<p>A serious, though a bit weird, medical question:</p>
<p>My younger brother, who is 14, recently underwent a CAT scan.
CAT scans of the brain bombard it with x-ray radiation equivalent to the amount of radiation we get from our surroundings in 3 years. This means that many brain cells are undoubtedly killed in the process. Therefore, do CAT scans not lower IQ?</p>
<p>Also, my brother being a teen, whose brain is still developing, will his cognitive ability not suffer even more so??</p>
<p>anyone? help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I had a CAT scan a while back and I am 16 now. </p>
<p>My doctor said it will not affect my health at all, so I dont think you should have anything to worry about</p>
<p>That’s the thing. Take everything a doctor tells you with a grain of salt!
Keep in mind the every generation of doctors claims to be omniscient, and yet they repeatedly make eggregious mistakes.</p>
<p>Let us not forget that doctors in the 50’s held that asbestos is harmless, or that the medical community has held up until the 70’s that autism and other such disabilities are the product of coldness shown to the child by the mother. Nor should we forget that doctors until only recently claimed that giving the triple-shot vaccine to infants is fine, until it was finally drilled into their heads that it raises the chances of disabilities. </p>
<p>I believe my doctors but only to a certain limit. It is not in their interest to tell you, “yea, x-rays will screw your brain up”, since they don’t want patients refusing to be tested or suing them afterwards.</p>
<p>I am therefore asking people who are confident in their knowledge and common sense to answer my question based on their own judgement, not their doctor’s.</p>
<p>They don’t use massive amounts of X-rays… it won’t harm anyone. If there was a risk, somebody would have been affected by now. It’s perfectly safe.</p>
<p>Xrays are harmful if used excessively, meaning that you have to get tested frequently for it to be harmful. And actually I do believe its in their best interest to inform their patients of any risks that testtaking might involve. I know that my dad and mom always tell their patients the possible consequences and asks them to sign a release form. I would actually think there would be a higher chance of them getting sued if they DIdnt tell their patients about the possible issues.</p>
<p>if he has to get monthly CAT scans, then I’d worry, but if this is a one time deal, he’ll be fine.</p>
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<p>Simple answer - no they don’t
The risks of X-rays are far outweighed by the benefit they provide. This goes even more so for CT technology.</p>
<p>Have you extrapolated your claims to the conclusion that just living lowers intelligence (I won’t use the term IQ because I think it’s bogus), since the radiation you receive over those three years “kill many brain cells” too?</p>
<p>1)Use your head, Icarus. Receiving a certain amount of radiation in 5 seconds as opposed to over the course of 3 years are two totally different stories. Sure, we get radiation from our environment all teh time, but receiving this amount in such a short period of time is completely different.</p>
<p>If, for instance, you punch a wall 50 times, will the wall break? No. If you were to hit the wall once with the force equivalent to that of the 50 punches, it will break. Get the metaphr? Our neurons can withstand natural radiation, but when faced with a huge dose in a few seconds, they will not fare as well.</p>
<p>2)“Simple answer - no they don’t
The risks of X-rays are far outweighed by the benefit they provide. This goes even more so for CT technology.”</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that the benefits of CAT scans outweigh the risks, but how does that disprove my contention that they lower IQ? saying “the benefits outweigh the risks” simply means that the scans give you more than they take away (since detecting a tumor is worth the price of dead cells), but that doesn’t change the fact that you are paying a price.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t and wasn’t meant to. It was in addition to me saying that your contention is wrong lol.</p>
<p>oh, ok lol</p>
<p>well, can you back up your argument with something? I would really appreciate if you showed me a source that deals with the IQ issue specifically (I couldn’t find anything online). It would really lift a load off my mind.</p>
<p>any sources?</p>
<p>stop using IQ…IQ is not true intelligence.</p>
<p>short answer: no.</p>
<p>simple long answer: Most head CTs are around 0.2-3 REM (Roentgen Equivalent Man: a unit of radiation dose that isthe product of the absorbed dose in röntgens and the biological efficiency of the radiation)… a Sweedish study in 2004 showed that the REM levels must reach around 90-100 in order to impair intelligence.</p>
<p>Wait a minute…They had asbestos in my old school in India for the last 60 years…and everybody’s doing ok!</p>
<p>Buddy, asbestos is cancerous. You can say what you will, but it is a known scientific fact that it gives you cancer.</p>
<p>it only gives you cancer if it enters your body. if it’s contained via paint or something, it’s not dangerous</p>
<p>correct - it can give you cancer if you breathe it. And you can indeed get cancer from paint containing asbestos if you somehow breathe dried particles of the paint.</p>
<p>So it can give you cancer depending on how its used…In my school I think it was used for fireproofing the computer and art rooms…So I don’t think it was inhalable.</p>
<p>fire proofing by padding the walls with it, I assume (asbestos is used because of its fireproof properties). Wall covering eventually crumbles, and particles flow in the air, and you breathe the air. That is exactly how asbestos caused cancer in the U.S - in the early 50’s asbestos was used extensively in construction, and many who lived in such homes were later affected. This is why it is illegal today to use asbestos for construction; it is only used to manufacture fireman suits.</p>