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celebrities are getting more full-body mri scans, but should you?
preventative mri scans are all the rage, but some medical professionals say that the benefits don't outweigh the potential pitfalls.
jul 18 2024
5 minute read
the rich and famous are using mri as preventative medicine, but is it worth it?
getty images
the recent uptick in wellness consumerism has led to many fads in the health space. from supplements and medications geared toward helping people treat pretty much anything under the sun to preventative health tests that are paid for out-of-pocket, there is no shortage of measures people can take to get a good read on what’s going on beneath their skin.
if you’ve read the news lately, you may have seen that many celebrities, including kim kardashian, kate hudson, and paris hilton, have taken to the airwaves to share their personal experiences with the latest health and wellness fad: the preventative full-body mri scan.
however, many medical professionals are speaking out against this new and expensive trend because those in the medical community do not want people engaging in meaningless—or potentially harmful—tests just because the rich and famous are doing it.
magnetic resonance imaging (mri) scans and your health
mri scans are used in various ways to check for health conditions and diseases. they work through the use of magnets and radio waves to produce highly detailed images of the inside of the body.
people are put into a cylindrical tube and asked to lie perfectly still for the duration of the mri scan. during that time, a strong magnetic field is created around the patient, which drives alignment in every atom of the body.
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then, radio waves from the mri machine move the atoms from their original place. once the radio waves are shut off, the atoms snap back to their original position, with the signal sent to a computer to create the images used to assess what’s going on below the surface.
essentially, mris look at every structure within the body and issues that may be present in the organs, bones, muscles, tissues, and blood vessels.
typically, people undergo mri scans if they are experiencing symptoms or signs of disease or have been diagnosed with a disease that requires regular monitoring. that said, the new trend of using mri as a preventative health measure is growing in popularity, even with the hefty price tag of over $2,000.
prenuvo and their full-body scans
prenuvo , the company that offers these mri scans to anyone who can afford them, has opened two locations in canada: toronto and vancouver. prior to those, these scans were only available at clinics scattered across the united states.
according to their website, their mri scans are enhanced with new technology, including ai integration, and optimized hardware and software, to get the best possible full-body read. their main goal was to offer people the chance to “put their health in their hands” in a way that cannot be achieved by simply going to your family doctor and asking for tests.
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the mris provided by prenuvo check for hundreds of diseases, some of which can be life-threatening, before a person even experiences symptoms. the current consensus amongst celebrities and those who can afford the scans is that if they can find out about their current state of health sooner, why wouldn’t they want to try it out?
however, medical professionals have more to say about this newly used preventative healthcare tool, and it’s not all positive.
the mri debate
many medical professionals have spoken out against the use of mri technology full-body scans.
dr. dhruv khullar, a physician based in new york and a new yorker writer, spoke to matt galloway, host of the current , a radio show on cbc radio one, on the subject, saying, “these things don’t have a lot of evidence, and we should be very cautious before we advise people to get something like this.”
dr. khullar’s reservations on the topic stem from the fact that the claim that these scans help people take their health into their own hands is only partially true.
“people may experience anxiety. they may receive false positive test results. they may be diagnosed with conditions that might never end up hurting them,” he said.
he knows from experience, too. he went ahead and got a whole body mri and found a lesion on his prostate, a lesion that turned out to be an asymptomatic abnormality. the result led to an anxious need to get more tests to confirm or denounce whether or not it’s going to negatively affect his overall health.
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his opinion is that the lesion is unremarkable or nothing to worry about. but that doesn’t change the stress and anxiety that it has caused.
aside from his lesion, dr. khullar has also found other issues with the full-body mri scans. he says that screening tests are designed in specific ways to increase the likelihood of finding something and adjusting or treating it in a timely manner. for example, if a person is at a higher risk of cognitive decline after age 50, getting a specific test for that at 25 may not give you adequate insight into how your brain health will unfold.
there’s also the risk of potential overdiagnosis and false positives that add to the stress and anxiety of conducting these tests.
many cancers grow and spread differently as well, which can make screening a problematic method for finding them in specific places. essentially, this form of screening can be helpful, but not in all situations.
another issue with these mri scans is that they could put an extra strain on the healthcare system. if someone sees an abnormality that does not harm their health, they may panic and request even more testing.
with healthy people entering the publicly funded healthcare system, the wait times and access to care for those who truly need it could drastically worsen.
the ceo of prenuvo, andrew lacy, provided a statement to the current , rebuking these claims, saying, “we believe that our healthcare system is burnt out because treating cancer and disease late is horribly inefficient and leads to much worse patient outcomes.”
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future directions for mri full-body scans as preventative care
as of writing, the debate about full-body mri scans continues to roar on, and people continue to choose a side. that said, these mri scans can be helpful for some, but for many without any health issues, they could drum up fear, anxiety, and false positives.
according to dr. khullar, there’s no way to tell who would or wouldn’t benefit from the scans, and that’s why they are not currently in the preventative screening tool arsenal. as for lacy, he believes that the results gleaned from the scans prenuvo have done are more than enough proof that these scans are beneficial, full stop.
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