Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
Maybe you took a fall… or a blow to the head… or even suffered a stroke.
If so, there’s a good chance that you’ve been sent for a CT scan.
Around 62 million Americans get these scans every year – and we’ve been told they’re the only surefire way to see what’s going on inside our heads.
But it looks like CT scans come with a hidden danger we’ve never been warned about.
An international research team has just discovered that CT scans can damage a part of your brain responsible for memory and learning.
That can put you on a path to Alzheimer’s… and it can start with as little as one scan.
The big problem with CT scans won’t come as much of a shock – it’s the radiation.
There’s more and more evidence showing that radiation exposure can lead to serious health issues — including damage to the hippocampus region of the brain
To investigate this further, the researchers exposed mice to chronic low doses of radiation 24 hours per day for a period for 300 days.
At the end of the experiment, the researchers examined the mice’s brains… and what they found was mind-blowing!
The radiation didn’t just damage the hippocampus; it actually changed it on a very basic level.
But what’s more upsetting — these changes resemble features that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there.
The mice were exposed to only a tiny fraction the amount of the radiation you would get from a CT scan.
In fact, the dosage given to the mice was so miniscule, it was over 1,000 times smaller than what most folks get during just one CT scan. And even with this low of a dosage, the researchers still detected major changes in the parts of the hippocampus that’s linked to Alzheimer’s.
The only problem is CT scans aren’t the only source of radiation you’re exposed to. Things like flying on an airplane, going through security scanners and even some consumer products — like smoke detectors, certain TVs and eating produce that has been irradiated — can increase your radiation exposures.
We’re surrounded by so much radiation – from medical imaging and other sources – that experts say our chances of developing Alzheimer’s are set to skyrocket in the next decade.
Now, even many doctors admit that they use tests like X-rays and CT scans more than they probably need to. So any time a test is ordered, it’s always a good idea to talk to your doc about whether it’s necessary and what he’s hoping to find.
And even though we can’t eliminate medical imaging tests completely from our lives, there are some other simple ways to reduce our radiation exposure.
Opt for the pat down at the airport, turn off your television if you’re not using it, and choose organic foods since they’ve not been irradiated.
Live well,
Natalie Moore
Managing editor, Living Well Daily
Ed. Note: Please send your feedback: nmoore@lfb.org – and click here to like us on Facebook.
Sources
[1] Concern that radiation may contribute to development of Alzheimer’s
[2] Reducing the 137Cs-load in the organism of “Chernobyl” children with apple-pectin.
