Should you get a full-body MRI?
5/19/202622 min
It’s good to be on top of your health – but how far would you go to ensure you’re staying healthy?
Ads have popped up for full-body MRIs, promising to catch things from cancer to aneurysms.
Norman and Tegan scan through the potential benefits and risks of looking inside seemingly healthy bodies.
References:
- Principles of screening - Cancer Council
- Incidental Findings and Low-Value Care
- Prevalence of abnormalities in knees detected by MRI in adults without knee osteoarthritis: population based observational study (Framingham Osteoarthritis Study)
- Whole‐body MRI for preventive health screening: A systematic review of the literature
- The effects of incidental findings from whole-body MRI on the frequency of biopsies and detected malignancies or benign conditions in a general population cohort study
- Clinical value of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in health screening of general adult population
- Long-Term Psychosocial Consequences of Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Reporting of Incidental Findings in a Population-Based Cohort Study
- Impact of whole-body MRI in a general population study
- Elective MRI Screening of the General Public—Buyer Beware
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTegan Taylor· Host0:00
[upbeat music] ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.
Sana Qadar0:05
[upbeat music] Hey there, Sana Qadar from All in the Mind here. If you're a true crime fan, you should check out our new series Forensic. [upbeat music] It's all about the psychological tools and tricks that are used to investigate crime. [upbeat music] Want to hear more? Search for All in the Mind on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Tegan Taylor· Host0:27
[upbeat music] Are you a selfie kind of guy normally? Are you the kind of guy that takes selfies a lot?
Norman Swan· Host0:33
No.
Tegan Taylor· Host0:35
No?
Norman Swan· Host0:35
I mean, my arm isn't long enough. You know, I've just got this really stumpy arm.
Tegan Taylor· Host0:38
That's why you need the selfie stick. The, you need the extendable stick.
Norman Swan· Host0:41
Mm.
Tegan Taylor· Host0:41
And when you go to all of your different overseas locations that you're always traveling to, you can get yourself in front of the- No. You don't, you don't like photos of your own, of yourself?
Norman Swan· Host0:48
No, no, I'm sufficiently, uh, un-self-conscious that I don't mind that, but the, um ... You know, it's hard to be in the media if you don't. But look, uh, I just feel like a complete idiot doing selfies all over the place.
Tegan Taylor· Host0:58
So you're probably not interested in today's episode of What's That Rash, which is really the ultimate selfie, a, a selfie of the inside of you.
Norman Swan· Host1:07
The full body MRI.
Tegan Taylor· Host1:08
That's what we're talking about today on What's That Rash?
Norman Swan· Host1:10
The podcast where we answer the health questions that simply everyone's asking.
Tegan Taylor· Host1:14
[upbeat music] Beth is asking about full body MRIs. Beth writes, "I keep seeing ads for full body MRIs. As an avid Health Report listener, I know you guys are dim on these sorts of things, but surely if I had something lurking