T. D. Luckey

Physiological benefits from low levels of ionizing radiation.

Extensive literature indicates that minute doses of ionizing radiation benefit animal growth and development, fecundity, health and longevity. Specific improvements appear in neurologic function, growth rate and survival of young, wound healing, immune competence, and resistance to infection, radiation morbidity, and tumor induction and growth. Decreased mortality from these debilitating factors results in increased average life span following exposure to minute doses of ionizing radiation. The above phenomena suggest the possibility that ionizing radiation may be essential for life. Limited data with protozoa suggest that reproduction rates decrease when they are maintained in subambient radiation environments. This may be interpreted to be a radiation deficiency. Evidence must now be obtained to determine whether or not ionizing radiation is essential for growth, development, nutrient utilization, fecundity, health and longevity of higher animals. Whether or not ionizing radiation is found to be essential for these physiologic functions, the evidence reviewed indicates that the optimal amount of this ubiquitous agent is imperceptibly above ambient levels.

Nurture with ionizing radiation : A provocative hypothesis

Whole body exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation appears to decrease overall cancer incidence. The data come from at least eight large studies of populations exposed to various forms of radioactive material and from more limited studies of occupational and environmental exposures to plutonium, radium, and radon. Earlier experiments in animals strongly support the protective effect that is apparent in humans. Also, experimental reports from invertebrates kept in radiation-deficient conditions suggest that ionizing radiation is essential for optimal growth and development. The combined evidence points to the presence of no-adverse-effect thresholds and of hormesis or beneficial effects at doses below those thresholds. Furthermore, according to the geological record, the high background radiation under which life first evolved has progressively attenuated up to the present. Thus it is intriguing to postulate that modern humans may live under conditions of partial deficiency of ionizing radiation; low doses of ionizing radiation may likely function as inducers of repair and detoxification mechanisms, much as low-level antigenic challenges are responsible for enhanced immune competence. This hypothesis runs contrary to the prevailing consensus of regulatory default assumptions, which negate the possibility of no-effect thresholds for agents that are carcinogenic at certain levels of exposure. Still, those are dogmatic policy assumptions without scientific or even empirical justification, whereas the hypothesis advanced here has consistent observational and experimental support. The implication is that a partial deficiency of ionizing radiation could be remedied by a safe supplementation, possibly through dietary means. Dose-response data from studies of nuclear workers and populations subjected to unusual exposures suggest that safe supplementation with about 0.4 cGy/mo would be beneficial and conservative.

BACTERIA INDUCED MORPHOLOGIC CHANGES.

Summary Inoculation of Streptococcus sp. into germfree rats resulted in dramatic cecal changes within 24 hours. The weight of the cecum and its contents were reduced almost 50% and an apical aggregate of lymphatic tissue appears as a grossly visible entity, lacking only the more densely clumped nature of that found in classic rats. Exploratory work with mice confirmed this observation. Although the size (weight or surface area) of the cecal wall of the germfree rats is twice the size of that in classic rats, no change was noted when germfree rats were monoinoculated with Streptococcus sp. The cervical lymph nodes increased 3-fold following inoculation of germfree mice. This exploratory work illustrates the potential of gnotophoric animals in the study of defense mechanisms. The authors acknowledge the assistance of G. G. Caldwell in the bacteriological work.

Atomic Bomb Health Benefits

“The collected data strongly suggest that low-level radiation is not harmful, and is, in fact, frequently ‘apparently beneficial’ for human health.” — Kondo, 1993 Media reports of deaths and devastation produced by atomic bombs convinced people around the world that all ionizing radiation is harmful. This concentrated attention on fear of miniscule doses of radiation. Soon the linear no threshold (LNT) paradigm was converted into laws. Scientifically valid information about the health benefits from low dose irradiation was ignored. Here are studies which show increased health in Japanese survivors of atomic bombs. Parameters include decreased mutation, leukemia and solid tissue cancer mortality rates, and increased average lifespan. Each study exhibits a threshold that repudiates the LNT dogma. The average threshold for acute exposures to atomic bombs is about 100 cSv. Conclusions from these studies of atomic bomb survivors are: One burst of low dose irradiation elicits a lifetime of improved health. Improved health from low dose irradiation negates the LNT paradigm. Effective triage should include radiation hormesis for survivor treatment.

Ionizing radiation promotes protozoan reproduction

This experiment was performed to determine whether ionizing radiation is essential for maximum growth rate in a ciliated protozoan. When extraneous ionizing radiation was reduced to 0.15 mrad/day, the reproduction rate of Tetrahymena pyriformis was significantly less (P less than 0.01) than it was at near ambient levels, 0.5 or 1.8 mrad/day. Significantly higher growth rates (P less than 0.01) were obtained when chronic radiation was increased. The data suggest that ionizing radiation is essential for optimum reproduction rate in this organism.

Hormology in nutrition.

Discrepancies in the growth curves for the sodium requirement of the cricket indicate that hormology may play an important role in the response to essential nutrients as well as to toxic compounds. Differentiation between stimulation of growth by a nonnutritive action and support of growth by an essential nutrient is difficult.

Effects of Microbes on Germfree Animals

Publisher Summary In this chapter, the effects of microbes on germfree animals are discussed in detail. Germfree animals which have been inoculated with a single microbial species are presently being exploited to give new concepts of microecology and new approaches for investigating the role of the microflora in the life of the host. Differences between germfree and classic animals give an over-all view of the effect of the microflora. Germfree animals differ from classic animals in having an enlarged cecum in rodents and less well-developed livers, lymphatic systems, and many defense mechanisms. Stress reactions such as heat, radiation, intestinal blockage, and hemorrhagic shock show classic clinical symptoms in germfree animals without any infectious vector. Food utilization is similar and vitamin requirements are generally the same for chicks of the two categories.

Abundant health from radioactive waste

When beliefs are abandoned and evidence from only whole body exposures to mammals is considered, it becomes obvious that increased ionising radiation would provide abundant health. The best source for that increased exposure is radioactive waste. A radiation deficiency is seen in a variety of species, including rats and mice; the evidence for a radiation deficiency in humans is compelling. We live in a partial deficiency of an essential agent, ionising radiation. Health benefits from increased chronic exposure are briefly reviewed. Safe radiation supplementation with waste from nuclear reactors is examined.

Effect of incubation upon folic acid content of eggs.

Conclusion No change in concentration of folic acid was found in eggs during incubation for 3 weeks.

Sir Samurai T. D. Luckey, PhD

I, Thomas Donnell Luckey, was born on May 15, 1919, in the Natrona County Hospital in Casper, Wyoming. It was a new hospital, and my father, Dr. Frank Seymour Luckey, physician, surgeon and rancher, was a founding director. Dad was taciturn, very knowledgeable, and the strongest man I ever knew. During my birth, my mother, Lily Waggener Luckey, had a near-death experience. She was ill for several months following my birth and my Aunt Floti Waggener took care of me during this time. Although we always had enough to eat, mother worked and acted as if we lived in poverty. I was the youngest of five with three sisters and one brother. We lived at 415 So. Beech St. My B average shattered my siblings’ haloes of academic achievement through high school. I played basketball, clarinet (poorly), sang in choirs and musical productions, and, in 1933–34, was president of my 300 member freshman class at Natrona County High School. Summers were spent on our ranch. Our ranch was about 60 miles north of Casper, about halfway between two famous spots in Wyoming: Kay Cee of the famous Johnson County range war in 1892, and the Hole-In-The-Wall, the only breech in a 30 mile red cliff through which “outlaws” escaped from the more settled country onto our range. The ranch consisted of about ten family/friends’ homesteads of 640 acres each which controlled about 20 square miles of range on both sides of Murphy Creek. We eventually had about 500 cattle (5–8 were milked), about 150 horses (about 20 were used for work and riding), and 1–2000 sheep. The ranch provided a practical education in biology. I worked hard (half-days from 7 years old and full time from 11), mostly in hay fields, and became a good rider. I was not a cowboy, never had chaps, boots or spurs. Without radio, electricity, telephone, TV, or books, a boy had to do something. My hobby was snakes. I knew every part of Ditmar’s (1931) encyclopedic volume on snakes. When I was about 11, “milking” rattlesnakes and collecting dried venom was a preamble to becoming a biochemist. When the ranch went bankrupt in the summer of 1935, I became foreman with one hired hand, a cook and a few remaining animals. I Dose-Response, 6:97–112, 2008 Formerly Nonlinearity in Biology, Toxicology, and Medicine Copyright