is exposed to sunlight. This exposure naturally initiates the conversion of cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D3. It's the way our bodies are intended to make it and therefore the body takes what it needs and removes the extra.

There are hundreds of studies that now link many forms of cancer, heart disease, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, and many other conditions and diseases to a vitamin D deficiency. A decrease in obtaining vitamin D through its only natural source has led to decreased vitamin D levels. Although the public has been led to believe that any UV exposure is harmful, research has shown that regular exposure to the sun for short periods of time, without burning, does not pose a significant risk of damage to the skin.

According to the Vitamin D Council, "research does show that there is a link between vitamin D and breast cancer. Studies have shown that women with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop breast cancer" and that "in women who already have breast cancer, those with low levels of vitamin D are linked to worse outcomes, like bigger tumors, cancer spreading to other body parts, and death."

It's important to get your vitamin D levels checked before adding supplements to your diet. If you can't get your vitamin D from the sun, then try supplements or foods high in vitamin D. It's one of the things we can do to prevent breast cancer and many other debilitating diseases.

September is self-awareness and self-improvement month. Throughout many posted blogs, I have tried to offer information with the goal of educating and improving quality of life. We can spend a lifetime working on self-improvement but will fall short without self-awareness.  We take a look at what's happening on the inside that needs to be brought to the forefront and worked on. Accepting these challenges is the beginning of the healing process!

The same thing is true about our health. We all know there are times when we just don't feel up to par; something just isn't right. Sometimes it is accompanied by pain and sometimes it's a feeling like decreased energy or the inability to cope. We need to take a look into the body and figure out what changes can improve our general health and the way we feel.

I’m sure you've heard the quote "a picture is worth a thousand words." That's what Thermography can do. It's a digital infrared image that can "visualize" pain and inflammation in the body, identifying areas of concern that need further attention.

Thermography provides us with a glance into the body's physiology so that we become aware of changes within the body before they become a problem. We have the opportunity to take control of our health by making lifestyle changes, and tackle the problem before it gets out of hand. When problems are identified at an early stage, prevention becomes a possibility.

We care about your health! Come in for a full body preventative assessment this month and receive $25 off!

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. As we see the miracles budding and blooming all around us, most of us gear up for spring cleaning. But as we discover all of nature's changes outside, it's a great time to take a look inside. Renewal from the inside out! As it's happening around us, it awakens in us a chance to begin again. It's a time for realizing possibilities and making way for new commitments.

Perhaps taking care of our health is a commitment we need to take more seriously. We often wonder what's going on inside our bodies that we can't see. Thermography is a safe, radiation free screening that offers a glance into the body's physiology – the function and activity of all living organisms. Thermography can "visualize" changes in our health, through evaluation of the heat being emitted from the body surface, and lets us know when further investigation is needed. When used as a preventive screening, the disease process can be caught at an early stage, allowing us time to make lifestyle changes that can stop the progression of the illness. It can motivate us to begin again, start anew, and commit to better health.

Back to the spring cleaning and how it can be part of our commitment to better health… Many of the products used to clean our homes are unhealthy and give off toxic fumes. I know cleaning the shower with the mold and mildew type sprays definitely makes it difficult to breathe. KeeperOfTheHome.org is one of the many sites available that give instructions to make homemade, healthy alternatives. 

To receive a $25 discount on your "inside/out" spring cleaning,
call 901 249-8642 and schedule your full body screening by May 9th, 2014.

Help us spread the word about this safe, radiation free screening.
Please go to the Thermography Center of Memphis Facebook page and LIKE us!

There have been a lot of articles lately questioning the value of routine mammography. You might have heard about the recent study done in Canada about mammography and its ability to save lives. The 25 year study, following 90,000 women ages 40-59, was published in the British Medical Journal. The study compared breast cancer incidence and mortality in those women who either had or didn't have mammography screening.

Some of the conclusions of the study were that regular mammogram screenings do not reduce breast cancer death rates and that women in the mammography group were more likely to be misdiagnosed (or over diagnosed) with breast cancer that wasn't there.

If you think about it, exposing healthy breasts to radiation, year after year, as a form of early detection and prevention makes no sense--especially since radiation has been shown to cause cancer! According to the American Cancer Society (cancer.org), one of the cancers included in the list of those most strongly linked to radiation exposure is breast cancer.

So what are women to do? Why should we take a healthy part of our bodies and expose it to danger year after year? Could the so called "cure" be part of the cause? Women need a safe way to monitor breast health!

Breast thermography is definitely part of the answer! Thermography provides the opportunity to detect changes at any stage in the development of a breast tumor. Signs of breast cancer can be seen as early as the first year and onward. With mammography, tumors aren't dense enough to be seen until around the 8th year. This very early detection though thermography provides the chance for early intervention. Preventative treatment, which includes lifestyle changes and vitamin/mineral optimization, have been shown to improve breast health when it is caught in the earliest stages. 

You might suffer from aches and pains in your breasts, especially around the time of your period, and wonder what is causing it. Usually characterized by lumpiness and discomfort in one or both breasts, fibrocystic breast changes are due to small cysts or masses in the breast. In some women it can be very mild and only cause pain during the premenstrual period while in others there can be constant pain and tenderness. Although fibrocystic breasts become less of a problem after menopause, it is common in 60% of women and most common between the ages of 30 and 50.

So what causes this pain and tenderness in the breast? It's a response of the breast tissue to the natural hormones produced by the ovaries. The lumps felt are either fluid filled sacs (cysts) or swelling of the milk producing glands. Although these changes are benign and not dangerous, they can cause routine breast exams and mammograms to be very painful.

Fibrocystic breasts make it more difficult to palpate and identify a new lump among the existing ones and can also make it more difficult for doctors to identify breast cancer with a mammogram. Since some of the cysts can look or feel like cancerous lumps, a biopsy is usually performed to rule out cancer.

According to the Breast Cancer Coalition, "as early as 1928, physicians were warned to 'handle cancerous breasts with care – for fear of accidentally disseminating cells' and spreading cancer."

Today, all of the probing, squishing, x-rays, and routine biopsies may result in more trauma and increase the risk of developing and/or spreading cancerous cells.

Thermography is ideal for breast screening in women with fibrocystic breasts. It is radiation free and compression free. It can detect changes in the breast tissue as many as 8 years before a tumor can be seen on mammogram. 

Dr. Christiane Northrup, a leading surgeon and medical consultant in the area of breast cancer suggests, "instead of just screening for breast cancer, a thermogram can tell you how healthy your breasts are." Using thermography as part of an annual breast health screening can help make prevention of breast cancer a reality.

It's been an exciting first year at Thermography Center of Memphis! There are many things that came to mind as we contemplated opening a new business. What will we be able to offer you that will enhance your life? How can we add to the quality of your life? How can we help you attain your goal of living a healthier lifestyle? We hope that we have provided people with a service that has made a difference in their lives.

What we didn't expect was how each of you would make such a big difference in our lives. We are so thankful to each of you… not only for your support, but for the many things we have learned from you. Each of us has a story to tell--a story that enriches the life of the one hearing it. I have learned so much from each of your stories and thank you for sharing them.

In approaching wellness from a preventative angle, we share the challenge set out before us. In a healthcare system that focuses on treating disease once it happens, we take a more natural approach to prevent disease before it happens. There are always those that will disagree with our different approach to staying healthy. For this reason, we need to stick together, support one another, and pass the word along when we find those things that can enhance the quality of our lives.

We are grateful to have crossed paths with each and every one of you. You have enriched our lives.

Thank you!

There's a website called "AreYouDense.org" that was created by Dr. Nancy Cappello. It's not talking about intelligence or common sense. It's talking about breast density. Statistics show that 2/3 of premenstrual women and 1/4 of post-menopausal women have dense breast tissue. Dr. Cappello calls dense breast tissue the best-kept secret! While it can be detected during a routine mammogram, the medical community isn't sharing the information with us. Do you know if you have dense breast tissue?

Dr. Thomas Kolb, a radiologist who specializes in breast cancer detection, studied thousands of women with dense breast tissue that showed mammography missed 60% of cancers that were subsequently found on ultrasound. Breast tumors can be hidden from view in dense breast tissue because they both show up as white on mammography.

There is legislation going on in many states to ensure that all women are informed of this important breast health information. Fortunately for us, Tennessee is one of those states! Being told we have dense breast tissue gives us the option of adding other breast health screenings to our yearly routine.

Thermography is an important screening that should be added to annual wellness checkups for women of all ages. It can identify and assess the status of our breast health by detecting abnormal changes in the breast tissue. As a society, we are so focused on breast cancer awareness. Instead, let's focus on keeping our breasts healthy and preventing cancer in the first place. This can be accomplished by adding breast thermography to your yearly health screenings. 

To learn more, call 901-249-8642 or visit our breast health page.

We're already half way through the month of October, designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We are all aware of breast cancer. I'm sure that each one of you has been touched by a woman in your life suffering from this disease. Everyone is concentrating on the cure! I wonder why there isn't a larger campaign to start from the beginning and look for ways to prevent breast cancer before it starts.

There is a quote by Dr. Susan Love, Founder of the Breast Cancer Research Organization, that says: 

It's disheartening to hear year after year that the numbers really haven't changed. There aren't less cases of breast cancer among women of any age group. To quote Dr. Love again:

Whatever is being done now is not working. Something is missing from the equation. That's why it is sad when some doctors don't support and encourage women to add breast thermography to their yearly breast health screenings. Why wouldn't we want to have the full picture and all available resources on our side? I understand that some doctors might not be familiar with thermography. Since thermography shows abnormalities years before it shows up on mammography, maybe they feel that there is no treatment available to offer women.

Thermography can detect abnormal heat patterns when breast cancer cells first begin to divide. It can detect the beginning of new blood vessel growth that the body produces to supply nutrition to a tumor. It can show that the lymph system is congested and needs to be draining more efficiently. 

Thermography looks for changes in heat patterns of the breast tissue that have developed over time. Caught early enough, these changes can indicate an abnormality that can often be remedied with lifestyle changes.

Eating healthier, exercising our bodies more, practicing lymphatic massage, and making sure our vitamins and minerals are at their optimum levels are some of the lifestyle changes that can "move awareness into action" in the prevention of breast disease. We must take charge of our own health!

When I talk with people about the uses and benefits of Thermography, I have found their responses to be very interesting. It's as if they assume it is good for others but not important for themselves. Thermography has many uses throughout the body but I am referring specifically to breast thermography.

What each and every woman needs to know is that breast thermography is not just for others! Breast thermography is important for every woman starting in her early twenties. Thermography is important for YOU, and can offer information not available with other screenings.

I'm not suggesting giving up other screening methods. I'm suggesting adding a safe and easy screening that can only benefit women with increased information. With all of the money and attention being used to research cures for breast cancer, how far have we really come? Every day we are still touched by a friend or family member that has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

What makes us so resistant to taking things into our own hands and becoming proactive in our own health care? 

Don't we want to use every resource available to us to prevent this disease?
 
Why wouldn't every woman want to take every step possible to increase her chances for prevention and early detection of breast cancer?

Must we resort to thinking that cutting off our breasts is a normal act of prevention?

Please take this disease seriously! According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Don't be part of the statistic! Take care of yourself! YOU DESERVE IT!

As mothers, we want to instill in our children the skills that will keep them safe from harm. Since we can't always be there, by their side, we want to make sure they are prepared for "what's out there." Mothers and daughters have a special bond! "Happy memories of the past" will always keep me connected to my mother. My mother's memory and history of breast cancer is what motivated me to open Thermography Center of Memphis--providing a safe breast screening option for women.

I wish breast thermography had been around when my mother was post hysterectomy and put on hormone replacement therapy. If available at the time, I feel certain that this screening could have saved my mother's life. Spreading the word about thermography's capability for early detection of breast cancer is my passion--a cause that I dedicate to the memory of my mother.

Fortunately, I am able to share the "joyful moments of the present" with my two wonderful daughters. They give me the strength, support, and unconditional love I need to be successful in this passionate cause. I learn something new from them every day! They are my "hope and promise for the future." We must educate ourselves so that we can pass this information down to our daughters... our future... from generation to generation. 

The month of May was named for the Greek goddess Maia (associated with fertility). With the budding trees and blooming flowers surrounding us, we are reminded of the miracle of rebirth that comes with Spring. With so much pollen around us aiding in the germination of flowers and trees (unfortunately causing the worst allergies in years), it makes perfect sense that this is the month chosen to celebrate mothers. Happy Mother's Day!

Celebrate with your mothers and daughters by taking control of your health.

Come together for your initial radiation free breast screening in the month of May and you
will each receive a $10 discount! Call now… 901-249-8642