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Radiation hormesis is the conjecture that a low level of ionizing radiation (i.e., near the level of Earth's natural background radiation) helps "immunize" cells against DNA damage from other causes (such as free radicals or larger doses of ionizing radiation), and decreases the risk of cancer. The theory proposes that such low levels activate ...
Ionizing radiation is generally harmful and potentially lethal to living things but can have health benefits in radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer and thyrotoxicosis. Its most common impact is the induction of cancer with a latent period of years or decades after exposure.
There is a threshold dose which causes clinical radiation damage of cells in the body. [5] As the dose increases, the severity of injury increases. [5] This also impairs tissue recovery. [5] The ICRP also describes how cancer develops following radiation exposure. [5] This happens via DNA damage response processes. [5]
Ionizing radiation may be used to treat other cancers, but this may, in some cases, induce a second form of cancer. [74] Radiation can cause cancer in most parts of the body, in all animals, and at any age, although radiation-induced solid tumors usually take 10–15 years, and can take up to 40 years, to become clinically manifest, and ...
Ionizing radiation is used in a wide variety of fields such as medicine, nuclear power, research, and industrial manufacturing, but is a health hazard if proper measures against excessive exposure are not taken. Exposure to ionizing radiation causes cell damage to living tissue and organ damage.
Radiolysis of intracellular water by ionizing radiation creates peroxides, which are relatively stable precursors to hydroxyl radicals. 60%–70% of cellular DNA damage is caused by hydroxyl radicals, [3] yet hydroxyl radicals are so reactive that they can only diffuse one or two molecular diameters before reacting with cellular components.
But for low doses (1–100 mSv) the predicted elevated risks are only 1.001 to 1.04 and excess cancer cases, if present, cannot be detected due to confounding factors, errors and biases. [21] [22] [23] In particular, variations in smoking prevalence or even accuracy in reporting smoking cause wide variation in excess cancer and measurement ...
Some effects of ionizing radiation on human health are stochastic, meaning that their probability of occurrence increases with dose, while the severity is independent of dose. [2] Radiation-induced cancer, teratogenesis, cognitive decline, and heart disease are all stochastic effects induced by ionizing radiation.