2008 - Age of Awakening / 2016 - Age of disclosures / 2021 - Age of Making Choices & Separation / Next Stage - Age of Reconnection! Heretic

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Low dose radiation is healthy!

What has cholesterol-heart disease theory and anti nuclear power environmentalism got in common?  It turns out - a lot!      8-:)

I came across a fascinating conference presentation by Philippe Duport on low level radiation in Ottawa University, January 2002.

Basically, turns out that radiation level between 10 to 1000 times stronger than the typical sea level natural background,  reduces the risk of cancer and extends the lifespan!   Some slides:

Note: 0.2Gy (Gray) is 20rad which is a rather high dosage (lethal dose for humans is 100rad), see also Wiki.

30% lung cancer reduction after 0.15Gy dose.

28% longer lifespan in mice at 35 and 70 times the natural background radiation!
Human cancer studies show a similar risk reduction, for example British radiologists have a lesser risk (by about 30%) than their non-radiologist colleagues.  Similar situation with Canadian radiation workers, 12% and 26% lower SIR (Standardized Incidence Ratio) of cancer in women and men, respectively,  28 and 35% lower cancer mortality rate (SMR=Standardized Mortality Rate) in women and men, respectively,  38 and 41% lower all causes mortality rate (SMR=Standardized Mortality Rate) in women and men, respectively (see slides 36,37).  It is interesting to note that the total mortality rate decreases more with (low level) radiation exposure than the cancer mortality, indicating that the protective effect of low level ionizing radiation against many other causes of death (cardiovascular?)  may be even stronger than against cancer!

The next slides illustrates the effect of rising natural radiation level with altitude above the sea level (due to cosmic ray effect).

High elevation = higher radiation = less cancer!
Similar map appears when plotting cancer incidence maps versus natural radiation map due to radon emission from the ground.


More Radon = more radiation = less cancer!


Conclusions (slides 45,46):

  • Ionizing radiation is part of life.
  • Sources of ionizing radiation are naturally everywhere, in food, air, water and our body.
  • Life appeared and evolved in a radioactive environment.
  • At environmental levels, there is no evidence of increased risk with increased dose, even when annual doses exceed current dose limits for radiation workers
  • In fact, there are indications of decreased risk of cancer and non-malignant diseases at doses and dose rates well above current regulatory limits for the public and the workers.
  • Populations in high background areas tend to have less cancers than those in low background areas.
  • Low dose radiation is used in medicine: radon spas, cancer treatment and prevention.

This is supported by many other sources, studies and statistics, for example, see Figure 3 at  http://radiation-hormesis.com/

Optimum health = 100 times higher radiation than typ background!

------
Refs:

http://radiation-hormesis.com/







8 comments :

Peter said...

Stan, I've been making a point of buying wild caught Pacific salmon since Fukushima. Some of the radiation hysteria would be very funny if it wasn't so sad. I live 15 miles from the pressurised water reactor at Sizewell B, a melt down would pauperise me and force me to leave my home (along with the rest of the people of Norfolk and Suffolk) whether I wanted to or not, just to keep some sort of a job. It would be worrying, if I was the worrying sort!

I would agree that background radiation would have been a lot higher when life got off the ground 4 billion years ago.

Peter

Unknown said...

Fascinating! For some reason, Jeanne Calment popped into my head. She smoked two cigarettes a day.I thought maybe it was the olive oil and chocolate that was responsible for her longevity. It could have been that the cigarettes were a perfect hormetic dose. .

Stan Bleszynski said...

Hi Peter,
Good for you! Could you send me some topsoil from your area to boost my exposure? It would help, we have very low background and very little radon, I measured it with my Geiger, I am a bit concerned. 8-:)

Stan Bleszynski said...

Oliver,

Possibly, or it could been her French diet of olive oil, port wine, and one kilogram (2.2 lb) of chocolate every week ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment ).

Raf said...

Interesting for sure, but it might be prudent to ask, as Ray Peat suggested in his Jan. 2011 newsletter, who do the authors work for. Some like T.D Luckey have strong ties to nuclear industry.

Ray Peat also brings out that maps of Alzheimer incidence and radon emissions match up and high radon and Parkinsons are connected.

Best regards and keep on searching,

Raf

Zorica Vuletic said...

I love your blog. :) Happy reading, indeed. hehe

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting a link to my website ... About to be turned into a WordPress site.
http://radiation-hormesis.com

As I type on my android I am soaking in a radon bath. I bought 3 revigators 1 from 1918 2 from 1928. The 1928 ones are stronger. They are lined with uranium ore and I fill with water, wait 2 weeks and pour in bathtub and add hot.
Radioactivity is 2 uSv/hr 1mm above water. Mixed in the tub it is about 0.5 microsievert/hr .

Feels great ... Sooths arthritis ... No wonder Europe and Asia used it for thousands of years.

Great blog. Well done.

Ian Soutar

Galina L. said...

There a lot of conditions are treated in the North Caucasus resorts like Pyatigorsk with a mineral water baths which contains radon gas. There are also dry baths - they put you in a capsule, you get a mask to breath a regular air, and the capsule is filled with a radon(I have no idea about the concentration). It helped me a lot when I had a big eczema flare in my 20-s, people with arthritis, asthma, some other inflammatory conditions were being helped as far as I remember. People were afraid the treatment may be a cancer-promoting on a long run.