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by Linsey McLean

Heavy Metals & Other Toxic Contaminants

In my home state of Michigan as well as other areas of the country, more and more seemingly unrelated symptoms and nebulous diseases are being attributed to heavy metal poisoning, pesticide residues and fertilizer contaminants. Some common mineral supplements are also known to contain undesirable fractions. As society becomes more and more industrialized, waste products become more numerous and more poisonous.

Big business generally doesn't want the responsibility that goes with these pollutants along with the expense of proper disposal and tends to play down the toxic effects of exposure. It is common knowledge that some of the most poisonous substances ever created on Earth have been dumped deliberately on freeways by tankers driving down the road with open drains, in streams and rivers when it is cheaper to pay the pollution dumping fines than treat the wastes, or even left half buried in corroding barrels in various "legal" dump sites

Sometimes they are even pumped into the ground under the guise of "brine wells" or such and show up polluting ground water may miles away. I myself was forced to dump many gallons of toxic wastes down the drain when I worked in medical laboratories. That is common practice, and no one thinks much of it. Besides, there is usually no other place provided to put them. Since then, I drink no other water other than distilled water I make myself.

Chemical pollution is going to be with us for awhile, and ready solutions to this environmental problem are not within easy reach. For most of us, all we can do is to be aware of the problem, recognize possible sources of contamination, and be wise to the fact that little research has been done on the toxic wastes as far as directly associating clinical symptoms of disease and sub-optimal health. Testing for this type of poisoning is often not available until after the damage is done, whether to livestock or humans, and few clinicians would recognize a case enough to order the proper testing, or know what to do with it if they did.

Since the toxicity levels (the amounts necessary to produce symptoms) are different for each individual, animal or human, a broad range of symptoms can occur at different levels of exposure. And, to complicate matters, since these are often concentrated waste products, they can occur in multiples, with many metals in many chemical forms. They may even react among themselves to form whole new unknown compounds. The picture quickly becomes mind boggling.

As of now, most of the attention to chronic health problems associated with heavy metal poisoning has been at progressive cancer clinics where complete diet analysis, blood and hair analyses are done. The popular metabolic therapies for cancer, heart disease allergies and asthma, etc. aim at reducing contaminated sources in the diet. No water but distilled, no seafood from polluted waters and no spices grown outside the country where banned pesticides, often heavy metal based, are still being used. It seems ironic that it is even legal to import such products that have been treated with chemicals banned for use here, but many of these chemicals have been manufactured here in the U.S. Coffee, teas, chocolate and spices are good examples.

I work with as many people as I do animals and am finding that many health problems virtually disappear when toxic metal sources are identified and eliminated. They can even be pushed out of the body by other dietary supplements which will be discussed later. Let's look at the heavy metals individually and see what observations have been made about them.

Lead

Probably the most famous toxin is lead. The bones of ancient man had but traces in them. Modern man has many thousands of times that amount. Lead is everywhere and we can not escape exposure to it. We can only be aware and stay away from heavier sources of contamination. It is in printer's ink, gasoline, paints, solder, piping, ceramics, polluted air, and a common contaminant of fertilizers and the mineral supplements dolomite and bone meal. Pastures, grain crops and rivers can be contaminated by rain washing polluted air downwind from cities and factories.

Symptoms include fatigue, anemia, bone deformities, retardation, autism, hyperactivity, aggression, learning disabilities, muscle pain, loss of appetite, constipation, diarrhea, poor muscle tone, wakefulness, restless sleep, irritability, stomach pains, colic, miscarriage, growth retardation, spasms and twitches, blindness, rheumatoid arthritis, death and has been incriminated in muscular sclerosis.

Lead mimics calcium in the body and can be deposited in bones in the same pattern as calcium, causing a weak spots. Since young mammals have high calcium requirements for their growing bones, lead exposure poses an added threat. Young animals and babies will absorb substantially more lead than will adults at the same level of exposure. Consequently, toxic effects are at their worst for youngsters. Lead is a cumulative poison which means that the body stores it continually at a rate proportional to exposure. Lead is best excreted in urine. In high exposure situation, the body just can't expel enough to keep up. Children and young animals are most susceptible to brain damage because the blood/brain barrier has not had time to develop enough to filter out poisonous lead salts.

One race horse I worked on had paralysis of several nerves in the throat causing food and water to return through the nose. She was sick all over as well, anemic, tied up with extremely sore muscles, she almost sat down when her back or hind quarters were touched, and exhibited a very dour disposition.

Her race performance also reflected her poor state of health. We did a standard hair analysis and blood tests and supplemented accordingly, but obtained little results. When we did a special hair analysis for heavy metals, the lead level was very high. We used sulfur bearing amino acid methionine to chelate or "bind" with the lead in the body to enable excretion with a high protein/low carbohydrate diet of 4 lbs. of 25% digestible protein grain and hay.

High calcium and magnesium as amino acid chelates were used to push the lead out, acting as antagonists; and a potent bioflavonoid and hesperidins complex supplement. The latter are part of the vitamin C complex and boost the biological activity of the vitamin C normally manufactured by the horse itself. We did not give a pure vitamin C supplement to the horse, because if given over a long period of time, the normal ability of the animal to produce Vitamin C can be lost and when the supplement is discontinued, scurvy-like symptoms may appear.

Vitamin C and its complex have been shown to be very beneficial to protect the body from heavy metals as well as aid in excretion and detoxification. Lead salts are not very soluble in the body and therefore do not move very fast, making detoxification a time consuming process. Vitamin C complex, vitamin E complex, B complex vitamins, the sulfur amino acids methionine, cystine and cysteine, calcium and magnesium all appear to have beneficial effects in stimulating elimination and minimizing toxic effects.

Sodium alginate and pectin appear to bind with lead in the gut to form insoluble products that are not absorbed, but pass on out with the feces. These supplements aid in preventing further absorption from a contaminated food source.

The race horse we treated also had a calcium and magnesium deficiency which triggered pica (craving for abnormal materials) and she virtually ate the barn down, both at home and at the track, where numerous pesticides were sprayed in the paddocks. We began supplementing this horse in June and the following March she returned to the track apparently well. Time will tell. It may be that the damage left is too severe for her to hold up under the stresses of racing. Research says that much of the damage may be permanent.

I have a personal vendetta against lead. I began using a formula with fresh "certified organic" goats milk for my newborn son as soon as he came home from the hospital. We have allergies in our family to cow's milk causing mucus which he exhibited in the hospital on traditional formula. Everything was beautiful for three weeks, then colic set in. After six months, bowed legs were becoming apparent and at nine months he was hospitalized for dehydration when vomiting and diarrhea became uncontrollable. By this time, he would sleep only 20 minutes at a time and have nightmares when he did sleep, cry for no visible reason and had to have his crib padded with pillows as if he had a constant backache.

All the while, three pediatricians kept telling me the same chauvinistic song: "you're just an over-worried mother upset with her first baby". They refused to waste my money on needless lab tests and didn't know what to test for in the first place. At nine months, he finally had enough hair for a sample to have analyzed and I was horrified to see a lead level of 67 ppm. I immediately had blood samples tested, which confirmed the high lead levels.

Normal's for blood in children are the child's numeric age, in this case, should have been less than one. Since I.V. chelation therapy with EDTA or other artificial chelating agents is admittedly risky for an infant, we chose to try natural methods first. We used the same supplements as we did for the horse adding high B complex vitamins, vitamin C and Algin.

On the fifth day, he slept through the night without waking up crying for the first time in his little life, and after six weeks, he began to play by himself with his toys which he had never done. By three months, his lead levels were down to zero and showed absolutely no effects of his traumatic past. The culprit? Our "certified organic" fresh goat's milk at $6 per gallon! It tested out as high as 15ppm by an independent lab certified by the USDA, and high levels were also confirmed by another private lab. The average lead level found in fresh cow's milk is .04ppm and the legal limit for canned milk meant to be diluted is .5ppm. Worst of all, this goat's milk is still on the market because the state lab, with its own admissible obsolete testing equipment can not seem to find any lead. They admitted that they can not test for twice the legal limit with any accuracy.

These lactating goats are fed straight oats and hay with no calcium supplements to balance the calcium/phosphorus ratio to meet the heavy needs of lactation. I suppose they became contaminated when their cravings led them to eat whatever was handy. That same old song . . . The next convict on our lineup is Cadmium.

Cadmium

Cadmium is considered to be even more toxic than lead. It is a white, pliable, tin-like metal that is also difficult for the body to expel. It is used in steel making, oil paints, pesticides, rubber tires, plastics, gasoline's, hardware such as screws, batteries, silver solder, etc. It is a common contaminant of soft water flowing through worn galvanized pipes, paints, auto exhaust, industrial smoke, coal burning and wastes and the mineral supplements dolomite and bone meal.

It has been estimated that 70% of the cadmium present in cigarettes comes out in the smoke. For you smokers and coffee and tea drinkers -- cadmium is high in these (acid solutions make it more available). Heavy metal based pesticides that are banned for use of food crops are perfectly legal for non-food crops, which, in one way or another, may find their way into our bodies after all.

Symptoms of cadmium toxicity are: loss of sense of taste and smell, antibody suppression - reduced resistance to disease, protein and sugar in the urine, weight loss, poor appetite, dry and scaly skin, decreased milk production in nursing animals, decreased male hormone production and/or decreased sex drive, loss of hair, sore joints, lowered blood hemoglobin, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, heart disease and the famous "Ouch, Ouch" disease which afflicted a city in Japan. Their water supply was contaminated by discharges high in cadmium from a mining and metal company. The disease got its name because the mere touch to the body brought pain so great that the people would cry out.

Good protection from cadmium and therapy for cadmium toxicity includes a high protein diet which decreases cadmium retention, selenium, the sulfur amino acids, vitamins C & E, manganese, copper, calcium and the star of the show -- zinc, its natural antagonist. Our third convict is mercury.

Mercury

Mercury, that beautiful, luminescent liquid in thermometers called "quick silver", is really a wolf in sheep's clothing. In the body, Mercury has an affinity for the unborn, causing cerebral palsy and retardation. Other toxic symptoms are unusual timidity, memory loss, lack of attention, low intellect, small skin tumors, intestinal and kidney problems, various brain and nervous disorders, birth defects, excessive salivation, tremors, loss of teeth, vision and hearing, poor coordination, hyperactivity, loss of appetite, anemia, hypertension, allergies and asthma.

The treatment for Mercury poisoning is the same for all the heavy metals and mentioned previously. Mercury responds slowly to treatment like lead and cadmium. Like the others, the best protection is a good diet and avoidance of known high sources. Mercury contamination can be found in paints, industry wastes & run off from golf courses or other agricultural areas using Mercury based fungicides. Inorganic mercury salts are less able to be absorbed -- only about 50% - than other organic forms - about 80%.

Methylmercury is the most dangerous of the organic forms, and is produced by bacteria in riverbeds from industrial wastes. Both organic and inorganic forms are cytotoxic (able to kill cells) in very small amounts. Selenium has been shown to be effective in studies with animals in counteracting Mercury poisoning.

Aluminum

Not much is known about the metabolism of Aluminum in the body. It has been with us for a long time with very few apparent true toxicity cases. It is commonly used in foils, baking powder, antiperspirants, cookware and antacids. Unlike the other heavy metals, I have seen many hair analyses showing high levels of Aluminum without symptoms, but here I must qualify.

One area of Michigan appears to have extremely high levels of Aluminum. The suspected source is ground water near deep "brine wells" used by a local chemical company for deposition of who knows what. People and animals living in this area show evidences of encephalopathy (brain disturbances, depression, hyperactivity, memory loss, moodiness, lower intelligence and learning disabilities) and body aches and pains. Some of those reports show up to 487 ppm Aluminum in the hair samples. I have seen pictures of deformed geese and ducks, foals born with founder, foals with little or no brain who were given autopsies after they died.

In human cases where Aluminum containing antacids were routinely used, and no brain or nervous disorders were apparent, body aches and pains ceased when the Aluminum source was eliminated. In more advanced cases where it was obvious that the brain was affected, no mental improvement took place after six months. Body pain subsided but I believe the brain damage is permanent.

One race horse with this condition was very sore to the touch when I began to work on her. Her body is now well but her mind is poor. She goes well behind another horse, but quits when she's out alone. Her disposition has become very sour even with the gentlest treatment. She rears in harness, has temper tantrums and the darkest of moods. She also was raised in an area where the other cases originated.

Unfortunately, Aluminum does not form a chelate. It is chemically impossible for it to do so, so chelating agents are not particularly helpful here. Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin B6 are thought to be helpful in elimination, along with decreasing the phosphorus intake. Aluminum is very poorly absorbed so that exposure must be great to do real damage. If you live in an area where you suspect Aluminum or any other metal contamination, it is very important to properly balance the calcium/phosphorus ratios in the foods that you eat or feed. Also, be sure to keep animal pastures and hay fields well limed.

We are living in a cramped world and are continually making trade off's of one kind or another for easier living and leisure time. When those trade off's take the form of health hazards polluting our environment, then it's time to take inventory. It's unfortunate that the indiscriminate dumping and various forms of pollution are not stopped voluntarily by the offenders when potential health hazards become known.

The only cases I ever hear about are those where many people must get sick, bear deformed children, suffer miscarriages and lose family income before measures are taken to stop it, and even then, compensation is meager - if at all. But how do you compensate for a retarded child or your first newborn pet or livestock with little or no brain?

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© 2011 Vita Royal Products Inc.