Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis • Hacker News Board

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#21

Post by eig » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

Glad to see this! We need better treatments for OA short of a joint replacement.

I'm not too surprised that this treatment works. It's essentially like localized steroids to just the joint- killing off the immune cells causing inflammation.

Good features is that it's localized (so no systemic immunosuppression) and the risk of cancer is low since you rarely get radiation-induced cancer in joints because there's not enough dividing cells. Unfortunately heading to radiotherapy is a logistical challenge, but there are enough people suffering from OA that would happily do this to get relief.

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#22

Post by layer8 » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 3:52 PM UTC

davibu wrote: post #3

3 Gy is nowhere near what could be qualified as a "Low dose". "A whole-body acute exposure to 5 grays or more of high-energy radiation usually leads to death within 14 days. LD1 is 2.5 Gy, LD50 is 5 Gy and LD99 is 8 Gy.[11] The LD50 dose represents 375 joules for a 75 kg adult. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_(unit)#Radiation_poisonin...

For a moment I was confused that radiation doses would be measured in gigayears.

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#23

Post by p1dda » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 3:58 PM UTC

I'd much more prefer allogeneic stem cell treatment for osteoarthitis. It's a shame it's not available in all those countries where millions of dollars are made by companies making knee joint replacement prosthesis. What a coincidence.

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#24

Post by el_benhameen » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #12

This might be one of those cures that works like the old T-Gel shampoo (ie: carcinogenic coal tar that turned out to be immune-suppressing enough to prevent dandruff eventually caused cancer). Though, at the ages when Osteoarthritis shows up, it might be better to take on a smaller risk of monitor-able extremity cancer than the pretty large QoL reduction of severe arthritis.

There is a theory (theory! very theoretical) that the risk from radiation does not scale linearly and that low doses of radiation might actually be protective. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#25

Post by hangonhn » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #12

This might be one of those cures that works like the old T-Gel shampoo (ie: carcinogenic coal tar that turned out to be immune-suppressing enough to prevent dandruff eventually caused cancer). Though, at the ages when Osteoarthritis shows up, it might be better to take on a smaller risk of monitor-able extremity cancer than the pretty large QoL reduction of severe arthritis.

Wow! I've actually used T-Gel because I used to get dandruff really bad as a teen and it was pretty effective. It's horrifying to know what it really was.

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#26

Post by CjHuber » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:11 PM UTC

el_benhameen wrote: post #24

mmastrac wrote: post #12

This might be one of those cures that works like the old T-Gel shampoo (ie: carcinogenic coal tar that turned out to be immune-suppressing enough to prevent dandruff eventually caused cancer). Though, at the ages when Osteoarthritis shows up, it might be better to take on a smaller risk of monitor-able extremity cancer than the pretty large QoL reduction of severe arthritis.

There is a theory (theory! very theoretical) that the risk from radiation does not scale linearly and that low doses of radiation might actually be protective. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis

So we are going full circle now?

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#27

Post by dinkblam » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

stuck in cloudflare for 3 seconds so i cancelled loading the website

why to web admins think this is acceptable for visitors?

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#28

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:40 PM UTC

p1dda wrote: post #23

I'd much more prefer allogeneic stem cell treatment for osteoarthitis. It's a shame it's not available in all those countries where millions of dollars are made by companies making knee joint replacement prosthesis. What a coincidence.

[deleted]

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#29

Post by Havoc » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:46 PM UTC

Tom Scott made a video about a related treatment - radon caves a couple years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZkusjDFlS0

Re: Low-dose radiation offers relief to people with knee osteoarthritis

#30

Post by nsxwolf » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 4:55 PM UTC

el_benhameen wrote: post #24

mmastrac wrote: post #12

This might be one of those cures that works like the old T-Gel shampoo (ie: carcinogenic coal tar that turned out to be immune-suppressing enough to prevent dandruff eventually caused cancer). Though, at the ages when Osteoarthritis shows up, it might be better to take on a smaller risk of monitor-able extremity cancer than the pretty large QoL reduction of severe arthritis.

There is a theory (theory! very theoretical) that the risk from radiation does not scale linearly and that low doses of radiation might actually be protective. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis

The residential radon mitigation industry does not like this.