CT Scan risk | FerrariChat

CT Scan risk

Discussion in 'Health & Fitness' started by rason, May 26, 2013.

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  1. rason

    rason Rookie

    May 26, 2013
    1
    My 5 yr old son had a head CT it turned out to be negative. now I am extremely worried about radiation risks, the dose was 30 mGy, and DLP was 501 on the information sheet ,
    any one had similar experience please advice me how to cope with this fear, I am loosing my mind and on the internet for hours searching for answers? I did not so far find any one telling they got cancer because of radiation , I am terribly worried, please help and thank you
     
  2. Gran Drewismo

    Gran Drewismo F1 Rookie

    Jan 24, 2005
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    Interesting first post. Welcome to Ferrarichat.........?


    P.S. Your kid will be fine.
     
  3. Piper

    Piper Two Time F1 World Champ
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    My nutritionist wife would say to start giving him massive amounts of antioxidants. She's not around at the moment, but she'd probably say alpha lipoic acid, CoQ10, vitamin C. That's what she has me do in similar situations. Around this house, we refuse even dental xrays. But I must have one now and again for my joints.

    I know what it's liked to be a worried father. I feel your pain. I hope you don't kick yourself for consenting to your child's treatment on the advice of a medical professional. As far as I know, the one thing you can do to mitigate after the fact is take massive amounts of antioxidants.

    Wife just came downstairs. She says if it were her (she cannot treat in the state of VA) she would take tocopheral vitamin E first and foremost, magnesium and calcium ascorbate forms of vitamin C second, but not at the same time. The others mentioned above. Get them from a natural store if you can quickly. Vitamin E is best suspended in oil and vitamin C in powder. Please make sure you're consulting a pediatrician on doses. No doctors in this house. Just some well meaning parents.
     
  4. David_S

    David_S F1 World Champ
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    Heaven help him next time he has dental x-rays...
     
  5. Piper

    Piper Two Time F1 World Champ
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    There's really no call for this. CT could be 20mSv and a dental xray is about 0.005mSv. So are you flippantly making fun of a parent's concern over exposing his child to radiation? Or are you unaware of the extreme difference in radiation exposure between the two? I'm roughly assuming both, that you were clueless on the topic and didn't give a crap about the OP. So free post to you, I guess.
     
  6. Gran Drewismo

    Gran Drewismo F1 Rookie

    Jan 24, 2005
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    I believe David was using sarcasm, which doesn't work on FChat.
     
  7. Piper

    Piper Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I recognized it. Just really inappropriate.
     
  8. Bisonte

    Bisonte F1 Veteran
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    NASA just came up with a radiation exposure estimate for astronauts traveling to Mars and back, based on data from a recent rover mission.

    So while there is a cancer risk from getting a single CT scan, I'd say it's very, very small.

    Full article: Astronauts face radiation threat on long Mars trip - WTOP.com
     
  9. Piper

    Piper Two Time F1 World Champ
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    This article from the WSJ quotes a study that would indicate that a single CT scan can cause a cancer in roughly 1/300 women or 1/600 men, if I'm reading it correctly.

    CT Scans Linked to Cancer - WSJ.com

    It seems to me the NASA estimate of a 3% lifetime cancer risk increase from 52 full body CT scans could be wildly optimistic. I would think just the fact that it's a relatively constant bombardment for 9 months each way would be unprecedented. I'm sure they have some way of modeling the data, but it's interesting to me they'd make a claim certain that it's a 3% increase.
     
  10. 4th_gear

    4th_gear F1 Rookie

    Jan 18, 2013
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    The effects of CT scans and other ionizing radiation on people depend not only on apparent radiation dose but also on the age, size of the subject and in particular, the specific types of tissue exposed to radiation.

    Here is the Canadian Govt webpage where it discusses "effective dose" and "tissue weighting factors".

    This is a link for downloading a 2008 British Journal of Radiology paper "Cancer risks from diagnostic radiology".

    It may not be reassuring but it appears many people, including children, do receive similar doses of radiation from CT scans. Where I live, our government doctors seem to avoid CT scans and use MRI or regular X-rays where ultrasound is not suitable. Keep a file on your personal exposure records.

    In the meantime, a useful fact to pay attention to is our individual genetic susceptibility/resistance to developing cancer. The most obvious evidence is familial history of cancer and the types of cancer involved. I have benefited from following the advice from Dr. Peter D'Adamo. He's authored a number of books on dieting, addressing not nutritional benefits but also prescribing health protocols for addressing health risks that are peculiar to a person's genetic makeup. I think this relates to the advice given by Piper's friends.

    IMO, the best approach is to not worry your child as he cannot understand or control his environment and to not worry yourself unduly but to educate yourselves as parents and move forward in a thoughtful manner. There are things we can do in addition to things we cannot change.
     

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