Nurture With Ionizing Radiation: A Provocative Hypothesis
Author:
- 1 May 1999
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Nutrition and Cancer
- Vol. 34 (1) , 1-11
Abstract
Whole body exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation appears to decrease overall cancer incidence. The data come from at least eight large studies of populations exposed to various forms of radioactive material and from more limited studies of occupational and environmental exposures to plutonium, radium, and radon. Earlier experiments in animals strongly support the protective effect that is apparent in humans. Also, experimental reports from invertebrates kept in radiation-deficient conditions suggest that ionizing radiation is essential for optimal growth and development. The combined evidence points to the presence of no-adverse-effect thresholds and of hormesis or beneficial effects at doses below those thresholds. Furthermore, according to the geological record, the high background radiation under which life first evolved has progressively attenuated up to the present. Thus it is intriguing to postulate that modern humans may live under conditions of partial deficiency of ionizing radiation; low doses...Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mortality Through 1990 Among White Male Workers at the Los Alamos National LaboratoryHealth Physics, 1994
- Concerns With Low-Level Ionizing RadiationMayo Clinic Proceedings, 1994
- Radiation hormesisBritish Homoeopathic journal, 1994
- Mortality and occupational exposure to radiation: first analysis of the National Registry for Radiation Workers.BMJ, 1992
- Cancer Risk After Iodine-131 Therapy for HyperthyroidismJNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1991
- Influence on Cell Proliferation of Background Radiation Or Exposure to Very Low, Chronic Gamma RadiationHealth Physics, 1987
- Delayed Effects of Low-dose Radiation on Cellular Immunity in Atomic Bomb Survivors Residing in the United StatesHealth Physics, 1987
- Leukaemia Incidence in the U.S. Dial WorkersHealth Physics, 1983
- Physiological Benefits from Low Levels of Ionizing RadiationHealth Physics, 1982
- Delayed Radiation Effects in Atomic-Bomb SurvivorsScience, 1969