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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe Are Giving Ourselves Cancer
DESPITE great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Increasingly, we and many other experts believe that an important culprit may be our own medical practices: We are silently irradiating ourselves to death.
The use of medical imaging with high-dose radiation CT scans in particular has soared in the last 20 years. Our resulting exposure to medical radiation has increased more than sixfold between the 1980s and 2006, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements. The radiation doses of CT scans (a series of X-ray images from multiple angles) are 100 to 1,000 times higher than conventional X-rays.
Of course, early diagnosis thanks to medical imaging can be lifesaving. But there is distressingly little evidence of better health outcomes associated with the current high rate of scans. There is, however, evidence of its harms.
The relationship between radiation and the development of cancer is well understood: A single CT scan exposes a patient to the amount of radiation that epidemiologic evidence shows can be cancer-causing. The risks have been demonstrated directly in two large clinical studies in Britain and Australia. In the British study, children exposed to multiple CT scans were found to be three times more likely to develop leukemia and brain cancer. In a 2011 report sponsored by Susan G. Komen, the Institute of Medicine concluded that radiation from medical imaging, and hormone therapy, the use of which has substantially declined in the last decade, were the leading environmental causes of breast cancer, and advised that women reduce their exposure to unnecessary CT scans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/we-are-giving-ourselves-cancer.html
frazzled
(18,402 posts)Fortunately, I never took hormone therapy and have never personally had a CT scan. But I was creeped because my husband had several of them after an accident he had.
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)via air water and food.. tiny bits of so many different poisons.
Cancer correlation? I would bank on it.
2naSalit
(86,889 posts)the fact that MANY of the "fresh" veggies, fruits and BERRIES we get out of season, and tomatoes in general are "irradiated" to prolong shelf life. I don't eat anything from the Watsonville/Salinas/Castroville, CA since they started that process in the 1980s. That fact never makes it to the label... and all those plastic linings inside of cans and plastic wrappers, it's all in our food as well as our clothes...
I think an article like the one in the OP is partially a scare tactic to get people to avoid getting imagine, those who really need it, because of the ACA and all the folks who can now get the actual services they need.
just sayin'
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)2naSalit
(86,889 posts)I was just expanding on the vitriol some alleged Drs. have used to argue against the ACA. Just speculation on my part... don't know if I would give it the high honor of CT!
But then again... there's always this to ponder...
canoeist52
(2,282 posts)Don't point the finger at pollution producers and pesticide manufacturers.
Maraya1969
(22,509 posts)to get them and instead gets thermodynamic imaging. Of course that is not covered by insurance.
I have had about 2 and I am 56. But if it were up to my doctors I would have had 10 or more by now.
CrispyQ
(36,552 posts)Last year I think I paid $150 for just a chest scan. The year before I did the face, neck & torso scan & it was about $400, but they had a payment plan.
I think the medical industry is xray happy. Dentists definitely are.
phylny
(8,393 posts)CrispyQ
(36,552 posts)The technician asked me, "Which of your medical professionals is keeping track of how much radiation you are exposed to?" I laughed.
I'd like to know why you have to have dental xrays every year? I've had three dentists/hygienists over the past 10 years & if you don't agree to the annual xrays, they will not clean your teeth.
randome
(34,845 posts)And increasing cancer rates. The tyranny of food.
I doubt many people have CT scans.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]
Archae
(46,369 posts)My cat Charlotte looked me over.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)cute
progressoid
(50,009 posts)Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)Ten years ago. I don't buy this at all.
It's obviously all the fatty foods and sugars we've been eating that's killing us.
This sounds like woo nonsense to me.
TheMightyFavog
(13,770 posts)NJCher
(35,793 posts)you pretty much have to have insurance--and think about how up until ACA, how many have not had insurance.
Cher
mohan99
(1 post)This article does not represent current state of knowledge in this field, and makes many misleading statements. I have
presented a line-by-line criticism of the article in my blog which is available at:
http://are-we-really-giving-ourselves-cancer.blogspot.com/
CT scans are safe, and the present concerns regarding radiation dose from CT scans are not justified by any evidence.
Holly_Hobby
(3,033 posts)He says that cancer is a lifestyle disease, genes are turned on or off by food, water, and air contaminants and amount of physical activity and stress.
ananda
(28,891 posts)When the scarcity principle is at work, people grab for too much ...
whatever that "too much" means for them. And it just about
always turns into some kind of cancer, literally or figuratively.
Cancer is the great metaphor for the American dystopia of today.