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Two Good Reasons to Reconsider Scans, such as CT and MRI

Two Good Reasons to Reconsider Scans, such as CT and MRI

Natural News December 05, 2008 by: Reuben Chow, citizen journalist – “……………….A recent study conducted by a team from the University of California-San Francisco has found that the use of such medical imaging tools is playing its part in rising health care costs, while at the same time subjecting patients to increasing levels of radiation exposure……………………………ne of the main problems, in my book, is that we cannot effectively quantity the damage done by advanced medical imaging. How many cases of breast cancer, for example, are caused in large part by excessive exposure to radiation from annual mammograms?

Some research has also suggested that such tests uncover problems which might have gone away on their own anyway, and carrying out the tests could have unnecessarily opened a can of worms. Recent research in Norway, for example, suggested the “possibility that the natural course of some screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress”. Once discovered, however, the medical-go-round usually begins – more tests, surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, the works. In this scenario, how many women are actually hurt by the results of the scans they went through?……………
When it comes to medical imaging, is more necessarily better? As Dr Smith-Bindman said, “The new technologies are fantastic, but they should be used judiciously.”

Two Good Reasons to Reconsider Scans, such as CT and MRI

December 6, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment