Re: Experimental Proof of Hormesis

["Michael Kay" <makay43@home.com>]

To the readers of this list:

If you are interested in the proof that hormesis from ionizing radiation is
a real phenomena, please read

Radiation Hormesis
and
Hormesis With Ionizing Radiation
by
T.D. Luckey
CRC Press

(I do not have further bibliographic data available right now).

The references cited for the cases studies have been verified in  literature
searches. The conclusions reflect the results.

For many years when I was at the University of Missouri Research Reactor
Facility, I irradiated tomato seeds in a cobalt-60 facility. These seeds
were used by schools as part of a science experiment to show the effects of
radiation. Time after time, the lowest dose irradiated seeds (500 rad) gave
larger, healthier, better fruiting plants than the control seeds. Of course,
higher doses (5K, 50K, and 250K) produced deleterious effects, with few of
the 250Krad seeds yielding viable plants.

For almost 100 years (documented in Radiation Hormesis) researchers have
been labeling the lowest dose experimental subjects anomalous. It is these
"anomalous" results that were the expression of radiation hormesis.

"Hormesis With Ionizing Radiation" works up to mammals. It demonstrates
radiation hormesis as a phenomenon is real for mammals.

There have been attempts to show the reality of radiation hormesis by trying
to grow experimental subjects in as radiation-free an environment as can be
made (Ft. Knox once made a golden throne for some political figure to sit on
for a photo, but would not make a room with meter thick walls of gold for
this experiment). Pilot studies indicated that there may be a radiation
deficiency effect that can be demonstrated. However, this is tentative. If a
deficiency syndrome is demonstrable, then the essentiality of radiation for
proper stimulation and development of an organism would be proved. That is
the standard for essentiality of a nutritional substance such as a vitamin
or trace mineral.

Michael Kay

Disclaimer: I was an editor and reference checker for Dr. Luckey for both
books.

Please separate science from politics. Results for a century indicate that
Hormesis by Ionizing Radiation exists. A scientist deals in facts; standard
setting bodies are political creatures and deal with expediency. It often
takes a long time to get through the political investments.

Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo, it is not enough to be persecuted by an
unkind establishment, you must also be right.
--Robert Park



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