Five Ways Radiations Damage Your Body

Ionizing radiation can result in severe complications over our body as it has a high power to reach the body cells and damage the DNA or genetic material within them. Our cells have sufficient power to repair and prevent any further damage to the body but in certain cases the cells of the body result in cancerous conditions rather than being dead. 

1. The radiation can damage our body if you are exposed to high levels and cause acute damaging effects on the body like radiation syndrome. High-level exposure of radiations to the body over a short period can result in symptoms like vomiting and nausea within few hours and ultimately death over weeks or months. Radiation sickness or acute radiation syndrome can occur if a person is exposed to more than 75 rad or 0.75gray over minutes or hours. This amount of radiation can be exposed to the body if you have 18000 chest X-rays over the entire body repeatedly. It is a rare type of syndrome which occurs due to extreme events such as accidental handling of a radioactive source, rupture of radiation material or nuclear explosion.
2. The high-level exposure of radiation on acute levels can also result in skin burns leading to erythema where the skin turns red, peeling off of the skin i.e. dry desquamation or formation of blisters i.e. moist desquamation. Effects of radiation on the skin are commonly seen if the skin is exposed to low energy level gamma radiation, beta radiation or X-ray. This radiation energy is deposited over the skin surface. If the radiation is more than 300 rad it results in erythema while the radiation dose of more than 1200 rad results in blister formation. Hair loss or epilation can also occur if the radiation dose is more than 500 rad.
3. Radiation can affect the blood system if the radiation exposure is around 100 REMs. If the radiation exposure is such it can result in a reduced number of lymphocyte count leading to increased susceptibility of the patient to infections. This condition is termed as mild radiation sickness which results in initial symptoms similar to flu. These symptoms are usually unnoticed until the time blood count starts dropping. The symptoms of excessive exposure to radiation can persist for 10-15 years with an increased risk to suffer from lymphoma and leukemia. 
4. In long-term chronic cases, radiation damage can cause cardiovascular disease if exposed at 1500-5000 REMs. It immediately damages the minor blood vessels and can ultimately result in heart failure leading to death. Similar to the heart, brain cells do not repair, instead they get damage at higher exposure more than 5000 REMs. The radiation kills the minor blood vessels along with the nerve cells leading to seizures and ultimately death.
5. Radiation results in somatic effects i.e. carcinogenic which results in cancer especially in patients have occupational exposure to radiation. Radiation is a physical carcinogen which is seen to result in cancer. Such as uranium miners suffer from lung cancer, radium dial painters suffer from bone cancer, radiation therapy patients suffer from thyroid cancer, leukemia or breast cancer, radiologists suffer from skin cancer and bomb survivors suffer from leukemia.

Radiations can damage different parts of the body including gastrointestinal system, reproductive system, cardiovascular system, blood system, nervous system, skin, hair, thyroid, and many others parts of the body so you need to be highly cautious about the consequences if you are planning to undergo radiation therapy and get exposed to radiations frequently as your occupation.

Until Next Time,

Team Doctor ASKY!