If you were to ask a thermography camera what it sees its answer would be “whatever you show me!” It is, after all, just a camera. But then again, it’s a camera with a very special gift: A specialized detector with tens of thousands of highly sensitive energy sensors. We’re talking physics and physiology here. Your body emits energy constantly, but only if you are alive, of course. The government figured that out over 60 years ago when they used primitive thermography cameras to find live people in the dark (from airplanes, no less!).
Every function of your body creates its own minute energy signature. Some are high or active energy, which creates heat and some low or inactive energy, which measures as cold and they look completely different. The software that we use today changes the energy signature or variations and patterns into a temperature which, in turn, is assigned a color. That is why you see colorful images from a thermography camera.
In truth, the question shouldn’t be, “What does the camera see”, but instead, “What is your body doing? What is going on inside there?” The really BIG question is, how do we know what these variations in energy (temperature, colors) mean? Advances in science and research have helped us realize the answers to most of the interesting changes we see in the skin. Yes, the skin. Did you know that when a disturbance is going on inside your body, it sends a message to the skin, through a complex system of sympathetic fibers, like an SOS? It’s been doing that forever, we just didn’t know how to see the message, not until we finally discovered thermography, that is.
Today we can look at your body up close and record, with amazing accuracy, every variation in the energy emitting from your skin through your sympathetic system. These patterns are analyzed to give us a clue as to the physiological activity going on beneath the skin. The important word here is “clue.” The truth is, if you have a clue as to what is going on, you have an opportunity to do something about it, right? Without thermography we are often essentially “clueless” until a disturbance becomes a very serious and sometimes life-threatening situation.
Here’s a few of the ways thermography can offer insights into various health concerns of the body:
General Inflammatory Conditions
Inflammation is another word for heat. Although inflammation is functional activity that brings blood to an injured area for healing, it is often subtle in its activity, as we are not always aware of an “injury” as it can be microscopic. Inflammation is now accepted by main-stream medicine as the earliest stage of nearly all life-threatening diseases. This application for thermography has only just scratched the surface.
Muscular-Skeletal Stress
A patient already knows if they are in pain, but thermography can contribute to the analysis of a painful condition. It can reveal and differentiate a muscle spasm, pinched nerve, radiculopathy, referred conditions, hairline fractures, inflammatory conditions and much more.
Possible Asymmetric Densities
We have a tendency to focus on the hot patterns with infrared thermography, but there is a great deal of valid information in an asymmetrical cold pattern, as densities tend to be cold rather than hot. The larger they grow, the colder they present on the image. Again, thermography cannot diagnose densities, but it can bring an otherwise unnoticed condition to the attention of the practitioner for further evaluation.
Sinus Conditions
Patterns can be seen in the forehead, the ethmoid sinuses with drainage patterns into the lymphatic pathways
Dental Pathology
Signs of inflammatory conditions deep inside the gums and peri-oral regions also present with confirming drainage patterns.
Carotid Artery Health
Inflammation in the carotid artery is now considered by cardiologists to be the cardio vascular disease itself. There is no other way to detect this early indication of evolving cardio vascular disease
Thyroid Patterns
Subtle cold or warm patterns over the area of the thyroid can alert the practitioner to evolving gland dysfunction.
Lymphatic Activity
Known for its function of cleansing and recycling the blood, the activity around the lymphatic system is highly valuable information and easily observed.
Breast Screening
Infrared thermography is best known for breast screening and is one of its highest and best uses. Because of the nature of the development of breast disease and the fact that a tumor in the breast is slow growing, taking 8-10 years to mature into a visible growth, thermal imaging is ideal to detect the highly visible vascular activity that facilitates tumor growth, even in its microscopic stages. The initial Breast Screen establishes your breast baseline. The Follow-up Screen is conducted 3 months after the initial screen in order to establish your thermal pattern. Once the pattern is established, any changes can be detected during your routine annual studies.
Make an appointment and see for yourself what kind of clues it can offer you about your health so you can have the opportunity to keep a “disturbance” from becoming a serious situation. Prevention is always the best policy! Learn more in our Thermography FAQs section.
Every function of your body creates its own minute energy signature. Some are high or active energy, which creates heat and some low or inactive energy, which measures as cold and they look completely different. The software that we use today changes the energy signature or variations and patterns into a temperature which, in turn, is assigned a color. That is why you see colorful images from a thermography camera.
In truth, the question shouldn’t be, “What does the camera see”, but instead, “What is your body doing? What is going on inside there?” The really BIG question is, how do we know what these variations in energy (temperature, colors) mean? Advances in science and research have helped us realize the answers to most of the interesting changes we see in the skin. Yes, the skin. Did you know that when a disturbance is going on inside your body, it sends a message to the skin, through a complex system of sympathetic fibers, like an SOS? It’s been doing that forever, we just didn’t know how to see the message, not until we finally discovered thermography, that is.
Today we can look at your body up close and record, with amazing accuracy, every variation in the energy emitting from your skin through your sympathetic system. These patterns are analyzed to give us a clue as to the physiological activity going on beneath the skin. The important word here is “clue.” The truth is, if you have a clue as to what is going on, you have an opportunity to do something about it, right? Without thermography we are often essentially “clueless” until a disturbance becomes a very serious and sometimes life-threatening situation.
Here’s a few of the ways thermography can offer insights into various health concerns of the body:
General Inflammatory Conditions
Inflammation is another word for heat. Although inflammation is functional activity that brings blood to an injured area for healing, it is often subtle in its activity, as we are not always aware of an “injury” as it can be microscopic. Inflammation is now accepted by main-stream medicine as the earliest stage of nearly all life-threatening diseases. This application for thermography has only just scratched the surface.
Muscular-Skeletal Stress
A patient already knows if they are in pain, but thermography can contribute to the analysis of a painful condition. It can reveal and differentiate a muscle spasm, pinched nerve, radiculopathy, referred conditions, hairline fractures, inflammatory conditions and much more.
Possible Asymmetric Densities
We have a tendency to focus on the hot patterns with infrared thermography, but there is a great deal of valid information in an asymmetrical cold pattern, as densities tend to be cold rather than hot. The larger they grow, the colder they present on the image. Again, thermography cannot diagnose densities, but it can bring an otherwise unnoticed condition to the attention of the practitioner for further evaluation.
Sinus Conditions
Patterns can be seen in the forehead, the ethmoid sinuses with drainage patterns into the lymphatic pathways
Dental Pathology
Signs of inflammatory conditions deep inside the gums and peri-oral regions also present with confirming drainage patterns.
Carotid Artery Health
Inflammation in the carotid artery is now considered by cardiologists to be the cardio vascular disease itself. There is no other way to detect this early indication of evolving cardio vascular disease
Thyroid Patterns
Subtle cold or warm patterns over the area of the thyroid can alert the practitioner to evolving gland dysfunction.
Lymphatic Activity
Known for its function of cleansing and recycling the blood, the activity around the lymphatic system is highly valuable information and easily observed.
Breast Screening
Infrared thermography is best known for breast screening and is one of its highest and best uses. Because of the nature of the development of breast disease and the fact that a tumor in the breast is slow growing, taking 8-10 years to mature into a visible growth, thermal imaging is ideal to detect the highly visible vascular activity that facilitates tumor growth, even in its microscopic stages. The initial Breast Screen establishes your breast baseline. The Follow-up Screen is conducted 3 months after the initial screen in order to establish your thermal pattern. Once the pattern is established, any changes can be detected during your routine annual studies.
Make an appointment and see for yourself what kind of clues it can offer you about your health so you can have the opportunity to keep a “disturbance” from becoming a serious situation. Prevention is always the best policy! Learn more in our Thermography FAQs section.