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Did Your Last Doctor Visit Increase Your Alzheimer’s Risk?
To many people, CT scans seem like a perfectly normal part of a medical exam. Not for me. I avoid x-rays of all kinds as much as possible because they increase cancer risk.
Now it appears that CT scans make you more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, too. . .
Continued below…
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A Special Message from Lee Euler, Editor
Could your blood sugar
use some quick help?
Before you answer, consider this: Blood sugar is the #1 factor for good health and long life.
Out-of-control blood sugar is linked to every serious degenerative disease on the Top 10 Killers list. It harms every important organ in your body, including your heart, brain, eyes, kidneys – even your sex life!
So today I’m excited to introduce a new natural solution to high blood sugar – and I’m not talking about changing the way you eat or shedding excess pounds. Of course, we all know we should do those things, but meanwhile, here’s a quick, easy way to support healthy blood sugar right now.
Keep reading to learn all about this “fast first aid for
your blood sugar”. . .
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Massive Doses of Radiation
A CT scan (computerized tomography) consists of x-ray images recorded from various angles and analyzed by a computer to produce images of cross sections of the body. Because of the wealth of visual data supplied in a CT scan, it offers much more detail than a normal x-ray.
The use of tests like CT scans has increased significantly during the past decade. US doctors now perform anywhere from 60 to 80 million CT scans a year. And a third of those are scans of the head.
That’s a lot of radiation. A CT scan typically conveys 200 times more ionizing radiation than a regular x-ray.
A growing number of studies show that this exposure to radiation from medical equipment may be setting us up for a bigger risk of Alzheimer's disease and other brain abnormalities.
How Radiation Affects the Brain
The problem starts with the way this type or radiation interferes with the brain’s supply of new neurons – brain cells that are continually regenerated and are necessary for making the brain connections that play an important role in memory formation.
Under normal circumstances, new neurons are formed from cells in a part of the brain known as the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus – an area located in the hippocampus, generally considered the brain’s memory center.
Lab studies show that the kind of radiation found in a CT scan can kill off some of these neurons – causing them to undergo apoptosis, a type of cellular self-destruction. One investigation revealed that 48 hours after being exposed to CT-style radiation, the cells available to be turned into new neurons had shrunk by more than 90 percent. And the number of cells that could be turned into new neurons was still reduced months after the radiation exposure.1
One or Two Scans Aren’t Too Bad
According to researcher Stefan J. Kempf, Ph.D., who has studied brain changes linked to radiation, "[CT scan] exposures are low dose and as long as we talk about one or a few exposures in a lifetime I do not see cause for concern. What concerns me is that modern people may be exposed several times in their lifetime and that we don't know enough about the consequences of accumulated doses."
Dr. Kempf’s research has shown that radiation from a CT scan can alter cellular proteins in the brain in a way that interferes with the brain’s ability to accommodate new learning experiences.2 These changes, he says, mirror the destructive processes that take place during a memory-destroying condition like Alzheimer’s disease.
Best Ways to Protect Yourself
You can – and should – take a number of precautions to protect yourself against the radiation of a CT scan.
One natural precaution you should take is to eat a diet filled with fruits and vegetables. For instance, research shows that a substance in rhubarb can protect against injuries in the brain resulting from radiation and help neurons survive radiation.3
Another study shows that DIM (3,3'-diindolylmethane), a natural compound found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, can protect against the effects of radiation. And DIM has also been shown to help protect the body from cancer.
Of course, most importantly, you should avoid unnecessary CT scans. Make sure there’s a very solid medical reason for a scan before you let yourself be exposed.
Best Regards,
Lee Euler
Publisher
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