• Question: how does radiation used in medicine affect your body and what makes it so dangerouse?

    Asked by isita3012 to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 20 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Isita – see your other questions – because it causes mutations! Radiation can hit DNA and damage it.

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Radiation is used in radiatiotherapy and as Robert says, damages DNA. We try to use it damage the DNA of cancer cells so that they will die. We can also use a form of electromagnetic radiation in medical imaging (X-rays) but this is also potentially dangerous for the same reason. This is why the doctor leaps behind a screen when they take the X-ray!

      A friend of mine once had some radiosiotope therapy to treat her over-active thyroid – she was given some radioactive iodine to drink which was picked up by the thyroid cells and the radiation destroyed them and made her thyroid less active. She had to stay at home for two weeks because she was radioactive! But this kind of treatment is quite specific because it targeted her thyroid cells and not other parts of her body.

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Hi isita,

      it is mostly dangerous if you are exposed to radiation frequently. While the patients are quite safe, it is mostly the doctors that work with the radiation daily that are at a risk.

      As Robert said- radiation can cause mutations. In cancer therapy that is done on purpose- if the DNA gets damaged too much, the cancer cells kill themselves. Ironically, radiation can also cause cancer. It is a bit of a double edged sword.

      In diagnostic applications the dose is much lower and the aim is not to introduce mutations. Most of the radiation does not affect your body at all.

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