Re: alpha particles and lung cancer

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Harry,

With some conflicts I'm not keeping up with radsafe.  I'll try to get back
to this after next Thu.  Meantime, one example of an immune response
indicator to radon in the lung is:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list
_uids=10381841&dopt=Abstract
 and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list
_uids=9307280&dopt=Abstract

Note that Falkenbach is an M.D. at Bad Gastein.  Most of the recent
double-blind medical studies are in Kurortmedizin (Spa Medicine) pubs since
the rad protection industry prevents pub in their literature, this is an
exception and may presage the growing tide of health benefits data; plus
they  have had severely limited research funding for decades. There's enough
in the spa literature to support the interests of the medical/insurance
groups to support specific therapies.  This does NOT include long-term
follow-up re lung cancer, etc.

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
===========================

> Jim M,
> 
> I have been asking you for an explanantion on how alpha particles could be
> hormetic for lung cancer.  A friend from the U.S. sent me this article with
> a possible explanation of hormesis for other diseases, although I still do
> not understand the mechanism.  They claim the skin is the major site for
> hormesis for rheumatic illnesses.  I thought alpha particles could not
> penetrate through the skin?  Do you think the alpha particles are
> irradiating the sweat glands or Langerhans' cell? How would that produce the
> beneficial effects?
> 
> I would still like to see a reference from you showing how alpha particle
> irradiation to the lung is beneficial for protecting against lung cancer.
> The list of articles in the link you sent do not address it.  I know you are
> an engineer and not a biologist, but if you do not have such an article,
> what is your theory?
> 
> Harry Hinks
> harryhinks@hotmail.com
> 
> Falkenbach A, Just G, Soto J
> 
> Gastein Research Institute, Gasteiner Heilstollen Hospital, Bad
> Gastein-Bockstein, Austria.
> 
> The objective was to evaluate whether activity of radon progenies can be
> detected in sweat following speleotherapeutic radon exposure (40 kBq/m3) in
> a warm (38 degrees C) and humid (relative humidity > 70%) environment. A
> group of 11 male patients with spondyloarthropathy (n = 6) or
> non-inflammatory rheumatic diseases (n = 5) underwent a 1-h treatment in the
> gallery of the Gasteiner Heilstollen, and 20 min after leaving the treatment
> area radon progeny activity was measured in sweat by utilizing a special
> filter set. The results suggest that radon is discharged with sweat, causing
> a significant activity of radon and radon progenies on the skin. This
> finding may be important from a clinical point of view, since specialists
> experienced in radon therapy have repeatedly emphasized the importance of
> the degree of radioactivity on the skin for the effectiveness of treatment.
> It has even been claimed that the skin is the major target for radon
> therapy, possibly because of the influence on Langerhans' cell function.
> 
> 
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