Do RadX and RadAway from Fallout exist in real life? How do we medically prevent and treat radiation poisoning?
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No. There’s no magical pill that can undo the damage of radiation exposure. The only thing you can do is prevent or minimize exposure in the first place. If you’ve been exposed to electromagnetic radiation like gamma rays or x-rays, that’s it, the damage is done. If you’ve been contaminated with radioactive particles, you can’t undo exposure you’ve already had, but you can prevent further exposure by decontaminating yourself.
If you’ve gotten radioactive particles inside your body, either through ingestion or inhalation, there’s very little you can do. I see some people here talking about iodine pills, but potassium iodide is of extremely limited use. All it does it protects your thyroid and ONLY your thyroid from iodine 131 and NO other radioisotope. It does not protect any other part of your body and it does not even protect your thyroid from any other type of radiation. You also have to start taking it before you are exposed, and you have to take it every day until you are no longer exposed. You can also use chelation therapy to remove certain radioisotopes inside your body, but again, that’s of limited utility because it only removes certain radioisotopes and it only stops future exposure, it can’t undo all the damage that those particles have already done inside your body.
As for treatment for radiation sickness, it’s just supportive. Blood transfusions, fluids, antibiotics, stem-cell transplants, and burn treatment if necessary, but there’s no way to undo the damage. If you got a mild dose, you can recover, but the higher the dose is, the more certain you are to die sooner from cancer or aplastic anemia, and at a certain point, with enough exposure, death is certain in a matter of days or weeks no matter how much medical treatment you get.
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