title: Health Benefits of Exposure to Low-dose Radiation.
abstract: Although there is no doubt that exposure to high doses of radiation (delivered at a high dose-rate) induces harmful effects, the health risks and benefits of exposure to low levels (delivered at a low dose-rate) of toxic agents is still a challenging public health issue. There has been a considerable amount of published data against the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for assessing risk of cancers induced by radiation. The LNT model for risk assessment creates "radiophobia," which is a serious public health issue. It is now time to move forward to a paradigm shift in health risk assessment of low-dose exposure by taking the differences between responses to low and high doses into consideration. Moreover, future research directed toward the identification of mechanisms associated with responses to low-dose radiation is critically needed to fully understand their beneficial effects.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Pathology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8691.
authors.forename: Kanokporn Noy
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Rithidech
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods