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Forbes - Hormesis article link "A Pinch of Poison"
Hi All:
An article of note from Forbes Life. See link below to full article. An
excerpt follows the link.
Stewart Farber
<url: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2003/1222/236.html>
============================================
EXCERPT:
"Forbes Life A Pinch of Poison Emily Lambert, 12.22.03
Radiation is good for you? Some spas--and a few scientists--insist that in
small doses it is.
Rest, relaxation, and radioactivity: it's not everybody's prescription for
good health. Yet at places like Bad Gastein in the Austrian Alps, visitors
crave alpha particles as much as California spa goers clamor for seaweed
wraps. The Radium Palace in the Czech Republic, built in 1912 and renovated
in 1997, offers underwater massages in irradiated waters.
In the U.S. you won't yet find radon offered at Canyon Ranch--but never say
never. "There are some people [for whom] I might theoretically suggest
radon treatment," says the ranch's medical director and physician, Mark
Liponis.
So, what's this theory that a known carcinogen is good for you? It's the
controversial thesis of University of Massachusetts toxicologist and school
of public health professor Edward Calabrese that small doses of certain
poisons may have the paradoxical effect of lengthening life spans. Radon
might be such a substance.
Radon is a gas, a product of decaying radium and an emitter of particles.
It's blamed by public health officials for an estimated 15,000 to 22,000
U.S. lung-cancer deaths annually. The Environmental Protection Agency calls
radon "extremely toxic," and the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in 1998
listed it as the most frequent cause of premature death from a hazard in
the home. In 1988 the Indoor Radon Abatement Act led to a more than $100
million-a-year industry devoted to eradicating radon from residences.
Yet at hot springs and thermal spas where radon typically is found in the
air or water along with carbon dioxide, sulphur gases and trace elements of
other minerals, health-seekers sing its praises. Its fans will tell you
that it relieves a variety of ills--from asthma, hay fever and sinus
infections to chronic pain, arthritis, inflammation and migraine."
Above from:
<url: http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2003/1222/236.html>
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