by Dr. Adam Seigers, Medical Health Contributor
When the doctor suggests a test, probably the last thing on your mind is that test might cause you harm.
But the fact of the matter is many thousands of cancers are attributable to medical testing each year due to the radiation implicit in these tests.
When we talk about radiation, we can be referring to anything from heat from a toaster oven, to microwaves from a microwave oven, to ionizing radiation that comes from the sun.
Similar to the radiation produced by the sun, radiation produced by x rays, CT scans, mammograms, and nuclear medicine tests is invisible and alters our DNA resulting in cancer. Radiation exposure is dosed in units called the millisievert.
These units help to compare different radiation exposures.For instance, exposure to say an atomic bomb might produce exposures of 50 millisieverts (mSv). A single CT scan perhaps 10 mSv, an x ray or mammogram 0.7 mSv and a bone density test perhaps 0.01 mSv.
It is important to recognize that every year we are exposed to about 3 mSv of background radiation found in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Putting things into perspective, this means that a CT scan of the abdomen would be like an extra 10 years of background radiation; a chest x ray, 10 days of radiation; and a bone density test, just three hours of radiation.
To reduce your radiation exposure ask your doctor if the test is really necessary.
Are you willing to accept some uncertainty in your diagnosis? Is an alternative test available?
If so, you can probably reduce your medical radiation exposure.
For more information and a thorough comparison of the radiation exposures from different medical tests, please visit: www.radiologyinfo. org, or contact your primary care provider for more information.
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Dr. Seigers is a physician with Faxton St. Luke’s Adirondack Community Physicians (ACP) Boonville Medical Offices on Rte. 12.
