Possible Underlying Physics behind Pain Relief Received in Radon Health Spas
G.I. Lykken1; B. Momcilovic2; and T.W. Ward3 (1Department of Physics, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota; 2Institute of Medical Research & Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia; 3Techsource Inc., Germantown, Maryland)
Radon therapy as practiced at radon health spas claims to induce beneficial long-term effects for those who suffer conditions of chronic pain due to disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or injury. Assuming the efficacy of radon therapy, we have developed a biophysics model in which the action potential of the pain neural network is modified in response to the internal radon radiation field. Basically, the activation threshold (noise level) of the neuronal action potential is increased above the chronic pain level due to the ionizing radiation of the radon decay products that preferentially attach to the neural network in the brain. The net effect of raising the activation threshold is that the chronic pain signals are ignored since they cannot sum sufficiently to trigger the new activation threshold for the pain response of the neural network system. Long lasting effects are due to the little known fact that inhaled radon is stored in the lipids of the blood forming organs, the lymphatic tissue, the ductile glands, the liver, kidneys and the brain. The lipid storage of radon allows it to deliver the short lived radon daughter products to the neural network system continuously over periods of several weeks to months. In this paper a review of recent scientific studies of controlled radon therapy and of radon physiology measured with whole body gamma-ray counters will be made in relation to the proposed action potential physics model of chronic pain relief.
