Thermography (Thermal Imaging)
Thermal Imaging For Your Body
At Narberth Family Medicine, we provide a holistic approach to medicine, combining alternative treatments with cutting-edge technology to provide whole-body healing. One advancement in medicine that is helping our patients heal is whole-body thermal imaging.
What is Thermography?
Thermography studies the heat given off a patient’s body in order to find abnormalities or asymmetry in the body. This changes in your body’s heat can pinpoint the location of cancerous cells or be a classic symptom of a chronic disease or inflamed muscle.
We use special thermal imaging equipment and processing software to take thermal photos of you. Then Dr. Lipton and his staff will go over your results with you, explaining the images and determining a course of treatment.
What does thermal imagery identify?
Thermal imaging identifies hot and cool spots in your body, at levels unnoticeable to the naked eye or even to you. These fluctuations in temperature are due to concentrated areas of blood flow. This can be due to a variety of reasons, including inflammation, chronic disease, or the presence of cancer cells. The increased blood flow means your body is trying to fight off or repair something in that area.
Alongside a proper examination by Dr. Lipton, thermography can aid the diagnosis of an illness or problematic area, leading to early treatment and a quicker start to healing.
Here are some ways we use thermography at Narberth Family Medicine:
Early Detection of Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is a type of cancer that forms in breast tissue, and is usually found in women over the age of 40. As with all forms of cancer, early detection of breast cancer can potentially be lifesaving, as it gives you and your doctors more time to fight against it before it spreads.
With Breast Thermography from Narberth Family Medicine, you can discover the presence of cancerous cells in your breasts up to 8 years before a traditional mammogram. Plus, thermal imaging is less invasive, painful, and embarrassing than a mammogram. Learn more about our breast thermography program »
Whole Body Thermal Imaging
Thermal imaging of the body is unlike any other imaging process used in modern medicine. All other forms of imaging including, x-ray, CY, MRI, and ultrasound, put energy into the body to image the anatomy.
Thermal imaging is a whole new way of thinking, a new paradigm!
Thermal imaging portrays the function of the body, not the anatomy. As soon as your body responds to any health issue, the nervous system responds by changing blood flow and circulation. In general, acute health issues have more circulation and chronic health issues sometimes have less circulation.
Increases in blood flow to different areas of the body can indicate musculoskeletal changes, trauma, arthritis, or infection. Decrease in blood flow to areas of the body can indicate heart disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or autoimmune disorders.
Sample Images
Hotter areas show as red to white (white being the hottest) and cold areas show as blue to black (black being the coldest)
Decreased temperature in hand associated with Raynaud’s disease or reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Heat around mouth associated with dental infections, cold area in left chest associated with coronary artery disease
Inflammation of the right kidney area
Injury of left shin, confirmed stress fracture by x-ray
Inflammation over the carotid artery area
Inflammation over the temperomandibular joint (TMJ)
Cool area in upper back associated with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia
Carpel tunnel of right wrist as opposed to cervical disc pain associated with C7/8
Lumbar disc disease, low back pain
Varicose veins
A CAT scan
Contact Us To Schedule an Appointment
Call 610-667-4601 for more information or to schedule an appointment. You may also schedule an appointment online.