Radium Health Dictionary

Breakdown of the nuclei of some elements resulting in the emission of energy in the form of alpha, beta and gamma rays. Because of this particle emission, the elements decay into other elements. Radium and uranium are naturally occurring radioactive elements. RADIOTHERAPY treatment utilises arti?cially produced isotopes (alternative forms of an element) such as iodine-131 and cobalt-60.... radioactivity

A colourless, odourless, tasteless, radioactive gaseous element produced by the radioactive decay of radium.... radon

The benefits of Club Moss tea are known for centuries. It was used by the ancient Druids and Chinese people as a homeopath remedy for various conditions. About Club Moss tea Botanically called Lycopodium clavatum, Club Moss is also found under the name of Wolf’s Claw. It is an evergreen plant that looks similar to a pine tree with small needles creeping along the forest floor and can be found in almost every continent in the world. It contains radium, alkaloids, polyphenolic acids, flavonoids and minerals. Some studies conducted in China have showed that “huperzine”, one of Club Moss tea’s constituents may improve the cognitive function raising its popularity as a memory enhancement supplement. It may also have a significant impact on amnesia and the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Brew Club Moss tea Club Moss tea is prepared from one teaspoon of small cut pieces added to half a liter of boiled water. It is left like that for about 5 minutes. Never boil the plant, just pour the water over it. It is recommended to consume a cup per day, slowly, in the morning, on an empty stomach, half an hour before breakfast. Club Moss tea Benefits Club Moss tea has many health benefits. Find below a short list. Club Moss tea is a tonic for the liver, kidneys, bladder, urinary tract, and reproductive organs. According to the traditional Chinese medicine, Club Moss tea has been used for centuries to treat fever and inflammation. It has diuretic, anti-alcoholic, anti-tobacco, anti-cirrhotic, and purgative properties. If you also have a stomach that is easily irritated or chronic diarrhea, Club Moss tea can also help you feel relief. Club Moss Tea is said to help cleanse the kidney and may alleviate urinary tract infections like cystitis. When applied topically, this tea may help in the healing of wounds or other skin conditions and it can help stop the bleeding. Club Moss tea Side Effects Club Moss tea is mostly safe in the right amounts; do not drink more than 2 cups a day as it is not recommended for a long term-use. Overuse may cause griping or grumbling pains in the intestinal tract. Pregnant women should avoid drinking it. Also, people who suffer from diarrhea should use the tea only with the greatest caution as cramps in the intestines could develop. Club Moss tea is mostly safe and you can drink it without any problem as long as you keep in mind its precautions and you do not take more than 2 cups a day for a long period of time. So use it only when you need it.... club moss tea

The treatment of disease (mainly CANCER) with penetrating RADIATION. For many years RADIUM and X-RAYS were the only sources available, but developments in knowledge led to the use of powerful X-rays, beta rays or gamma rays, either produced by linear accelerator machines or given o? by radioactive isotopes (see ISOTOPE). The latter is rarely used now.

Beams of radiation may be directed at the tumour from a distance, or radioactive material

– in the form of needles, wires or pellets – may be implanted in the body. Sometimes germ-cell tumours (see SEMINOMA; TERATOMA) and lymphomas (see LYMPHOMA) are particularly sensitive to irradiation which therefore forms a major part of management, particularly for localised disease. Many head and neck tumours, gynaecological cancers, and localised prostate and bladder cancers are curable with radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is also valuable in PALLIATIVE CARE, chie?y the reduction of pain from bone metastases (see METASTASIS). Side-effects are potentially hazardous and these have to be balanced against the substantial potential bene?ts. Depending upon the type of therapy and doses used, generalised effects include lethargy and loss of appetite, while localised effects – depending on the area treated – include dry, itchy skin; oral infection (e.g. thrush – see CANDIDA); bowel problems; and DYSURIA.... radiotherapy

Chemical substances manufactured by the endocrine glands and secreted directly into the bloodstream. As the heart pumps blood through the body they are borne to cells remote from their point of origin where they have a specific effect. Hormones are to physiology what radium is to chemistry. ... hormones

A radioactive metallic element that does not occur naturally in its pure form but is widely found in ores such as pitchblende, carnotite, and uraninite. Radioactive decay of uranium yields a series of radioactive products, including radium and radon. During the various decay stages, radiation is emitted. Uranium is also poisonous.... uranium

(external beam radiotherapy) n. a form of *radiotherapy in which penetrating radiation is directed at a patient from a distance. Originally radium was used as the radiation source; today artificially produced X-rays are predominantly used. See linear accelerator.... teletherapy

Also known as Röntgen rays, these were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Their use for diagnostic imaging (radiology) and for cancer therapy (see RADIOTHERAPY) is now an integral part of medicine. Many other forms of diagnostic imaging have been developed in recent years, sometimes also loosely called ‘radiology’. Similarly the use of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer has led to the term oncology which may be applied to the treatment of cancer by both drugs and X-rays.

The rays are part of the electro-magnetic spectrum; their wavelengths are between 10?9 and 10? 13 metres; in behaviour and energy they are identical to the gamma rays emitted by radioactive isotopes. Diagnostic X-rays are generated in an evacuated tube containing an anode and cathode. Electrons striking the anode cause emission of X-rays of varying energy; the energy is largely dependent on the potential di?erence (kilovoltage) between anode and cathode. The altered tissue penetration at di?erent kilovoltages is used in radiographing di?erent regions, for example in breast radiography (25–40 kV) or chest radiography (120–150 kV). Most diagnostic examinations use kilovoltages between 60 and 120. The energy of X-rays enables them to pass through body tissues unless they make contact with the constituent atoms. Tissue attenuation varies with atomic structure, so that air-containing organs such as the lung o?er little attenuation, while material such as bone, with abundant calcium, will absorb the majority of incident X-rays. This results in an emerging X-ray pattern which corresponds to the structures in the region examined.

Radiography The recording of the resulting images is achieved in several ways, mostly depending on the use of materials which ?uoresce in response to X-rays. CONTRAST X-RAYS Many body organs are not shown by simple X-ray studies. This led to the development of contrast materials which make particular organs or structures wholly or partly opaque to X-rays. Thus, barium-sulphate preparations are largely used for examining the gastrointestinal tract: for example, barium swallow, barium meal, barium follow-through (or enteroclysis) and barium enema. Water-soluble iodine-containing contrast agents that ionise in solution have been developed for a range of other studies.

More recently a series of improved contrast molecules, chie?y non-ionising, has been developed, with fewer side-effects. They can, for example, safely be introduced into the spinal theca for myeloradiculography – contrast X-rays of the spinal cord. Using these agents, it is possible to show many organs and structures mostly by direct introduction, for example via a catheter (see CATHETERS). In urography, however, contrast medium injected intravenously is excreted by the kidneys which are outlined, together with ureters and bladder. A number of other more specialised contrast agents exist: for example, for cholecystography – radiological assessment of the gall-bladder. The use of contrast and the attendant techniques has greatly widened the range of radiology. IMAGE INTENSIFICATION The relative insensitivity of ?uorescent materials when used for observation of moving organs – for example, the oesophagus – has been overcome by the use of image intensi?cation. A faint ?uorographic image produced by X-rays leads to electron emission from a photo-cathode. By applying a high potential di?erence, the electrons are accelerated across an evacuated tube and are focused on to a small ?uorescent screen, giving a bright image. This is viewed by a TV camera and the image shown on a monitor and sometimes recorded on videotape or cine. TOMOGRAPHY X-ray images are two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. Tomography (Greek tomos

– a slice) began with X-ray imaging produced by the linked movement of the X-ray tube and the cassette pivoting about a selected plane in the body: over- and underlying structures are blurred out, giving a more detailed image of a particular plane.

In 1975 Godfrey Houns?eld introduced COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT). This involves

(i) movement of an X-ray tube around the patient, with a narrow fan beam of X-rays; (ii) the corresponding use of sensitive detectors on the opposite side of the patient; (iii) computer analysis of the detector readings at each point on the rotation, with calculation of relative tissue attenuation at each point in the cross-sectional plant. This invention has enormously increased the ability to discriminate tissue composition, even without the use of contrast.

The tomographic e?ect – imaging of a particular plane – is achieved in many of the newer forms of imaging: ULTRASOUND, magnetic resonance imaging (see MRI) and some forms of nuclear medicine, in particular positron emission tomography (PET SCANNING). An alternative term for the production of images of a given plane is cross-sectional imaging.

While the production of X-ray and other images has been largely the responsibility of radiographers, the interpretation has been principally carried out by specialist doctors called radiologists. In addition they, and interested clinicians, have developed a number of procedures, such as arteriography (see ANGIOGRAPHY), which involve manipulative access for imaging – for example, selective coronary or renal arteriography.

The use of X-rays, ultrasound or computerised tomography to control the direction and position of needles has made possible guided biopsies (see BIOPSY) – for example, of pancreatic, pulmonary or bony lesions – and therapeutic procedures such as drainage of obstructed kidneys (percutaneous nephrostomy), or of abscesses. From these has grown a whole series of therapeutic procedures such as ANGIOPLASTY, STENT insertion and renal-stone track formation. This ?eld of interventional radiology has close a?nities with MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY (MIS).

Radiotherapy, or treatment by X-rays The two chief sources of the ionising radiations used in radiotherapy are the gamma rays of RADIUM and the penetrating X-rays generated by apparatus working at various voltages. For super?cial lesions, energies of around 40 kilovolts are used; but for deep-seated conditions, such as cancer of the internal organs, much higher voltages are required. X-ray machines are now in use which work at two million volts. Even higher voltages are now available through the development of the linear accelerator, which makes use of the frequency magnetron which is the basis of radar. The linear accelerator receives its name from the fact that it accelerates a beam of electrons down a straight tube, 3 metres in length, and in this process a voltage of eight million is attained. The use of these very high voltages has led to the development of a highly specialised technique which has been devised for the treatment of cancer and like diseases.

Protective measures are routinely taken to ensure that the patient’s normal tissue is not damaged during radiotherapy. The operators too have to take special precautions, including limits on the time they can work with the equipment in any one period of time.

The greatest value of radiotherapy is in the treatment of malignant disease. In many patients it can be used for the treatment of malignant growths which are not accessible to surgery, whilst in others it is used in conjunction with surgery and chemotherapy.... x-rays

n. 1. a drug (such as a subcutaneous hormone implant), a prosthesis (such as an artificial hip, an intraocular lens implant (see cataract), a *breast implant, a *cochlear implant, or an artificial heart implant: see ventricular assist device), or a radioactive source (such as radium needles) that is put into the body. 2. (in dentistry) a rigid structure that is embedded in bone or under its periosteum to provide support for replacement teeth on a *denture, *crown, or *bridge. Recent types (osseointegrated implants) consist of a number of special titanium alloy inserts (fixtures), placed in the jawbone, onto which abutments are fitted after the bone has healed and fused with the fixture. Later an artificial-tooth superstructure is bolted onto the abutments. Osseointegrated implants are also used to retain facial *prostheses. See also osseointegration.... implant