Proof at last for one cause of nodules and goitres.

Ever since I developed my first goitre back in 1989, I have become more and more convinced that it, and the multi-nodular monster which superseded it 16 years later, were caused by radiation from my local beach. I now have proof that this could very well be true:

endocrinenews.endocrine.org...

Not from Chernobyl in my case, but from Sellafield.

Not from an afternoon visit to beach but from hundreds of visits in all weathers over many years prior to 1979.

Substantial exposure to contaminated mud on beach (whole arm up to the shoulder) from digging lugworms , which digest nutrients from the mud and are stuffed full of iodine. Your hands look like those of a chain smoker for days afterwards. Iodine plus radioactivity is not a recipe for good health, I now know. I wish I had known it then.

Ingestion of the fish which eat the lugworms and shrimps and cockles which feed from the mud direct.

Some of the fish I caught, mainly the flounders had "burn" marks, looking similar to those on victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I thought little of it at the time.

Sellafield was used as the location for work on atomic bombs in its early years and has had a number of leakages into the atmosphere and the sea. Its current use is quite controversial. I am no nuclear expert, I just know its dangerous stuff.

Every doctor, endo or surgeon that I have asked has simply dismissed my claim as nonsense, but this article states quite clearly that: "whether internal radiation exposure during childhood is related to thyroid nodules isn’t known" and they have now proved that, actually, it really is!

What a surprise!

How dare those medical "professionals" dismiss me with such contempt!

I think I shall take this further!

Please don't stop going to the beach or eating fish and shrimps from the Irish Sea, mine is an extreme case.

Can anybody add any further information or proof, please.

[Katepots]

I'm sure there's a link with iodine and thyroid illness/goitres.

I had to keep my horses hoof sterile for months so used gallons of iodine and no gloves, silly me!!

I also had lots of X-ray/scans so maybe this then was the cause of my goitre/nodules.

GP completely poo pood but no suprises there.

Yes take it further, you have a good case.

[SilverAvocado]

I have heard many times that the only risk factor for thyroid cancer is radiation exposure, but don't know how much that helps. One avenue that could give interesting information is patients who gave had radio therapy in early life. I know thyroid cancer is quite common in survivors of childhood and teen years cancers, but don't know how linked this is to other forms of goitre.

[shond2015]

Panda321

I have just read your post....how bloody awful for you. Yet you sound so upbeat! If you have the energy to go further with it....then do it!

[MrsAdseagar]

I lived on the coast of Morecambe Bay, where Sellafield is based, from birth until adulthood.

I now have issues that you considered similar to yours, you responded recently, thank you for that.

I spent quite a bit of time on the beach, in the water and was at a school which adjoined the sea wall from age 4 to 11.

You have me wondering now.

[Hidden]

Not unlikely at all!

[Amz1987]

This is an interesting read, i am only 32 and have a thyroid full of nodules (around 6 from memory) I’ve known about them for 10 years since my 1st pregnancy when my thyroid played up during pregnancy.

I have no idea if I have ever been exposed to radiation (other then X-ray and CT scan which I only ever had for the 1st time this year) nothing of the sort when I was a child.

I live in Australia, my mum also has thyroid disease (hypo)

[Lora7again]

I have heard of this before .. poor you. I think mine is genetic because I am half Irish. There is research that implies people who are of Irish descent are more likely to develop thyroid disease. It is because of the potato famine which happened in Ireland and people were starving so their metabolism slowed down to compensate for the lack of food. I was on a site in the US and someone who was of american indian descent told me that they also have the disease because the indians went through a period of starvation when they were being driven out of their homeland by the US army.