A recent obituary that included a picture in the local newspaper spoke of a beautiful 30 year old woman who had lost her life to inflammatory breast cancer. Among those she left behind were her husband and two young children. What is inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and why is it considered the most aggressive form of breast cancer?

Inflammatory Breast Cancer is characterized by cancer cells that infiltrate the skin and lymph vessels of the breast. It is an advanced form of breast cancer that accelerates quickly and is usually not detected by mammogram or ultrasound. No distinct lump or tumor is found.

IBC accounts for up to 5% of all breast cancers in the United States and it is important for everyone to know the signs and symptoms. According to the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Institute (http://www.ibcresearch.org), one or more of the following symptoms might indicate IBC. Changes can occur quickly! It's time to see your healthcare professional if symptoms persist for more than two weeks.

What can be done to help prevent IBC?  According to the Feel Good Factor Lymphology Clinic in the UK (http://www.fgf.uk.com/content/breastwise), "Just because you can't see it happening doesn't mean you can't stop it from starting in the first place." They suggest the following tips for healthy breasts:

There is a safe breast screening available that can detect early changes in breast tissue. Since thermography (digital thermal imaging) is a test of physiology and measures heat changes in the body, a breast thermogram is an ideal early assessment tool for use in prevention of IBC.

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!

Just about any area of the body can be affected by a sports injury. It takes a lot of patience to wait for an injury to heal enough to be able to get "back into the game." Even then, what assurance is there that the injury is totally healed? Repeated x-rays and MRIs can be detrimental, especially to young bodies that are still growing. Resuming sports without complete healing can lead to long term complications.

Radiation free thermography (digital infrared thermal imaging) has proven to be very valuable in assessing healing throughout the body. It can detect and locate thermal abnormalities by measuring the heat being emitted from the body surface. These increases and decreases in skin temperature directly correlate with the temperature in designated areas of the body.

An injury causes variations in the blood flow to the affected areas. Inflammation leads to hyperthermia (increased heat) while degeneration, which is characterized by reduced muscular activity and decreased blood flow, may cause decreased heat (hypothermia).

In addition to evaluating for inflammation and/or degeneration, thermal imaging can also monitor for changes and effectiveness of treatments, such as physical therapy and acupuncture.

Thermography is useful in the evaluation of ankle injuries, shin splints, stress fractures, myofascial pain syndromes, shoulder injuries, foot pain, vascular disorders, spinal pain syndromes, and many others.

With a thermography scan, you can be assured that you or your child/teen is ready to tackle the stress of being "back in the game."

Call Thermography Center of Memphis TODAY at 901-249-8642
to schedule your "region of interest"* or full body scan

Please visit our website at memphisthermography.com for more information.

*Regions of interest: head/neck, breast/chest, abdomen, back, arms, legs

Is there a link between oral health and the health of your whole body? Health experts believe that taking good care of your oral health does more than prevent gum disease and tooth decay. "Any disease related to the mouth has an impact elsewhere in the body," says Denis F. Kinane BDS, PHD at the University of Pennsylvania. People with serious gum disease were 40% more likely to have a chronic condition on top of it, according to a recent study.

Bacteria build up on the teeth can lead to infection. When the immune system kicks in to attack the infection, the gums become inflamed. If the infection is left untreated, the inflammation continues, causing severe gum disease and can lead to inflammation throughout the body. Researchers are studying the link between oral health, inflammation, and the disease process.

Inflammation is the body's response to infection. Many believe that inflammation is a stress response and a key factor in many health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia type diseases.

If we could look inside the body and see the areas of inflammation, it would make detection so much easier. Thermography (infrared imaging) provides us with this option. Infrared imaging can "visualize," through changes in heat patterns, the areas of inflammation present within the mouth and body. Without it, we might not know that these areas exist.

With a head/neck scan, you are not only getting a dental health risk assessment, but also an evaluation of the thyroid gland, facial sinuses, and carotid arteries. By pinpointing the areas of increased inflammation at an early stage, the ensued intervention can provide a more desirable outcome.

The lymphatic system is a part of the circulatory system and vital to the body's immune system. It works with the immune system to remove and destroy waste, debris, dead blood cells, pathogens, toxins, and cancer cells from the body.

The vessels of the lymphatic system spread through all parts of the body (see image to the right), similar to blood circulation in the arteries and veins, and carries colorless liquid called lymph. Hundreds of small kidney-shaped organs, called lymph nodes, carry lymph fluid, nutrients, and waste material between the body tissue and the bloodstream. While the lymph nodes act as a filter of debris, they also contain specialized white blood cells called lymphocytes that destroy harmful bacteria and viruses. This filtering process helps the body to fight infection.

The body works to fight disease in several ways:

• The body temperature begins to rise out of its normal range – speeding up the body's response to fight infection
• and the inflammatory process is initiated – allowing increased blood flow to battle the infection

These are just some of the ways that the lymphatic system works at maintaining homeostasis of the body. That's why optimum flow of the lymphatic system is crucial to our health. Since the lymphatic system has no pump of its own, external forces are essential in helping to pump the fluid throughout the body.

 Three ways to help activate the lymphatic system are:

• Deep breathing
• Rebounding (trampoline)
• Lymphatic drainage massage

Keeping the lymph fluid free-flowing in the axillary (underarm) lymph vessels is crucial in maintaining good breast health. Breast thermography (thermal imaging) provides evaluation of the axillary lymph system in addition to the breast and upper chest.

Thermography measures the heat being emitted from the body's surface showing temperature increases when there is congestion or inflammation. These temperature differentials provide a glance into the body's physiology, suggesting that lymphatic activity needs to be increased or that, hopefully, it is functioning as it should. Monitoring lymphatic system functioning with this radiation free health screening provides important information that can help your body function at maximum ability.

May is Stroke Awareness Month. Stroke kills about 130,000 Americans each year and is a leading cause of serious long term disability. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) the following are signs of a stroke in men and women. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should call 911 immediately.

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
  
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech
  
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
  
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

What can you do to prevent a stroke? The best way seems to be maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

But how do you know if you are at risk for developing a stroke? We're all familiar with the term "seeing is believing." A radiation-free screening of the head/neck region using clinical thermography can detect inflammation of the carotid arteries, the first indicator that there may be occlusive disease developing. If not reversed, this occlusion can eventually lead to a stroke!

Once thermography detects plaque build-up in the arteries, there are many natural methods available to help reverse it and prevent a stroke from ever happening.

Take a preventative approach!

Call us at 901-249-8642 or visit our website at memphisthermography.com to schedule your appointment for a head/neck screening in the month of May and receive $25 off.

The head/neck screening includes MD interpretation of: sinus, dental, thyroid, carotid, cervical neck, and upper gastric area.

March is National Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Month. Chronic fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of Fibromyalgia, second only to deep muscle pain and body aches. Symptoms can be described as flu-like and include pain so severe that it can lead to bouts of sleep deprivation, anxiety, and depression. This inability to sleep makes concentration difficult and is often referred to as "brain fog." 

According to WebMD.com, "Fibromyalgia is a syndrome with multiple symptoms that commonly occur together, including widespread pain, decreased pain threshold or tender points, incapacitating fatigue, and anxiety or depression."

In the case of Fibromyalgia, most lab tests are inconclusive which makes a diagnosis very difficult. People are commonly misdiagnosed with arthritis, depression, lupus, or chronic fatigue. A diagnosis of Fibromyalgia usually occurs after extensive testing rules out other suspected causes.

Thermography is a valuable screening tool that aids in the detection of Fibromyalgia. While an x-ray of painful areas will show no abnormalities, the muscular and myofascial inflammation associated with Fibromyalgia can be accurately documented and monitored through the use of digital infrared thermal imaging. By using thermography, not only will you be able to "visualize your pain," but you will be able to save yourself the time and expense of other extensive testing.

Many screenings today, such as MRI, PET, X-Rays, and CT, are all tests that use radiation to look at the internal anatomy of the body. Many of these tests require the use of dyes or contrast medium to be introduced into the body. Thermography, on the other hand, is a radiation-free screening that looks at the physiology of the body. Physiology, sometimes referred to as the "science of life," studies how our cells, muscles, and organs work together. Physiology looks at the function of the body and what it does.

Thermography is a non-invasive screening procedure that can detect abnormal heat patterns being emitted from the body. These abnormal heat patterns may indicate inflammation, injury, or abnormal functioning within the body.

Many times we have pain but our health care practitioners are unable to find the cause. Thermography has the unique ability of being "the only method available for visualizing pain and pathology."

Images can be taken of the whole body or individual areas of concern. It can be used as an aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of many conditions and injuries. Here are just a few: