Why Do Some Doctors Fear Whole Body Scans?

Andrew Huberman posted on X a few weeks ago that if the cost of a whole body MRI comes down, he can imagine most people would want one. He knows people who saved patients' lives after a scan found a tumor and it was removed. He thought the neurosurgery community would welcome more business, but they did not like it. The public gaining more access to their own health data is scaring some sectors of medicine. Dermatologists and ophthalmologists love AI and more measurements. The Wall Street Journal put something out saying whole body MRI is bad. He assumes a scan is safe, and you do not have to get one. He does not get the logic of calling it bad if the cost is low enough or insurance covers it. Friends in medicine tell him they all know it will be commonplace within 20 months because the cost is coming down, and he does not know why they say 20 and not 24.

The same resistance already happened with blood testing and genetic testing. He remembers the 1980s, when people asked whether you would get your genome mapped, what if you had the Huntington's gene, and whether you would want to know. 60 Minutes ran episodes on the question. Now you take the test if you want to know and skip it if you do not. No one is still talking about whether getting genetics done is worthwhile or scary. It is up to you. Blood work settled the same way.