Many individuals, including allopathic (conventional) doctors, do not understand thermography and compare it to mammography. The two technologies are not comparable, because mammograms only evaluate anatomy (structure) and cannot determine the physiologic nature (function) of what is seen. Evaluating physiology is the strength of digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI).

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and one of its functions is temperature regulation. It keeps our core temperature constant by regulating the micro-dermal circulation in the superficial layers of the skin. Temperature regulation is automatic via extremely complex interactions controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.

Skin temperature is not the same everywhere in the body, and these variations produce some interesting patterns, often appearing as a kind of montage, with each pattern being unique for every individual. Thermographically, this is known as a “thermal fingerprint” and it is the foundation of these clinically useful images.

To know whether a breast thermogram is normal, a stable pattern is established by obtaining a follow-up thermogram three months after an initial study. If the two are identical, the pattern is presumed to be normal for the individual and thermal screening can then occur annually.

One’s thermal fingerprint is remarkably stable over a lifetime. Only when pathology develops does the pattern change, due to the abundance of neural pathways through which temperature regulation occurs. DITI detects physiologic changes deep in the breast tissue, even though it only images the skin as the developing pathology affects the surrounding sympathetic neural fibers, which relay the message to the skin surface where the local temperature is measured.

It is the shift away from one’s stable baseline that is the telltale sign of developing disease. If a woman is alerted to these physiologic changes, she can intervene much earlier and work with her practitioner to address diet, stress management, hormone status, vitamin deficiencies and other aspects of healthy living in an attempt to reverse/ prevent the progression of disease. These physiologic changes offer women six to eight years prior notice that disease may be developing before a tumor is found on a breast exam or mammogram.

DITI is the doorway into a new medical paradigm that empowers women to take responsibility for their breast health in an effort to prevent or reverse disease.

Lynda Witt is a certified clinical thermographer and owner of Proactive Health Solutions, LLC. Visit www.ProactiveHealthSolutions.org for more information.