Radiating Fear

Continued from Yesterday

One of the most well-known dangers of radioactive iodine is its potential effects in the thyroid, which takes in iodine for use in making thyroid hormones. However, the thyroid doesn’t know the difference between stable and radioactive iodine, so it is possible the gland takes up radioactive iodine and suffers damage; it would also increase the risk of developing cancer in the near or even distant future.

The prevailing method of protection against this is to fill the thyroid with stable iodine in the form of potassium iodine pills. Much like how probiotics compete with bad bacteria in the gut, stable iodine competes with radioactive iodine in thyroid, so filling the thyroid up before radioactive exposure means less, if any, radioactive iodine absorbs into the thyroid. The Japanese government has distributed potassium iodine pills to those people in the danger zones near Fukishima.

Along the west coast of the United States, as well as even inland, potassium iodine pills are in short supply due to sharply increased demand by people in those areas. This has contributed to increased searches for natural products that can also protect against radiation. The main issue here is the U.S. government and most radiation scientists have stated the risk of any significant exposure on even the U.S. west coast is very minimal. In fact, the EPA has tested samples from RadNet filters in California and Washington and has publicly stated the levels detected were “hundreds of thousands to million of times below levels of concern.” Further, monitors in Hawaii have detected only “miniscule levels of an isotope that is also consistent with the Japanese nuclear incident.” Again, far below any level of concern to humans.

The agency made a point that the normal background radiation levels coming from the environment (rocks, the sun, etc.) are 100,000-times higher than what has been detected coming from Japan. A roundtrip, international flight also subjects you to higher radiation than is coming to our shores from Japan. The levels detected along the Pacific Coast are predictably dominated by iodine-131, with lesser amount of iodine-132, cesium-137 and tellurium-132.

Continued Tomorrow:

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2011/03/radiating-fears.aspx

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/