​It’s October. Breast cancer awareness and pink ribbons are everywhere! In 1982, The Komen Foundation brought breast cancer “awareness” and “race for the cure” to the forefront.  That’s 24 years ago! We have yet to see the “cure” part of that equation or acknowledge that “prevention” is part of the “cure”.

​Many of us still believe that there is nothing we can do to prevent breast cancer and it’s just “in the genes”. According to the National Breast Cancer Coalition (http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/), “a family history is one risk factor. But a risk factor doesn't cause cancer; it just affects your chance of getting cancer”. Prevention is all about reducing risk factors!

At Thermogrpahy Center of Memphis we take pride in guiding you through your first step toward breast cancer prevention. The American College of Clinical Thermology discusses the role of Thermography in breast health: “Thermography’s role in breast cancer and other breast disorders is to help in early detection and monitoring of abnormal physiology and the establishment of risk factors for the development or existence of cancer. When used with other procedures the best possible evaluation of breast health is made”.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition notes that the “risk factors for breast cancer include getting older, benign breast problems, early exposure to ionizing radiation, having children late in life or not at all, longer exposure to estrogen and progesterone, lack of exercise, and drinking alcohol”.

Dense breast tissue has also become a concern. Dr. Nancy Cappello’s story (areyoudense.org) tells about her experience. “I have dense breast tissue – and women like me (2/3 of pre-menopausal and 1/4 of post-menopausal) have less than a 48% chance of having breast cancer detected by a mammogram.” Her mammogram was negative but her ultrasound showed a stage 3 cancer. Thermography is not limited by dense breast tissue and can detect changes years before a growth would be large enough to be seen on a mammogram.
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Being aware of our breast health and knowing our risk factors provides us with the knowledge needed to take steps toward prevention. Adding thermography to our yearly breast screenings increases our chances of detecting changes before we need “the cure’.

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!

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.

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. 

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!

It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I dedicate this blog to my cousin, Sherry Lee Goldberg, who passed away on Saturday, August 3rd, 2013. Following a bout with breast cancer many years ago, Sherry lost her difficult battle with uterine cancer at the age of 67. She will be remembered for her beautiful smile, her fun loving attitude, her dedication to her family and many friends, and helping others. She was described as "the sweetest person you would ever know."

The effects of Cancer on our society are so widespread; I don't think there is a single person that has not been touched by its cruelness. It seems we hear on a daily bases that there is another family member, friend, or acquaintance that has been touched by this dreadful disease. 

There is treatment available that prolongs life; but what quality of life are we offered? We are all hoping for a cure! Meanwhile, we must do our best to prevent cancer from stealing our lives and the lives of our loved ones. As individuals, we must become aware of our surroundings and learn all that we can about how to maintain optimum health. 

There is so much controversy in the news today that it gets confusing and overwhelming for us to identify the things that are truly important in keeping us healthy. One thing that we all have an abundance of in our lives that can truly affect the body is STRESS. We need to slow down a little, take deep breaths, and live our lives more consciously and with purpose.

My cousin Sherry wrote her own important rules to live by: 

I'm sure that following these suggestions will lead us to a more fulfilled, stress free, and healthy life.