Tarryall.net
. . . a Guide for Living Energetically
. . . a Guide for Living Energetically
Heavy Metal Dangers . . .
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CADMIUM & BREAST CANCER
Cadmium exposure may increase breast cancer risk. But how
can you determine if you've been exposed?
Cadmium is a natural element that's used to make batteries,
metal coatings, paint pigments and some plastics. Those
who smoke and those who work in places where cadmium
products are manufactured are at highest exposure risk. But
emissions from coal burning, mining and other industries put
cadmium into the air where it can travel great distances
before falling to the ground and contaminating soil and
water. So you can also pick up cadmium from drinking water
and foods grown in soil with high concentrations of this
heavy metal.
In a recent study from the University of Wisconsin,
researchers compared cadmium levels in more than 240
breast cancer patients to levels in about 254 cancer-free
subjects. Women with the highest cadmium levels were
more than twice as likely to have breast cancer as women
with the lowest levels.
Cadmium may also damage kidneys, lungs and bones.
Among food sources, shellfish, kidney and liver meats
contain the highest concentrations of cadmium. But the most
common source is cigarette smoke, including inhalation of
second hand smoke.
Cadmium intake can be reduced by following a balanced diet,
according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (a division of the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention).
HEAVY METAL TOXICITY
Lead
With the elimination of lead-based house-paint, and the
increased use of lead-free gasoline, lead poisoning is
certainly less prevalent. However, low-level toxicity is still
an issue. Coal burning power plants still spew lead into the
atmosphere, and like mercury and aluminum, the problem
with lead is that it accumulates, unless you take active
steps to remove it. The EPA estimates that 10 to 20 percent
of human exposure to lead may come from lead in drinking
water. Infants who consume mostly mixed formula can
receive 40 to 60 percent of their exposure to lead from
drinking water. The EPA warns that if lead is not detected
early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can
suffer from damage to the brain and nervous system,
behavior and learning problems (such as hyperactivity),
slowed growth, headaches, and more. However, adults are
still at risk and can suffer from reproductive problems (in
both men and women), high blood pressure, digestive
problems, nerve disorders, memory and concentration
problems, and muscle and joint pain.
Aluminum
As for aluminum, it has been known for 20 years that once it
enters your body, it accumulates in your brain, where it kills
off neurons, leading to memory loss. And thanks to the
significant amounts of aluminum found in food emulsifiers,
antiperspirant deodorants, hair sprays, baking powder, many
types of toothpaste, much of our drinking water, and most of
our cookware, you are exposed to a lot of aluminum over the
course of your life. There has been much speculation,
therefore, that aluminum may be one of the prime factors in
the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The connection between
aluminum and Alzheimer's disease became even stronger
when in 1995, Neurotoxicology reported that the widespread
use of aluminum salts to purify water could account for the
large numbers of people suffering from Alzheimer's.
And recently, the final piece of the puzzle may have fallen
into place: the connection between aluminum and fluoride.
New research has revealed that fluoride in drinking water
makes the aluminum that we ingest more bio-available. As
was reported in Brain Research, Vol.7 84:98, the combination
of aluminum and fluoride causes the same pathological
changes in brain tissue found in Alzheimer's patients.
Note: there is a significant difference between metallic
aluminum and plant-derived aluminum, which is in the form
of aluminum hydroxide. No studies have ever shown a
connection between aluminum hydroxide and toxic levels of
aluminum in the human body -- which is a good thing,
because there is a lot of it in our food supply.
Like mercury, the danger from lead and aluminum is not the
result of large doses, but the result of a steady accumulation
over years as they do not easily clear from the body unless
you take conscious steps to remove them.
Mercury, Deadly Beauty
People have known about the dangers of mercury since the
days of the Roman Empire, when slaves who worked in the
"quicksilver" mines died horribly after 2-3 years exposure.
And in the 19th century, the workers who used mercury to
make hats went bald and suffered from severe muscular
tremors, dementia, and fits of wild, uncontrollable laughter.
Thus the phrase: "Mad Hatter."
It's no secret that mercury is one of the most toxic metals
known. Numerous studies have shown its impact on health.
There is strong evidence that mercury lowers T-Cell counts.
This, alone, implicates it in cancer, autoimmune diseases,
allergies, Candida overgrowth, and multiple sclerosis. In
fact, due to other studies that showed mercuric chloride
increased several types of tumors in rats and mice, and
methyl mercury caused kidney tumors in male mice, the EPA
has determined that mercuric chloride and methyl mercury
are possible human carcinogens. It has also been shown that
mercury cuts the oxygen carrying capacity of blood by half.
This would account for many instances of chronic fatigue.(4)
4 Mattingly RR, Felczak A, Chen CC, McCabe MJ Jr,
Rosenspire AJ. "Low concentrations of inorganic mercury
inhibit Ras activation during T cell receptor-mediated signal
transduction." Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State
University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA. Toxicol Appl
Pharmacol. 2001 Nov 1;176(3):162-8.
Mercury also has an affinity for brain tissue and is implicated
in brain tumors and dementia. And, finally, mercury has an
affinity for fetal tissue, which accounts for its implication in
birth defects. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences
found strong evidence for the toxicity of methyl mercury to
children's developing brains, even at low levels of exposure.
A recent study from the Centers for Disease Controls found
that as many as 637,233 American children are born each
year with mercury levels of more than 5.8 µg/L (5.8
micrograms per liter), the level associated with brain
damage and loss of IQ.
Today, we face two primary sources of exposure: our food
supply and our dental fillings.
48 Tons in Our Food and Water
There is nothing complex about the process. Mercury is a
naturally occurring toxin, which is found in soil, rocks, wood,
and fuels like coal and oil. Simple soil erosion deposits
mercury in rivers and lakes, but concentrations remain low,
unless, as has been discovered in the recently deforested
regions of the Amazon, erosion reaches extraordinary levels.
The burning of rainforests also releases mercury that has
been taken up from the soil by the trees.
But the major source of mercury in our food chain,
responsible for about 1/3 of the levels found in our bodies, is
our burning of coal to generate electric power. That is the
single greatest contributor to the problem. Mercury that
naturally occurs in the coal is released during burning and
enters the air; it is then precipitated into the oceans, lakes,
and rivers by rain. According to the EPA, coal-fired power
plants in the United States emit about 48 tons of mercury
into the air every year -- and more than half of this mercury
falls within 5 miles of the plant itself. When it reaches the
water, microorganisms consume it and convert it into a
substance called methyl mercury.
Into the Food Chain
A study at the University of Tennessee recently rated methyl
mercury among the most dangerous poisons on Earth (just
behind plutonium). It has no known beneficial use in the
body, and it accumulates in the muscle tissue of fish,
animals, and humans. When minnows eat plankton or algae
that is contaminated with methyl mercury, it is deposited in
their flesh; larger fish prey upon the minnows, and the toxin
travels straight up the food chain to the most prized game
fish -- the big predators like bass, pike, walleyes, brown
trout; and to all the finest food and sport fish of the seas --
tuna, swordfish, shark, roughy, marlin, and halibut. According
to the EPA, fish at the top of the aquatic food chain bio-
accumulate methyl mercury to a level approximately 1 million
to 10 million times greater than dissolved concentrations
found in surrounding waters.
Of course, when you climb one more rung up that food chain,
you find us, the people who eat fish. Just like the predatory
fish that we catch and eat, we store mercury in our tissues.
Just like the ancient Romans, we know that high exposure to
mercury is fatal. But…
Mercury Rising
In 1997, the EPA under the Clinton administration presented
a detailed study that revealed the hazards of mercury
contamination, pinpointed coal-fired power plants as the
leading source of emissions, and promised action. But
nothing was done. The EPA had begun work on a plan to
address mercury pollution in December 2000 and in a 2001
presentation, the agency said that 90 percent of mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants could be cut, using
what is known as the Maximum Achievable Control
Technology (MACT), by 2008.
More recently, the Bush administration decided that the coal-
fired power industry would be exempt. Therefore, levels will
continue to climb -- not fall.
Mercury Fillings
The American Dental Association has resolutely maintained
for years "when mercury is combined with the metals used in
dental amalgam, its toxic properties are made harmless." If
this were true, it would be miraculously fortuitous.
Dentists have used amalgam, which consists of mercury,
silver, tin, copper, and zinc, for several hundred years. Here
in the United States, it made its appearance in the early
1800s.
From the beginning, there were a number of dentists who
were concerned by the presence of mercury, since by that
time it was fairly well known that mercury was poisonous. In
fact, these concerns were so strong, that by the mid-1940s,
several dental societies, including the American Society of
Dental Surgeons, had joined together to stop the use of
amalgam fillings. But the problem all along has been that
amalgam is just too easy to work with, and whatever ill
effects people experience are too far down the road to
matter; so dentists, as a group, have fought for its
continued use. And, in fact, the American Dental Association
was founded in 1859 -- primarily to promote the use of
mercury amalgam as a safe and desirable tooth filling
material. There were no tests done. No studies. Nothing!
Amalgam was promoted because it was easy to work with.
The reason mercury was used in it was because mercury
serves to "dissolve" the other metals and make a
homogenous whole.
The early position of the ADA was that mercury reacts with
the other metals to form "a biologically inactive substance"
so that none of it ever makes its way into your body.
Unfortunately, numerous studies conducted in the 1970s and
80s proved conclusively that the mercury from fillings
(primarily from mercury vapor created when you chew) makes
its way into your body, ending up in your lungs, heart,
stomach, kidneys, endocrine glands, gastrointestinal tract,
jaw tissue, and brain.
Once it became irrefutable that mercury from the fillings was
ending up in your body, it then became mandatory that the
ADA find a new defense. Again, not based on study, it
became the position of the ADA that: Well yes, maybe some
mercury does make its way into your body, but at levels that
are so low it has no effect on your health. Unfortunately,
that's just not true either. Like so many other toxic
substances, the real problem with mercury is that it is a
cumulative poison. The body holds onto a significant
percentage of the mercury that enters it.
Note: There is no safe way to remove amalgam fillings.
Recent studies showed that even with strong air and water
suctioning, water rinses, and a rubber dental dam,
significant amounts of mercury were later found in the
individual's lungs, kidneys, endocrine organs, liver and heart,
whereas no mercury was detected in those tissues prior to
removal of the fillings.
Since the government is not going to help limit your
exposure to mercury in your food supply, and since your
dentist and the ADA are not going to limit your exposure in
your amalgam fillings, there is only one place you can turn
for help -- yourself. Avoid any new amalgam fillings and use
Reverse Osmosis filtering for you water. We like to take (and
give to our dogs) daily maintenance doses of NCD with
quarterly cleansing doses.
Cadmium exposure may increase breast cancer risk. But how
can you determine if you've been exposed?
Cadmium is a natural element that's used to make batteries,
metal coatings, paint pigments and some plastics. Those
who smoke and those who work in places where cadmium
products are manufactured are at highest exposure risk. But
emissions from coal burning, mining and other industries put
cadmium into the air where it can travel great distances
before falling to the ground and contaminating soil and
water. So you can also pick up cadmium from drinking water
and foods grown in soil with high concentrations of this
heavy metal.
In a recent study from the University of Wisconsin,
researchers compared cadmium levels in more than 240
breast cancer patients to levels in about 254 cancer-free
subjects. Women with the highest cadmium levels were
more than twice as likely to have breast cancer as women
with the lowest levels.
Cadmium may also damage kidneys, lungs and bones.
Among food sources, shellfish, kidney and liver meats
contain the highest concentrations of cadmium. But the most
common source is cigarette smoke, including inhalation of
second hand smoke.
Cadmium intake can be reduced by following a balanced diet,
according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (a division of the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention).
HEAVY METAL TOXICITY
Lead
With the elimination of lead-based house-paint, and the
increased use of lead-free gasoline, lead poisoning is
certainly less prevalent. However, low-level toxicity is still
an issue. Coal burning power plants still spew lead into the
atmosphere, and like mercury and aluminum, the problem
with lead is that it accumulates, unless you take active
steps to remove it. The EPA estimates that 10 to 20 percent
of human exposure to lead may come from lead in drinking
water. Infants who consume mostly mixed formula can
receive 40 to 60 percent of their exposure to lead from
drinking water. The EPA warns that if lead is not detected
early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can
suffer from damage to the brain and nervous system,
behavior and learning problems (such as hyperactivity),
slowed growth, headaches, and more. However, adults are
still at risk and can suffer from reproductive problems (in
both men and women), high blood pressure, digestive
problems, nerve disorders, memory and concentration
problems, and muscle and joint pain.
Aluminum
As for aluminum, it has been known for 20 years that once it
enters your body, it accumulates in your brain, where it kills
off neurons, leading to memory loss. And thanks to the
significant amounts of aluminum found in food emulsifiers,
antiperspirant deodorants, hair sprays, baking powder, many
types of toothpaste, much of our drinking water, and most of
our cookware, you are exposed to a lot of aluminum over the
course of your life. There has been much speculation,
therefore, that aluminum may be one of the prime factors in
the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The connection between
aluminum and Alzheimer's disease became even stronger
when in 1995, Neurotoxicology reported that the widespread
use of aluminum salts to purify water could account for the
large numbers of people suffering from Alzheimer's.
And recently, the final piece of the puzzle may have fallen
into place: the connection between aluminum and fluoride.
New research has revealed that fluoride in drinking water
makes the aluminum that we ingest more bio-available. As
was reported in Brain Research, Vol.7 84:98, the combination
of aluminum and fluoride causes the same pathological
changes in brain tissue found in Alzheimer's patients.
Note: there is a significant difference between metallic
aluminum and plant-derived aluminum, which is in the form
of aluminum hydroxide. No studies have ever shown a
connection between aluminum hydroxide and toxic levels of
aluminum in the human body -- which is a good thing,
because there is a lot of it in our food supply.
Like mercury, the danger from lead and aluminum is not the
result of large doses, but the result of a steady accumulation
over years as they do not easily clear from the body unless
you take conscious steps to remove them.
Mercury, Deadly Beauty
People have known about the dangers of mercury since the
days of the Roman Empire, when slaves who worked in the
"quicksilver" mines died horribly after 2-3 years exposure.
And in the 19th century, the workers who used mercury to
make hats went bald and suffered from severe muscular
tremors, dementia, and fits of wild, uncontrollable laughter.
Thus the phrase: "Mad Hatter."
It's no secret that mercury is one of the most toxic metals
known. Numerous studies have shown its impact on health.
There is strong evidence that mercury lowers T-Cell counts.
This, alone, implicates it in cancer, autoimmune diseases,
allergies, Candida overgrowth, and multiple sclerosis. In
fact, due to other studies that showed mercuric chloride
increased several types of tumors in rats and mice, and
methyl mercury caused kidney tumors in male mice, the EPA
has determined that mercuric chloride and methyl mercury
are possible human carcinogens. It has also been shown that
mercury cuts the oxygen carrying capacity of blood by half.
This would account for many instances of chronic fatigue.(4)
4 Mattingly RR, Felczak A, Chen CC, McCabe MJ Jr,
Rosenspire AJ. "Low concentrations of inorganic mercury
inhibit Ras activation during T cell receptor-mediated signal
transduction." Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State
University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA. Toxicol Appl
Pharmacol. 2001 Nov 1;176(3):162-8.
Mercury also has an affinity for brain tissue and is implicated
in brain tumors and dementia. And, finally, mercury has an
affinity for fetal tissue, which accounts for its implication in
birth defects. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences
found strong evidence for the toxicity of methyl mercury to
children's developing brains, even at low levels of exposure.
A recent study from the Centers for Disease Controls found
that as many as 637,233 American children are born each
year with mercury levels of more than 5.8 µg/L (5.8
micrograms per liter), the level associated with brain
damage and loss of IQ.
Today, we face two primary sources of exposure: our food
supply and our dental fillings.
48 Tons in Our Food and Water
There is nothing complex about the process. Mercury is a
naturally occurring toxin, which is found in soil, rocks, wood,
and fuels like coal and oil. Simple soil erosion deposits
mercury in rivers and lakes, but concentrations remain low,
unless, as has been discovered in the recently deforested
regions of the Amazon, erosion reaches extraordinary levels.
The burning of rainforests also releases mercury that has
been taken up from the soil by the trees.
But the major source of mercury in our food chain,
responsible for about 1/3 of the levels found in our bodies, is
our burning of coal to generate electric power. That is the
single greatest contributor to the problem. Mercury that
naturally occurs in the coal is released during burning and
enters the air; it is then precipitated into the oceans, lakes,
and rivers by rain. According to the EPA, coal-fired power
plants in the United States emit about 48 tons of mercury
into the air every year -- and more than half of this mercury
falls within 5 miles of the plant itself. When it reaches the
water, microorganisms consume it and convert it into a
substance called methyl mercury.
Into the Food Chain
A study at the University of Tennessee recently rated methyl
mercury among the most dangerous poisons on Earth (just
behind plutonium). It has no known beneficial use in the
body, and it accumulates in the muscle tissue of fish,
animals, and humans. When minnows eat plankton or algae
that is contaminated with methyl mercury, it is deposited in
their flesh; larger fish prey upon the minnows, and the toxin
travels straight up the food chain to the most prized game
fish -- the big predators like bass, pike, walleyes, brown
trout; and to all the finest food and sport fish of the seas --
tuna, swordfish, shark, roughy, marlin, and halibut. According
to the EPA, fish at the top of the aquatic food chain bio-
accumulate methyl mercury to a level approximately 1 million
to 10 million times greater than dissolved concentrations
found in surrounding waters.
Of course, when you climb one more rung up that food chain,
you find us, the people who eat fish. Just like the predatory
fish that we catch and eat, we store mercury in our tissues.
Just like the ancient Romans, we know that high exposure to
mercury is fatal. But…
Mercury Rising
In 1997, the EPA under the Clinton administration presented
a detailed study that revealed the hazards of mercury
contamination, pinpointed coal-fired power plants as the
leading source of emissions, and promised action. But
nothing was done. The EPA had begun work on a plan to
address mercury pollution in December 2000 and in a 2001
presentation, the agency said that 90 percent of mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants could be cut, using
what is known as the Maximum Achievable Control
Technology (MACT), by 2008.
More recently, the Bush administration decided that the coal-
fired power industry would be exempt. Therefore, levels will
continue to climb -- not fall.
Mercury Fillings
The American Dental Association has resolutely maintained
for years "when mercury is combined with the metals used in
dental amalgam, its toxic properties are made harmless." If
this were true, it would be miraculously fortuitous.
Dentists have used amalgam, which consists of mercury,
silver, tin, copper, and zinc, for several hundred years. Here
in the United States, it made its appearance in the early
1800s.
From the beginning, there were a number of dentists who
were concerned by the presence of mercury, since by that
time it was fairly well known that mercury was poisonous. In
fact, these concerns were so strong, that by the mid-1940s,
several dental societies, including the American Society of
Dental Surgeons, had joined together to stop the use of
amalgam fillings. But the problem all along has been that
amalgam is just too easy to work with, and whatever ill
effects people experience are too far down the road to
matter; so dentists, as a group, have fought for its
continued use. And, in fact, the American Dental Association
was founded in 1859 -- primarily to promote the use of
mercury amalgam as a safe and desirable tooth filling
material. There were no tests done. No studies. Nothing!
Amalgam was promoted because it was easy to work with.
The reason mercury was used in it was because mercury
serves to "dissolve" the other metals and make a
homogenous whole.
The early position of the ADA was that mercury reacts with
the other metals to form "a biologically inactive substance"
so that none of it ever makes its way into your body.
Unfortunately, numerous studies conducted in the 1970s and
80s proved conclusively that the mercury from fillings
(primarily from mercury vapor created when you chew) makes
its way into your body, ending up in your lungs, heart,
stomach, kidneys, endocrine glands, gastrointestinal tract,
jaw tissue, and brain.
Once it became irrefutable that mercury from the fillings was
ending up in your body, it then became mandatory that the
ADA find a new defense. Again, not based on study, it
became the position of the ADA that: Well yes, maybe some
mercury does make its way into your body, but at levels that
are so low it has no effect on your health. Unfortunately,
that's just not true either. Like so many other toxic
substances, the real problem with mercury is that it is a
cumulative poison. The body holds onto a significant
percentage of the mercury that enters it.
Note: There is no safe way to remove amalgam fillings.
Recent studies showed that even with strong air and water
suctioning, water rinses, and a rubber dental dam,
significant amounts of mercury were later found in the
individual's lungs, kidneys, endocrine organs, liver and heart,
whereas no mercury was detected in those tissues prior to
removal of the fillings.
Since the government is not going to help limit your
exposure to mercury in your food supply, and since your
dentist and the ADA are not going to limit your exposure in
your amalgam fillings, there is only one place you can turn
for help -- yourself. Avoid any new amalgam fillings and use
Reverse Osmosis filtering for you water. We like to take (and
give to our dogs) daily maintenance doses of NCD with
quarterly cleansing doses.
| The information contained on this webpage has not been evaluated by the FDA. This information in not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. All material provided is for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or other health program. |