It’s no secret that good health is important. Eating well, and getting plenty of exercise, are two of the best ways to stay healthy. Still, they are not a cure all for everything that can ail us. That’s why it’s just as important to get regular checkups with your doctor.
Sometimes, even though you may feel healthy, there can be hidden signs and symptoms that something is amiss with your health. Through regular checkups, and testing, your doctor can detect these underlying signs and symptoms, and quite possible save your life. In some cases, your doctor may order a bone scan. Here’s why a bone scan could save your life.
A bone scan can detect new growth in your bones as well as show breakdown. It can also detect certain cancers that have spread into your bones, and it can monitor infections in the bones or trauma your bones have sustained. The beauty of a bone scan is that it can often times detect problems months before they would have otherwise presented in an x-ray. Here’s how a bone scan works.
A substance called a tracer is injected into a vein in your arm. As the tracer travels through your bloodstream and eventually travels through your bones, a camera, called a gamma, takes pictures of your bones. It shows how the cells in your bones are functioning. It also can reveal certain cancers. The results can also help to detect breaks in your bones and play a role in discovering why you may be feeling pain in your bones.
Usually if the tracer is evenly distributed throughout your bones there’s not anything to be concerned about. Hot spots (Excessive amounts of tracer in the bone) revealed from the bone scan can mean a number of things including bone cancer, a bone that is healing from a fracture, an infection, arthritis or some sort of disease in the metabolic process of your bones. Cold spots (The lack of tracer in the bone) revealed from the bone scan can also mean a certain types of cancers are present or that the blood supply to that area of the bone has been compromised.
The risks associated with a bone scan are usually no more than the patient having an allergic reaction to the tracer. This is extremely rare, however.
A bone scan is usually performed in conjunction with other testing, and in and of itself, can’t diagnosis anything with certainty. What it does do is reveal things that may or may not require further testing in order to get to the bottom of the issue, and allow your doctor to make a concrete diagnosis.
Your bones tell a story, like every other part of your body. A bone scan can help your doctor to read the story, and in some situations, what he or she reads may be enough information to save your life.
T. Buck blogs about how to choose from the best online M.R.I. programs.
Sometimes, even though you may feel healthy, there can be hidden signs and symptoms that something is amiss with your health. Through regular checkups, and testing, your doctor can detect these underlying signs and symptoms, and quite possible save your life. In some cases, your doctor may order a bone scan. Here’s why a bone scan could save your life.
A bone scan can detect new growth in your bones as well as show breakdown. It can also detect certain cancers that have spread into your bones, and it can monitor infections in the bones or trauma your bones have sustained. The beauty of a bone scan is that it can often times detect problems months before they would have otherwise presented in an x-ray. Here’s how a bone scan works.
A substance called a tracer is injected into a vein in your arm. As the tracer travels through your bloodstream and eventually travels through your bones, a camera, called a gamma, takes pictures of your bones. It shows how the cells in your bones are functioning. It also can reveal certain cancers. The results can also help to detect breaks in your bones and play a role in discovering why you may be feeling pain in your bones.
Usually if the tracer is evenly distributed throughout your bones there’s not anything to be concerned about. Hot spots (Excessive amounts of tracer in the bone) revealed from the bone scan can mean a number of things including bone cancer, a bone that is healing from a fracture, an infection, arthritis or some sort of disease in the metabolic process of your bones. Cold spots (The lack of tracer in the bone) revealed from the bone scan can also mean a certain types of cancers are present or that the blood supply to that area of the bone has been compromised.
The risks associated with a bone scan are usually no more than the patient having an allergic reaction to the tracer. This is extremely rare, however.
A bone scan is usually performed in conjunction with other testing, and in and of itself, can’t diagnosis anything with certainty. What it does do is reveal things that may or may not require further testing in order to get to the bottom of the issue, and allow your doctor to make a concrete diagnosis.
Your bones tell a story, like every other part of your body. A bone scan can help your doctor to read the story, and in some situations, what he or she reads may be enough information to save your life.
T. Buck blogs about how to choose from the best online M.R.I. programs.
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