Adding Vital Information To Your Scan

Double the clinical evidence when wanting to be proactive with your health......how about that?? I came across an article for the Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity device a few months ago and decided to use it with clients who are having a Wellness or Full Body scan done. It's been amazing to see the correlation between the scan results and the iHeart device results. Here's an interesting article to further explain just how important recognizing aortic stiffness can be. 

A New Way to Measure Health

Twenty years ago, scientists discovered a measurement with startling implications. This single measurement not only indicates overall health status and predicts lifespan but also shows positive and negative consequences of lifestyle choices including exercise, diet and stress management. This unique and integrative metric has been proven to predict risk of death from all causes in over 100 separate studies published in respected peer reviewed journals. Multiple meta-analyses have supported this evidence. Many studies have shown exercise consistently improving this metric, with even older people benefiting promptly. This amazing metric has been shown to identify people in their 30’s at higher risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia, and is able to guide people to wise lifestyle choices, wellness and long life.

Aortic Stiffness, measured using Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), is the ‘Master Metric’. The Aorta is the body’s largest blood vessel, running from the heart through the chest and abdomen. It runs immediately in front of the spinal column and acts as a surrogate measure of spinal stiffness and mobility of the body’s core regions (Core Mobility).

Yoga, Tai Chi and other ancient healing arts have long emphasized the importance of spinal flexibility and Core Mobility as important for health and long life. With good Core Mobility, each breath becomes an engine of health, creating pressure changes that drive nourishing fluid up the spine to the brain. Each breath compresses the liver, spleen, kidneys and other internal organs like sponges, driving fluid through their microcirculatory systems and supporting function, health and long life.

A scientific article published June 30th, 2017 titled ‘Greater Progression of Age-Related Aortic Stiffening in Adults with Poor Trunk Flexibility: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study’ indicates the close relationship between Aortic Stiffness and stiffness of the torso, based largely on spinal stiffness.

The Only Metric You Need

Aortic Stiffness, the Master Metric, was previously difficult to measure using Aortic PWV and required a skilled technician to place pressure sensors over arteries in the neck and groin. Recently, however, a new technique to measure Aortic PWV through identification of a specific section of the fingertip pulse wave (known as the Aortic Reflected Wave) has made it simple and easy to measure and monitor the Master Metric.

iHeart Internal Age uses a fingertip pulse sensor, a 30-second test and mobile app to measure Aortic PWV. With regular exercise, good diet and stress management, Internal Age (determined by comparing a user’s Aortic PWV reading to average Aortic PWV values per age) will decrease and encourage lasting behavioural change.

The Master Metric is a bridge between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western scientific knowledge.

A number of years ago the inventor of iHeart, Dr. Jess Goodman, was studying Tai Chi under the guidance of a Taoist monk. The monk asked Dr. Goodman to show people the health benefits that resulted from stretching between the heart and the kidneys. Aortic Stiffness, the Master Metric, is the answer to that request and is offered to the world as a simple and easy guide to living well. 

By Adam Sharp, July 14, 2017

Do You Live a "Know Now" or "Know Later" Lifestyle?

I frequently meet people through multiple email or phone conversations before it actually happens in person. Although this may not be unusual for most of you, in my case it's because they are on the fence about whether or not to come for a thermography scan.......are they truly ready to know details about their health? Do they want to know about their own health now or know when symptoms happen later?

Thermography is an objective scan reporting on all thermal findings related to abnormal physiology within the body, whether it be inflammation, dysfunction, and, with high sensitivity to pathology, neural, muscular or vascular. "What if something is wrong?" is a common question asked by many in a slightly panicked state during our conversation. This surprises me a little (and makes me chuckle at the same time)  because it comes across as if there should be something wrong. Then my mind quickly diverts to the existing healthcare system which makes me think of course people will ask this question. We have been trained to think a visit or recommendation for some form of medical screening/testing is because there is something wrong with us and (in my opinion) 99.9% of the time not for the sake of prevention. My response will vary slightly, but the answer is simple for me to say......"By calling you've made that first step in being proactive with your health and this tells me if there is something wrong, you'd like to know as early as you can so you can move forward with what needs to be done." Bottom line seems to point them in the direction they knew all along and that's to come in for a scan.  

For the few that stay on the fence I say this. The thermography scan reports will comment on all thermal findings, some worrisome and some not. At the end of the report, recommendations will be discussed and whether or not further types of clinical applications would be necessary. Also, the contents of the report can be used as valuable, adjunct information for all members of your health care team. And, the best result is it can be a wake up call or confirmation for you to keep being proactive with your own health. So come on in and know now......not later. 

 

Did you know the history of Thermography is centuries old?

The roots of Thermography, or heat differentiation, are ancient, dating back to the time of the pyramids. A papyrus from 1700 BC documents the association of temperature with disease. By 400 BC, physicians commonly employed a primitive form of Thermography: they applied a thin coat of mud to a patient’s body, observed the patterns made by the different rates of mud drying, and attributed those patterns to hot and cold temperatures on the surface of the body. Hippocrates summed it up: “In whatever part of the body excess of heat or cold is felt, the disease is there to be discovered.”

The first attempt to measure heat came in the second century AD with the development of a bulb “thermoscope” by Hero of Alexandria. In the late 1500s, Galileo invigorated the science of measuring temperature by converting Hero’s thermoscope into a crude thermometer. Others followed over the centuries, developing more sophisticated devices and introducing improvements which have become standard today — for example, the mercury thermometer and the use of Fahrenheit and Celsius scales to measure temperature.

A breakthrough in Thermology, as it was then called, came in 1800 with a major discovery by Sir William Hershel, King George III’s Royal Astronomer. Experimenting with prisms to separate the various colors of the rainbow, Hershel discovered a new spectrum of invisible light which we now know as infrared, meaning “below the red.” As a natural effect of metabolism, humans constantly release varying levels of energy in the infrared spectrum, and this energy is expressed as heat. Hershel’s discovery made it possible for devices to focus on measuring infrared heat from the human body.

Modern thermometry began soon after, in 1835, with the invention of a thermo-electrical device which established that the temperature in inflamed regions of the body is higher than in normal areas. This device also confirmed that the normal healthy human temperature is 98.6° Fahrenheit or 37° Celsius.

By the 1920s, scientists were using photography to record the infrared spectrum, and this led to new applications in thermometry and other fields. The 30s, 40s, and 50s saw remarkable improvements in imaging with special infrared sensors, thanks in large part to World War II and the Korean conflict, which used infrared for a variety of military applications, such as troop movement detection. Once these infrared technologies were declassified post-war, scientists immediately turned to researching their application for clinical medicine.

In the 60s, large amounts of published research and the emergence of physician organizations dedicated to the use of thermal imaging, such as the American Academy of Thermology, brought about greater public and private awareness of the science.

By 1972, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare announced that Thermography, as it had become known, was “beyond experimental” in several areas, including evaluation of the female breast.

On the heels of this, efforts to standardize the field began in earnest, aided by the arrival of mini-computers in the mid-70s, which provided color displays, image analysis, and the great benefits of image and data storage — and eventually faster communication over the Internet.

By the late 70s and early 80s, detailed standards for thermography were in place, and new training centers for physicians and technicians were graduating professionals who would make medical thermography available to the general public.

In 1982, the Federal Drug Commission (FDA) approved medical thermography for use “where variations of skin temperatures might occur.” In 1988, the US Department of Labor introduced coverage for thermography in Federal Workers’ Compensation claims. These and other milestones — including a brief period when Medicare covered the use of thermography — encouraged the expansion of thermography training resources and launched a dramatic refinement of imaging devices over the next few decades.

Today, modern systems provide high speed, high resolution imaging coupled with state-of-the-art computerized digital technology. This results in clear, detailed images captured by certified technicians for qualified physicians to interpret. Thermography is now recognized and valued as a highly refined science with standardized applications in Neurology, Vascular Medicine, Sports Medicine, Breast Health, and many other specialty areas.

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