effects of taking barium

I have occasional stomach pains — burning sometimes, seems
correlated with coffee and bad eating habits.

I have been told by a doctor to have 2 sets X-rays taken,
one involving a preparation of barium swallows, the other
barium enema.

I will probably do it, but I hesitate because I do not know
the tradeoffs here — is barium something I want in my body?
What does it do? How long does it stay? What are the diagnostic
benefits of the X-rays?

Tnx, f
starnet!bass!la…@apple.com

(Yes, I should have asked the doctor but I didn’t think at the
time, and she was only a subsitute filling in ….)

One Response to “effects of taking barium”

  1. admin says:

    In article <LAKIN.91May5132…@csli.stanford.edu> la…@csli.stanford.edu (Fred Lakin) writes:
    >I have occasional stomach pains — burning sometimes, seems
    >correlated with coffee and bad eating habits.

    >I have been told by a doctor to have 2 sets X-rays taken,
    >one involving a preparation of barium swallows, the other
    >barium enema.

    >starnet!bass!la…@apple.com

            Well, I recieved such barium treatments 4 years ago as testing
    was underway to see if I had an ulcer or not. Turned out I didn’t, but
    the only negative I can tell of the procedure was what came out. Nasty
    stuff to excrete, but even that was only a minor annoyance. I know of
    no longterm effect of the barium technique for Xray. Actually, from my
    addmitedlly spartan data base, you face more danger from a dental Xray
    than from Barium.

    allen