Take a drive round sure neighborhoods in Los Angeles and you might spot as many indicators promoting physique scans as burger joints. Or possibly you have seen the advertisements on TV or the web: “Defend your well being! Get a physique scan now!”
Are whole-body CT scans actually ready to do this – and what are the dangers? And are DEXA scans a great way to test in your physique composition?
Whereas applied sciences range, most of those high-tech checkups use computed tomography (CT) scans to look at your total physique or particular components, such because the coronary heart and lungs, to attempt to catch harmful ailments in earlier, extra curable levels.
Throughout the 15- or 20-minute scan, you lie inside a doughnut-shaped machine as an imaging system rotates round you, transmitting radiation. The method combines a number of X-ray photos and, with assistance from a pc, produces cross-sectional views of your physique. By analyzing the views, a physician can search for early indicators of abnormalities.
The scans aren’t low cost – whole-body scans run anyplace from $500 to $1,000 per scan and often aren’t reimbursed by insurance coverage. And the query of how useful these scans actually are is a matter of debate amongst medical consultants.
Advocates promote scans as a wise a part of a routine bodily examination. However if you happen to’re wholesome, with no worrisome signs, a scan is often not warranted, says Arl Van Moore, MD, a radiologist and medical assistant professor of radiology at Duke College Medical Heart in Durham, NC, who can also be a spokesman for the American School of Radiology (ACR).
In accordance with the ACR’s official place, there’s not sufficient proof to suggest scans for these with no signs or household historical past suggesting illness. However Van Moore sees a attainable exception. “There could also be a profit to folks at excessive danger of lung cancers, resembling present people who smoke or these with an extended historical past of smoking,” he says.
For wholesome folks, the scans could trigger undue fear – for example, by discovering one thing that seems to be benign. Plus, the quantity of radiation publicity, particularly with frequent scans, is one other concern. If scans are completed too typically, the radiation publicity may very well improve the variety of most cancers instances over the long run, based on a 2004 report within the journal Radiology.
The American School of Preventive Drugs says that whole-body scans “aren’t excellent at discovering most cancers in folks with out signs” and that the radiation you get from these scans can improve your danger of most cancers.
Earlier than scheduling a physique scan, discuss to your physician about your general well being dangers and the way a scan could or could not assist you to. Particularly, ask your self:
- What’s your historical past? Do you’ve gotten a private or household historical past of lung illness, coronary heart illness, or particular cancers?
- Did you inhale? Are you a longtime smoker?
- In that case, how lengthy? Even if you happen to’ve stop smoking, for what number of years have been you an lively smoker?
It is a completely different sort of scan, referred to as DEXA (twin power X-ray absorptiometry). You might need heard of DEXA scans to test on bone density to see you probably have osteoporosis or osteopenia. It makes use of low-level X-rays to test in your physique composition, like how a lot physique fats you’ve gotten and the place it’s in your physique.
There are numerous methods to measure your physique fats. Specialists have advised WebMD previously that DEXA scanning is a “excellent method” and “one of the crucial correct strategies on the market.” And researchers have referred to as it the “gold customary” for checking on physique composition – particularly, for bone, fats, and muscle. Nevertheless it’s not lined by insurance coverage, until you’re getting a DEXA scan to display screen for bone density. The price of a DEXA scan varies, beginning round $75 in some instances.
