The Images

Three Statements:

1. A living human body produces heat.

2. In a healthy person, comparable body parts should be similar temperatures (between left and right sides).

3. There must be a reason if a significant lack of thermal symmetry exists.

In this section, you will be able to find out in detail all about thermal imaging, from its origins to its current state of the art.

We would strongly suggest that you work through the individual sections of the navigation bar above or descriptions below in order. This way you should get a good overall idea of what Thermal Imaging is all about.

Introduction - covers some Thermal Imaging basics and gives you a broad overview of what it is all about.

History - covers in overview the rather turbulent history of thermal from its origins to the current day.

Infrared energy - discusses what infrared energy is and where it fits in the big scheme of things.

The Colours - discusses the different colours seen in Thermograms, and gives an idea of things like Colour Maps, Temperature range and base and some of the other variables seen in thermal images.

Image Interpretation - discusses how images are used in interpretation, and some of the methods used by Thermologists in interpreting thermal images.

Best Practices - is a quick discussion of what goes into a good Thermal Image, and what other factors need to be taken into account when having a thermal image taken.

In a nutshell,..

When examining a body, Thermal imaging looks at function while X-rays etc. look at structure.

To draw a simple analogy, an X-ray can tell you that a bone is broken, but can not see the resulting inflammation and nerve irritation; a Thermal Image can see inflammation and nerve irritation, but can't see the broken bone causing the problem.

Thermal imaging is not a diagnostic test. It works best when combined with other structural tests, allowing a practitioner to see both the structure around a problem and how the body's tissues are reacting to that problem.

To illustrate,.. a person might have a number of potential problems evident in their X-ray; a Thermal Image can highlight which of those problems is actually causing disruption to the body & causing symptoms, allowing more specific treatment.