Beyond colonoscopies
A month doesn’t seem to go by without someone telling me that their doctor recommended that they have a colonoscopy, and asking me if I agree that they should have one. I could never advise against this procedure because there is no doubt that colonoscopies save lives.
On the other hand, the major limitation of colonoscopies is that they can only detect cancer or precancerous changes in the colon. Should there be cancer anywhere else in the body it would be missed.
Aside from colonoscopies, a non-invasive procedure that could provide early detection for cancer anywhere in the body would seem ideal. Such a procedure exists: a blood and urine test performed by a lab called American Metabolic Laboratories, and you can read about it here: www.caprofile.net. I wrote about the test a few years ago, but I have had many new subscribers since that time and thought I would mention it again.
This test measures various markers that either indicate the presence of cancer somewhere in the body or suggest an increased risk of developing the disease. Changes in results from one year to the next can indicate the onset of a process that could lead to cancer.
This test has been researched extensively and it was found to be accurate more than 90% of the time. While you may think that this falls short of 100%, in reality no test delivers 100% accuracy; even colonoscopies have a margin of error.
The weakness of this test, and the reason why you may not have heard of it from your doctor, is that it cannot tell you where a cancer is located. This makes the test of little use in conventional medicine where treatment protocols are all based on the type of cancer and its location.
However, if you are primarily oriented towards prevention this test is ideal because it provides a true early warning system and there are numerous natural treatments that can reverse these early changes if implemented soon enough.
Since reading about this test several years ago I have been running it on myself every year. It is also available for my patients at a cost of $351. For more information please call my office.
