What does the natural health world think about mammograms and other so called prevention scans? First of all they are not prevention but detection tests. These tests are windows into things that were not naturally made with a window (we call that modern medicine). They are generally used as early detection or follow up monitoring procedures. That means you have to have the problem and are letting the procedure try to confirm it or hoping there is nothing wrong. Either way tests produce mountains of anxiety which is frequently counterproductive to health /prevention. The real key is to know why a test is being done. In many cases it is clearly indicated. Sometimes scans are fishing expedition. Trolling for a problem to treat. Many think you have to do it for health. When the reality is poor diet, blood sugar /insulin levels and obesity is a greater predictor of cancer/cardiac issues. If you are looking for true prevention not detection change your diet. Mammograms are financial gateways to other tests that actually can be more useful in finding early breast cancer. Most women know the routine. Get the mammogram, then get the call that the breasts are dense, a follow up ultrasound is needed. When the ultrasound was test needed. The cost difference is huge and test A to test C there is several weeks of stress and worry. Mammograms have much less success in finding tumors than they do in following tumors. They are two different medical concepts to an alternative practitioner. For someone that has a spot that is being monitored or a high cancer risk needing observation and monitoring this protocol is different. What about thermography? An old process minus the radiation. It’s not clear to have accurate information. It picks up heat changes and as a result leads to a lot more false positives. Which also leads back to the ultrasound. Generally insurance does not cover thermography. Most women or their doctors find tumors by touching, feeling and knowing their body. The key here is getting the doctors to actually listen to patients. Finding things too early can lead to over treatment. Aggressive unnecessary treatment can end up causing other health issues. Placing women in cardiac crisis instead of cancer crisis. Clearly there are aggressive cancers that are identified by screenings. And if you are one of those people and have survived as a result you would be supportive to the entire process. Regret is hard, and success is worth celebrating. The bottom line is the human body does not always need to be viewed to be clear of a path. Sometimes viewing through a manmade window is a really bad idea. It might be better to be seen than viewed. Yet still the options are there and each person must choose their own path, risk/reward position for looking. It is always a good idea to be clear on risks/ rewards of tests you chose to have done. Once you have information about the future it is human nature to attach that with stress and worry. You cannot UN-know information, useful or not. For a natural health practitioner they stay out of that arena generally and focus on self-care and getting the body to a place where that fear of the unknown is managed making scans less valuable than body self-knowledge. Many people know when they have a problem. Many people in our society are taught to give that power to someone else. Others choose to ignore internal reality by pushing it away as a false reality. That makes them good candidates for these kinds of tests. Wanting external validation for internal process. The bodies do not have a window to view cellular process. It was created to resolve issues on its own if properly nourished and cared for. The greatest window to the body is the wisdom that enters through the soul. Learn to process life from inside out not outside in. Prevention, treatment and early detection are all separate concepts. It’s best to know that and not confuse it for best results.
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