Oprah's Full Body Scan

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Watching the video clip Oprah’s Full Body Scan was so enticing that I wanted to get mine done just for curiosity. However, there are other tests that can obtain the same type of information which are noninvasive and less costly and covered by most insurance companies. For example, labs tests for cholesterol screening, vital signs monitor for early signs of hypertension, and physical examinations check for obesity. Listed on the National Cancer Institute website “most doctors recommend against whole-body CT for people without any signs or symptoms of disease” (CT-Scans-Fact-Sheet, n.d.).
What needs to be assessed is how these full body scans are produced. It is produced through radiation through computed tomography. And, is the amount of radiation that a patient is receiving necessary. Radiation exposure is harmful. According to the FDA website the effective doses from diagnostic CT procedures are typically estimated to be in the range of 1 to 10 mSv. This range is not much less than the lowest doses of 5 to 20 mSv estimated to have been received by some of the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs. These survivors, who are estimated to have experienced doses slightly larger than those encountered in CT, have demonstrated a small but increased radiation-related excess relative risk for …show more content…

The careful familial and patient history is imperative for this exam and procedure. And as the video indicated, is this really an effective screening tool for a healthy person more so than seeing the primary care physician. According to the research in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the “PET/CT doses were found to be higher than many other conventional diagnostic radiology examinations suggesting that all efforts should be made to clinically justify and carefully weigh the risk-benefit ratios prior to every 18FDG whole body PET/CT investigation” (Kaushik et al,

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