Making Sense of the New Mammography Muddle

Barbara Glickstein, women's health advocate and public health nurse, whom I've listened to for many years on public radio, makes some very cogent and comforting points here about the mammography debate. At the same time, my question to her and to other searching, independent women (and men) who've weighed in on the advisability of mammograms is: Why has no one considered thermography, or thermal imaging of the breast instead? It's a proven, even AMA-practiced, technology that detects irregular heat patterns that may develop into cancers up to ten years before a mass forms and becomes cancerous. What is Breast Thermography is an informative site to get the curious who might consider an alternative to mammography going.

Alcohol and Breast Cancer in Women

"Women don't have to abstain from alcohol entirely, but they need to be aware of the risks they're taking when they have a few too many drinks." As if there weren't enough "don'ts" in our lives already, right? In any event, here's a story posted by the Associated Press that gives food, if not drink, for thought about the possible link between heavy drinking and breast cancer in women. I think the caveat is worth considering, but, like all supposedly scientific studies, there's always another side to the findings and debunking further research in the wings.

While we're at it, I'd like to recommend that all women investigate an alternative procedure in breast cancer examination--no hocus pocus, this is AMA doctor screened stuff--called breast thermography. It uses sensitive changes in the heat of the breast to detect areas of potential--can be up to 10 years in the future--cancerous mass formations. Breast thermography doesn't hurt, trust me, and it uses photographic imaging, not the harmful radiation of mammograms.