I had to take a few full body x-rays at the doctor for a spine/back problem that they wanted to check out. Now, I hadn't gotten an x-ray in a long time, and wow do those things give me headaches? Does anyone else have that happen? Also, when they take the x-ray it feels as if a wave of static pulses through me. As in my hairs stand up. What causes that, specifically?
X-Rays! They give me headaches!
- Thread starter Dimmu
- Start date
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Ok, so I do not know for sure that it's the x-rays that gave me the headache. It's just that I am not prone to getting headaches, I have a balanced diet, and I had the recommended amount of water today and recently. So I deduced from those reasons that it is most likely the x-rays.
You may be more sensitive to xrays than a normal person. You might want to talk to your doctor about it and avoid taking any more if possible.
My spine is curved slightly. They just wanted to check up on it. I've been watching it for a while now. So it has nothing to do with the headache.
It's almost certain that your headache is stress (psychosomatic) or possibly from over-tensing your neck muscles.
Even a fatal dose of radiation is painless . . . for a little while.
Even a fatal dose of radiation is painless . . . for a little while.
Psychosomatic indeed. You wouldn't feel anything. Static pulses are discharges of electrons. X-rays are photons. MRIs can induce currents within the body (but they are very small... just a tingling, rarely to the level of painful), but this doesn't happen real often.
Headache was probably due to stress. There isn't any 'more sensitive to x-rays' with one exception: people who have a rare condition that causes radiation to cause dramatically more damage than on a normal person. However, if this were the case, you would know by now. You would burn with minimal sun exposure and be dealing with constant skin cancers.
Hope your headache is gone now
Goldie
--> medical physicist who works within radiation 40 hours per week at a radiation therapy clinic
EDIT: Unless, of course, your doc has a horribly miscalibrated unit. If this is the case though, you will know in a few days when your skin turns red and develops enormous blisters. Also, a headache caused by radiation would indicate a dose level that is fatal within a few hours -- basically it indicates that you have completely fried your brain and entire nervous system. You would also be unconscious or at least incoherent. Not to alarm you or anything....
Headache was probably due to stress. There isn't any 'more sensitive to x-rays' with one exception: people who have a rare condition that causes radiation to cause dramatically more damage than on a normal person. However, if this were the case, you would know by now. You would burn with minimal sun exposure and be dealing with constant skin cancers.
Hope your headache is gone now
Goldie
--> medical physicist who works within radiation 40 hours per week at a radiation therapy clinic
EDIT: Unless, of course, your doc has a horribly miscalibrated unit. If this is the case though, you will know in a few days when your skin turns red and develops enormous blisters. Also, a headache caused by radiation would indicate a dose level that is fatal within a few hours -- basically it indicates that you have completely fried your brain and entire nervous system. You would also be unconscious or at least incoherent. Not to alarm you or anything....
lokiju
Lifer
- May 29, 2003
- 18,526
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My finance is a radiologist and she always tells me to avoid getting any x-rays if at all possible, I was in a wreck about two months ago and have since had 2 x-rays and one MRI on my lower back/spine and have not noticed any headaches related to these scans.
The increased risk of cancers from an x-ray really is minimal. The dose from a standard CT scan is significantly higher, but still, minimal increased risk. Risk/benefit analysis, I guess. While I am not going to say the fears are completely unfounded, I will say that they are exaggerated -- a chest x-ray will increase your risk by about 1/20000. It's really interesting when you realize how much extra dose you get just from normal things we do. Radon in the soil, radiation from flying across the country, etc. On the other hand, as a physicist, I do think that you should have a doc's rx before getting a CT scan... I don't agree with those radiologists and physicists out there buying a trailer and offering whole-body CT to anyone for a price. </sermon>
my two cents
my two cents
Yes. I have no medical conditions and I never have headaches. I am 17 and male. I went to the dentist and got some x-rays and a panoramic of my teeth. Nothing big, but my upper jaw was slightly sore - nothing painful, though. Then, I went to the orthodontist and got a side-view x-ray of the whole head. The scan started at the front and moved toward the back over a period of about ten to twenty seconds. Within a minute or two I had a moderate headache that degraded linearly over the next twenty-four hours. My sister got the same scan and experienced no headache. A few days later, an oral surgeon took a 3D-scan of my jaw, which consisted of a series of x-rays taken at different angles, which is used to make a digital model of my jaw and teeth. No headache this time, although I had a slightly sore jaw again.
Yes, it's weird, and most people don't feel anything.
Yes, it's weird, and most people don't feel anything.
A fatal dose of radiation is painless for most people, not everyone apparently.
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
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