Why have millions of Americans been treated with Radioactive Iodine?

The follo­wing article has been writ­ten by Tracy, a for­mer thy­roid can­cer patient who was trea­ted with Radioac­tive Iodine treat­ment (RAI), also called I-131:

Appro­xi­ma­tely THREE MILLION Ame­ri­cans suf­fer with Gra­ves’ disease, an autoim­mune con­di­tion that cau­ses hype­rac­tive thy­roid. In addi­tion, the Natio­nal Ins­ti­tu­tes of Health (NIH) esti­ma­tes that 37,340 Ame­ri­cans will be diag­no­sed with thy­roid can­cer in 2008. The num­ber of peo­ple diag­no­sed with thy­roid can­cer has inc­rea­sed by appro­xi­ma­tely 2,000 cases bet­ween 2007 and 2008. Accor­ding to the NIH, there are appro­xi­ma­tely 300,000 thy­roid can­cer sur­vi­vors in the Uni­ted Sta­tes today.

RAI treat­ment for thy­roid can­cer and Gra­ves hyperthy­roid: The stan­dard treat­ment for the majo­rity of thy­roid can­cer patients invol­ves remo­ving the thy­roid gland and admi­nis­te­ring one or more rounds of radioac­tive iodine (RAI) to eli­mi­nate any resi­dual thy­roid tis­sue remai­ning in the body. Radioac­tive iodine is crea­ted when radioac­tive mate­rial is piggy­bac­ked onto iodine so it will be absor­bed by the body. This is usually put into pill form for patients to ingest. Doc­tors tell can­cer patients that the thy­roid is the only tis­sue which takes up iodine, thus making this a safe form of can­cer treat­ment that will not harm the other tis­sues of the body. It has the added bene­fit of killing any can­ce­rous cells that may have been mis­sed during sur­gery. Thy­roid can­cer patients are also fre­quently advi­sed to have radioac­tive iodine scans at perio­dic inter­vals to make sure they are “clean” and can­cer free.

Doc­tors also fre­quently presc­ribe radioac­tive iodine treat­ment to their patients with hype­rac­tive thy­roid disor­ders as a means to des­troy the ove­rac­tive thy­roid tis­sue. Accor­ding to the Thy­roid Foun­da­tion of Canada, over 90% of Ame­ri­can patients with hype­rac­tive thy­roid disease recei­ved RAI as treat­ment. Over a million Ame­ri­cans have under­gone radioac­tive abla­tion of their thy­roid glands due to hype­rac­tive thy­roid disor­ders in the past 35 years.1

Is RAI safe?? For years thy­roid patients have been told that RAI is com­ple­tely safe, pre­sents very little risk of further health pro­blems, and is the insu­rance policy against heart pro­blems for Gra­ves’ patients and can­cer recu­rrence for thy­roid can­cer patients. We have been told that only the thy­roid takes up iodine, so the RAI will not pos­sibly affect any other part of the body. But is this true? Do the expe­rien­ces of patients bear this out in reality?

Some of the very real side effects of RAI expe­rien­ced by patients:

1. The skin on the body peels off in a simi­lar fashion as mild sun­burn. This may inc­lude the muco­sal linings.
2. No sense of taste for at least a month. Others have repor­ted 3 months, and some never regain the sense of taste again.
3. Very swo­llen and pain­ful sali­vary glands for a month. Some patients expe­rience this years after RAI, and some have the loss of sali­vary gland func­tion for life.
4. Diges­tive pro­blems inc­lu­ding food not being pro­perly diges­ted, cons­ti­pa­tion, or extreme diarrhea for long periods of time.
5. Sud­den onset of aller­gies or food sen­si­ti­vi­ties inc­lu­ding the ina­bi­lity to eat glu­ten.
6. Iodine defi­ciency due to low-iodine diet prior to RAI.
7. Adre­nal fati­gue
8. Com­pro­mi­sed immune sys­tem
9. Bur­ning tongue

Gra­ves’ patients have an added pro­blem of beco­ming newly hypothy­roid. The pro­cess of tes­ting thy­roid levels, adjus­ting thy­roid hor­mone dosage and dea­ling with hypothy­roid symp­toms begins for many after RAI abla­tion. Patients have repor­ted sud­den weight gain, diges­tive chan­ges, skin chan­ges, and other com­mon hypothy­roid symp­toms after under­going RAI for hype­rac­tive thy­roid disease. It is quite a change for these patients, and must be con­si­de­red as a long-term result of RAI.

Another long-term affect of RAI in Gra­ves’ patients also inc­lu­des Gra­ves’ eye disease which actually wor­sens for many peo­ple after radia­tion treatment.

Doc­tors are wrong when they tell patients that iodine is only used by the thy­roid. In fact, iodine is used by the thy­roid, breasts, brain, heart, gas­troin­tes­ti­nal sys­tem, skin, ova­ries, lungs, eyes, mouth, bones, blood, and is used in the pro­duc­tion of hor­mo­nes and is accu­mu­la­ted by the immune sys­tem. 2

Why did I have RAI? I deci­ded to have RAI to stop any further thy­roid tis­sue or can­cer from gro­wing in my body. It was a very tough deci­sion to make because I was so afraid of radia­tion, and it turns out that I was right to be afraid. In my expe­rience, there was fear in every part of the deci­sion to have, or not to have, RAI. For me, it was the pos­si­bi­lity of an incu­ra­ble recu­rrence that even­tually led me to have RAI.

My spe­cial kind of can­cer was folli­cu­lar with a hurthle cell variant. My doc­tor told me that hurthle cells don’t usually take up iodine, but that there was a chance that I might be one of the few with hurthle cells that would res­pond to the RAI. My doc­tor also wan­ted me to have the RAI done to clean up any “back­ground noise”, as she called it, from remai­ning thy­roid cells in my neck. With those cells gone, detec­tion of recu­rrence would be much easier.

As I write this, it has been 10 months since my RAI. I have suf­fe­red through most of the very real side effects lis­ted above. I still deal with very swo­llen and pain­ful paro­tid glands, diges­tive pro­blems and rene­wed aller­gies. Even after going through allergy shots pre­viously, my aller­gies did return after RAI. My immune sys­tem took quite a hit and I was con­ti­nually sick for two months. A wea­ke­ned immune sys­tem is a known side effect of RAI — my nuc­lear techs war­ned me not to be around sick peo­ple and avoid church for a period of time to pro­tect myself. (What wor­ked to heal my immune sys­tem was zinc and vita­min C.)

Addi­tio­nal pro­blems which pre­sen­ted follo­wing RAI were hair loss (which is now star­ting to grow back) and sores on my ton­gue. I find that I am very sen­si­tive to aci­dic foods now, although this has never been an issue with me prior to the can­cer treatment.

My doc­tor told me I need RAI. What should I do? This is a ques­tion that tens of thou­sands of Ame­ri­cans must ans­wer each year. For most, the choice is to pro­ceed with RAI. For can­cer patients, RAI is seen as the best gua­ran­tee against future can­cer and an insu­rance policy for future health. For Gra­ves’ patients, it is seen as the chea­pest and quic­kest method of “curing” hyperthyroidism.

Thy­roid can­cer and hyperthy­roi­dism come from underl­ying health issues. Ins­tead of unco­ve­ring and hea­ling the underl­ying pro­blems, the body is radia­ted. Eli­mi­na­ting the thy­roid tis­sue doesn’t eli­mi­nate the rea­son for the illness.

It is repor­ted that most patients have no major pro­blems or com­pli­ca­tions post-RAI. I have not met or spo­ken to a per­son who has gone through the RAI expe­rience without pro­blems or side effects. Side effects come as a sur­prise to many, con­si­de­ring the fact that many doc­tors don’t inform their patients of the pro­blems radia­tion can cause in the body. I was only told that my sali­vary glands would swell and that I would have a slightly inc­rea­sed risk of blad­der can­cer if I didn’t drink enough during the treat­ment. I had no idea that my skin would peel off or that my hair would fall out. How would I know that glu­ten would become a pro­blem for me, or that I would be pla­gued with sali­vary pro­blems for months to come? NO ONE TOLD ME THESE THINGS.

It is my opi­nion that the patient should be well infor­med of ALL the facts, bene­fits and poten­tial pro­blems surroun­ding RAI. Only then, can a patient make the best pos­si­ble deci­sion and have “big pic­ture” thin­king regar­ding such an emo­tio­nal issue. Many doc­tors, inc­lu­ding so-called thy­roid can­cer experts, cate­go­ri­cally deny any adverse reac­tions to RAI with the excep­tion of sali­vary dys­func­tion. Those trea­ted with RAI know better.

What are the alter­na­ti­ves to RAI?

Thy­roid Can­cer: Lack of iodine in the body has a direct corre­la­tion with thy­roid can­cer. It is well known that iodine defi­cien­cies cause thy­roid disease and goi­ter. In his article, “Thy­roid Disor­ders, Autoim­mune Disease and Iodine Defi­ciency,” Dr. David Browns­tein sta­tes, “Iodine defi­ciency will lead to thy­roid disor­ders inc­lu­ding hypothy­roi­dism, autoim­mune thy­roid disor­ders and thy­roid can­cer as well as autoim­mune disor­ders in gene­ral.” 3

There are a gro­wing num­ber of patients using iodine sup­ple­men­ta­tion to treat thy­roid can­cer, or recu­rren­ces. Iodine-literate doc­tors around the country are seeing suc­cess as their patients are able to com­bat can­cer and other serious medi­cal pro­blems through iodine sup­ple­men­ta­tion. Some patients are star­ting to recog­nize the corre­la­tion bet­ween iodine defi­ciency and can­cer BEFORE their nodu­les become can­ce­rous, and are having suc­cess in shrin­king nodu­les with iodine and thy­roid sup­por­ting nutrients like sele­nium. Sele­nium is an impor­tant thy­roid sup­por­ting nutrient and defi­cien­cies have been lin­ked to thy­roid can­cer. Others have seen their can­cer mar­kers dec­rease when sup­ple­men­ting with iodine after RAI didn’t fully eli­mi­nate the can­cer from their bodies.

Deto­xif­ying the body is another impor­tant step in figh­ting any type of can­cer, or pre­ven­ting recu­rrence. Pes­ti­ci­des, heavy metals and other envi­ron­men­tal toxins undoub­tedly con­tri­bute to the inc­rease in thy­roid can­cer cases each year. I was sur­pri­sed to find that I had heavy metals in my body!

Hyperthyroidism/Graves’ Disease: The Natio­nal Gra­ves Disease Foun­da­tion lists anti-thyroid drugs and sub-total thy­roi­dec­tomy as stan­dard alter­na­ti­ves to RAI (which is also lis­ted as a stan­dard treat­ment). For patients who want to avoid anti-thyroid drugs, RAI, or sur­gery, alter­na­tive treat­ments using mag­ne­sium and iodine could be suc­cess­ful accor­ding to Dr. Guy Abraham.4 Other treat­ments used by patients with hyperthy­roi­dism inc­lude using L-Carnitine, Mag­ne­sium and Cal­cium to help reduce thy­roid acti­vity. 5

Conc­lu­sion: It is impor­tant that thy­roid patients have the WHOLE STORY about RAI, aka I-131. There are real and unplea­sant side effects that most doc­tors don’t reveal to their patients. I have heard many sto­ries from can­cer sur­vi­vors and Gra­ves’ patients who felt pushed and con­fu­sed, and had no idea what treat­ment to choose. For many patients, iodine defi­ciency is a pos­si­ble cause for can­cer and autoim­mune disease. Addres­sing defi­cien­cies and deto­xif­ying the body can be an option for patients who do not chose RAI. For those who are can­di­da­tes for RAI, please look at the alter­na­ti­ves as well. Once you swa­llow that pill there is no tur­ning back. As a 3-time RAI patient recently said, “You can never expect to be 100% after taking a toxic subs­tance meant to kill off part of your body.”

I regret my deci­sion to have RAI. Hea­ling and reco­ve­ring after RAI is a slow pro­cess. I am still trying to recap­ture a sense of nor­malcy in my daily life nearly a year later. The hea­ling pro­cess after RAI is still con­ti­nuing. I see my health as a jig­saw puzzle with each piece being iden­ti­fied and pla­ced together before the pic­ture of well­being is finally revea­led. It is my hope that my expe­rien­ces can help others who are faced with tough choi­ces in their own thy­roid treat­ment.

Addi­tio­nal Resources:

Iodine and Thy­roid Health

http://iodine4health.com

www.drbrownstein.com

www.naturalthyroidchoices.com

Alter­na­tive Treat­ments for Hyperthyroidism:

www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/hyperthyroidism-000088.htm

End­no­tes:

1. http://www.thyroid.ca/Articles/EngE12A.html

2. http://iodine4health.com/body/body.htm

3. http://www.drbrownstein.com/blog.asp?id=122

4. http://iodine4health.com/disease/thyroidisease/autoimmune/abraham_autoimmune.htm

5. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/hyperthyroidism-000088.htm

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