According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, one out of eight American women will get breast cancer in her lifetime. This alarming statistic may be in part attributed to the steady and insidious exposure of our bodies to environmental toxins. The class of chemicals that affect breast tissue the most are called xeno-estrogens, since they imitate and enhance estrogen activity. Think of them as the three Ps: pesticides, plastics and petroleum.

Xeno-estrogens are also known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have gained particular attention as a potential breast cancer risk. That’s because EDCs mimic or interfere with the body’s natural system of hormones, and hormones have been shown to affect breast cancer risk. Based on what we know about how breast cancer develops, chemicals that behave like hormones can increase susceptibility to the disease in two ways: They can feed a breast tumor that’s already present, or they can change the composition of the breast, leaving it more vulnerable to carcinogens.

Synthetic estrogens and hormones affect breast and fatty tissue with distinct heat patterns that can only be seen on infrared thermal imaging. Typically these estrogens show up as leopard spots or mottling in thermographic images, which provide a picture of these distinct patterns and assesses their severity. Thermography is radiation-free, painless, safe and effective for all women—even nursing mothers—regardless of age, size or breast density.

Every woman should know the condition of her breasts, and thermography is an invaluable screening tool to help her do that.

Patricia Bowden-Luccardi is a certified thermography technician and certified whole-health educator. She offers breast, upper-body and full-body thermography screenings, as well as detox services, at two locations in Poughkeepsie: Holistic Health & Healing (845.471.6400) and Hudson Valley Sacred Space (845.654.0506; and Pretty Face Medi Spa (914.788.9790) in Montrose.