Heavy Metal Sources
ALS Diet Pages
There are 35 metals we could be concerned with, because an overdose of any metal interferes with the normal functioning of the body. Twenty-three of the 35 are called the "heavy metals". The box above lists the heavy metals that you would commonly find on a urine toxic metal test and are the ones most likely encountered in your daily environment. These metals can accumulate in the food chain (a larger animal consuming a smaller one and so on and so forth) to where we consume the heavy metal and it becomes lodged in our soft tissues. Heavy metal overload is actually common in all people in our industrialized nations, but rarely diagnosed or addresses because the blood tests to determine an overload are highly inaccurate. The reason is that heavy metals do not linger in the blood after ingestion, but are deposited and lodge in cells, tissues and organs throughout the body. Chelating agents are necessary to remove the metal, and bring it out of the body via the feces and urine where it can then be tested. Heavy metals have now been linked to the pathogenesis of cancer, neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, all autoimmune conditions, etc..
Toxic lead is found in old paint chips, drinking water (coming up from water tables under the ground), fertilizer, foods, auto and industrial emissions, and dust. Cadmium is found in regions with high emissions from incinerators, coal plants, or cars, as well as in shellfish and cigarette smoke. Other common sources of cadmium include rural drinking water wells, processed food, fertilizer, and old paint. Aluminum is found in aluminum cookware, antiperspirants, cheese and other processed food. Nickel, which is highly toxic, is commonly seen in dental crowns and braces, along with jewelry, etc. (Nickel and inorganic mercury frequently produce allergic type autoimmune reactions and associated problems). Manganese and other metal exposure can come through welding or metal work.
By far the most common significant exposure of mercury for most people is mercury vapor from amalgam fillings. Dental amalgams can emit mercury vapor daily and the amount of mercury found in the brain is strongly correlated with the number of dental fillings. Researchers have shown that chewing gum can double the mercury levels in the blood and triple the levels in urine for those that have amalgam fillings.
Seafood is often contaminated with mercury and generally larger fish have more mercury, due to bioaccumulation in the food chain. During the spring of 2001 the State Department of Health (DOH) issued a fish-consumption advisory for women of childbearing age and children under age six, due to high levels of mercury in certain breeds of carnivorous fish such as shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel, and tuna.
Another major exposure source to infants is from Thimerosal®, a water-soluble, cream-colored crystalline powder used as a preservative in vaccines that contain 49.6% mercury by weight. It is present in over 30 licensed vaccines in the US, in concentrations of 0.003% to 0.01%. In the human body, thimerosal is metabolized to ethyl mercury and thiosalicylate which are highly toxic substances. No doubt about it, we start our precious children off on the wrong foot! But if mercury is so bad for children, how do you suppose it affects already diseased and damaged brain tissues?
The EPA safe limit for mercury exposure is one-tenth of a microgram (0.1 mcg/kg) but it is common for most children to be vaccinated on the day of birth with the hepatitis B vaccine which contains 12 mcg of mercury (30 times the safe level). At 4 months, they are again vaccinated with the DtaP and HiB vaccine on the same day, which provides a further 50 mcg of mercury (60 times the safe level). At 6 months they receive the Hep B, Polio with a further 62.5 mcg of mercury (78 times the safe level). These figures are calculated for an infant's average weight in kilograms for each age. By age two, American children have received 237 micrograms of mercury through vaccines alone, which is thousands of times more than the EPA safe limit.
Mercury in the thimerosal preservative in vaccines is 50 times more toxic than liquid mercury because injected mercury is far more toxic than ingested mercury and converts to ethylmercury (the form found in vaccines a.k.a., Thimerosal®), which has a natural affinity for brain cells and nerves. The fact that babies and diseased and damaged brains do not have a fully-functioning blood-brain barrier makes penetration easier. Moreover, infants have difficulty excreting mercury, as they do not produce bile, which is required for proper excretion. If the nurse giving the injection did not shake the vial according to directions before drawing out the vaccine dose, there is a chance that the child receiving the last dose could get as much as 10 times the usual amount of mercury in one dose.
But now we find out that the flu vaccine and other adult vaccines (like Hep B) also contain mercury. Thimerosal® is routinely put into "multi-dose" vials, (those vials that contain more than one dose, or shot). In fact, there is a correlation of Alzheimer's in elderly people who have received flu vaccinations over the years versus those who have not! Men in military service routinely receive multiple vaccinations, and multiple times! Is this why men have a higher incidence of ALS than women? And if we find ALS increasing in women, is it because more and more women now serve in the military??
ALS Diet Pages
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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Please click the PDF icon to the left to read or download the entire 36 page Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Diet by Dr. David Steenblock
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