A new report released by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement reveals that Americans' exposure to radiation has increased more than 600 percent over the last three decades. Most of that increase has come from patients' exposure to radiation through medical imaging scans such as CT scans and mammograms.
Most patients have no awareness of the dangers of ionizing radiation due to medical imaging scans. Virtually no patients -- and few doctors -- realize that one CT scan exposes the body to the equivalent of several hundred X-rays.
Most women undergoing mammograms have no idea that the radiation emitted by mammography machines actually causes cancer by exposing heart and breast tissue to dangerous ionizing radiation that directly causes DNA damage.
Even low doses of radiation can add up to significant increases in lifelong cancer risk. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2007) found that survivors of the 1945 atomic bombs unleashed on Japan during World War II still faced significant increases in lifetime cancer risk. And the levels of radiation to which these particular study subjects were exposed is equivalent to receiving only two or three CT scans, explains an ABC News story (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cancer...).
O. Mahogany said...
I absolutely agree with you on this one. I am weary of any form of radiation on the human body. I respect other's decisions to weigh their options regarding this matter. The depression of illness coupled with the desperation patients feel when they are pressured by time, the needs of their dependants or family and various medical procedures can make decision-making a cloudy process.It just feels wrong. Down to the basics, which I humbly admit is where I revel in textbook science,it simply feels wrong.
It feels wrong to excite cells to the point of dislodging electrons and breaking down molecules and damaging some tissue for the hope of saving other tissue. It sounds like cooking my body. I feel how strong my body is throughout infections over time but I wouldn't bet on it's strength during something as powerful as radiation. Radiation is strange. Even when it's path is directed I can only see it's effects being widespread. Even if the cells can repair themselves, how long will it take? What will be lost while waiting? External sores leave marks. Wouldn't repaired tissue breakdown over time giving us a jumpstart to our originally intended death?
As to breast cancer I pray I may never come across that diagnosis. But that's exactly where I lay down the law. I am determined to eat as beautifully as I wish to feel, live as stress free as god had intended and leave the rest to the "super genes" my parents bestowed.
Not everyone is born healthy. Not everyone will die in good health. So it's safe to assume we aren't all due to live a long life.
1 comment:
I absolutely agree with you on this one. I am weary of any form of radiation on the human body. I respect other's decisions to weigh their options regarding this matter. The depression of illness coupled with the desperation patients feel when they are pressured by time, the needs of their dependants or family and various medical procedures can make decision-making a cloudy process.
It just feels wrong. Down to the basics, which I humbly admit is where I revel in textbook science,it simply feels wrong.
It feels wrong to excite cells to the point of dislodging electrons and breaking down molecules and damaging some tissue for the hope of saving other tissue. It sounds like cooking my body. I feel how strong my body is throughout infections over time but I wouldn't bet on it's strength during something as powerful as radiation. Radiation is strange. Even when it's path is directed I can only see it's effects being widespread. Even if the cells can repair themselves, how long will it take? What will be lost while waiting? External sores leave marks. Wouldn't repaired tissue breakdown over time giving us a jumpstart to our originally intended death?
As to breast cancer I pray I may never come across that diagnosis. But that's exactly where I lay down the law. I am determined to eat as beautifully as I wish to feel, live as stress free as god had intended and leave the rest to the "super genes" my parents bestowed.
Not everyone is born healthy. Not everyone will die in good health. So it's safe to assume we aren't all due to live a long life.
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