Latest / Motherhood Alliance Podcast / Thermography, Part 1: What It Is & How It Works w/ Tanya Voss | Keep Cool Thermography
Transcript
- Britney Suttner: Hi, I am Britt from motherhoodalliance.com and today I'm excited to welcome you to a three episode series with Tanya Voss, a certified thermography technician and the owner of Keep Cool Thermography. Through thermography, which is a pain-free and radiation-free imaging technique that uses heat and temperature patterns in the body, Tanya helps women and men identify areas of inflammation, increased estrogen activity, and other potential imbalances within the body. Outside of her work, Tanya is a wife and a mom of three who loves spending time at home with her family reading and she also loves hand embroidery. She and her husband are celebrating 10 years of marriage this year and together they're raising their three kids ages eight, five, and three. We are excited to dive into thermography in these episodes and I'm really excited to introduce you to Tanya now. Let's get started. everyone, welcome to the podcast. We're really excited to kickstart a new thermography series and welcome to our guest Tanya, welcome. Tanya: Thank you. Britney Suttner: Before we jump into our topic, which I'm really excited to talk about, we've never talked about thermography on the podcast yet. We do want to get to know you a bit though. And so starting out with your fun fact that you really don't like winter, which I can feel you because I feel like I am constantly cold. Even in the summer, my feet can be cold, but why did you share that as a fun fact and where does that kind of stem from? Tanya: know I think every we live in Wisconsin right so like you have drastic drastic seasons I suppose and I don't know I don't know why I live here I'm just kidding my family lives here but you know it's just I just don't like being cold and Wisconsin is always cold it feels like so Britney Suttner: Yeah, I get it. get it. I feel like every February, March, April timeframe, we all ask that question, why do we live here? And then, Tanya: I know. Britney Suttner: know, natural disasters are happening other parts of the world. You're like, actually, I know why we live here. So it's fine. It's fine. It's a trade off, right? Well, I'd Tanya: Exactly, yep. Britney Suttner: also love to hear a little bit about your background and just where you came from career wise, how you found thermography in the first place, all that jazz. Tanya: I have a degree in sign language interpreting. That's what I went to school for initially. And then in 2011, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer and I became a hypochondriac about it. So I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm gonna get it. I already have it. Like it was, it was very unhealthy. I went to a talk with my, that my business partner had done about thermography. And after meeting her, was like, I need the sun yesterday. So can you sign me up? And then once I got the results back, I was blown away. I'm like, this is amazing. Like how do people not know about this? And her office is up in Green Bay. And I was like, do you have anybody in Appleton that does this? Because, you know, I have friends and family, like this is just amazing. And she said no. And so then I got certified in it. bought the equipment, started my business in 2014, and we've been in business ever since. So she's been doing this, I think probably closer to 30 years, and I'm now on my 12th year, which is just amazing. So I'm very blessed. All my patients are just wonderful. I'm just so thankful for everybody that I've met so far and can't wait to meet more people. Britney Suttner: Yeah, well, I'm excited to dive in because I feel like a lot of people don't even really know what thermography is. So maybe let's just start there. How would you define it? Tanya: So it is a thermal image. it detects heat in the body, whether it's an infection, inflammation, just even just a, if there's any heat coming from it, thermography will find it. You know, some people, like if they were to have a lump in their breast, but there's no heat coming from it, we can't diagnose and say like, it's not cancer or anything like that. It would just be, you know, if there's no heat coming from it, typically that's a good sign. Britney Suttner: Okay, so just image wise, people can think about one of those like heat guns. They probably seen thermal imaging of where it's the red and the hotspots and it kind of gets green to blue to black so that's kind of what these are looking like when it comes to result like the final images. Is that right? Tanya: Correct, yeah. And then you'll also get a black and white image which measures your estrogen level, which we can talk about later, but that's also super cool and a really important part of a thermogram. Britney Suttner: Okay, so let's start at the top here. so, why would somebody want to get thermography done? why would they want to find out what, what their heat is going on in their body? Tanya: Sure, there can be lots of different reasons. For me, just with having a family history, I actually do have the gene for it too. So that's also what made me super nervous about it. But it's not like a death sentence. If you have the gene, it's okay. We can work with your lifestyle and nutrition and stuff like that. All of that plays a huge part in health and even especially breast health. But if anyone wants a thermogram, it can be from age 14 to 114. and males, females, anyone could get a thermogram. If you were to have like a suspicious spot that you're like, I just want to see if there's any heat coming from it or just in general, checks, know, like those are, just a good, it's a good tool. Britney Suttner: Okay. So when you think about the human body, obviously we have a steady state temperature that's warmer than our average air temperature, So what does a good scan look like? Cause I'm guessing there is going to be, it's not going to all be black, right? there's going to be different ebbs and flows of color. So walk us through what a good one looks like and then kind of what are the red flags of things that you might see in everyday scans that you're doing. Tanya: Sure, a good scan would be like symmetry. if both of your hands are equally cold, you know, that's great. Your extremities are always gonna be cold. Your toes are always gonna be cold. And then there are some natural hotspots, like in your collarbone area, that's always usually red, just cause it traps heat right there. Also under the breast is gonna have a heat pattern just because your skin touches. the belly button is going to be cold. And if you have any skin folds, or I'm sorry, not cold, or hot, that's just a normal trapping of heat there. And then if you have any skin folds, that's always going to show up as warm. And even in between the thigh area, those are normal areas of warmth. When we start to see, not like a cancer wrong, but just when there's any sort of abnormality. is when there's a difference. So basically he cuts your body in half and then measures each part from side to side. So as long as they're symmetrical, that's good. But there are different parts of the body that have different ranges where they can still be considered normal. So like different parts of the breast can be normal ranges, zero to two degrees. And then other parts can be normal as zero to 1.5 degrees. So because no physical body is perfect, the doctor who reads the scans gives ranges where it can be still considered in the normal range. But even if you were to be like 0.2 degrees, he's still going to put it on your chart as a finding for the breast specifically because it is a difference. And so we just want to make sure that doesn't get too hot, especially too quickly, you know. So being able to watch that and monitor that is going to be great. And then say like people who have like tennis elbow, that's going to show up as warmth. People, when they get like a full body scan, if there's something that's red, I mean, 90 % of the time they're like, yeah, that's my tennis elbow or yeah, that's my frozen shoulder. You know, like there's usually like, yeah, that's, they know kind of, that makes total sense. But you can do like your thyroid area too. And that part is really sensitive. So that can almost change by the hour. So as long as you're monitoring your thyroid. We say like, yeah, if it's like really, really hot, you're like typically, that's more like maybe you were anxious but if you don't have any symptoms that are noted, like when you Google okay, these are my symptoms and it shows, I got some thyroid stuff going on. We're like mine specifically always shows a cooling necklace. And that means my thyroid is just slightly like underactive. but not enough to like, I need to do anything about it. You know what I mean? So as long as you're monitoring it on the backend, this can fluctuate very often. Britney Suttner: Gosh, you just like unpacked so much. So basically what you're looking for is symmetry side to side. So even if it's not like part of a normal, you know, perfect scan, if you have slight redness or, lighter colors in a certain area of your body, but it's also on the other side of your body, it might be normal for you. Is that kind of what you're saying? Tanya: Yes, I can. Britney Suttner: Okay, so side to side is something that it's measuring. It's measuring heat, which could be a result of something like cancer. It could be a result of just simple inflammation, right? Tanya: Mm-hmm. Britney Suttner: Okay, and then is that could that heat be an indication of anything else? Inflammation, abnormal cells, maybe abnormal functioning organs is there anything else that you're kind of looking for? Am I hitting on those? Tanya: Nope, that's what we're looking at, especially when we scan the belly area, because the belly can kind of get tricky. I'm going use myself as an example. So I've had cysts in my stomach and also cysts my ovaries, ulcers in my stomach, I'm sorry, and then cysts on my ovaries. So when those are active or after I've had surgery or something, those are going to show up as warm. But because there's so many layers to your stomach, I'm sorry, just your abdomen, there's so many layers. Thermography can't pinpoint exactly what it is. So he'll give you a list. The doctor will give you a list of like three things it could be. like say my stomach, for example, it could be my upper GI. It could be my stomach. It could be, you know, cause they're all stacked on top of each other. But Britney Suttner: Hmm. Tanya: for me, I know like, okay, I have the ulcers going on. I know that that's my stomach. He'll always give you the things that it could be. And then, but usually you'll know like, oh yeah, that makes sense. You know, and if not, then it's like, okay, well I'll, you know, take a closer look at that or do some digging more into that. But that's where it can get pretty cool. Cause it's just. Like there's just so much that it can, see without seeing, you know? Britney Suttner: Okay, so this is not necessarily diagnosing anything, it's just showing symptoms of abnormality. Tanya: Correct, the rhombi can not diagnose. Britney Suttner: Okay. Tanya: Especially for the breast, the only thing that can really be a true diagnosis would be a biopsy to know for sure. Britney Suttner: Okay. that's helpful to understand. And then also kind of what I'm hearing you say is that for thermography, it's really, it's like functional imaging versus a lot of these other things like mammograms and ultrasounds, those are going to be more of like structural imaging if I'm kind of understanding this right. So the thermography is me noticing abnormal patterns. inflammation, things that are like, I feel like it takes almost more of a preventative approach where it's like showing red, a little bit of red flags, even if things are not escalating to a full diagnosis yet. Whereas structural imaging like MRIs, mammograms, those are going to kind of show an already existing problem. Is that a correct understanding? Tanya: Correct, thermography looks at the physiology, so like what it's made of, which is super cool. It is exactly what you said, a preventative tool, which is also why insurance won't cover it. Britney Suttner: yeah, well of course. Tanya: yeah, which is why we also love it, right? Because it's a preventative tool and so we need that. But it's definitely looking at what the makeup of it is versus whereas like a mammogram or any other imaging looks at. the anatomy. Britney Suttner: Okay. And we're going to have an entire episode dedicated to breasts because I know that that's your expertise. We're going to be talking about estrogen and some other things in there, but just staying high level right now. Do people replace mammograms with thermography? Can it be a replacement tool or is it really a side by side tool? Tanya: Never. We would never ever, ever say it replaces a mammogram or an ultrasound or anything like that. I mean, hopefully you won't need one. That's like the goal, but it would never, we would never in a million years say that it replaces a mammogram. They can go hand in hand, know, like sometimes people come in and say their result isn't, is kind of like sketchy. the doctor will say, you know, see your doctor promptly, get some further imaging. And then usually it comes back just fine. And so then it's actually really cool because we know your body's okay at this state. What can we do to lower your numbers? Then hopefully you don't have to go back to have another one. Do you know what I mean? Like Britney Suttner: Okay, Tanya: that's the end goal. Britney Suttner: what if somebody came in and had like, let's say that they're at mammogram age, right? But they come in and have thermography done first and their scan comes back perfect. Does that kind of indicate why you don't really need a mammogram then? or should they still have it done? Tanya: That's at your discretion. I can tell you what I would do and then people can take that for what it's worth. But I, you know, we can't give medical advice. And so if they're feeling like, just want to make sure that's totally cool. Like you do you, cause the stress of worrying or having that that's always like replaying in your head, like, just, wonder that is going to do more harm to your body than being exposed to the radiation, which some people are concerned about, but that stress is going to be more detrimental than just doing the scan for five minutes. You know what I mean? Britney Suttner: Yeah. Okay. You've been mentioning, a medical advisor, basically. So for you, you're taking the actual scan, you're there with the person doing the scan, and then you're sending the scan off to a doctor and the doctor is interpreting it and then sending back the results back to you. Is that right? Tanya: Correct, so we use Dr. Robert Kane, he's in California, he's amazing, he's the one that has trained me, he's also a certified thermologist and a certified radiologist. So if you were to have any previous imaging, we could send that with your scan and he'd be able to use that in conjunction with your thermogram, which is very cool. Britney Suttner: That is very cool. And I feel like that gives people a lot of, just understanding, not only having you look at it, but also having like a second opinion, look at it, especially with that radiology background. That's really helpful to understand as well. Okay. I do want to talk a little bit about what to expect for a thermography scan. If somebody is going to come in and have one done. Number one, what are kind of the options? Are people typically just doing full body scans as prevention to just see, you know, is there anything going on that I'm not aware of? Or is it typically like pick or choose from like an a la carte menu? Tanya: We have three different options. So the first one is gonna be the breast only. That includes seven to nine images of the breast, as well as the detailed report, which we discussed about five to seven business days later via phone. And then we have the female profile, which includes the entire breast series, as well as the abdomen, back and neck, which captures the thyroid. And then the full body, which is literally head to toe. I would say the female profile is definitely the most popular just because you get... Like for three more immigrants, get a ton of things. Like you get the thyroid, you get the belly, like, and then the back too. it's very helpful, especially if you're working on like GI stuff, like if, you know, you're trying to get rid of your belly inflammation, it's really cool to see like how that's looking. Britney Suttner: Okay, so if someone was coming in for a scan, what would they have to be prepared for? What does this look like? Tanya: Sure, yeah, so we'll send you like like dos and dos before your scan. It's very simple. like no caffeine before just because it can raise your blood pressure or like just, you know, not induce anxiety, but just kind of, you know, make that more awake and like increase blood flow. So we don't really want that. no hot showers for us before. It's very simple. No like high intensity workouts right before just because it can then cause like a false heat. But otherwise you'll come in, we'll chat about your paperwork because you'll fill out some paperwork and then write down any like, I felt this lump or you know, I've had this or I've had that. It'll be on your paper. So we'll discuss that. And then also out of the room. So this is I always say the longest and most painful part is the scan itself takes like three minutes. But when you come in, if we talk, I'll step out, you'll get undressed. However, like whether it's from the waist up or whichever scan you choose. you'll get undressed and then you'll wait in the room for like 10 minutes and you'll just wait. And it is truly, I always say the longest and most painful part is that waiting, but it's the most important part because when your body gets cold, your blood vessels constrict, anything that's not normal or inflamed won't constrict. And that's what's going to show up as heat in the body. So it's a super important part, but just not the most fun. And then once I come back, it's just a couple different moves. and then you're done. So it's really, really fast after I come back in with that weight and you're like, my gosh, it's been an hour, you know? Britney Suttner: Yeah. I've done this with Tanya to be totally transparent to listeners. had a full body scan done with Tanya and it was a great experience, but yeah, I agree with you because you're also like, you don't want like your arms touching your sides because that's going to increase heat where that's touching. And so it's, it does feel a little bit awkward just like having that waiting timeframe, but you can also understand when this is heat based, why you have to do that. You have to let your, especially if you're coming in like a hoodie and you're coming in with Tanya: Bye. Britney Suttner: a jacket on, you got to let your body actually like. cool off so that you can see accurately what is actually producing more heat than just normal body temperature. So yeah, I've done this with Tanya. She's amazing. So if you guys are listening to this and you're curious, would recommend going ahead and seeing her for it. So just to reiterate, this is not, other than, you know, the waiting game, this is not painful at all. Like you're not touching anybody at all. This is literally like them standing there and taking pictures. Is that right? Tanya: Correct, yep. We're like five feet apart. There's no touching, no pain, no radiation, no nothing. okay, I forgot to mention too, like another thing with being, where that we're women, we usually wear a bra and that's really tight and restrictive. And so getting rid of those lines and that tightness is going to be super important, especially on that breast area, which is another reason why that like 10 minute waiting period is super important because you don't want any false. full readings essentially. And then I always joke like no itching, touching or scratching because people are Britney Suttner: Mm. Tanya: like seriously but once you get in there and it gets a chilly you like you do get really itchy so if you come in for a scan you know exactly what I'm talking about. Britney Suttner: Yeah, no, these are all like good things just to be aware of as people are like interested, but they've never done it before. Okay. We've talked a bit about women and we're going to have an entire episode about actual breast health, because like I said, this is something you specialize in. And I think thermography is becoming more known in the breast cancer prevention world, but who else is this for? Is this, is this beneficial for athletes maybe that are looking for more, you know, understanding inflammation that's happening in their body? Is this beneficial for men? Let's talk about that population. How about kids? So tell us, know, we're talking about women a lot. Who else is this for? Tanya: Yeah, so I've actually scanned my own kids. Like my daughter had some knee pain for a really long time and I was like, I'm just going to see like, is there any inflammation coming from it? what is going on? and there was some inflammation in her knee, but not super bad. then it just kind of led us to her bones were growing faster than her muscles. And so it was just really pulling. And so it was good that there wasn't like an injury. Um, cause if there was an injury, there'd be a lot of blood flow and heat coming to help heal it. And so that, that was really encouraging. But men can definitely come in too, there is a rise in male breast cancer. And so being able to see that in men is very amazing. And even for like GI health too, being able to scan that abdomen is great. Athletes definitely, if there is an injury just to kind of monitor progress, like how is the inflammation today and how is it in two months? so really, thermogas for anyone. Britney Suttner: Okay, what type of preventative routine would you recommend? Is it typically only if somebody's getting some like significant results that you're like come back in six months or is this something somebody should really be doing every year just for like a check-in? You know, I think so many times as humans we're like, why don't we have this computer system in our own brains where it's like, whoop, whoop, something's wrong. It's like, we could understand our bodies better, but we have no insight into what's happening in our bodies. And so is this something someone should be doing on a regular basis just to check for cancer or other things? Tanya: The breast for sure every year, depending on what your results show too, the doctor will give a recommendation like come back in three months, come back in six months. If he says a year, that's wonderful. I would definitely follow the one year. You don't have to do the full body every year, but definitely, definitely, definitely get the breast scanned every year just to make sure and kind of keep an eye on things because you know, cancer doesn't happen overnight, but like you see it, it's like a slow, usually sometimes they can grow rapidly. But usually it's a slow process. so thermography can detect things seven to 10 years before ever showing up on a mammogram because Britney Suttner: Hmm. Tanya: it starts small. And we can talk about this in the future episodes, but how estrogen has a big part in it. But the greater the estrogen, the greater the risk. So if you have higher estrogen, that can develop things faster than somebody that would have a lower estrogen. monitoring those, like when I mentioned before, the temperature differences in the breast, how it, depending on the degrees. So if it was at 0.2 and then in one year it went to like 2.2, that's kind of a big jump in one year. So you kind of want to be mindful of that too. So just being able to monitor that is really, really important. Britney Suttner: Okay. That's a great teaser for our upcoming breast episode. So that's wonderful. If somebody wants to book a thermography scan with you, what would be the best way for them to do that? Tanya: Email, call or text. It's just, it's a cell phone number. So whatever is easier for them. I am by appointment only. So I don't have like any specific hours just because, you know, I do this on the side. I'm a mom and I, really do love what I do. So any call or text, email is great. Britney Suttner: Okay, and we'll put your contact info in the show notes too. all right, well, this is a great first episode. This is an awesome one on one like helping us understand the basics. In our next episode, though, we are going to be diving into like, what are the actual results look like? And then what should you do lifestyle wise based on your results? So this is almost like part two that we're going to be heading into. And this will be applicable to men and women, really anybody who, you know, comes in and gets a scan. And then that third episode is the one that's going to be more so about breast health. So we're excited to have two more coming up next.