Vol 29–Should I Get a Full-Body MRI to Detect Cancer? Exploring The Pros & Cons

1 oz of water to garden your health

2 Tools for growth

1 Cool Product

Random Musings

I missed this previous Sunday's newsletter.

I was working in the intensive care unit for 5 days straight and was completely wiped out after. Thankfully still got to enjoy time with family and friends. I hope you did too!

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by whole-body Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. 🤖

I was listening to a podcast and they mentioned how a whole-body MRI found terminal cancer in one of their friends. I decided to look up how to go about doing this, the cost, where to get it, and what you do with incidental findings.

Action to water your health

What is an MRI? Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues in your body.

No radiation is involved, unlike computerized tomography (CT) scans and X-rays.

Before you have an MRI, you review a long list of questions. But the main one is “do you have any metal either on you or in you.”

The presence of metal can be a severe problem in MRI.

Magnetic metals can experience a force in the scanner. For example, if you have a permanent pacemaker (has metallic wires connected to the heart), and you enter the MRI. It can heat the wires and cause them to move!

Although rare. There are reports of people dying because they ignored this.

• S. Korea Man dies after oxygen cylinder sucked into MRI machine

• Man dies after being sucked into MRI scanner at Indian hospital

If you want to read more about how MRIs work here’s a great intro. If you want to go more in-depth this paper is great.

Personal Experience. I used to work with MRI technologists in helping scan patients. So I have some experience.

They are loud! It sounds like someone is hitting pots and pans right next to your ears. Yes, you get noise-canceling headphones (but the noise is never 100% canceled out). In some fancy places, you can watch movies. Others have skylights (to ponder why you decided to get the scan).

Anxiety. I would frequently hold people’s hands or be in the room to comfort people with anxiety or claustrophobia. When they had an MRI.

You have to be still. If not the images will come out blurry. This can suck. It can be >1 hour at times to complete the images. So it’s just you and your thoughts. Contemplating everything in life and wondering, what if they find something? I’m sure there are endless quotes I could have inserted about being alone with your own thoughts.

Where to get full-body MRIs.

There is a limited selection in the United States:

• Ezra:

• Halo 

• Prenuvo

Risk For Cancer. So should everyone get this full-body MRI for cancer screenings? If you are at risk for cancer, maybe.

The Harvard Cancer Risk Index offers a simple estimation of the personal risk of cancer. You can see their paper here. Ezra uses the Harvards index, to find out your cancer risk. Once you’re done with the quiz it gives you details by organ system and lifestyle suggestions.

What happens after the scan? Most of these companies offer their interpretation with the scan. Meaning there’s a radiologist that reads the scans. The incidental findings (things not related to why you scheduled a scan) get sent to your primary care doctor.

Also, a lot of people are concerned about the data privacy of their medical records. Most of these companies have policies in place to protect patient information and are HIPAA and GDPR-compliant.

Drawbacks. 

1. Resolution. These whole-body MRIs are not the same as hospital-based MRI protocols. For example, a hospital brain MRI scan takes 30min-1 hours. These companies’ whole-body MRI scan takes 1-1.5 hours. Meaning they cannot provide information about detailed anatomic structures with three-dimensional sequences.

2. Incidental findings: An asymptomatic lesion that is found while examining a patient for other reasons. For example, you get a whole-body MRI that shows a spot in your pancreas. They have no idea what is it. You have no symptoms. So now you have to get another scan in more detail. The results show it’s a cyst but not sure what is. So they biopsy (not without risk), and find out it’s a pseudocyst (non-cancerous pancreatic cyst). The amount of money, time, anxiety, etc. was unnecessary.

3. Price for Full body MRI. ~$2,400, of course, insurance will not cover this preventative screening. 🫤

4. Anxiety. As we talked about earlier. Being in a machine where you can’t move, is loud, and cramped sucks. Not ideal for a person with claustrophobia.

Positives

1. Detect Cancer (Screening). Without a doubt, a percentage of people will find cancer. If we look at Ezra's stats “ Of our first 1,000 members, 13 percent have found potential cancer through Ezra, and 70 percent have found non-cancerous but clinically-actionable findings.” That’s not insignificant. You could find cancer in the early stages before it spreads. It could save your life.

Action. If I had the $$ to spend on this whole-body MRI and scored above low risk for cancer, I would get this scan.

It is non-invasive, has a board-certified radiologist reading the reports, and is fast in comparison to other studies. With the knowledge, of course, that I may find random findings that require further medical workup.

You have to be prepared with the mindset that they may find random things and not know what it is.

Tools for growth

Soundful: This is an AI-powered music creation platform that enables creators and artists to analyze, create and monetize music.

This allows creators to browse, listen to, and create AI-powered, royalty-free music at the touch of a button, all for free.

Might be worth playing around with if you want to create unique, fast, awesome music.

Othership: A breathing app that helps you regulate your emotions and nervous system through guided breathwork.

I know it sounds kinda wacky. But we do know that the respiratory rhythm, directly and indirectly, affects the central nervous system (CNS). The main nerves for the peripheral innervation of the diaphragm are the phrenic and vagus. So there is some science behind it.

All this to say, give it a shot. Maybe it’ll work for you.

Cool Product

Packing cubes: These little things bring order to my otherwise disorganized suitcase. Worth every penny.

Random Musings

1. I’ve been trying to find protein powder for the past 3 months and have been so indecisive. Finally settled with trying gainful, is a personalized protein powder that comes with a registered dietitian as a resource. Let me know if you want an in-depth review.

2. Narcissistic injury. How often do we take objective events personally? letting our egos get in the way? It’s not always about us.

3. Everything regresses to the mean. I talk about this in Vol 021, but money, status, etc. can only get you so far until happiness returns to a baseline or ‘set point regardless of your circumstances, choices, or accomplishments.

4. You and I are lacking perspective in your current environment. Yes, you! Make sure you find ways to break up the monotony. Go for a walk, meditate, or find something that you enjoy.

5. Did you get anything on black Friday? I once stood in the cold for over 4 hours (~10 years ago ) for a TV, still have it by the way. So worth it.

You're an awesome human

Martin, CEO of braincrumbss

Stuff I created, that you might find helpful.

1. I created a sleep 💤 course after 6+ months of reading books, research studies, blogs, and podcasts. I wrote a post that includes a sneak preview of the content too. In this course, I'll send you 1 effective way to get sleep better, longer, or faster a day for 14 days. Since you're reading this here is a discount code to get 25% off "prq6qbe".

2. This product is free. It is the most comprehensive tool for digital nomads who end up with diarrhea 💩. How to treat it, when to worry, and what to pack. Everything. I spend an embarrassing amount of time writing this. Yes, this was created from personal experience on an overseas trip 😮