We don’t pretend to keep up with the Kardashians, put we also pride ourselves on keeping up to date with what’s making news in the medical community. Recently, many medical social media circles were abuzz with the latest news from Kim Kardashian, who had made a post on Instagram championing the benefits of exploratory full body scans. Needless to say, her post upset a number of people in the medical community, and we’re going to explain why in today’s blog.
The Problem With Unnecessary Body Scans
On the surface, Kim’s Instagram post may seem pretty harmless. In fact, it may actually seem like a smart idea to help save lives. In the post, she writes that she recently underwent a full body scan because the device has the ability to detect problems like cancer or aneurysms before they show symptoms, which could help catch a problem in its infancy. We’ve always said that problems are best treated at the earliest stage, but that doesn’t mean every person in America should call their local imaging clinic and schedule a full body scan.
The fact of the matter is that an asymptomatic full body scan isn’t just a zero-downside scan that could potentially save your life. If there is no reason to believe you are dealing with any specific issue, the risk-benefit ratio of a full body scan will inherently tip to the side of risk. If every otherwise healthy person went in for one of these full body scans, we would undoubtedly be overwhelmed with issues like false positives or subjecting patients to invasive biopsies for non-cancerous growths. Don’t get use wrong, there would be some people saved, but there may be so many people harmed by the countless issues that would arise if every asymptomatic person underwent a full body scan.
Not to mention the incredible new burden that these scans, the reading of these scans and the follow up consultations and care would put on the medical community. As we talked about on the blog earlier this week, the burnout rate is incredibly high among many physician specialties, and forcing them to put more time and energy towards a largely fruitless endeavor would be another major burden, and it would only make it harder for the patients who truly need our attention to receive prompt medical care.
Simply put, we shouldn’t be turning to celebrities for medical advice. When someone like Kim Kardashian champions an idea like this without truly considering or being able to understand the detrimental effects it would have, we are all worse off for it. If you truly believe that you could benefit from a full body scan or you are experiencing symptoms that warrant more attention, please have a conversation with a doctor.