How Radiation Causes Cancer

Radiation and the Cancer Process

This day and age there are many people that are concerned with radiation. Radiation has been in the news for many different reasons. Some types of radiation are used to kill and to treat different types of cancer while other types of radiation are actually the causes of different types of cancer. It is interesting to note that radiation can be both a positive and negative things when it comes to cancer and a person really does well to investigate radiation to find out how they can improve or minimize their risk of getting this potentially fatal disease through the different types of radiation.

 X-rays, Gamma Rays and Their Roles in Cancer:

Both x-ray and Gamma rays can come from an organic source in our earth. Our world is surrounded by different radioactive elements but radioactive elements can also be human made as well. When it comes to things such as Gamma rays and x-rays they were both created by humans and they give off nuclear energy. These types of rays are made in nuclear power plants. When these types of rays go through the cell in the human body they can cause the cells to change or to mutate. Quite often, these mutated cells will eventually expire on their own and cause no damage to the body. Other times the same cells can mutate and that mutation can lead to cancer. The reason that many people want to avoid these types of x-rays is because they do not want to do anything that would potentially increase their risk of developing cancer.

 Medical Radiation

Many cancer patients will use radiation therapy as a way to treat their cancer. When a person does receive this type of therapy they get high doses of ionizing radiation. This type of body radiation is used to go straight to the cancerous cells in order to cause their demise. At the same time this type of radiation therapy can cause different changes or mutations in other cells of the human body and then turn it can actually cause a person to develop a different type of cancer.

 Natural Sources

Natural radiation radon is a type of natural radiation. Radon is a type of gas that cannot be seen and has no smell and it is made up of a breakdown of different radioactive chemicals that are found on the earth. These natural elements can be found in things such as soil and rocks. Radon gas has been cited as the most frequent cause of environmental cancers by worldwide health organizations.

 Radiation and You

In reality it is virtually impossible to escape radiation completely. At some point in life every human being is going to have to be exposed to a certain level of radiation when it comes to testing, or their natural environment. In reality the best thing that people can do is try their best to lead healthy lifestyles, and of course get early prevention checks for cancer. While no one wants to get cancer there are many innovating tests that being done, and also there are many lifestyle changes that a person can make in order to lower their risk of getting cancer.