HOSPITAL workers who are regularly exposed to “safe” levels of X-rays have experienced changes at the cellular level that might actually prove beneficial.
and colleagues at Italy’s National Research Council took blood samples from 10 cardiologists who are exposed to 4 millisieverts of radiation per year from X-ray-guided surgery. Those levels are slightly above but well within the US Code of Federal Regulation’s per year.
Russo’s team found that the blood contained levels of hydrogen peroxide – a marker of cell damage – three times higher than expected. On the flip side, it also contained twice the normal level of glutathione, an antioxidant that protects cells (European Heart Journal, ).
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Tommaso Gori, a cardiologist at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany, who was not involved in the study, points out that boosted antioxidant levels are known to offer a degree of protection against heart attack in some individuals. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he says. “That might be the case with low-dose radiation.”
