Welcome everyone to another edition of the Doctor’s Note where we talk about what’s on our minds when it comes to your health. This week I am excited to share with you an enlightening conversation I had with Dr. William Amalu, Director of the Eagle Institute of Thermology and expert in breast thermography.
Dr. Amalu has been providing MIR interpretations for offices and imaging centers worldwide for over 28 years. As the institute director, he brings 30 years of private practice healthcare and clinical experience in providing patients with advanced computerized thermal imaging. Please take a moment to view this important podcast, and pass it along. The more we know, the more we grow towards the goal of preventing disease.
PODCAST NOTES
- Breast cancer can take up to 8-10 years to get to the size of a dime. One of the main powers of breast thermography is that it can detect an early signal that warns you and your doctor that a cancerous process might be present.
- Thermography is an infrared camera that detects heat, however the instrumentation that’s used must meet certain standards and guidelines. It has to be medical quality and for use on the human body.
- The camera is a sensor. Nothing comes out of it. There’s no radiation. There’s nothing toxic. There’s no intravenous access. Basically, the heat coming off of your body is sensed by the sensors and then translated into an electrical signal displayed on a screen. That is what is analyzed.
- They look for areas of heat. In the breast they’re looking specifically at blood vessels.
- They grade the images just like you would see for mammograms, ultrasounds, MRIs of the breast. They use the thermal biological system, grading the images 1-5.
- Augmentations, reductions, surgery, residual scarring, have no effect whatsoever on the images.
- No breast screening technology is 100% sensitive. Thermography is more sensitive than mammography, but it’s not 100%, and if it’s not 100%, it shouldn’t be used alone.
- The mortality in breast cancer seems to be going down because there are better treatment methods, but the incidence of breast cancer is increasing.
- You can do thermography at younger ages.
- Thermography gives a patient their own risk assessment based on their individual biology. If we have an abnormal thermogram, and it sustains abnormal, that woman has a 10 times higher risk of future breast cancer than a first order history of the disease. That gives women time.
- General age recommendations for screening: Start at age 20, and if everything is fine, every 3 years until they are 30. Then, every year after 30.
- Thermography’s role is in addition (an adjunct) to structural imaging and physical examination, not in lieu of. Thermography does not replace any other imaging technology, nor can any other imaging technology replace thermography. The tests compliment each other.
- Since it has been determined that 1-8 women will get breast cancer, we must use every means possible to detect cancers when there is the greatest chance for survival. The combined use of breast self-exam, physician exams, thermography and structural imaging together provide the earliest detection system available to date.
I found this conversation with Dr. Amalu to be very encouraging. I’ve always been a big believer in early detection screening tests. Thermography is another tool in the toolbox that can help identify high risk markers for developing breast cancer. Coupled with traditional modalities, this can be a lifesaving technology for people.
Thank you Dr. Amalu for educating us about Breast Thermology (full episode below).
Stay educated. Stay healthy.
Till next week.
Full Episode on Breast Thermography with Dr. William Amalu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOCp-MAey1s&t=7s