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Quotes about Mri Scans from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Standard CT and mri scans are a part of routine practice, although there is some controversy about when to use each. However, advanced and expensive neuroimaging techniques have been promoted extensively over the last quarter-century, promising much, but delivering relatively little. Imaging is categorized into two approaches: structural and functional. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a structural approach that provides more details than CT (computerized tomography) scanning, which is the most commonly used and cheapest form of structural imaging." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"The seminal 2006 study from Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois used mri scans to show that walking as few as three days a week for six months increased the volume of the prefrontal cortex in older adults. And when he tested aspects of their executive function, they showed improvement: in working memory, smoothly switching between tasks and screening out irrelevant stimuli. Kramer wasn't on the trail of ADHD, but his findings illustrate another way exercise might help. Everyone agrees that exercise boosts levels of dopamine and norepinephrine." - John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Get the book.) "One recent study used mri scans on eight yoga practitioners and found that their levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) increased 27 percent after a sixty-minute session. GABA is the target of Xanax-like drugs and is very involved with anxiety, so this may be part of the reason why yoga helps some people relax. Much of the evidence from this realm is anecdotal, but I'm sure that as neuro-scientists delve deeper into the brain they'll discover pathways that connect the dots." - John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Get the book.) "But the groundbreaking finding came from mri scans before and after: those with improved fitness had an increase in brain volume in the frontal and temporal lobes. Scientists knew that this could happen in the hippocampus, but the suggestion that brain volume increased in the cortex was "out there," in the estimation of neuroscientist Carl Cotman, the researcher who pinpointed the link between exercise and BDNR "I'm sure he's right," Cotman says of Kramer. "He's a very honest, accurate guy. But the findings are definitely on the outer fringe." - John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Get the book.) "The most telling study on this subject comes from the lab of psychologist Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which has been at the forefront of correlating certain cognitive abilities with changes in brain structure identified in mri scans. He wanted to see whether exercise and HRT interacted in their impact on executive function and the volume of the prefrontal cortex." - John J. Ratey, MD, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Get the book.)

"To shed more light on how we carried out all this research, it's worth talking about how mri scans work. You've probably heard of these tests, which enable doctors to see the anatomy of everything under the skin, but few people are really aware of how they work. The most common application of MRI is to look for anatomical abnormalities. The scans work by imaging the amount of water in different bodily tissues, with bone having the least and spinal fluid or blood having the most." - Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong (Get the book.)

"Those who appeared to respond to the vaccine with cognitive improvement had a greater degree of shrinkage of the brain on mri scans. No one knows what caused this puzzling result. Perhaps because the amyloid was being cleared from the brain, the brain volume was reduced as a result. Whatever the case, this result was the opposite of what most people expected. The apparent clinical improvements were small and might have been due to chance, as in any study where there appears to be a subgroup of people who respond to a drug." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"Herbert looked very carefully at autistic children's brains on mri scans. She noticed their brains were bigger than children who did not have autism.3 The question that remained was why. That's where Dr. Diana Vargas and her group from Johns Hopkins came in. They examined the brains on autopsy of eleven autistic children who had died.4 They also looked at the spinal fluid of living autistic children. By examining and comparing these factors, they proved that these children's brains were swollen and inflamed, like a swollen ankle!" - Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Get the book.)

"However, these details can at times be more confusing than helpful. mri scans can show smaller strokes, and that is helpful in the differential diagnosis of vascular dementia; but it also shows what we call "unidentified bright objects," which are of unclear significance and could indicate anything from small strokes, to normal aging, to other phenomena that we don't understand. PET (positron emission tomography) scanning shows the brain at work, i.e., a form of functional imaging." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"This malfunction was graphically revealed during a recent study of autistic children at UCLA using mri scans. Compared to a control group of nonautistic children, the autistic kids registered very little activity in their mirror neurons when they observed photos of people who were making facial expressions of anger, fear, or happiness. This failure of mirror neurons has two fundamental effects. (1) It causes anxiety. It's frightening to have, in effect, everyone around you wearing blank, indifferent masks." - Kenneth Bock, Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders (Get the book.)

"In 2002, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri calculated that 20 to 30 percent of their claims for PET, CT, and mri scans were for unnecessary tests. In states where malpractice laws make it less likely that doctors will be sued, there's only about a 15 percent difference in the amount of unnecessary treatment doctors deliver. This suggests that only a fraction of the useless scans being performed can be laid at the feet of defensive medicine. No study ever conducted has shown that malpractice worries or patient demand can account for any more than a tiny fraction of unnecessary care." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"Medical science has been unable to pinpoint a structural abnormality in the brain specific to autism, despite the use of sophisticated modern mri scans. At the forefront of research into autistic savants are psychologists Allan Snyder and D. John Mitchell from the Center for the Mind at The Australian National University in Canberra. They are studying the effects of a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator, a machine that can turn on and off different parts of the brain." - Robin, Dr. Kelly, The Human Antenna: Reading the Language of the Universe in the Songs of Our Cells (Get the book.)

"This is the same route they took with chronic fatigue syndrome, even though brain lesions were being seen on mri scans. I was convinced at the time that the tremendous increase in this disorder was in some way related to the large amounts of food excitotoxins being ingested. A recent clinical study by Dr. J. D. Smith and his co-workers found that complete or near-complete relief could be attained by removing all MSG- and aspartame-containing foods and FIGURE 7." - Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., Health and Nutrition Secrets (Get the book.)

"Because so few members of the medical profession recognize mindbody disorders for what they are, the pain of TMS is commonly attributed to a structural abnormality, such as the ones that often show up on x-rays, computed tomography (CT), or mri scans. Following is a list of the most common ones: Abnormalities of the intervertebral disc due to wear and tear, aging, etc." - John E. Sarno, M.D., The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders (Get the book.) "Use of PET scans and/or functional mri scans may elucidate some of the specific brain changes in the pre- and post-treatment patient population. Noninvasive oxygen tensiometry can document improvements in muscle oxygenation in symptomatic regions pre- and post-treatment. However, the physiology of TMS is relatively unimportant. It is basically a psychological disorder with physical symptoms. Undoubtedly, the brain could create pain in a variety of ways, so focusing on the physiology is unnecessarily diverting from the important question: why does the brain-mind do it?" - John E. Sarno, M.D., The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders (Get the book.)

"X-rays and mri scans often can't distinguish which of these is the true source of an individual's pain.22,23 And we now know that bulging, degenerated, and even herniated discs in the spine are common among healthy people with no symptoms.23 When doctors find such discs in people with back pain, the discs may be irrelevant, but they are likely to lead to more tests, patient anxiety, and perhaps even unnecessary surgery. In fact, back surgery rates are highest where MRI rates are the highest." - Richard A. Deyo M.D. M.P.H., Donald L. Patrick, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises (Get the book.)

"Doctors can perform spinal taps, testing the cerebrospinal fluid or do mri scans to look for abnormal antibodies and myelin damage, but because MS may cause damage much like that from a virus or other autoimmune disorders, the tests are often inclusive. In most cases, a diagnosis is made only when all other possibilities are ruled out. If you have MS or MS-like symptoms, it's critical that you find a good specialist and work closely with him or her. Despite the common perception, many people with MS live long, productive lives." - James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D., Prescription for Natural Cures: A Self-Care Guide for Treating Health Problems with Natural Remedies Including Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Bodywork, and More (Get the book.)

"Kelly reviewed the scans then wrote to Paul's parents: "I have reviewed the mri scans on your five-year-old son Paul ... it is the largest tumor I have ever seen in this area in anybody ever referred to me for surgery. I showed your scans to a number of my colleagues here who feel that it is inoperable . . . .Without surgery, your boy will die."12 Because of the serious risks involved in attempting surgery or radiation, Paul's family elected not to pursue those treatments. By 1988, they finally found out about and started Paul on Burzynski's antineoplastons." - Tanya Harter Pierce, Outsmart Your Cancer: Alternative Non-Toxic Treatments That Work (Get the book.)

"They expect mri scans and blood tests on request. Even those who seek out "Volkswagen" insurance policies expect "Mercedes" care when the time comes. Our youth-oriented culture and our continual search for the "fountain of youth" create demand for medical advances throughout the life span. For its preoccupation with health, beauty, and the perfection of youth, our culture has been described as narcissistic." - Richard A. Deyo M.D. M.P.H., Donald L. Patrick, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises (Get the book.) "This may partly account for the popularity of CT and mri scans among consumers, some of whom are willing to pay out-of-pocket for screening with these tests. In addition to unearthing irrelevant abnormalities, every diagnostic test is occasionally wrong. Just as every treatment has some risk of side effects, every test has some risk of inaccurate results. False positive refers to a positive test in someone who really has no disease. False negative refers to a negative test in someone who really does have the disease." - Richard A. Deyo M.D. M.P.H., Donald L. Patrick, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises (Get the book.)

"Men and women who ate tofu at least twice per week experienced accelerated brain aging, diminished cognitive ability and were more than twice as likely to be clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. mri scans showed enlarged ventricles while autopsies revealed atrophied brains with lower weights. Subjectively, the researchers couldn't help but notice that by age 75 to 80 the tofu eaters looked about five years older than those who abstained.4'-43 The industry claims "the tofu effect" is just a fluke but the statistical probability of the results being true varied from 95 to 99." - Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, The Whole Soy Story: The dark side of America's favorite health food (Get the book.)

"There is no simple way to preserve the entrepreneurial spirit that has created mri scans, stents, bioengineered drugs, and artificial knees and at the same time completely eliminate financial conflicts of interest. The practice of researchers' developing products and testing them in their own institutions, especially on their own patients, is the most serious issue, and there may be no perfect approach when this problem arises." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.) "Now it is done from outside the body with CT and mri scans. Diseases that could not be diagnosed accurately in their early stages, such as multiple sclerosis, are routinely identified (and treated) now. Diseases of the pancreas and biliary tree could be diagnosed only by exploratory surgery; now they are identified with scans and long tubes that have miniature lights and cameras at their ends. The cause of heart attacks could only be inferred; now the artery blockage can be seen and corrected, and many heart attacks are now preventable." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"CT and mri scans offer amazing inside pictures of the body. But they also reveal tiny abnormalities that would once have gone unnoticed. Intuition tells us that this must be good, but it turns out that many of these abnormalities are red herrings. Again, the problem of back pain offers good examples. Experts have concluded that perhaps 85 percent of patients with back pain can't be given a definitive diagnosis, despite the best medical evaluation." - Richard A. Deyo M.D. M.P.H., Donald L. Patrick, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises (Get the book.)

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