Can Full-Body Scans Save Your Life? Journalists Investigate

The personalized medicine industry is rapidly expanding, offering advanced blood tests and full-body scans for proactive health monitoring. Celebrities have publicly shared their positive experiences, with some scans detecting serious conditions like aneurysms. Health journalists Alexa Lardieri and Elina Shirazi personally tested services from Function Health and Prenuvo, respectively, to explore the trend's efficacy and potential drawbacks.

Function Health, co-founded by Dr. Mark Hyman, provides extensive blood panels and partners with Ezra for full-body MRIs, aiming to make preventative care more accessible. Lardieri's tests revealed a vitamin D deficiency and slightly low omega-3 levels, along with a minor thyroid nodule, offering her peace of mind and actionable health advice. Prenuvo offers comprehensive scans at a higher cost, which Shirazi found provided answers for her unexplained symptoms, identifying spondyloarthropathy and a pancreatic anomaly.

While these services promise empowering health information, concerns persist regarding the cost and the potential for incidental findings to cause anxiety. Prenuvo's CEO acknowledges these issues, emphasizing the goal of making advanced diagnostics accessible. Despite the high price tag, the journalists found value in the detailed insights, though accessibility remains a significant barrier for many, positioning these scans as a potential luxury wellness trend.