[ RadSafe ] Scholarly search for the benefits of radon therapy

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

Hi, Patricia.  

The first link worked; the rest all "404"ed.  

I consider that there is a firm foundation for my skepticism about "radon therapy".  The first block is that the vast majority of the promotion, both historic and modern, have been by people whose financial interest in the subject was stronger than their interest in medicine, statistics, or science.  Such people I usually consider guilty (of willing to be, shall we say, "selective" in the data they use).  

The second is that the therapy has, at one time or another, been proclaimed as a treatment for almost everything.  The Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine lists 28 conditions, from Ankylosing Spondylitis to Ulcerative Colitis, and including such vague things as "mobility" and "circulation".  As a rule, the more free-range the claims for a treatment, the less credible they seem.  

The third is the lack of a model.  This is not in and of itself a killing blow, but it sure would be nice.   

It is not impossible to convince me that "radon therapy" provides better than placebo benefits.  The experiment wouldn't even be difficult or expensive to conduct: a double blind study would be fairly easy to design and the apparatus a piece of cake to build.

Another useful experiment would be to do a series of modified whole body counts on people who have received radon therapy, with the specific parts of the body being differentiated.  These counts could be done before the therapy, then repeatedly afterwards for several months (to cover the period where people claim to receive relief from, for example, arthritis).  If there is no increase in activity in the areas where something is supposed to be happening, it would make require some explanation, I would think.  

That these experiments are easy to conceive and would be easy and fairly cheap to do, and yet have not been done, causes me pause.         

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of patricia lewis
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 9:05 AM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Scholarly search for the benefits of radon therapy

I won't spend more time on this as it has been addressed before.
You get what you search for - expand your knowledge base and take off the
blinders.
Other links found at our website.  I'd be happy to address this off-list.
Simply visit one of the many "radon therapy" facilities found around the
world.

One could start here at PubMed (one of many references):
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14673618 Rheumatol
Int.<javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Rheumatol Int.');>2005
Apr;25(3):205-10. Epub 2003 Dec 12.
 Radon therapy for the treatment of rheumatic diseases--review and
meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials.
Falkenbach A<https://mail.google.com/pubmed?term=%22Falkenbach%20A%22%5BAuthor%5D>,
Kovacs J <https://mail.google.com/pubmed?term=%22Kovacs%20J%22%5BAuthor%5D>,
Franke A <https://mail.google.com/pubmed?term=%22Franke%20A%22%5BAuthor%5D>,
Jörgens K<https://mail.google.com/pubmed?term=%22J%C3%B6rgens%20K%22%5BAuthor%5D>,
Ammer K <https://mail.google.com/pubmed?term=%22Ammer%20K%22%5BAuthor%5D>.
 Source

Gasteiner Heilstollen Hospital, 5645, Bad Gastein-Böckstein, Austria.
falke at gasteiner-heilstollen.com
 Abstract OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of radon therapy on pain in
rheumatic diseases.


-- 
Patricia Lewis
Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine
PO Box 67
Boulder MT 59632
406 225-3383 (ofc)
888 890-5860 (ofc toll free)
http://www.radonmine.com
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