Explore the health and wellbeing issues concerning youth and x-ray.
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Learn about Youth and X Ray Host: Everybody is on their own quest for eternal youth, does the rate that you age have more to do with genetics or environment or how much face cream you pile on at night. Whatever the answer, the world is not yet ready to age gracefully. Male: Many told us actually including me would say that much of aging is determined with what you do with your environment, whether you smoke, whether you eat the right thing, if you are too heavy, if you don’t exercise and all those things and I think that those factors are incredibly important for the vast majority of us with average set of genes that it should get us to our mid to late 80’s in very good health. Well because of these bad habits we’re living ten years less in what are average set of genes are capable of achieving for us but loose the extra 15 to 20 years beyond that then I think we’re looking for this genetic booster rockets that we’re hot and in pursuit of. Host: It seems that a healthy lifestyle is key to slowing down the inevitable biological clock tick. The world’s oldest woman is Gertrude Banks; she never touched a cigarette or a drop of alcohol in her life. The 115 year old was a cleaner by trade and gave birth to one child. She has survived every member of her family including her daughter. Male: Down the road our hope is that we’re going to discover drugs that will mimic what these genes do and help a lot more people get to older age and very good health but in the time being I think very much getting to your mid 80’s in good health is within your power and your grasp. Host: The oldest person in record who ever lived was a French woman by the name of Jeanne Calment who lived until she was 122. She was very active during her life, making time for tennis, cycling, swimming, and roller skating and indulging in relaxing past times like opera and piano. At the age of 85, she took up fencing and apparently rode a bike until she was a centenarian. She was also very fond of olive oil which she rubbed into her face as a moisturizer daily. She wasn’t obsessed with health but she maintained a bright interest in life, we should all take a lead from Jeanne’s book. X-rays reveal their medical potential to Conrad Wrinkin in 1896 when he used these new rays to take a picture of his wife’s hands. The rays revealed the internal image of the bones, Wrinkin gained a Nobel Price for his history, and modern medicine gained an important medical imaging technique that is still in use over 100 years later. X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation and as such can be dangerous to human health if the exposure time is too long. Thus lead shields are placed around the areas of the body that don’t need to be read in diagnosis. X-ray is conducted by a radiographer, it's a painless procedure, a small amount of ionizing radiation is passed through your body and captured by a digital device that constructs an image. Calcium in the bones stops the radiation from passing through, so they show up clearly in white which is very handy for locating breaks and fractures as this are filled with air allowing rays to pass through so the cracks come out black on the image. However x-rays are not only used for diagnosis, they’re employed during surgery too or to ensure the correct administration of radiotherapy or to detect foreign objects. Sometimes the contrasting dye will be ministered orally or intravenously to help highlight your internal environment for doctors. These have health risks associated with them so be sure to consult your specialist about any concerns. The risk of developing cancer as a result of an x-ray is negligible, less than .01%. CT scans use x-rays to create 3D images.
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