Gangrene
Low Dose X-Ray Therapy Cures Serious Gangrene Infections
Gangrene is usually caused by Clostridium bacteria which are found naturally in the soil. It is the most common microbe associated with gangrenous wounds caused by auto accidents, war wounds, illegal abortions, etc.
Gas-gangrene is a deadly form of the disease that spreads rapidly, up to six inches per hour and can cause death very quickly.
Gangrene is the death of soft tissue caused by the blood supply being cut off to the affected area.
Antibiotics can help in areas where blood is still able to circulate, but in those areas cut off from blood circulation, amputation or surgically removing the affected tissue is urgent.
Prior to the widespread use of antibiotics, a handful of progressive physicians were reducing mortality from gangrene from over 50% — including those requiring amputation — down to less than 5%, without amputating.
The advised course was low doses of X-rays: 50 rad for 3 minutes, twice daily for the first two days, then once per day on days three and four. This treatment reaches areas that antibiotics cannot, since blood flow is absent in the affected tissue.
These low doses are not enough to kill bacteria directly. Instead, the radiation remarkably stimulates the patient’s own immune defenses to heal the wound and destroy invaders. For actual sterilization, 1,000 to 5,000 kilorad would be required — far above the therapeutic dose. Low dose irradiation has also been used successfully as a prophylactic treatment in serious wounds.
Controversy over radiation safety persists to this day, largely based on the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) hypothesis — the assumption that if X amount of radiation is dangerous, then 1/10th of that dose is 1/10th as dangerous. This is not accurate, and there is substantial evidence that low dose radiation is safe.
Most of the research on X-ray therapy for infections was conducted between 1928 and 1940 and has since been largely forgotten for political reasons. X-ray therapy has also been used successfully on boils, acne, and other infections. This is an exciting area of medicine in need of renewed research — its clinical use should be reinstated.