By John H. Biggs BSc, NCP - Owner Optimum Health Vitamins
As we consider the people of Japan, and sympathise with the unimaginable devastation and death they have been forced to deal with, questions about radioactivity, and its potential health effects invariably come up. Just how big an issue is it for us in North America, and if we’re concerned, what can we do to protect ourselves?
Attitudes about whether concern is warranted vary from one extreme, where we are told by the authorities that any levels reaching North America will be too dilute to cause harm, all the way to the other, where people are storing food and bunkering their houses to protect against infiltration of radioactive dust carried over on the jet stream. Since the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle, the moderate approach is to be proactive, and take preventive actions that are going to be beneficial to your health in any event.
To be clear, over here the alarming issue is regarding radioactive particles such as iodine, or hundreds of others released from explosions, or large emissions of radiation into the atmosphere. Yes, it’s true that these are diluted and at low concentrations, but when such particles are internalized they can exert ongoing radioactive effects at a cellular level for an undetermined amount of time. This creates the potential for damage to our genes, including those in the mitochondria, (our internal energy-producing furnaces), which do not readily repair. In turn, such damage increases the chances of affected cells turning cancerous.
On the other hand, we are exposed to many different forms of radiation daily. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for us, or of no consequence. Moreover, given the small health details that so many of us spend time and money on, taking preventive health measures to protect against possible effects of radioactivity would seem comparatively wise.
The supplements that I would suggest for both protection against the potential effects of radioactive particles, as well as the environmental radiation that we are exposed to daily are as follows:
Firstly, Rhodiola rosea.
A Pub Med search quickly reveals several studies from India demonstrating a broad range of protective effects from Rhodiola against radioactivity. [1]
Additionally, as an adaptogenic herb, Rhodiola has a plethora of well-established health benefits. Like the other adaptogens, (such as the ginsengs, holy basil, ashwaghanda etc.), Rhodiola has the ability to help a person’s body and mind remain stable in the face of various types of stress, while enhancing energy production, and improving mood. Overall, it is has so many general useful properties that it’s hard to go wrong taking it. It is available either on its own, or in combinations with other adaptogens like the ones mentioned, which share many of its protective properties.
Secondly, even though it may sound strange, things called “alkylglycerols”, extracted from shark liver oil (not shark cartilage) also provide very generalized protection from the effects of radiation. Such products come in capsule form, and have been used for decades by health practitioners to protect against sickness when people are undergoing radiation therapy for cancer. Alkylglycerols are extremely supportive of bone marrow and immune function, and have been found in cell-culture studies to cause several cancer cell types to commit suicide, (i.e. to induce “apoptosis”). [2] [3] [For a good review, see 2]
Yet, since the disaster in Japan it is the mineral iodine, and its salt, potassium iodide, that have gotten all the attention. Certainly if I was near the reactors in Japan, I would want to be taking my dose to saturate the thyroid gland, and prevent it from absorbing radioactive iodine. (The outcomes of this were made clear in Chernobyl, where in the aftermath of that nuclear calamity, thousands of children contracted thyroid cancer.) But in order to be effective, a loading dose has to be administered in the right time frame prior to exposure, and needs to be repeated daily for the duration of exposure.
Taking such large doses isn’t practical or recommended for those not in the immediate area. There are a lot of recommendations from government authorities like the NIH which advise clear warnings about administering potassium iodide and/or iodine, especially to children. Yet, there are also many well-respected MDs and other health professionals indicating that most of us do not get enough iodine, and would benefit from supplementing it, having used it in their practices for years with good results. Supplements containing a combination of both iodine, and potassium iodide have been popular in the last 5 years or so. (They are used by practitioners particularly in cases of cystic breasts and/or breast cancer.)
Yet, if you are leery of supplementing iodine concentrates, chances of running into problems by using food forms like Atlantic Kelp, and other iodine-rich seaweeds are slim. Given the prevalence of hypothyroidism in western societies today, some of which is due to relative iodine deficiency, chances are good many of us will experience unexpected benefits from including kelp and other seaweeds in our diet anyway.
And as for children consuming them, they haven’t seemed to hurt the Japanese kids that have been eating them since antiquity. Hopefully in the wake of this disaster these foods will remain a viable food source for the Japanese.
Unfortunately, it is not unlikely that the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plants will worsen, and further explosions and or radiation leakages may occur. If at that point one wants to go further with protective supplementation, it is also worthwhile to consider the radioprotective effects, and normalized cell expression that have been observed in the extensive study of Sulforaphane, derived from cruciferous vegetables;
or the DNA repair mechanisms induced by Resveratrol;
or the well-known antimutagenic effects of green tea, grapeseed extract, turmeric, and other anti-inflammatory herbs.
As an aside, I find it ironic that when the public gets exposed to something of economic significance with obvious and well-known dangerous effects, such as radioactive nuclear materials, we are always encouraged by to think in terms of “acceptable levels”, and usually that such levels are simply too low to cause problems. Yet, when it comes to something like Natural Health Products, which, in Canada at least, are on record as never having caused a death, we are programmed by the media and establishment to consider all the potential negative effects that could possibly occur.
Remember that with all the other insults our bodies are dealing with as a consequence of our modern-day polluted environment, adding radioactive insult to the list is pretty undesirable. It is another, possibly very significant, cumulative straw on the camel’s back.
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For a good summation of the health effects attributed to radiation, see the U.S. EPA at:
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/understand/health_effects.html
References:
[1] Mol Cell Biochem. 2005 May;273(1-2):209-23.
Evaluation of radioprotective activities Rhodiola imbricatu Edgew –a high altitude plant
Arora R, Chawla R, Sagar R, Prasad J, Singh S, Kumar R, Sharma A, Singh S, Sharma RK.
Division of Radiopharmaceuticals and Radiation Biology, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, Delhi, India.
[2] Mar. Drugs 2010, 8, 2267-2300; doi:10.3390/md8082267
www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs
Review – An Update on the Therapeutic Role of Alkylglycerols
Published: 5 August 2010
Tommaso Iannitti 1,* and Beniamino Palmieri 2,*
1 Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
2 Department of General Surgery and Surgical Specialties, Medical School and Surgical Clinic,
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
[3] Life Extension, Aug 2005, pp.34-39, Kiefer D, “Anti-cancer benefits of Shark liver Oil”