I tried the $2,500 full-body MRI that Kim Kardashian and Cindy Crawford are obsessed with. It may have benefits—but also some major downsides

My typical Thursday routine was out the window because I had committed to a full-body MRI, ready to join the ranks of celebrities and influencers who have gotten on the Prenuvo bandwagon. Prenuvo, whose ethos centers on preventive care, offers customers three MRIs: A torso scan, a head-and-torso scan, or a full-body scan. The company uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan for early signs of disease and doesn’t use ionizing radiation or contrast dyes. 

Founded in 2018 in Vancouver, Prenuvo opened in New York City in April 2023 as part of a massive nationwide expansion following $70 million in series A seed funding. 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki and actress Cindy Crawford are among the elites who have invested in the company. Kim Kardashian also took the scan and received over 3.5 million likes on a post about her experience, calling it a “life saving machine.” 

At a health care conference in October, I met the company’s CEO Andrew Lacy, who said the demand for the scan has been soaring—evident in the bi-coastal expansion in the U.S. Clinics are opening across North America, and the slots are filling up quickly, Erica Ferreira, a senior MRI technologist at Prenuvo, tells me on-site. 

“Some people are just really excited about the preventative approach, and they want to take their health into their own hands. They might have a high family history of cancer and want to check out if they’re predisposed,” Ferreira says, touting its ability to detect tumors one centerimer or larger, aneurysms that have not ruptured yet, and hundreds of conditions. “Or they’re just getting older, and they want a baseline to be able to compare if something were to go wrong in the future.”  

The 60-minute, $2,500 full-body scan I underwent is the most comprehensive option. 

When I entered the building, the team greeted me and the technician talked me through the process. I changed into scrubs, and removed all my jewelry and watch, as any metal would become projectile if accidentally brought into the scan room. I headed into the technologist’s room to put on the headphones and get prepped for the scan (waving to our Fortune video producer as…