Heavy metal toxicity can ruin your health

To a greater or lesser degree, most of us are contaminated with heavy metals today - some seriously, some without ever knowing it. It is a subject that just doesn't cross our everyday minds and physicians are often not alert to the possibility of metal exposure such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. In fact, the chronic accumulation of toxic contaminants that may not achieve classic 'acute toxicity' thresholds levels receives little attention at all, although it may nevertheless contribute to important adverse health effects. ¹ On the other hand, acute toxicity - which is most often the consequence of occupational exposure - tend to be recognized, properly diagnosed, and then treated. Acute toxicities arise from sudden exposures to substantial quantities of some metals, and typically these toxins affect multiple organ systems; commonly the GI tract, cardiovascular system, the brain and nervous system, the endocrine system, kidneys, hair, and nails.

Unfortunately, chronic heavy metal toxicity that builds up over longer periods of time often presents with symptomology similar to many other chronic health conditions, therefore may not be immediately recognized or accurately diagnosed by health physicians.

Chronic toxicities are manifested as conditions that develop over extended periods from chronic exposure to relatively low concentrations, for example through conventional cosmetics. Increasedcancer risk is a common feature of chronic exposure to certain metals. The exact mechanism of their carcinogenicity is not completely understood, although many cause DNA damage, alter gene function, interfere with innate DNA repair systems, disrupt gene expression, and deregulate cellular functions.²

Within the body, heavy metals act as free radicals, causing cellular damage. This results in rapid aging and depletes the body's natural capacities to heal itself, aggravating disease. Heavy metals slowly accumulate in the kidneys, liver, pancreas, bones, central nervous system and brain where they degrade health without being noticed or diagnosed.

Not all metals are toxic and in fact in trace amounts, some are essential to human biochemical processes. For example, zinc is an important co-factor for several enzymatic reactions in the human body, vitamin B-12 has a cobalt atom at its core, and hemoglobin contains iron. Likewise, copper, manganese, selenium, chromium, and molybdenum are all trace elements, which are important in the human diet. Although these metals are essential to body functions, accumulation past trace amounts may have detrimental effects, should the usual mechanisms of detoxification and elimination be impaired.

Heavy metal poisoning thus means the accumulation of metals in the body past trace amounts. Common examples of metals that are toxic in any amounts are mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic.

The potential for serious health consequences from heavy metal contamination has been documented.³ Heavy metal intoxications may damage central nervous function, the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal (GI) systems, lungs, kidneys, liver, endocrine glands, and bones (Jang 2011; Adal 2013). Chronic heavy metal exposure has been implicated in several degenerative diseases of these same systems and may increase the risk of some cancers (Galanis 2009; Wu 2012).

Other symptoms of toxic heavy metal poisoning range from skin ailments, intellectual disabilities in children, dementia in adults, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, nerve damage, organ degeneration, kidney (renal) diseases, liver (hepatic) diseases, insomnia, personality changes, emotional instability, depression, panic attacks, memory loss, headaches, vision disturbances, peripheral neuropathy and carpal tunnel syndrome, blood acidity, lack of coordination (ataxia), hardening arteries, encephalopathy or cardiovascular diseases (CVD).⁴

With several toxic metals lacking robust pathways for elimination, or otherwise remaining in the body for a long time, body burdens of some toxic metals are a major detriment to health.⁵ There are many ways to detox from heavy metals, chelation therapy being the most common treatment in terms of acute poisoning, but comes with a smorgasbord of detrimental health and side effects.

It is possible to reduce metal toxicity risk through lifestyle choices that diminish the probability of harmful heavy metal uptake, such as dietary measures that promote daily detoxification. Ensuring that the body's natural metabolic processes are strong will further assist in naturally excreting heavy metals.

Detoxing from heavy metals has strong anti-aging and health enhancing benefits and daily detoxification is a safe way of supporting your body in naturally eliminating contaminants. Adding antioxidants and zeolite to your daily routine will attract and remove heavy metals from the body, assisting in the maintenance of healthy metabolism.

Resources

^[1] lef.org

^[2] Jang, D. H., and Hoffman, R. S. Heavy metal chelation in neurotoxic exposures. 2011;29(3):607 - 22

^[3] Galanis, A., Karapetsas, A., and Sandaltzopoulos, R. Metal-induced carcinogenesis, oxidative stress and hypoxia signalling. 2009;674(1-2)

^[4] ATSDR. Detailed Data Table for the Priority List of Hazardous Substances 2011: 1 - 20. Available online at

^[5] biblelife.org

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog

Read More

Santa’s real workshop: the town in China that makes the world’s Christmas decorations

600 factories producing 60% of all decorations

There’s red on the ceiling and red on the floor, red dripping from the window sills and red globules splattered across the walls. It looks like the artist Anish Kapoor has been let loose with his wax cannon again. But this, in fact, is what the making of Christmas looks like; this is the very heart of the real Santa’s workshop – thousands of miles from the North Pole, in the Chinese city of Yiwu.

Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight.

Christened “China’s Christmas village”, Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.

“Maybe it’s like [Chinese] New Year for foreigners,” says 19-year-old Wei, a worker who came to Yiwu from rural Guizhou province this year, speaking to Chinese news agency Sina. Together with his father, he works long days in the red-splattered lair, taking polystyrene snowflakes, dipping them in a bath of glue, then putting them in a powder-coating machine until they turn red – and making 5,000 of the things every day.

Read More

Mount Gamalama eruption sends ash and rocks 2 km into the sky, Indonesia

Mount Gamalama in North Maluku province of Indonesia erupted at 13:41 UTC on Thursday, December 18, 2014, sending ash and rocks 2 km into the sky and forcing the authorities to close an airport and issue warnings to planes. Nine people were injured while running to escape the eruption. One person is still unaccounted for, authorities said.

Increased seismicity around the volcano was observed since 08:30 UTC. It then sharply increased at 13:09 UTC (22:09 local time), about 30 minutes before the eruption.

Evacuation orders are still not in place, however, a senior official from the disaster management agency in North Maluku province said the communities are ordered to be on alert of possible cool lava flowing in rivers as rain is frequent in recent days.

Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said the volcanic ash was still blanketing much of the city of Ternate on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, USGS is registering a swarm of earthquakes about 150 km NW of Gamalama. They registered 67 moderate to strong earthquakes in the region (Molucca Sea) with magnitudes ranging from 4.0 - 6.8 in last 30 days.

The last time this volcano appeared in GVP's weekly volcanic report was during the week of October 10 - 16, 2012:

CVGHM reported that eruptions at Gamalama during September 15 - 16 prompted CVGHM to raise the Alert Level to 3 (on a scale of 1-4) on September 16. An eruption on September 17 produced a white-and-gray plume that rose 300 m above the crater and drifted E and SE. Ashfall was reported in the ESE part of Ternate (S, SE, and E part of island). After the eruption through October 8 white plumes rose 10-50 m high. Seismicity decreased in early October. The Alert Level was decreased to 2 on October 9. Visitors and residents were warned not to approach the crater within a radius of 1.5 km.

Geologic summary

Gamalama (Peak of Ternate) is a near-conical stratovolcano that comprises the entire island of Ternate off the western coast of Halmahera and is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes. The island of Ternate was a major regional center in the Portuguese and Dutch spice trade for several centuries, which contributed to the thorough documentation of Gamalama's historical activity.

Three cones, progressively younger to the north, form the summit of Gamalama, which reaches 1715 m. Several maars and vents define a rift zone, parallel to the Halmahera island arc, that cuts the volcano. Eruptions, recorded frequently since the 16th century, typically originated from the summit craters, although flank eruptions have occurred in 1763, 1770, 1775, and 1962-63. (GVP)

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog

Read More

Pentagon’s Counter IED unit collecting intelligence on U.S. Companies

The Pentagon’s main arm for fighting improvised explosive devices engaged in unauthorized surveillance of U.S. citizens and companies and improperly collected intelligence from Afghan farmers when an analyst posed as a college student, according to an inspector general’s report released Thursday.

The intelligence efforts by the Joint IED Defeat Organization — established to fight roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan — were found to violate executive orders and regulations.

Two military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, released in June after five-years captivity by the Taliban, was one of the Americans on which JIEDDO collected information.

JIEDDO acknowledged that the inspector general’s findings but a spokesman said they were minor, technical issues that have been addressed.

The incidents involved regarded technicalities of policy and process and were corrected as soon as it was recognized,” spokesman David Small said in a statement. “Many of the IG’s recommendations to assure such actions do not occur in the future have already been acted upon.”

The Pentagon inspector general found that members of JIEDDO’s Counter-IED Operations Intelligence Integration Center (COIC) “improperly collected information about U.S. persons. At the direction of COIC and JIEDDO leadership, analysts collected information on U.S. companies and their CEOs, U.S. hostages held by foreign extremists, and specific U.S. persons. In addition COIC analysts improperly collected intelligence using aliases and uncoordinated cover.”

The information JIEDDO collected came from “open sources,” which include newspapers, websites and other publicly accessible media. It was not electronic eavesdropping or surveillance.

Read More

Terror attacks prevented at Crimean Prosecutor's Office

Natalya Poklonskaya

Two attempted terrorist attacks on the Crimean Prosecutor's Office have recently been prevented by members of the local People's Guard. So-called 'prosecutie' Natalia Poklonskaya has also had previous threats.

Two members of the guard prevented a couple of terrorist attacks that could have led to multiple casualties at Poklonskaya's office, newspaper reported Friday.

"Several months ago, our guys found a bag with explosives at... the Crimean Prosecutor's Office and in November it was an envelope with a blasting agent, sent via mail and addressed to the prosecutor," Sergey Turchanenko, the commander of the People's Militia told .

"Thanks to the brave attitude toward their duty of the self-defense forces' that serve at the Prosecutor's Office, we managed to secure it from negative consequences," Poklonskaya told Tass news agency.

She praised the guards, saying it was "a good job."

Poklonskaya refused to provide the media with further details, saying: "This information is undisclosed. A criminal case has been opened. I have no right to reveal details concerning this incident."

newspaper obtained a copy of Poklonskaya's letter to Crimea's leader, Sergey Aksenov. It reveals that on August 18, a checkered shopping bag filled with explosives was found near the prosecutor's office at night. The casualty radius of the improvised explosive device was reportedly 350 meters.

Aksenov confirmed this information, saying: "Such attempts did occur, do and will probably do in future."

Turchanenko said that the People's Guard, alongside the police, frequently find packages that replicate explosive devices. Such an accident happened in December at the Council of Ministers building, he said.

"It turned out to be a cobblestone inside, but it could have been something different," he said.

The 33-year-old Crimean prosecutor has survived several assassination attempts during her 12 years of service.

She was severely beaten up when she jailed one of the leaders of 'The Shoes' gang, which was accused of plotting assassinations.

An internet sensation, Poklonskaya earned fame earlier this year after a video from a press conference went viral. Her Japanese and Russian fans even dubbed her 'Prosecutie' and 'Nyash-Myash'.

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog

Read More

Virgin Coconut Oil: More effective than drugs in combating stress and depression

© the-open-mind.com

A new study conducted in Malaysia looked at the effects of consuming high-antioxidant virgin coconut oil on mental health.

Published in the journal and believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers evaluated the anti-stress and antioxidant effects of virgin coconut oil in mice with stress-induced injuries. The title of the study is ""

The researchers performed several stress tests on groups of mice. Control groups included untreated mice and mice not subjected to stress, and virgin coconut oil was compared to a commonly prescribed psychiatric drug, Diazepam.

Their results were quite impressive, and suggest that using a high quality virgin coconut oil can rival antidepressant drugs without the dangerous side effects. The researchers attributed the success in treatment to the unique mixture of medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil, rich in saturated fats, and to the antioxidants present in higher grade, less processed virgin coconut oils.

While we do not endorse the supposed "science" behind psychiatric drugs which attempts to measure such things as "neurotransmitters" and "biochemical profiles" as true indicators of mental health that can be altered by chemical drugs, it is encouraging to see researchers consider natural foods as alternatives, given the fact that they do not have all the serious side effects that psychiatric drugs do.

One of the more interesting tests conducted in this study was a measurement of "immobility time" after a forced swim test. The researchers found that the untreated mice had a longer immobility time than mice treated with virgin coconut oil. They attributed this to the high medium-chain fatty acid content of coconut oil, which is known to produce thermogenesis and increased energy.

One area where virgin coconut oil (VCO) really outperformed the drug Diazepam was in the area of oxidation and elimination of free radicals. This is something that can be measured with lipid peroxidation (MDA) and antioxidant enzyme SOD levels. Stress is known to increase oxidation and the creation of free radicals, leading to neuronal cell damage and death. Antioxidants, on the other hand, reverse this trend and help prevent further neuronal damage.

The researchers found:

VCO was able to reduce lipid peroxidation and increase the activity of SOD in the serum of mice undergoing the forced swim test and the brains of mice subjected to chronic cold restraint. It was previously reported that VCO is rich in polyphenols and these antioxidants may contribute to the increased levels of antioxidant enzymes, which subsequently reduce lipid peroxidation and inflammation in VCO-treated mice. Restoration of antioxidant levels in the brain may help prevent further neuronal damage and avoid subsequent depletion of monoamines, including DA. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the potential of VCO in preventing exercise- and chronic cold restraint stress-induced damage and restoring the antioxidant balance. This promising antistress activity may be attributed to the polyphenols and medium-chain fatty acids present in VCO.

It is high time for a new paradigm in mental health. Drugs are not the solution to stress and depression. Non-drug alternatives are not only safer, but can be more effective than pharmaceutical drugs as well.

Reference

Antistress and antioxidant effects of virgin coconut oil in vivo. - Jan 2015; 9(1): 39 - 42. Full Study.

About the authors

Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours!

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog

Read More

Sugar, not salt, plays major role in high blood pressure and heart disease

© Natural Society

Added sugars in processed foods are likely to have a greater role in high blood pressure and heart disease and stroke, than added salt, say doctors in an analysis of the published evidence in the online journal .

Dietary guidelines should emphasize the role played by added sugars, particularly fructose, in the fight to curb the prevalence of cardiovascular, they insist.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of premature death in the developed world. And high blood pressure is its most important risk factor,accounting for almost 350,000 deaths in the US in 2009 and costing more than $50 billion US dollars every year.

Dietary approaches to lower high blood pressure have historically focused on cutting salt intake. But the potential benefits of this approach "are debatable," say the authors.

This is because the average reductions in blood pressure achieved by restricting salt intake tend to be relatively small, and there is some evidence to suggest that 3-6 g salt daily may be optimal for health, and that intake below 3 g may actually be harmful, they write.

Most salt in the diet comes from processed foods, which also happen to be a rich source of added sugars, they point out.

"Sugar may be much more meaningfully related to blood pressure than sodium, as suggested by a greater magnitude of effect with dietary manipulation," they state.

"Compelling evidence from basic science, population studies, and clinical trials implicates sugars, and particularly the monosaccharide fructose, as playing a major role in the development of hypertension [high blood pressure]," they write.

"Moreover, evidence suggests that sugars in general, and fructose in particular, may contribute to overall cardiovascular risk through a variety of mechanisms," they add.

They point the finger in particular to high fructose corn syrup, which is the most frequently used sweetener in processed foods, particularly fruit-flavoured and fizzy drinks.

"Worldwide, sugar sweetened beverage consumption has been implicated in 180,000 deaths a year," they write. Around 300 years ago, people only consumed a few pounds of sugar a year, they add, whereas current estimates suggest that average consumption in the US is 77-152 pounds a year - equivalent to 24-47 teaspoons a day.

The evidence suggests that people whose dietary intake of added sugars adds up to at least a quarter of their total daily calories have almost triple the cardiovascular disease risk of those who consume less than 10%.

And a daily intake of more than 74 g of fructose is associated with a 30% greater risk of blood pressure above 140/90 mm Hg and a 77% increased risk of blood pressure above 160/100 mm Hg.

A high fructose diet has also been linked to an unfavorable blood fat profile, higher fasting blood insulin levels, and a doubling in the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Some dietary guidelines do include recommendations about daily intake of added sugars, but are not stringent enough, nor do they make specific recommendations about fructose, say the authors. And it's high time they did.

Of particular concern, they say, is that UK and US teens may be consuming added sugars up to 16 times the recommended limit.

They emphasize that naturally-occurring sugars found in fruit and vegetables are not harmful to health. Eating fruit and vegetables is almost certainly beneficial.

"Just as most dietary sodium does not come from the salt shaker, most dietary sugar does not come from the sugar bowl; reducing consumption of added sugars by limiting processed foods containing it, made by corporations, would be a good place to start," write the authors.

And they go on to warn: "The evidence is clear that even moderate doses of added sugar for short durations may cause substantial harm."

Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog

Read More