Published: July 12th, 2012 at 11:12 pm ET
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Fatigue from living the life of evacuees proving fatal
The Japan Times
By HIROKO NAKATA
July 13, 2012
Physical and mental fatigue from the stress of evacuation is believed to be the main cause behind the deaths of those who survived the earthquake and tsunami last March but have died since, according to a survey released Thursday by the Reconstruction Agency.
The agency surveyed the reasons behind the deaths of 529 survivors from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima [...]
Fatigue from living as evacuees was named as the cause of death for 249 people, or 47 percent, the agency said.
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Twenty-one people, or 4 percent, reportedly died because of stress from the nuclear power plant crisis.
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A-bomb doctor warns of further Fukushima woes
Kyodo News
By MEGUMI IIZUKA
July 12, 2012
A 95-year-old retired doctor is continuing to warn of possible health dangers to residents near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after some of them developed symptoms similar to those afflicting atomic-bomb survivors he treated for decades.
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He has spent much of his life researching the unexplained fatigue called Bura Bura disease he believes is caused by radiation exposure. Hida says some people could begin showing symptoms “in one to three years” after the Fukushima meltdowns.
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The illness haunted thousands of atomic-bomb survivors, including those who escaped the direct blast but inhaled, drank or ate radioactive substances, he says.
Those who exhibited the symptoms felt too tired to work or even stand up, but doctors could not clearly establish they were ill.
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Published: July 12th, 2012 at 11:12 pm ET
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sending...
Bura Bura Disease, CFS/ME Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
"'Dangers of internal radiation exposure': In the beginning, low does radiation causes nosebleed and diarrhea, and then the so-called bura bura disease [Chronic fatigue syndrome] can appear…"
From Sep 11, 2011
Fukshima Diary:
http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/09/breaking-news-%E3%80%8Cpandemic%E3%80%8Dof-low-dose-symptom-around-in-tokyo/
CFS was first starting to be looked looked at by the medical community around 1986. I wonder if so many in the USA have started getting this due to the fallout from nuke testing in the 60's, 70's and 80's? Certainly seems possible now.
Bura Bura was noted in survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Let me guess…
… They worried themselves to death?
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Post TMI people with that tell tale metal taste in their mouth, nosebleeds, fatigue, diarrhea and hair loss were told their symptoms were a result of stress brought on by the environmentalists who claimed they had been exposed to radiation.
Harvey Wasserman, reporting at the time for Rolling Stone, noted in a video interview that the pets that survived (many did not) seemed to be losing their fur and questioned if the pets had been listening to the environmentalist too.
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This is an interesting report on Gulf War Syndrome/CFS/Bura Bura disease, depleted uranium, low-level radiation effects — very relevant information, with cited work we should explore:
http://www.ccnr.org/bertell_book.html
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"…it is the mitochondrial DNA that is most easily damaged and the more difficult to repair when there is low dose ongoing radiation exposure. An interesting fact about mitochondrial DNA is that it is passed on only from the mother and that it helps determine how we age [and energy levels]… There were people who survived Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombing and had very low energy. No one could figure out why and thought they must be malingering. Well it was likely due to the effect of the radiation on their mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are like the energy factories in every cell. Their DNA codes for manufacturing many of the proteins needed for mitochondria to function optimally. … when the pro-nuclear data started being generated it was well before we knew about mitochondrial DNA, and well before we began understanding how mitochondrial DNA was more susceptible to even relatively low levels of natural radiation. We do not have good studies on the effects of exposure to low dose man-made radiation with multiple isotopes simultaneously. …There are some studies on voles in the Chernobyl area that show mutations in their maternal mitochondrial DNA. Many of the health complaints of those exposed to Chernobyl radiation were passed off as being psychological. I see that as a poor excuse for not really understanding the biological effects we haven’t been able to measure readily." http://www.drlintegral.com/Fukushima.pdf
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Cite provided previously by ML looking at susceptibility of mitochondrial DNA to mutations from "background" radiation:
Lucy Forster, Peter Forster, Sabine Lutz-Bonengel Horst Willkomm, Bernd Brinkmann Natural radioactivity and human mitochondrial DNA mutations PNAS http://www.pnas.org/content/99/21/13950.long
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I had a sickness in about 2004 or 05. Thanksgiving time. I have never fully recovered after that. It hit me like a plague. I never thought it was the flu.
A year happened as it was a week time . What happened? Epstein Barr? I never sought treatment.
The best way to describe it, you are walking along and then someone hits you in the head. You are down.
I always wanted to know what caused that. No one in a house of 5 got death sick but me.
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west nile
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Lyme?
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"For all of the parameters a bimodal dose-effect dependence was discovered, i.e. the effect increased at low doses, reached its [low-dose] maximum, and then decreased (in some cases, the sign of the effect changed to the opposite, or "benefit" effect) and increased again as the dose was increased" (Burlakova, page 118). Dr. Burlakova has speculated that at the lowest experimental doses used in this research, the repair mechanism of the cells was not triggered. It became activated at the point of the low- dose maximum, providing a "benefit" until it was overwhelmed and the damage began again to increase with dose. This may well be the case.
However, the unexpected effects of low dose/slow-dose rate exposure to ionizing radiation can also be attributed to biological mechanisms, other than the direct DNA damage hypothesis usually used by radiation physicists. These secondary mechanisms are specific to the low-/slow-dose conditions. Three such secondary mechanism have been observed by scientists: the Petkau effect, monocyte depletion, and deformed red blood cells. (cont.)
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The Petkau effect: discovered by Abram Petkau at the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment, Manitoba, Canada in 1972 (Ref.1). Dr. Petkau discovered that at 26 rads per minute (fast-dose rate) it required a total dose of 3,500 rads to destroy a cell membrane. However, at 0.001 rad per minute (slow dose rate), it required only 0.7 rad to destroy the cell membrane. The mechanism at the slow-dose rate is the production of free radicals of oxygen (O2 with a negative electrical charge) by the ionizing effect of the radiation.
The sparsely distributed free radicals generated at the slow-dose rate have a better probability of reaching and reacting with the cell wall than do the densely crowded free radicals produced by fast-dose rates. These latter recombine quickly. Moreover, the slight electrical charge of the cell membrane attracts the free radicals in the early stages of the reaction (low total dose). Computer calculations have shown that the attraction weakens with greater concentrations of free radicals. The traditional radiation biologist has tested only high-dose reactions, and looked for direct damage to the membrane by the radiation. (cont.)
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Monocyte depletion: Nuclear fission produces radionuclides which tend to be stored by humans and animals in the bone tissue. In particular, strontium-90, plutonium and the transuranics have this property. Stored in bone, near the stem cells which produce the white blood cells, these radionuclides deliver a chronic low/slow dose of radiation which can interfere with normal blood- cell production. A few less neutrophils or lymphocytes (the white blood cells which are most numerous, and are usually "counted" by the radiophysicist) are not noticeable. In the normal adult, there are about 7,780 white cells per microlitre of blood. Of these, about 4,300 are neutrophils and 2,710 are lymphocytes. Only 500 are monocytes. (cont.)
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If, for example, stem cells in the bone marrow are destroyed so as to reduce total white blood count by 400 cells per microlitre due to the slow irradiation by radionuclides stored in the bone, this would represent a depletion of only five percent in total white cells, an insignificant amount. If all of the depletion was of neutrophils, this would mean a reduction of only 9.3 percent, still leaving the blood count well in the normal range. The lymphocytes would also be still in the normal range, even though they were depleted by 400 cells per microlitre, or 14.8 percent. However, there would be a dramatic depletion of the monocytes by 80 percent. Therefore, at low doses of radiation, it is more important to observe the monocytes, than to wait for an effect on the lymphocytes or neutrophils (as is now usually done). The effects of serious reduction in monocytes are:
Iron deficient anemia, since it is the monocytes which recycle about 37-40 percent of the iron in the red blood cells when they die;
Depressed cellular immune system, since the monocyte secretes the substance which activates the lymphocyte immune system. (cont.)
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Deformed red-blood cells: Dr. Les Simpson, of New Zealand, has identified deformed red-blood cells, as observed under an electron microscope, as causing symptoms ranging from severe fatigue to brain dysfunction leading to short-term memory loss. He has identified such cells in elevated number in chronic fatigue patients, and speculated that because of their bloated or swollen shape, they are obstructed from easily passing into the tiny capillaries, thus depriving muscles and the brain of adequate oxygen and nutrients. The chronic fatigue syndrome has been observed both at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, called bura bura disease, and at Chernobyl. [3]
In the official approach to radiobiology, only direct damage to DNA has been recognized as "of concern," and only high dose/fast-dose rate experiments or observations have been accepted for use in estimating the dose-response rate. As was noted, it is the "common wisdom" that effects of low doses/slow- dose rates cannot be studied, but must be extrapolated from the officially accepted high dose/fast-dose rate studies. This approach is rejected by the work of Dr. Burlakova, and the other research noted below.
Basing one's theory on claims that is impossible to study the phenomenon is certainly a peculiar way to do science! This myth has now been clearly shown to have been rash and criminally negligent."
From http://www.ccnr.org/bertell_book.html
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good research Dr. Whowhatwhere. Thx!
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So the bottom line is that there is documented evidence of some sort of fatigue syndrome connected to low dose radiation exposure. But the symptoms are easily explained as being caused by a myriad of other factors like stress from evacuation.
Japan Times reports "Twenty-one people, or 4 percent, reportedly died because of stress from the nuclear power plant crisis." Also
"Fatigue from living as evacuees was named as the cause of death for 249 people, or 47 percent, the agency said."
There will be no Crime Scene Investigation of any peculiar illnesses or deaths and if some poor ex Fukushima resident seems tired all day long they can say it is from depression due to evacuation. Seems its hard to pin exposure from low level (relatively) radiation as cause for illness. We all should be fighting the nuclear industry.
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It's apparently not as difficult to lay fatigue at the feet of low-level radiation using research from Russian scientists post-Chernobyl. But of course the NRC and DoE and energy corporations here would never allow similar studies in the US to see the light of day. Instead, we get the "low-dose radiation is good for you! Keep smiling!" DoE- and corporate-funded PR pieces from our bought-out labs and universities.
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Nuclear radiation exposure causes oxidative stress and DNA damage. The effects of mutations in mitochondrial DNA and oxidative stress are being studied because both contribute to aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Interesting that red blood cells have no nuclei and no mitochondria in mammals so they can function better under ocidative stress. See:
Red blood cell extrudes nucleus and mitochondria against oxidative stress.
Zhang ZW, Cheng J, Xu F, Chen YE, Du JB, Yuan M, Zhu F, Xu XC, Yuan S.
Source
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Agriculture University, Chengdu, China.
Abstract
"Mammal red blood cells (erythrocytes) contain neither nucleus nor mitochondria. Traditional theory suggests that the presence of a nucleus would prevent big nucleated erythrocytes to squeeze through these small capillaries. However, nucleus is too small to hinder erythrocyte deformation. And, there is no sound reason to abandon mitochondria for the living cells. Here, we found that mammal erythrocyte reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels kept stable under diabetes, ischemia reperfusion, and malaria conditions or in vitro sugar/heme treatments, whereas bird erythrocyte ROS levels increased dramatically in these circumstances. Nuclear and mitochondrial extrusion may help mammal erythrocytes to better adapt to high-sugar and high-heme conditions by limiting ROS generation."
So RBC would be rather unique in their response to radiation since they lack…
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mitochondria.
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New stuff from SORES, we need to win in the US, even if we are tired
San Onofre Reactor Emergency Syndrome….its really bad, they got crappy parts that are more than half gone after a few years, and the result will be a direct radiation leak into a populated area.
And they want to "repair it", rather than take a loss and say it's time to stop fixing the clunker. 3400 bad tubes and they want to "fix it". What a greedy bunch of psychopaths.
The facts are here:
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2012/07/sores-sometimes-promoted-as-songs.html
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Fatigue is a common symptom of poisoning by toxic metals and chemicals. It is not limited to radionuclides. The chemical properties of the radioactive isotopes may cause this, as well as the radioactive properties of them.
http://optimalprediction.com/files/table7.jpg
http://optimalprediction.com/wp/canaries/
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Well, dang it, too much unrelenting stress IS a killer, and these people have had nothing but. I'd say that if evacuation is being blamed, then blame the conditions – no hope, living in a gym with minimal peace or privacy, incomplete diet, profound grief, no chance of returning home, no income, no word from the government…these do kill when there is no relief. But, how about testing for internal radiation before pronouncing the cause with such certainty?
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This is a discussion of the effects of radiation. Yes there are definitely other mechanisms leading to oxidative stress and DNA damage other than radioactivity. Each person has differing ability to repair DNA damage and detoxify. Lots of variables involved. There is a limit to that ability.
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The beginning of the end.
Whether or not we get National Health Care in the US, as in Canada and Europe, the economy dictates that medical care costs be slashed. Without going into details – you can find them at http://www.zerohedge.com – things are going to get much worse. Doctors and staff in Greece not getting paid at all, minimal to no access to drugs and supplies, spreading into Portugal, Spain and Italy – this is our future. Critical drugs are getting harder and harder to get in North America, especially cancer drugs. A lot of government stockpiling going on.
This crises of spreading rad sickness will require oncologists and cardiologists – lots of them. Those are niche specialties to begin with, and as the money dries up – and their living environment becomes 'hot' – they will retire, quit or move to safer and more profitable locales.
The government can't print these specialists. They can't force them to stay and work for free in hot zones. There is already a great amount of doctors that are refusing Medicare patients nationally.
This is getting ugly, fast.
And while you're here on Enenews, keep all your personal information to yourself. No location info, no communication info, nothing. There are a lot of people here that want to know way too much about us. If you think what you see is valuable, keep a copy. This site will be one of the first turned off when our rulers are truly threatened with exposure of this nuke horror.
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Excellent points Time is Short. Thank you. I will add to saving information you read here.
Copy into a word document & assume links, those with the most explosive information to be removed too. So Copy the page contents to a Blank Word document on your computer. You could also …or.. take a screenshot of the page. (Noting that Saving Page As saves the Active link, & disappears if the link is gone.)
Then you can go to your e-mail account & create a new e-mail. adding as an attachment the documents you have created. Send these to yourself..& others so that they have them. (you should have several e-mail accounts just for this reason.)
Printing & or storing on external hardrvies also helps to save info.
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TIS I remember one of our leaders in the Congress of the US suggesting that we revert to the old timey doctor payments of giving chickens. We should take that into consideration for the payment of these corrupted and incompetent leaders. It is difficult to believe that the people voted for these leaders. The only time that Congress meets for the purpose of considering their raises is when the determine NOT to have an annual raise.
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The Petkau Effect And Low Dose Radiation Harm Caused To Humans, Plants, Animals; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-petkau-effect-and-low-dose.html
Mutagenesis; Dangers Of Low Dose Ionizing Radiation; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/mutagenesis-dangers-of-low-dose.html
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