LUCK, Wis. — Jill Anderson spent weeks in pain, and even after dozens of tests, struggled to find out why.
“(I had) joint inflammation, fatigue,” said Anderson. “I just didn't know what was wrong with me and couldn’t figure it out.”
So she booked a full body MRI through a private company called Prenuvo, and paid $2,500 out of pocket for an hour of scans. Anderson got a detailed email with her results, showing everything from a cyst in her knee to a disc bulge in her back to minor arthritis—no major problems, and, also, no clues to what was wrong.
It was bloodwork with her doctor—not the MRI—that finally found Jill had celiac disease, but she’s grateful for the other things it showed.
“The Prenuvo scan allowed me to go into my body and see what was happening inside my body,” said Anderson.
That’s exactly why CEO Andrew Lacy founded Prenuvo. After wanting what he calls “peace of mind” about his own health, he opened eight Prenuvo sites around the country, and what the company calls a "partner clinic" in Edina. Lacy says the scans look for 500 conditions, including things like cancer and aneurysms that are sometimes undetected.
“A picture really tells a thousand words,” said Lacy. “Very many, quite serious conditions can be quietly growing inside our bodies while we are still asymptomatic.”
That’s why Lacy believes full body scans will someday be routine, that insurance companies and mainstream clinics will make them standard. He calls our health care system “reactive” and says Prenuvo instead lets people stop what he calls “silent killers.”
“The vast majority of those findings are at an early stage when medical treatment is easy, less expensive and way more likely to be successful for that patient,” said Lacy.
But that thorough detection is among many criticisms some doctors have of Prenuvo. The American College of Radiology is just one professional group that’s against full body scans, saying there’s no evidence they’re effective in prolonging life. It says the scans are expensive and time consuming, and unless patients are at high genetic risk, they’re unlikely to find anything significant. And it says they often cause people with no real issues to worry for nothing.
“Unnecessary testing, unnecessary procedures, unnecessary surgeries. That is the other side of the coin,” said Dr. Benjamin Meyer of Midwest Radiology, who’s used MRIs for years.
Meyer says he’s skeptical of companies like Prenuvo. He says for nearly all patients, common tests like mammograms, colonoscopies and blood screening are just as effective at saving lives.
“There are screening programs that we use for medical conditions,” said Meyer, “And I would highly encourage people to just go with their primary care physician and get those done.”
Meyer says every body has quirks and abnormalities that will never cause problems, and that people with no concerns or symptoms simply don’t need full body images.
“If it's not bothering you, it's fine,” said Anderson, who says her doctor agrees. Since cutting out gluten she again feels great. And she has no regrets.
“I found it valuable and I'm glad I did it,” said Anderson. “But the price is just too high for most people. It's just too expensive. So it's an investment in your health.”
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