Scan Scam?
If you live in an area where companies selling “whole-body scans” have arrived, you’ve probably heard the ads offering peace of mind and early detection of illnesses. They often feature testimonials from customers who credit the scans with saving their lives. San Francisco doctor Alan Eshleman has a problem with these “whole-body scanners”. In fact, he thinks they are worse scammers than the telephone psychic who told his patient that he had a deadly lung disease. His supporting facts? There is little evidence that these CT scans really catch early signs of disease, nor do they necessarily offer peace of mind. The reports provided with the scan results tend to not be absolutely reassuring since they don’t want to rule out any possible problems. So the patient is referred to their doctor for followup work on the “questionable” size of a cyst or “unexplained” density in the liver. A few hundreds or thousands of dollars of more tests later (perhaps, if they are lucky, paid by insurance but then also contributing to the rising costs of health care), the patient maybe has their peace of mind.

However, in my opinion, the fact which beats out any of the other negatives or benefits is this: “the radiation dose delivered during a whole-body scan is hundreds of times greater than that of a single chest X ray. […] People who receive a whole body scan every few years as ‘preventative medicine’ actually increase their chances of getting a radiation-induced cancer.” The FDA is looking into these scans for preventative screening purposes, and it’s possible they may see them in a more positive light than Dr. Eshleman does, but, as I always advocate, be informed.