Preventive MRI scans are all the rage, but some medical experts say their benefits don't outweigh the potential pitfalls.
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The recent surge in health and wellness has spawned a number of trends in the health and wellness field. From supplements and medications that can help treat any ailment to self-paid preventative health tests, there are plenty of avenues to find out exactly what's going on under your skin.
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If you've been following the news lately, you may have seen a number of celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Kate Hudson, and Paris Hilton, appear on the radio discussing their personal experiences with the latest health and wellness fad: preventative full-body MRI scans.
But many medical professionals are speaking out against this new and expensive trend because they don't want people to undergo pointless or potentially harmful tests just because the rich and famous are doing it.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scans and Health
MRI scans are used in a variety of ways to test for health conditions and diseases: They use magnets and radio waves to produce highly detailed pictures of the inside of the body.
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Subjects are placed in a cylindrical tube and asked to lie still for the MRI scan, while a powerful magnetic field is generated around them, encouraging every atom in their body to align.
Radio waves from the MRI machine then move the atoms from their original position. When the waves are stopped, the atoms return to their original position and the signal is sent to a computer to create an image to assess what is happening beneath the surface.
Essentially, an MRI looks at all the structures inside the body and any problems that may exist with the organs, bones, muscles, tissues, and blood vessels.
Typically, people undergo MRI scans when they have symptoms or signs of disease, or if they've been diagnosed with a condition that requires regular monitoring. That said, the new trend of using MRIs as a preventative health measure is growing in popularity, despite their hefty cost of over $2,000.
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Prenuvo and full body scanning
Prenuvo, a company that makes these MRI scans available to anyone who can pay for them, has opened two locations in Canada, in Toronto and Vancouver (previously, these scans were only available at clinics scattered around the United States).
According to the company's website, the MRI scans are enhanced with the latest technology, including AI integration and optimized hardware and software, to provide the most accurate full-body reading possible. The company's main goal was to give people the opportunity to “take their health into their own hands” in a way that simply going to their primary care doctor and ordering a test isn't possible.
Prenuvo's MRIs screen for hundreds of diseases, including life-threatening ones, before they cause symptoms, and the current consensus among celebrities and those who can afford the scans is that if you could find out your current health status sooner, why not give it a try?
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But medical experts have more to say about this newly used preventive health tool, and it's not all positive.
MRI controversy
Many medical experts have spoken out against the use of MRI technology for whole-body scans.
Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a New York-based physician and New Yorker writer, the current“There's not enough evidence for these things and people should be very careful before encouraging people to buy these things,” he said on CBC Radio One.
Dr Klahr's concerns about this stem from the fact that claims that these scans will help people take control of their own health are only partially true.
“People may feel anxious. They may receive false positive test results. They may be diagnosed with diseases that may never cause harm,” he said.
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He knows that from experience too: He had a full-body MRI that found a lesion in his prostate that turned out to be a silent abnormality, reinforcing the need for further testing to confirm or deny whether it was negatively impacting his overall health.
In his opinion, the lesions are not noticeable and are nothing to worry about, but that doesn't change the stress and anxiety they cause.
Besides the lesions, Dr. Klahr also found other problems with the full-body MRI scan. Screening tests are designed in a specific way to increase the chances of finding something and adjusting or treating it in a timely manner, he says. For example, if someone is at high risk for cognitive decline after age 50, taking that particular test at age 25 may not provide enough insight into how their brain health will progress.
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There is also the possibility of overdiagnosis and false positives, which can add to the stress and anxiety of undergoing these tests.
Many cancers grow and spread differently, so screening can be difficult to find in specific locations. In general, this form of screening can be helpful, but not in all situations.
Another problem with these MRI scans is that they can put an extra strain on the healthcare system: if they find an abnormality that doesn't pose a health risk, patients may panic and demand further testing.
By enrolling healthy people in a publicly funded health care system, waiting times and access to care for those who really need it can become much worse.
Prenuvo CEO Andrew Lacey said: the currentdenounced these claims, saying, “We believe our health care system is strained because delayed cancer and disease treatment leads to gross inefficiencies and poorer patient outcomes.”
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Future directions for whole-body MRI scans as preventive medicine
At the time of writing, the debate over full-body MRI scans continues, with people continuing to pick sides. That said, while these MRI scans may be helpful for some, for many people with no underlying health issues, they can cause fear, anxiety, and false positives.
While Dr. Klahr said the scans aren't currently used as a preventative screening tool because it's unclear who will benefit from them and who won't, Lacey believes the results from the scans conducted by Prenuvo are more than enough evidence that these scans are beneficial.
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