hello, recently I had a cat scan of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis, and also a barium swallow. should I be concerned about getting cancer from all that radiation?? I amonly 27
That's really very little radiation. Experts feel very comfortable taking scans when needed. They give off much less radiation than most people realize. Flying regularly in high altitudes for a year causes more radiation absorption than a CAT (CT). And an xray is but a fraction of a CT. Scans also fill a quite valuable niche in that health care is dramatically improved by finding problems otherwise not seen. It's true that you'd not want unnecessary scans especially as a child. For example a child who has a childhood cancer who has CTs every few weeks then months then yearly for life would want to be very cautious about disease caused by treatment including chemo and radiation and scans.
Dr. Manning wrote a post on the subject. In it she says, "The best way for an adult to reduce unnecessary risk from radiation exposure is to not perform unnecessary exams. CT is a fabulous imaging device. It is often the best way to diagnose or assess a disease. CT clearly saves lives. A necessary CT should never be withheld for fear of radiation exposure." http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2012/06/21/radiation-exposure-from-me…
I hope this will help relieve the stress caused by worry about radiation and I hope you are otherwise well.
Reply # - June 14, 2015, 10:33 AM
That's really very little
That's really very little radiation. Experts feel very comfortable taking scans when needed. They give off much less radiation than most people realize. Flying regularly in high altitudes for a year causes more radiation absorption than a CAT (CT). And an xray is but a fraction of a CT. Scans also fill a quite valuable niche in that health care is dramatically improved by finding problems otherwise not seen. It's true that you'd not want unnecessary scans especially as a child. For example a child who has a childhood cancer who has CTs every few weeks then months then yearly for life would want to be very cautious about disease caused by treatment including chemo and radiation and scans.
Dr. Manning wrote a post on the subject. In it she says, "The best way for an adult to reduce unnecessary risk from radiation exposure is to not perform unnecessary exams. CT is a fabulous imaging device. It is often the best way to diagnose or assess a disease. CT clearly saves lives. A necessary CT should never be withheld for fear of radiation exposure." http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2012/06/21/radiation-exposure-from-me…
I hope this will help relieve the stress caused by worry about radiation and I hope you are otherwise well.
Janine