Kathy:
If you’ve been looking for information on this you may have been approaching it from the wrong way. The studies that have been done on long-term effects of RAI have looked for links to future disease, and they have found none at this point. EVERYTHING I’ve read says that there are no increased risks of cancer and the like from the RAI treatment. This isn’t to say someone couldn’t get one of them, but that statistically the risk is no greater than for someone who has not had the RAI. Radioactive iodine does not linger in our bodies forever. It has a very short half-life, which means it degrades into a non-radioactive substance rapidly. “Radioactivity” essentially means that the atom involved is releasing electrons from its nucleus. Normal elements, like oxygen, hydrogen, do not release any of their electrons, but radioactive elements do. And they eventually become non-radioactive when enough of the electrons have been shed that the atomic structure of the atom becomes balanced out (layman’s terms, here). Any excess radioactive iodine (that was not taken up by the thyroid) is even more rapidly excreted from our bodies through the urine and sweat.
What may be more to the point of your question are longevity studies based on taking hormone replacement therapy, and there you’ve got me. I haven’t seen anything along those lines that I can remember. But inasmuch as there are children who become hypothyroid, and have to take replacement hormone, I would assume such studies/information exist somewhere. You might want to try approaching the subject from that point of view.
Bobbi
Anonymous