In 2012, 100 women will receive Breast Thermography screening at no charge due to the success of Yoga 4 Hope 2011 raising their goal of $15,000.00.
History of how the machine got to Windsor, Ontario:
Pajama Angels and Transition to Betterness representatives met over coffee to see if a joint community fundraising project/ effort could be established and the notion of a thermography technology that often travels to Windsor came up in conversation. Both having utilized breast thermography technology through their naturopath, as an adjunctive screening tool (in addition to the gold standard through the Ontario Breast Screening Program), the vision of purchasing a machine came to light.
On September 2010, A Breast Thermography Machine for Windsor Essex County arrived by the joint efforts of the Pajama Angels and Naturopathic Doctors: Natasha Zajmalowski, ND & Denis Marier, ND and the many supporters listed below.
A special mention to Transition to Betterness for their supportive assistance.
The Proactive Breast Health program offers the women of Windsor Essex-County a valuable resource for breast health information on dietary, environmental, lifestyle and psychological factors that have been shown in the literature to positively impact breast and overall health.
The program is offered to women of all ages, including women in their twenties since, breast health should be considered at all stages of life and something we play an active role in maintaining.
Workshops in lecture, web-based and printed material are currently being offered.
Yoga, stress management and other physical activities are also being incorporated into this program.
Breast thermography is a clinical tool that can be used to measure breast tissue changes in a non-invasive way.
It’s limitations include that it is not effective in showing slow-growing tumours and more importantly, in accurately identifying what the cause of the inflammation it captures is caused by.
Research has shown that it can detect breast tissue changes 8-10 years prior to tumour development and this where we see its value.
Breast Thermography is not part of any mandatory screening and should not be confused with the Ontario Breast Screening Program OBSP which is the current GOLD STANDARD. Women of AVERAGE RISK who are aged 50 & over can access a mammogram and women of HIGH RISK (determined by your Physician) aged 30-69 have access to a Mammography with MRI. (in select cities only)
Breast Thermography is offered as an adjunct to regular screening, accessed by self referral, and is not covered under OHIP. There are insurance companies that will cover the cost of the procedure as part of an extended health plan. Breast Thermography is accessible to everyone.
The Fee for this program is offered at a NOT-FOR-PROFIT user fee, with the help of local charities and supporters.
Breast Thermography utilizes Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (D.I.T.I.) which is a 15 minute non- invasive test of physiology.
Non-invasive. No Compression. No Contact. No Radiation. Safe in pregnancy & women with implants
It is a valuable procedure for alerting your doctor to changes that can indicate early stage breast disease. The benefit of DITI testing is that it offers the opportunity of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible through breast self examination, doctor examination or mammography alone. DITI detects the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease. Your doctor can then plan accordingly and lay out a careful program to further diagnose and /or MONITOR you during and after any treatment.
Health Canada : “New technologies, such as thermal scanning (thermography), are being evaluated to see if they are safe and effective. Claims that thermography is useful in diagnosing breast cancer have not been proven, and thermography equipment has not been licensed for breast cancer screening in Canada.”
However, over 800 peer-reviewed studies on breast thermography exist in the index medicus literature. In this database, well over 300,000 women have been included as study participants. The numbers of participants in many studies are very large (10,000, 37,000, 60,000, 85,000, etc.) Some of these studies have followed patients for up to 12 years.
- These clinical trials have demonstrated that breast thermography:
- * detects the first signs of a cancer up to 10 years before any other procedure can detect it
- * significantly augments the long-term survival rates of its recipients by as much as 61%
- * when used as part of a multimodal approach (clinical examination + mammography + thermography), will detect 95% of early stage cancers
This machine is FDA approved in the United States of America
For more technical information on Thermography please visit Meditherm
In November 2010, the ‘Perfect Pair’ Proactive Breast Health Program with Breast Thermography launched!
email: proactivebreasthealth@yahoo.ca
phone: 519-987-3449
location: Be Well: A Creating Wellness Centre @ 3449 Walker Road
Perfect Pair 4×6 infomation card Nov 29 2010
