As you age, the more beneficial it becomes to keep an eye out for problems in core areas throughout the body — including your lungs. That’s why paying attention to the air quality in the places you live in is crucial.
While the air quality in Raleigh, North Carolina, tends to be decent, it’s still essential to understand the benefits of lung scans and why you may want to have one scheduled.
Below, we’re discussing what early lung scans look like, their benefits, and even how you can schedule one yourself at Craft Body Scan’s Raleigh office. Let’s get started.
Understanding Early Lung Scans
Before we dive into the benefits of lung scans for Raleigh residents, let’s first cover what these screenings are in the first place — and why you’d get one.
A lung scan is a medical imaging procedure used to examine the lungs and diagnose, monitor, or screen for various lung conditions.
It typically involves the use of specialized imaging technology, such as a computed tomography (CT) scan, to create detailed images of the lung tissues.
These types of scans are crucial for detecting the signs of various conditions, including lung cancer, pulmonary embolisms, emphysema, and fibrosis. They can identify tumors, blockages, or abnormalities in lung tissue.
Routine screening with low-dose CT scans is recommended for individuals at high risk of lung cancer, which includes older adults with a history of heavy smoking.
The Impact of Raleigh’s Air Quality on Lung Health
Air quality plays a significant role in the health of a community’s respiratory systems.
In Raleigh, as in many urban areas, various pollutants can compromise lung health, contributing to the development and exacerbation of lung diseases.
Understanding the pollutants and their potential impacts, coupled with local statistics, can help highlight the importance of proactive lung health management, including regular lung scans.
In Raleigh, the combination of industrial, vehicular, and natural sources (such as pollen) contributes to the air quality dynamics. These factors necessitate a proactive approach to lung health, which includes regular monitoring through scans to detect any adverse effects at the earliest stage possible.
Through early detection and understanding of the local environmental impact on health, facilities like Craft Body Scan play a crucial role in managing and improving the lung health of Raleigh’s residents.
By leveraging advanced scanning technology, we can detect potential issues before they become severe, ensuring better health outcomes for the community.
Lung Scan Benefits at Craft Body Scan
We’ve discussed what these screenings are and how Raleigh’s air quality may impact your lung health. Now, let’s answer the million-dollar question: what are the benefits of lung scans?
Lung scans, particularly using low-dose CT technology like Craft Body Scan provides, offer several key benefits that can significantly impact an individual’s health and well-being:
- Early Detection: One of the most significant benefits of lung scans is their ability to detect lung cancer at its earliest stages, often before any symptoms appear. Early detection dramatically increases the chances of successful treatment and survival.
- Identification of Other Lung Conditions: Lung scans can detect a variety of other lung conditions, such as pulmonary embolisms, fibrosis, emphysema, and infections. Early identification of these conditions can lead to more effective management and treatment.
- Monitoring Disease Progression: For patients with known lung diseases, lung scans are crucial in monitoring disease progression and evaluating the effectiveness of treatments. This allows healthcare providers to make timely adjustments to therapy.
- Assessment of Symptoms: For individuals experiencing symptoms such as persistent cough, unexplained weight loss, or shortness of breath, a lung scan can help determine the cause of these symptoms and guide further diagnostic steps.
- Risk Assessment: Lung scans can also help in assessing the risk or presence of other diseases, like cardiovascular diseases, by providing information about the heart and blood vessels located in the chest area.
- Improved Health Outcomes: By enabling early diagnosis and intervention, lung scans contribute to improved overall health outcomes and quality of life.
Who Would Benefit from an Early Lung Scan?
While lung scans are beneficial in many scenarios, certain individuals would particularly benefit from regular screenings:
- Smokers and Former Smokers: Individuals with a long history of smoking are at a higher risk of developing lung cancer and other lung conditions. Regular lung scans are recommended for early detection.
- People with Occupational Exposures: Individuals exposed to substances like asbestos, radon, arsenic, or heavy metals in their workplace should consider regular lung scans, as they are at increased risk of lung disease.
- Individuals with a Family History of Lung Disease: Those with a genetic predisposition to lung conditions, including lung cancer, may benefit from periodic lung scans to catch potential problems early.
- Older Adults: As the risk of lung diseases generally increases with age, older adults can benefit from lung scans, especially if they have other risk factors.
- People with Chronic Respiratory Symptoms: Individuals experiencing chronic respiratory symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath, which don’t respond to standard treatments, should consider undergoing a lung scan to investigate the underlying causes.
If you happen to fall into any of these categories, don’t panic! Scheduling an appointment for a lung scan in Raleigh is simple with Craft Body Scan.
Next Steps: Scheduling Your Lung Scan in Raleigh
The next step is to schedule your own lung scan in Raleigh, right at Craft Body Scan’s office.
Our preventative lung scans are non-invasive, quick, and relatively affordable, leaving not only with the answers you want, but the experience you deserve.
Whether you’re at risk or just want to stay ahead of the curve, all you have to do is click the button below to book an appointment and our doctors will take care of the rest from there.
We look forward to seeing you experience the firsthand benefits of lung scans in Raleigh.
