professional
portfolios
 Healthcare:
Dennis J. Courtney,
M.D.
A high school
teacher turned medical doctor and medical director of his
private practice, “The Center For Complementary Health,” in
Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Always with an eye for
non-conventional therapies to treat everyday medical problems,
Dr. Dennis J. Courtney has devoted himself to non drug
treatments whenever possible. His series “From a Different
Perspective” appears here with each issue. Listen to Dr.
Courtney weekly on his radio show entitled: “A M Impact on
Your Health,” which can be heard Monday, Wednesday and Friday
from 8:00 - 9:00 am on KHB 620.
From
a Different Perspective
We have just
concluded another annual campaign of “National Breast Cancer
Awareness Month”. It is vitally important that women and for
that matter men have this yearly reminder to reevaluate their
breast health status. This perennial assurance for both patients
and doctors alike appears to permit a “wipe of the brow,” so
that both can take a well-deserved sigh of relief until next
year’s campaign. We should also not forget the importance of
monthly breast self-examination to insure that additional
monitoring will continue throughout the year.
All of this, of
course, is in keeping with the approach to breast cancer which
is known as “early detection,” and represents the best
protection available against breast cancer. To be honest, early
detection strategies are themselves contradictory, because to
have detected cancer means you already have it. Instead, the
take-home message really becomes: “If you have breast cancer,
it is in your best interest to know about it as soon as
possible, so that something can be done before the cancer
metastasises”.
Metastatic spread
means that malignant cells move to other areas of the body,
either by local erosion into adjacent structures or by using the
bloodstream to disseminate cancer cells to distant sites. The
distant sites can be any organ or area of the body, but most
commonly in breast cancer mean liver, lung, or bone. It is the
metastatic spread to these organs that carry with them ominous
consequences and can ultimately claim the life of the patient.
Mammography - The
Conventional Screening Tool
Mammograms are the most supported and recognized tool in the war
against breast cancer. The patient’s primary care provider or
gynecologist insist that the recommended schedules be followed
based on family risk and age. It is out of the scope of this
article to discuss mammography pro and cons to any great extent.
There is certainly a myriad of pertinent information that can be
examined to critically assess the risk verses benefit profile of
mammograms.
That dialogue should
occur between you and your doctor and with access to the
internet, the amount of information available on the subject is
enormous. What should be mentioned, however, for the purposes of
this article is that by the time breast self-examinations and
mammograms allow for a breast lesion to be detected, metastasis
has more than likely already occurred. Simply put, the tools
(both mammograms and breast self-examination) are just not
sophisticated enough to discover the breast lesion before
metastasis has become a reality. A one centimeter breast lesion,
which is considered the earliest routinely identified on
mammograms, is of such a size that malignant cells have already
moved to various distant organs. Once established within these
organs only time will determine when they finally will be
revealed for the devastating potential that they possess.
Thermography - The
Earliest Warning
So if mammograms are not what they are all cracked up to be,
what can be done to detect early breast cancer? You will want to
become informed about a study that thousands of women have opted
to do that does provide them with sufficiently early detection
before metastasis of malignant cells has occurred.
The technology to
accomplish early detection is known as DITI (Digital Infrared
Thermal Imaging) or Thermography for short. It has been around
for quite a while. The actual study known as thermo gram is done
without any harmful consequences to the patient. A very
sensitive infrared camera takes an image of a disrobed patient.
These special cameras display the images on a video monitor and
utilize the entire spectrum of color to distinguish between hot
and cooler areas found at the level of the skin. The hottest
regions are depicted with the colors white and red. The coolest
regions of the image are depicted by the color blue.
It should be of no
surprise that cancer cells are more metabolically active than
normal cells with a temperature of 98.6°F. It is because of the
elevated temperature of cancer tissue that thermo grams can
easily and accurately detect cancers. The breast is especially
well-suited for thermo graphic study and thermo grams can be
accomplished without the typical pain or discomfort of standard
mammography.
By far the most
important characteristic of thermo grams is their ability to
show cancerous breast lesions at a early stage. In fact, it is
believed that the thermo gram can detect a breast cancer 7 to 10
years before a mammogram. It is obvious that as an early
detection tool, a span of this magnitude can provide a patient
with such an early warning advantage that metastatic spread of
the lesion would be nearly impossible.
Take the time to
find out as much as you can about thermo grams and mammograms.
You should discuss these studies with a medical doctor who is
well versed in them both. Looking at these medical issues “from
a different perspective” is vital to your overall health and
wellness.
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