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 adverts on TV or the web: “Shield your well being! Get a physique scan now!” 

Are whole-body CT scans actually in a position to try this – and what are the dangers? And are DEXA scans a great way to verify in your physique composition?

Whereas applied sciences fluctuate, most of those high-tech checkups use computed tomography (CT) scans to look at your whole physique or particular components, such because the coronary heart and lungs, to attempt to catch harmful ailments in earlier, extra curable levels.

In the course of 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 photographs and, with the help of a pc, produces cross-sectional views of your physique. By inspecting the views, a health care provider can search for early indicators of abnormalities.

The scans aren’t low cost – whole-body scans run wherever 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 specialists.

Advocates promote scans as a sensible a part of a routine bodily examination. However for those who’re wholesome, with no worrisome signs, a scan is often not warranted, says Arl Van Moore, MD, a radiologist and scientific assistant professor of radiology at Duke College Medical Middle 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 potential exception. “There could also be a profit to folks at excessive threat of lung cancers, comparable to present people who smoke or these with a protracted historical past of smoking,” he says. 

For wholesome folks, the scans could trigger undue fear – as an 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 finished too usually, the radiation publicity may very well improve the variety of most cancers circumstances over the long run, in response to 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 threat of most cancers.

Earlier than scheduling a physique scan, discuss to your physician about your total well being dangers and the way a scan could or could not make it easier to. Particularly, ask your self:

  • What’s your historical past? Do you’ve 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 for those who’ve give up smoking, for what number of years have been you an energetic smoker?

 

This can be a completely different kind of scan, known as DEXA (twin power X-ray absorptiometry). You may need heard of DEXA scans to verify on bone density to see in case you have osteoporosis or osteopenia. It makes use of low-level X-rays to verify in your physique composition, like how a lot physique fats you’ve and the place it’s in your physique. 

There are numerous methods to measure your physique fats. Specialists have instructed WebMD up to now that DEXA scanning is a “excellent method” and “one of the correct strategies on the market.” And researchers have known as it the “gold customary” for checking on physique composition – particularly, for bone, fats, and muscle. But it surely’s not lined by insurance coverage, except you’re getting a DEXA scan to display screen for bone density. The price of a DEXA scan varies, beginning round $75 in some circumstances.



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