In a message dated 11/2/2007 10:54:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Does  I-131 radiation treatment cause other problems for the body?  >>>>
I certainly feel that it does. It is difficult to believe that a dose of  
radioactive iodine large enough to kill the gland is not going to wreak havoc  
elsewhere in the system. There is no minimum dose of radiation that does not  
cause some damage to the cells exposed. 
 
Too often, Mainstream Medicine has taken a cavalier attitude toward  the 
risks that  are it subjects patients to, in general; but to the  intrinsic risks 
of ionizing radiation in particular. 
 
The History of Medicine is filled with such horror stories as the wide  
spread us a radioactive x-ray contrast material (Thorotrast)  that was  later found 
to cause cancer in a large proportion of the patients it was given  to. Well 
baby exams once included x-ray fluoroscopy, a procedure even  more dangerous 
than plane x-rays and which was done during the life  stage particularly 
vulnerable to damaging effects of radiation. 
 
Adolescents and children have been treated with damaging doses of  x-rays for 
things such as acne and tonsillitis.  Because of the  exposure of the thyroid 
gland, thyroid cancers may show up decades  later.
 
Of much concern is the three tissues that preferentially take up iodine  
(radioactive or not): these include the Gut, the Thyroid, and Breast. It has  been 
established that x-ray  procedures, such as mammography, increase the  rate 
of breast cancers; and some women carry a gene that greatly  increases Breast 
sensitivity to the carcinogenic effects of radiation.  <<<<< 
 
   Once your 
thyroid has been removed, does your body go to  underactive functions if you 
were overactive before?  >>>>
 
Unfortunately, too often, the resultant Hypothyroidism that  destruction of 
the Thyroid causes is inadequately treated; and the patients are  allowed to 
languor in this state for the remainder of their  (often shortened) life.  
 
Doc Don
 
(AKA D. Michael, MD, PC)







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