The Hidden Cancer Risk in Routine CT Scans - AI Podcast

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

People managing multiple chronic illnesses are nearly twice as likely to develop depression, even if they’ve never had mental health issues before, according to a decade-long study
Living with both heart disease and diabetes drastically increases your future depression risk, making cardiometabolic combinations among the most dangerous for emotional health outcomes
Chronic illnesses like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), liver disease, and bowel disorders sharply increase your risk of depression by overwhelming your body’s ability to regulate mood and energy
Women with joint and bone issues like arthritis face a higher depression risk than men with the same diagnosis, revealing a serious and often ignored gender vulnerability
Depression doesn’t just follow disease — it drives it. Left untreated, it speeds up illness progression, weakens your immune system, and increases your chances of hospitalization

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:15.0	Do you realize that the CT scan your doctor casually schedules today might be one of 93 million this year, part of an
0:23.5	imaging routine projected to seed more than 103,000 future cancer cases in the United States.
0:31.1	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:33.9	I'm Ethan Foster, and today you'll learn exactly how CT scans damage your DNA, which scans carry the greatest danger, and how you can reduce your lifetime cancer risk with informed choices.
0:46.5	I'm Alara Sky. Together, we'll untangle the latest research from JAMA internal medicine and historical evidence of industry manipulation, so you can decide
0:55.4	whether a CT is truly worth the hidden price your cells may pay. Let's start with the scope.
1:01.1	Researchers estimate that U.S. patients underwent about 61.5 million CTs last year, mostly adults,
1:08.7	but children took on the highest per scan risk because their rapidly
1:12.5	dividing cells absorb more radiation per dose. Even so, adults aged 50 to 69 bear the greatest
1:19.3	absolute burden because they receive far more scans overall. Every exposure adds to your cumulative
1:25.2	dose, and there is no safe threshold.
1:28.3	Each scan quietly increases your odds of cancer.
1:31.3	Abdomin and pelvis, CTS, cause the most future cancers, roughly 37,500, out of the projected
1:39.3	103,000 cases.
1:41.3	Chest scans rank second, targeting radiation-sensitive organs like your lungs,
1:46.4	colon, bladder, and reproductive tissues. When researchers tallied the impact, they found CT imaging
1:53.2	alone could drive 5% of all new cancers, about the same fraction attributed to chronic alcohol
1:59.2	consumption, and not far behind obesity's 7.6% share.
2:03.6	Imaging decisions deserve equal scrutiny.
2:06.6	Let's examine what the radiation actually does.
2:09.6	Ionizing beams slice through your chromosomes, creating direct breaks and subtle mutations.
	...

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