Radon balneology

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Radon balneology , also known as radon therapy , radon bath or radon inhalation cure , is the therapeutic application of the radioactive element radon in spas and healing caves . Natural releases of radon from the ground are used. The term radium bath used to be common. Common indications are chronic inflammatory diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis , rheumatoid arthritis , sarcoid , bronchial asthma and osteoarthritis pain . It is also used against skin diseases such as delayed wound healing , psoriasis and neurodermatitis . Controlled studies to prove the effectiveness are only available for M. Bechterew, arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Radon is one of the noble gases ; it's heavier than air. As a natural radioactive product of the uranium decay series , it is found in many geological formations and accumulates in high concentrations in the air of uranium mines. The physical half-life is 3.8 days. The biological half-life (retention of inhaled radon) in the human body is around 30 minutes. Radon and its short-lived decay products are alpha emitters with a penetration depth of approx. 30 μm, which corresponds to about three cell layers. The radiation effects therefore mainly affect the skin and lungs.

There are tub baths in which the bath water and breathing air are enriched with at least 660 Bq / l of radon, and Heilstollen, in which warm, moist, radon-containing air of 40–50 Bq / l is inhaled. Radon cures include 10–15 baths or 8–12 tunnel entries over a period of 3 weeks. The equivalent dose is given as 0.2 mSv for 10 bathtubs and 1.8 mSv for 10 tunnel entrances.

In Europe there are radon baths in Bad Gastein and Bad Zell (Austria), Niška Banja (Serbia), in Menzenschwand , Bad Kreuznach , Bad Brambach , Bad Münster , Bad Schlema , Bad Steben and Sibyllenbad (Germany), in Jáchymov (Czech Republic), Hévíz (Hungary), and in Naretschen and Kostenez (Bulgaria). In the United States, where no health insurance covers the costs, there are few providers in Boulder , Montana .

It is debatable whether the potential benefits of treatment outweigh the radiation risk. Proponents refer to the hormesis (see below) and refer to the undoubtedly existing risks of other pain relieving therapy methods such as B. Medicines. Opponents point out that the overall effect is rather weak, while on the other hand the radiation risks of a certain dose can be specified exactly. So far, the use of radon has been considered part of conventional medicine in Germany. Although it was deleted from the catalog of therapeutic products in 2001 , the statutory health insurance continues to cover the costs if a doctor prescribes it, within the framework of the guidelines on outpatient preventive services (formerly "cures"). The German Federal Environment Agency sees the application as a form of radiation therapy for benign diseases and recommends weighing the benefits and risks individually. Children, adolescents and pregnant women should not be treated with radon. The Swiss Radiation Protection Commission ( KSR) comments on radon therapies for ankylosing spondylitis that the pain-relieving effect has not been proven and that there is no plausible biological mechanism for it. The potential risk of the associated radiation exposure has been criticized, especially among staff.

history

Spa treatments have been known since the Middle Ages . These were associated with long treatment periods of several weeks. With the discovery of radium and later of radon and its effects, a connection was assumed in many places that aroused interest in the corresponding medicinal baths.

After the establishment of the “Radium Baths” Sankt Joachimsthal in Bohemia in 1906, immediately before the First World War, the radium baths in Germany flourished due to the presumed healing effects of radioactive substances. Bad Kreuznach , which started its spa business in 1817, advertised being the strongest radium brine bath; later, besides St. Joachimsthal, it was mainly Oberschlema and Bad Brambach that claimed to be the strongest radium and radon baths in the world.

With the discovery of the springs in Oberschlema, the way to build a radium bath was paved in 1918. In the baths, people trusted in the healing properties of radium. During the cures, people bathed in radium water, served drinking cures with radium water and inhaled radon in emanatories. The baths were visited by tens of thousands each year. The levels of these cures reached extreme heights: the baths had 700 ME (9418 Bq / l) and the one-hour emanation 70 ME (942 Bq / l). During a drinking cure, three quarters of a liter of water with 3000 ME (40,364 Bq / l) was served daily for 30 days. Against this background, it is understandable that the research on this topic remained largely hidden from the public. It was feared that there would be no spa patients and the collapse of the radium industry, which used radium in articles such as creams, drinks, chocolate, toothpastes, soaps and other products. Between 1932 and 1937, thorium was also used in the French cosmetic series “Tho-Radia”.

In fact, mainly radon was found in the healing springs, whereas radium only occurred in small traces.

Risks

Incorporated radon is one of the most important causes of lung cancer. Even at radon concentrations in the air of 150 Bq / m³, a significant increase in lung cancer mortality has been determined. Directive 2013/59 / Euratom of the EU, and the German Radiation Protection Ordinance of 2019 based on it, prescribe protective measures from 300 Bq / m³ in homes and workplaces. In the Paselstollen Bad Gastein the radon concentration is up to 170,000 Bq / m³.

Mode of action

Your users see radon therapy as low-dose radiation therapy . Ionizing rays below the cell-destroying dose have an anti-inflammatory and growth-inhibiting effect. That seems to be the case with radon too. Radon is said to reduce DNA synthesis, this is said to be a possible mechanism of anti-rheumatic effects. In addition, radon is said to increase cortisone secretion.

In addition, radon users attribute a general hormesis (health promotion) to the radon bath . In fact, radiation hormesis has been a hypothesis known since the early 20th century. However, it is still controversial today because the effects of very small doses of radiation can hardly be observed directly. If the effects are extrapolated from larger doses, even the smallest radiation exposure retains a health risk. The international bodies continue to base their recommendations on this rule ( linear-no-threshold ) .

When bathing, drinking spring water or while staying in the former mine tunnel, radon enters the body, where it is distributed in dissolved form, but as a noble gas does not form any chemical bonds. The biological half-life through exhalation is 18–68 minutes. By hyperventilation due to the heating of the ambient air and the reduction of air pressure , which corresponds to an altitude corresponds to the absorption of radon can be increased. The beneficial effect should start at normal temperature from 37,000  Bq / m³ breathing air, with a maximum of 3 MBq / m³ breathing air.

In the so-called radon heat therapy, also known as low-dose radon and hyperthermia therapies (LDRnHT), the effect should be based on a combination of mild hyperthermia , high humidity and absorption of radon through the skin and lungs: temperatures above 37.5 degrees and high humidity above 70 percent leads to the so-called hyperthermia effect. Under these conditions, the body temperature rises, the muscles relax and the body should absorb the radon better.

The German-Austrian IMuRa study examined the effectiveness of radon treatment on the pain situation in chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system. The study participants were treated with a radon bath or a radon healing tunnel entrance. The study results claim a significantly more pronounced reduction in pain and a significant reduction in the consumption of painkillers in the participants treated with radon. The study indicates a conflict of interest because it was carried out on behalf of the EURADON association and at six short-term radon centers in Germany and Austria. While the abstract speaks of blinding, the main part mentions that it was not complete (Stollen).

Applications

The Gastein Research Institute (FOI) of the Paracelsus Medical Private University in Salzburg is financed, among other things, by contributions from Gastein. In addition to some contraindications, the FOI lists the following diseases as indications :

Musculoskeletal disorders

Respiratory diseases

Skin disorders

literature

  • Peter Deetjen: Radon as a remedy . Ed .: RADIZ Schlema e. V. Kovac, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8300-1768-5 .
  • Albrecht Falkenbach: Radon in health resort medicine . In: Association for swimming pool and climate science e. V. (Ed.): German Bath Book . 2nd Edition. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-510-65241-9 , pp. 152-154 .

Sources and individual references

  • Günther Bernatzky, Rudolf Likar, et al .: Non-drug pain therapy: Complementary methods in practice. Springer 2007. ISBN 321133548X . P. 288-97
  1. ↑ Bernatzky 2007
  2. ^ Radon baths. Retrieved February 26, 2019 .
  3. ^ BE Erickson: The therapeutic use of radon: a biomedical treatment in Europe; to "alternative" remedy in the United States. In: Dose-response: a publication of International Hormesis Society. Volume 5, Number 1, September 2006, pp. 48-62, doi : 10.2203 / dose-response.06-007.Erickson , PMID 18648554 , PMC 2477705 (free full text).
  4. ↑ Manfred Dworschak: Medicine: Beautifully irradiated . In: Der Spiegel . tape April 17 , 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed February 26, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Umweltbundesamt: Umweltmedizinischer Informationsdienst 3/2000. , Pp. 6-12
  6. ↑ a b Federal Commission for Radiation Protection and Monitoring of Radioactivity (December 5, 2014): Statement on radon therapy for Bechterew's disease.
  7. ↑ Karl Hübner: Researchers explore the tunnel air. , Deutsche Ärzte Zeitung January 7, 2013, accessed February 25, 2019
  8. ↑ Irena Seidlerová, Jan Seidler: Jáchymover uranium and radioactivity research at the turn of 19-20. Century . .. Ed .: Rudolf Holze. S. 110-112 .
  9. ↑ Léčebné lázně Jáchymov as: The History of the Jáchymov Bath , accessed on January 25, 2017.
  10. ^ Spa and salt works of the city of Bad Kreuznach (ed.): 175 years of the Bad Kreuznach spa 1817–1992. Festschrift. Geis & Fiedler, Pfaffen-Schwabenheim 1992
  11. ↑ Evaluation of the available health studies on radon. Recommendation of the radiation protection commission. Adopted at the 192nd session of the SSK on 24/25 June 2004. Published in BAnz No. 141 of July 30, 2004. Brief information
  12. ^ Joseph Magill, Jean Galy: Radioactivity Radionuclides Radiation. Springer 2005, ISBN 3-540-26881-2 , pp. 148-149
  13. ↑ Research on radon therapy continues. Retrieved February 26, 2019 .
  14. ^ A. Falkenbach, J. Kovacs, A. Franke, K. Jörgens, K. Ammer: Radon therapy for the treatment of rheumatic diseases - review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials. In: Rheumatology international. Volume 25, Number 3, April 2005, ISSN  0172-8172 , pp. 205-210. doi: 10.1007 / s00296-003-0419-8 . PMID 14673618 . (Review).
  15. ^ K. Becker: Health Effects of High Radon Environments in Central Europe: Another Test for the LNT Hypothesis? In: Nonlinearity Biol Toxicol Med. 1, 2003, pp. 3-35, PMID 19330110 PMC 2651614 (free full text).
  16. ↑ P. Gobel, M. Franke, WB Schill: The cortisone secretion of the adrenal region after hydrotherapy. In: G. Hoffmann, KE Scheer (Ed.): Radionuclides in clinical and experimental oncology. Schattauer, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 319–321. There is no recent evidence of this.
  17. ^ Vesper Grantham, Jonathan Baldwin: Radiation Hormesis: Historical and Current Perspectives . In: Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology . tape 43 , no. 4 , December 1, 2015, ISSN  0091-4916 , p. 242-246 , doi : 10.2967 / jnmt.115.166074 , PMID 26584616 ( snmjournals.org [accessed February 26, 2019]).
  18. ↑ US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: ToxGuide for Radon. October 2012, accessed on February 26, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Angelika Moder (Gastein Research Institute) et al .: Effect of combined Low-Dose Radon- and Hyperthermia Treatment (LDRnHT) of patients with ankylosing spondylitis on serum levels of cytokines and bone metabolism markers: a pilot study. (PDF; 327 kB) In: Int. J. Low Radiation. 2010, pp. 423-435 , accessed on September 19, 2013 (Vol. 7, No. 6,).
  20. ^ A. Franke, T. Franke: Long-term benefits of radon spa therapy in rheumatic diseases: results of the randomized, multi-center IMuRa trial. In: Rheumatology international. Volume 33, Number 11, November 2013, ISSN  1437-160X , pp. 2839-2850. doi: 10.1007 / s00296-013-2819-8 . PMID 23864139 .
  21. ↑ Information sheet from the Gastein Research Institute. The information sheet reads: “Dear Sir or Madam, dear guests, when you stay in Gastein, from a minimum length of stay set by the Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein spa commissions, you pay a one-time (!) Contribution of 1.10 euros Funding of the Gastein Research Institute. "
  22. ↑ Markus Ritter: Indications for a healing cave therapy. Gastein Research Institute (FOI) of the Paracelsus Medical Private University Salzburg, August 2008, accessed on January 8, 2010 .