Excess medical imaging radiation may cause cancer

Any loving parent would do whatever they could to help their sick or injured child.  That includes ordering any tests and medical imaging studies.  There is a recent move in the medical community to establish stricter guidelines for the use of CT scans for children after mounting evidence that shows these scans may potentially cause cancer.   Up until now, there aren’t well enough defined standards for CT scans and there is tremendous variation in the amounts of radiation that patients are exposed to.  In some cases, some CT scanners were exposing patients with up to 440 times the amount of radiation in a single x-ray.

This move follows recently revised guidelines in the US for increasing the starting age of yearly mammograms from 40 to 50 years of age.  This has created a lot of confusion and even anger from women who fear that there will be more cases of undetected breast cancer just because health organizations are trying to save money.  However, the radiation that breast tissue is exposed to during mammograms could actually increase the risk of breast cancer for high-risk patients.  Furthermore, starting annual mammography screening at too young of an age  only increases the amount of radiation exposure.

We have to change our attitudes about medical imaging and the belief that they are totally benign.  We now know that radiation from these tests increases the risk of cancer and that insisting on unnecessary MRIs, CT scans, and x-rays is not only expensive but potentially deadly.  However, we also must remember that these tests save lives too.  The point is not to avoid all medical imaging, but rather to use it only when needed and to do more research into safer medical imaging techniques such as digital breast thermography.

Tags: breast cancer, burnaby, CT scan, digital breast thermography, drvictorchan, mammogram, mammography, medical imaging, MRI, naturopath, performax, performax health group, radiation, thermography, vancouver, x-ray