The number is the scary part. According to two studies just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 14,500 people may die each year of cancer caused by radiation from widely overused CT scans. The Los Angeles Times reports on the research, which found that there is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognized previously. The paper reports that a normal CT scan of the chest is the equivalent of about 100
chest X-rays, but the researchers found that some scanners were giving the
equivalent of 440 conventional X-rays. And while the absolute risk may be small
for any single patient, the Times reports, the sheer number of CT scans — more than
70 million per year, 23 times the number in 1980 — will produce a
sharp increase in cancers and deaths.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Wow!
We die from the disease or we die from the medical treatment…and both end up being rather expensive.
I have had a few CT scans to see if brain had been injured. Should I now assume that it may have been injured by the scan?
Should we feel that we have one foot in the frying pan and the other in the fire?
Does this also hold true of MRI scans or surveys, which I have also experienced?
thank the gods that we can drink coffee and eat chocolate…
Oh brother….this is just the news media pandering to Obama again. This is the precursor to Obamacare cutting back on treatments for people: see, they aren’t refusing CT scans, they are trying to protect people from their overuse! Yay!! Obamacare now SAVES 14,500 people per year from cancer!!
This is so transparent, it’s pathetic.
I can assure the doubters, as a physician, that CT scans are mightily overused in the practice of defensive medicine, and in order for this country to be able to afford to continue Medicare or to be able to institute any sort of coverage for the uninsured and underinsured, the wasted money madness needs to stop. Period. Doctors need to be able to use their medical training and common sense in deciding who needs to be tested. And, yes, we are approaching a time in the history of this country is which the needs of the many may finally need to take precedence of the the individual (actually, that is how it used to be, before the rise of HMO’s and the ‘entitled’ patient). No one is trying to deny CT scanning to those who truly need it, au contraire, but the application of common sense and the institution of medical review courts (to eliminate the insanity caused by medical judgments passed by easily swayed and medically uninformed juries) will make it easier for physicians to make the right decision for the right patient. The Hippocratic Oath says, ‘first do no harm’. By choosing to NOT order a CT scan on the head of everyone who complains of a headache or who suffers a nonsyncopal knock on the head will spare them a great deal of radiation exposure, a real and true medical concern that DOES lead to increased cancer risk, an established medical fact. Of course the insane level of profits that medical insurers and drug manufacturers rake in needs to be reined in, also (one of the main differences between our system and Germany’s–their insurers are nonprofit), but that is a whole ‘nother topic.
Thank you.
So, Lisa, the lie comes from where? The studies, which would have started before Obama was on the horizon, or the press, all of whom are in collusion with the Obama administration to not give CT scans?
hello. you must be a conspiracy fanatic. my gawd what hooweee. you think the health care companies that make billions off scans would let this get by?? stop listening to idiots and do some reading of medical journals, even those from other countries who have nothing to do with our health care.
When California gets leveled by the big earthquake, Obama will no doubt take the blame for that as well! Cheese and crackers! Turn off your AM radios! Go into the light!
The disaster of a health care plan that is in the works and that panders to the insurance companies and, thereby, the banking industry which owns the same, has nothing to do with observation.
Your political nonesense is just that.
Now I get sued if I order a CT scan, and I get sued if I don’t order a CT scan.
Just like Katrina was all the fault of GW Bush, right?
You have to remember that it isn’t really that anyone is in “collusion” with the Obama administration, but it’s really the other way around. Obama and his people are in collusion with the Soro’s of the world..
What I really want to know in regards to that is; if Europe and all the other countries who have all the things the USA doesn’t have, i.e. socialized medicine, etc.. and it is so good that we need to do it here, then why do more people from those places continue to immigrate here for a “better life”???
I have a condition that may slowly eat the hell out of my lungs and other body systems, or quickly take me out. If anyone should be complaining about getting or not getting a CT or MRI, it should be me. I’ve had so many, when I can afford them, because my doctors (yes, plural) need to see the progress of my condition. Scared? Maybe. After all these years my tolerance for contrast is going steadily down. So guess what? I don’t give a damn about the political views of a bunch of healthy, whiny fools who aren’t worried about me, aren’t helping me pay my scary medical bills that are constantly not being supported by my crappy private insurance, and are ranting for fun. “Blanking” pound sand. I live this hell every day. So if I get cancer from a CT, it just means I have another “fiend” at the “party”. One of the guys in our online community dropped dead after thinking he was getting better right before Thankgiving. I’m still here. Every day is a blessing. If a CT will help my doctors keep me on my feet – I’m ready to glow in the dark.
Dear Lisa,
Maybe you would like to better informed when making such “transparently igorant” claims. As a person who has received MANY CT scans I was warned by the risk of cancer due to the excessive radiation from CT’s by several radioligists at LEAST 4 years ago, long before Obama. Will everything be Obama’s fault from now on??????
Not the storm just the mishandling!
How do you know who’s healthy here and who’s not? How does your condition negate our right to discuss health and politics? Your illness is hard, but it doesn’t convey any right to abuse the rest of us. I hope you get as many scans and other help as you need. I want my tax dollars to pay for what your doctors need to help you. I want to do that because we are both Americans, and I’m Catholic, not in name only, I hope, but also in practice. Merry Christmas.
That was a rational, well thought out
response.
Emotion blinds many of us and pits
Americans against Americans.
Meanwhile, the real controllers are hard
at work destroying our country.
🙁