Better breast cancer screening: Thermography November 14, 2008

     As a midwife who is involved in holistic women’s healthcare and alternative breast cancer screening, I get phone calls literally every day from a woman whose:  mother, sister, aunt, cousin, best friend, neighbor had gone religiously for her mammography, only to find out the unthinkable:  the mammo missed her breast cancer.  Women go into their Midwife or doctor and are told, at age 35-40, to start getting their mammography.  What they are not told is that the mammography will miss 44% of breast cancers, and that it is also 50% likely that there will be a false positive as well.  So the larger question is:  why are women still being told to get their mammogram?  Why is this the first line of screening?  Using compression and radiation as a first line of screening is completely inappropriate.  To begin with, the level of compression damages healthy tissue, and has the potential to cause micrometastasis if cancer is present.  Secondly, to take healthy women and expose their sensitive breast tissue to radiation, a known cause of cancer, under the guise of screening is simply bad medicine.  Lastly, by the time something is large enough to bounce off an x-ray, that is not early detection.  That is breast cancer.  Mammograms are simply not good enough to trust your breast health to, especially when used alone.

     Thermography, DITI, Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging, has been FDA approved since 1982 for breast cancer screening.  It is a simple, non-invasive physiologic screening tool, which images the heat radiated from the body.  The reason that is so important is that the first thing breast cancer has to do before it can grow a tumor, is establish a blood supply to feed and grow a tumor.  Cancer cells grow new blood vessels (neo-angiogenesis) and  re-route old blood vessels to feed the cancer tumor.  Usually, all of this activity is associated with abnormally high levels of heat.  We see these abnormally heat changes many years ahead of tumor formation, when cancer is in its very earliest changes.  Thus, a woman who is aware these changes are taking place, then as the ability to be aggressively proactive with her healthcare to thwart the process from progressing.  Thus the focus of thermography ultimately is prevention of breast cancer, as opposed to breast cancer detection.  Prevention is always better than a cure.  

Links for more information:   http://www.iact-org.org to find a Certified Center near you.

Hello world!

          My practice, Complete Woman Midwifery, started as a home birth practice, which grew to include well-woman gyn care.  As a result of women asking for alternative screenings for breast cancer, I embarked into  research to see what else was available.  I was surprised and excited to learn that Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging had been FDA-approved since 1982.  I soon found out that unbelievably, there were no centers in the NY and NJ area in which I lived and worked.  I decided to create the Complete Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging Center.   As these two practices evolved, I also began teaching Raw Food preparation classes, and keeping a small stock of my favorite natural products and supplements.  My practice  has evolved into the Complete Wellness Center.  

         I wear many hats:  Mother of six, midwife, women’s health advocate, thermographic technician, health counselor.  I have been helping and supporting women giving birth at home since 1992.  I have worked in a battered women’s shelter as a house manager, taught childbirth classes, facilitated home birth support groups, as well as a group for survivors of sexual abuse.  I offer raw food preparation classes, and help women make healthier lifestyle choices.  I have been a guest lecturer at Union College, in NJ, and Seattle Midwifery School.  

        I have worked politically for midwives, and birthing women in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.  I challenged the law and the Board of Medical Examiners, and became the first non-nurse midwife to be licensed in New Jersey since 1920 or so.  I finished that degree working until 2  am every morning, while nursing my newborn, after I had split with my husband.   I then got licensed in NY which allowed me to expand my practice.   I am now passionately involved in educating women to become more knowledgeable and aware of their breast health.

         I love the work that I do, because I feel that DITI is truly a technology that when used correctly, has the ability to help women avoid the terrible disease of breast cancer.  For others, it can be the earliest warning signal that an abnormal process is in progress.   I  believe in supporting women to find their way to health, to be active participants in their healthcare, in helping women to trust their bodies, whether they are finding their way through pregnancy and birth, or supporting them as they heal their bodies of breast cancer.  I firmly believe in our ability to nourish and heal ourselves, and believe that as women we are a formidable force to be contended with when we learn to open our hearts, our minds, and our mouths, to speak up for what we believe in.    

          I am available to speak for your group or organization.  I look forward to the opportunity to be part of your healthcare team.