Brutal 7 Facts About Effect Of Radiation On Your Health

Do you want to understand how radioactivity or radiation can affect your health?

What is the effect of surrounding environments on your health, if there is a sudden increase in radiations in your surroundings?

The Chernobyl disaster is one of the prime examples of how increased radiation levels can affect the surroundings. The atomic bombing of Japan killed many with radiation poisoning and many of the survivors have to deal with leukaemia, cancer, or other terrible side effects from the radiation.

There is no doubt the increased radiation in nature can cause serious health concerns.

Read on for details on how radiation affects the body.

How Is Your Health Effected With The Radiation Exposure?

The effect of radiation on your body entirely depends on the amount of radiation your body gets exposed to, which is also known as radiation dose. The amount of radiation is critical to determine the health consequence of radiation.

You are receiving low doses of radiation from the surrounding natural environment, and you are used to it, along with the entire population. However, the larger doses of radiation can be lethal and can cause cancer by altering cell formation. Certain exposure to radiation can also cause damage to the foetus during pregnancy. The longer exposure to radiation can cause radiation poisoning, leading to immediate death.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: Acute Radiation Syndrome

If you get exposed to a high level of radiation over a brief span of time, you can suffer from acute radiation syndrome. The symptoms of acute radiation syndrome are nausea and vomiting within hours of exposure. It can also cause death in the following days or weeks. Acute radiation syndrome is also known as “radiation sickness”.

Acute radiation syndrome occurs only when exposed to large amounts of radiation that too in small duration. That is why it occurs only in very rare situations with extreme events like nuclear explosions or accidental exposures.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: Cancer Risk

Now, if you get exposed to a moderate amount of radiation, that won’t have any effect immediately but can lead to an increased risk of cancer over years. Exposure to radiation can damage your cells and lead to increased chances of cancer developing in your body. Many studies done on radiation survivors have proved that radiation exposure increases cancer risk. The higher the radiation dose higher are chance of cancer.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: Influence Of Dose Rate

Dose rate is the amount of radiation you were exposed to over a certain time period. The health impact of radiation dose received over time and in one go differs a lot. For better understanding, the effect of total radiation you get exposed to over one year would be less severe than receiving the whole radiation dose in one go. In short, the effect of radiation on your health is severe if you get a large radiation dose in a small duration of time.

The effect of radiation on your health gets influenced by which body parts get exposed to radiation. If only one of your body parts gets exposed to radiation, then its impact won’t be as severe as the whole body getting exposed.

Another factor that affects health is the sensitivity of your body to radiation. Individual sensitivity matters a lot when it comes to radiation exposure. Individuals with compromised immune systems are more prone to have adverse health effects from radiation exposure.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: Young People Are At Higher Risk Of Developing Cancer

The health risk of radiation is higher for young people. There are higher chances for young people to develop cancer after radiation exposure. The risk of cancer is mainly higher because younger people have more cells that are dividing rapidly and tissues that are growing.

Younger people also have a longer lifespan ahead of them, giving the cancer cells more time to develop and cause trouble. There are chances that some people within the same age group will have varied sensitivity to radiation.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: How Radiation Affects Your Body?

The radiation can directly affect your DNA by causing damage to your cells. Once a cell gets damaged, it can lead to three possibilities.

1. The cell repairs itself and goes back to normal functioning.
2. The cell is damaged beyond repair or an incorrect repair changes the cell. This change in cell can lead to cancer.
3. Radiation exposure does a lot of damage to the cell that it dies. This can lead to two possibilities. First, only a few cells die and your body recovers from it and there is no risk of cancer. Second, too many cells die from radiation, resulting in organ failures and death.

Effect Of Radiation On Your Health: High-Risk Group To Suffer From Radiation

Almost anyone who is exposed to radiation can face the terrible effect of the radiation. But a developing foetus is highly at risk when it comes to risk related to radiation exposure. Other than foetuses, infants, children, the elderly, pregnant women and people who have compromised immune systems are highly vulnerable to suffer health problems.

It is important for such people to take utmost care to avoid radiation. In case these vulnerable people get exposed to radiation, they should seek medical attention immediately.

Conclusion

There are many effect of radiation on your health that ranges from cancer to death. The limited exposure to radiation can cause the development of cancer over years. And if exposed to an extensive amount of radiation over a small span of time, it can cause organ failure to death.  

People with the compromised immune systems are at higher risk of developing health-related issues after radiation exposure. We must provide utmost care to infants, pregnant women and the elderly to protect them from even a small amount of radiation.

Read more about the effects of the environment on your health here.

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