The Longevity Center: Better Breast Health Through Diagnostic Alternatives

Tammy Leiner did not have a good experience when she had her last mammogram. She left her doctor’s office thinking there had to be a different way—a better way— to screen women and men for breast problems. “It just did not make sense to me,” says Leiner. “The compression, the radiation exposure and the false positives some patients receive. So I went on a quest to find a better screening method.”

Leiner found what she believes is a better way, in the form of thermographic imaging. Today, she owns and operates The Longevity Center, a company that offers thermography within doctor’s offices in seven states, including Illinois. According to Leiner, thermography creates images that illustrate heat patterns that may indicate abnormal conditions. Patients are scanned without compression or radiation, and the procedure is painless. The technology is used to assist with breast diagnosis and for early detection, as well as diagnoses in other parts of the body to locate injury. Thermography has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1983 for the adjunctive screening of breast cancer.

“Clients come to me for breast scans as well as preventive full body screenings, or to diagnose pain within teeth, organs, bone or muscle,” Leiner explains. “The thermographic image shows functional patterns in the body, not tissue masses, like a mammogram or CT scan. A blood supply is needed to feed tumors and cancer, and the blood shows on the image. We look for visual activity that may be suspicious.”

Leiner was working in an acupuncturist’s office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when she was first introduced to thermography in 2004. Three days later, she had her decisive mammogram. After much research into the technology and medical results, as well as extensive training from Dr. Peter Leando at Duke University Hospital and mentoring by Dr. William Hobbins, a pioneer of thermography, she decided to open her own thermography clinic down the hall from the acupuncturist. “He would send his patients to me to diagnose their pain,” Leiner recalls. “I also started seeing patients for diagnostic breast imaging.” Word spread quickly and demands for Leiner’s services quickly increased.

“A lot of women lived outside the area, so I went to other doctors’ offices where I knew people, and asked if I could bring the scans to them,” she says. “Today, The Longevity Center conducts more scans than any other company in the country.” Leiner started her mobile thermographic practice in 2006, travelling to doctors’ offices in southern Wisconsin and Green Bay. She expanded to serve Illinois in 2007, hiring trained female technicians to assist in her business.  Today, she also offers thermography in Virginia, Maryland, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and plans to expand to Oregon, Colorado, Florida and Hawaii.

Leiner is passionate about her work and finds reward in educating her patients about their health and options available to them for medical scanning. She uses her blog, BreastHealthBlog.com, to educate readers about prevention and early detection strategies. “Although I am not a medical doctor,” she explains, “I feel I give women good information about their health that they can use to keep up the good work they are doing already, to change their habits and hopefully, to extend their lives.

“We never tell women not to get mammograms—that is their choice,” she continues. “We offer them a complementary alternative for prevention and early diagnosis. I have a good product that people want. I can’t help but think I’m making a difference and bettering people’s lives.”

Contact Tammy Leiner at The Longevity Center, 888-580-0040 or visit LongevityThermography.com to locate a doctor’s office and schedule a scan.