Watch, Wait and…Reverse!!

Hello bOOb Bloggettes:

I was being interviewed for the podcast “What Women Must Know” last week when I got into an interesting discussion with host Integrative Naturopathic Doctor Sherrill Sellman about the use of thermograms in tracking certain inflammatory conditions of the breast. I was pointing out the debate within the medical community over the use of “watch and wait” for certain situations such as the precancerous Stage Zero breast condition called Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) — which represents 20-25% of all breast cancers (even though it’s not a breast cancer, per se, until it becomes invasive; see previous blog on this).

Men with Stage Zero testicular pre-cancers are oftentimes told to Watch and Wait, per the American Cancer Society, but women are usually convinced to start treatment immediately which may include a lumpectomy, a mastectomy and/or radiation therapy. (Why women are treated differently when many researchers now believe that most DCIS cases will not become invasive is a mystery.)

Then the conversation took an interesting turn: One way to empower ourselves, Dr. Sherrill pointed out, is to use Watch, Wait…and Reverse!

Let me explain a personal situation I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, but one worth repeating here as an example: I had put myself into my documentary film “bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts” as a patient receiving an ultrasound and thermogram (both FDA-approved devices) thinking no one would recognize me. Then the results came in — whoops! Dr. Ben Johnson explained that one of my breasts was exhibiting more heat than the other on the thermogram due to inflammation and perhaps a pre-cancerous condition. Boy was I surprised! This was not in the script.

So Dr. Ben explained some things I could do to back out the inflammation, such as: Toss the underwire V.S. heavily padded bra (darn it! Those things made me look good — plus they were expensive!) and swap them out for “breast healthy” bras with elastic band vs. wiring; massage the breasts in circles daily to keep lymphatics working and get out any toxins; and switch diet to low- or no-sugar and non-GMO foods (I lost 15 pounds:)). I also went to an MD who was now practicing non-conventional medicine; she put me on tons of supplements. I was on 3 medications at the time (one was due to a side-effect of another med I was on — argh) and slowly I noticed I didn’t require them anymore because my problems were disappearing!

I’m happy to report I’m now medication-free and a thermogram showed that my breast temperature returned to normal a year later — and the pain I was experiencing in that breast disappeared and never returned, thankfully.

The moral of this story is that I didn’t panic and go running to my conventional doctor to get my breast squished and radiated by a mammogram machine (I’m sure with the breast pain they would’ve suggested a biopsy also). I empowered myself by changing my lifestyle. Hence, Watch, Wait and…Reverse!

So this is one way the thermogram test comes in so handy: If a woman has a bad situation in her breast brewing, she can change her lifestyle and track her progress via this non-radiation, non-invasive tool.

It’s also a great tool to track DCIS progress (good or bad), and whether conventional or non-conventional cancer therapies are indeed doing their job.

Word of CAUTION: make sure the thermographer knows what they’re doing; you need a good camera, a good camera operator, and a good interpreter of results for this to all work correctly. And Dr. Galina Migalko of Universal Medical Imaging Group https://www.universalmedicalimaging.com, who I interviewed for the film, strongly suggests that you also get an ultrasound around the same time as a thermogram to pick up any possible tumor vs. the inflammation that the thermogram picks up; Dr. Galina performs both of these in her office in Burbank, Calf. (see previous blog on therm and ultrasound).

Here’s a good website for finding other good thermographers: https://breastthermography.com/find-a-center/

Blog at you soon, thanks for reading and helping to spread the word!  (Please see the “share” links below.)  And we’d love to hear comments from you! (see below as well)

Stay healthy,

Megan

Megan Smith, M.S.
Director, bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts

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