WHAT RADIATION THERAPY DOES TO THE BODY (PART 4)

Posted on 17/06/2014 by CA Care

Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

Our search for answers to what radiation does to your body takes us to review LIFE OVER CANCER written by an Integrative Oncologist, Dr Keith Block, MD who is the Director of Integrative Medical Education at the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine and Medical Director of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment in Evanston, Illinois.

This is what we found in the book on the dangers of radiation therapy:

• Radiation therapy delivers a powerful dose of X-rays to kill cancer cells. It is used most in the care of patients with early breast and prostate cancer. But because the intensity of this radiation is many times stronger than that of diagnostic X-rays, it can harm normal cells, too, especially in patients with advanced cancers who are receiving palliative radiotherapy to shrink recurrent tumours. In this case, immune cells (lymphocytes) in particular may become impaired, making the body more vulnerable to other diseases.
• Other common side effects of radiation include fatigue, eating problems, emotional distress, nausea, vomiting, bloating, discomfort in the neck or throat, and skin changes such as itching, blistering, toughening, and darkening.

The effects of radiation depend on where it is targeted…some main points:

• Radiation to the abdomen and pelvis can cause radiation enteritis, which is characterized by inflammation of the intestines with severe diarrhea.
• Radiation to the chest or breast can inflame the esophagus, causing difficulty swallowing.
• Radiation to the breast can result in a painful skin reaction.
• Radiation to the head, neck, and mouth can cause fungal infections in the mouth in addition to the usual irritation of the muscous membranes.
• Radiation to the whole-brain can leave patients with cognitive and physical deficits.
• Radiation to the lungs zaps so much normal tissue (its breathing and its attendant up-and-down movement of the chest causes healthy tissue to move into the X-rays’ path) that it leads to sometimes irreversible lung damage.

Elsewhere in the book, we gained an insight as to why radiotherapy and chemotherapy may not work for cancer patients:

• Radiation and many chemotherapy drugs kill malignant cells by generating lethal oxidative stress. That is, they generate an avalanche of free radicals that the cells are destroyed. The problem is that there are always some survivors. Cancer cells that are exposed long-term to free radical levels that are high, but not high enough to kill them, adapt. In a perverse case of Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” some cancer cells may mutate in a way that makes them more and more resistant to treatment. If even a few develop resistance to treatment, all of their descendents have it too.
• Indeed, cancer’s ability to continually adapt is one reason why chemotherapy and radiation are not more effective against cancer: the treatments also produce free radicals that support the disease process, allowing any cells that survive the barrage of radiation or chemotherapy to thrive.

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

It is extremely tragic and incomprehensible that the medical (or cancer) establishment still uses ionizing radiation that is clearly proven and known to be carcinogenic (as established by the International Agency for Research on Cancer).It is also inconceivable that such conventional cancer treatments should cause so much pain, agony and money and then the patient has to suffer another form of cancer, heart disease or disorders to the bones, etc. Hence the cycle of treatment has to be repeated.

Is this why conventional cancer treatments is referred to as “the Cancer Industry?” Is this healing?

We welcome your opinion.