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Metals, Health and Aging
Foreword
Have you ever wondered why people are getting sicker and sicker,
why more and more people are suffering and dying from chronic diseases, despite
the expenditure of trillions of dollars in medical research and services (*)
?
My answer to the obvious paradox is simple: nobody can live
a happy and healthy life in a sick environment.
The World Health Organisation (WHO through Dr. Hickinsen - Head of Cancer
Research) stated back in 1978 that up to 90% of all chronic diseases are
caused by environmental pollution.
Metals are amongst the worst environmental pollutants. Lead, for example,
is a 'migratory' metal and can be found everywhere today, in house dust,
garden soil, water, air ...and on the North Pole even.
Ionic metals produce avalanches of free radicals which are considered to
be the root cause of all chronic diseases.
Add to these metals chlorination by-products, vast amounts of antibiotics
in the food we eat and other toxins (insecticides, pesticides etc.)
to which we are exposed to on a daily bases, add especially also the stresses
of living in a 'modern' society - and you will realise that it is no wonder
why people are getting sicker and sicker.
How anybody can believe that by putting more pollutants (modern medical
drugs) into an already over polluted system, that 'system' (of body, mind
and soul) will improve, is difficult for me to understand.
To my mind it is a lot more logical to eliminate these pollutants or toxins
and help the body to achieve a resemblance of 'normality'. Balance
and harmony are the cornerstones of a happy and healthy life. 'Your body
is the best doctor you will ever find', said Hippocrates - the 'father of
modern medicine'. We simply have to trust this 'best doctor' and give him
or her a chance to really work. That chance or 'help' comes in subtle form
and only by means which re-establish lost balance and harmony.
We certainly don't need a sledge hammer approach (pharmaceutical drugs) to
force that doctor into submission.
Nature will never be forced by man to undergo changes. Nature...in the end...will
always win.
(*) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. spending on health care rose 7.7
percent to 1.7 trillion in 2003, outpacing overall economic growth by nearly
3 percentage points, according to an annual government report released
on Tuesday.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Posted: 1:03 PM EST (1803 GMT)
Introduction
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What
are metals ?
There is a lot of uncertainty and inconsistency
in scientific literature. But let us have a look
at the general definition of what a metal is:
Metals are shiny solids at room temperature (except mercury), with characteristic
high melting points and densities. Many of the properties of metals, including
large atomic radius, low ionization energy, and low electronegativity, are
due to the fact that the electrons in the valence shell of metal atoms
can be removed easily. |
One
characteristic of metals is their ability to be
deformed without breaking. Malleability is the
ability of a metal to be hammered into shapes.
Ductility is the ability of a metal to be drawn
into wire. Because the valence electrons can move
freely, metals are good heat conductors and electrical
conductors.
(from: Chemistry ) Apart
from that, terms like toxic metals, heavy metals, transition
metals etc. are often used and are ill defined (see
'Heavy Metals' - a meaningless term - J.H. Duffus). |
What
we can say with some certainty is that metals, such as mercury,
lead, cadmium, arsenic and others are amongst the most dangerous
pollutants known to man. That is generally known and accepted.
What is not well known as yet is the fact that copper, zinc
and especially iron can kill you just as quickly.
They do that mainly via the metal
mediated Fenton reaction (see also
Fenton
reaction), producing avalanches of
free
radicals.
Few health professionals and laymen alike are aware as yet of ionic metals
and their ability to increase the production of free radicals.
After
much huffing and puffing I finally decided to write this
little treatise. It shall serve to make the reader aware of web sites
where she or he can find expert explanations on how metals in our
body can increase the production of free radials a million fold and
what that means to a person's health and well-being . It will also
serve to introduce the reader to a novel way of detecting
these ionic metals - the Ionic Heavy Metal Test -
or IHMT for
short. See picture above.
The IHMT makes it possible to detect ionic metals (to the exclusion of
chelated metals) and determine, as well as monitor, the therapeutic approach
which may be opted for by individual health practitioners and patients.
Most readers will be aware of the fact that
free
radicals are being considered the root cause of all
chronic diseases from
rheumatism to arthritis, asthma, diabetes, arterial and heart
diseases, strokes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, MND, cancer and so on
and on…and ageing even. Few readers (including health
professionals) as yet are aware that ionic metals from iron
to copper, zinc, cadmium, lead, mercury and so on can over
produce these 'deadly' free radicals.
For over twenty years now I have been dealing with some of
these most dangerous environmental pollutants, and have developed
the worlds only easy to use, fast and inexpensive method to
detect ionic metals. Sometimes I call the IHMT a
'chelation ability test' since it allows us to estimate a person's ability
to cope with ionic, i.e. electrically charged or 'environmental' metals. If
we can chelate ionic metals, render their electric charge neutral, the body
can either use the metals where needed, or eliminate them if they are not needed.
In the following I will share my insights with the reader and explain how to
use the Ionic Heavy Metal Test (IHMT) properly.
We are giving you the tools for the detection and elimination
of ionic metals only and leave theoretical considerations to
others who have become experts in the still very young field
of ‘quantum medicine’.
A field where we begin to understand that sub-atomic phenomena
are deciding over health and disease issues - and ultimately
over life and death.
NOTE: in
order to be able to take full advantage of the information
provided in this article, it is advisable to have access
to the internet. Research papers and articles on special
subjects we are making reference to would be difficult to
read up on if you would have to try and locate books and
papers in your local -library and the cost involved
in purchasing relevant books would be prprohibitive If you
do not have access to the internet, please try your local
lilibrary or and internet cacafeThe information we make available
through 'clickable' links to relevant web sites it at your
fingertip - literally.
Why did we develop the Ionic Heavy Metal Test (IHMT) ?
Once we became aware of the problems metals can cause
and especially their ability to increase the production of
free radicals (
1.
2.
3. )
a million- fold, we also realised, that there was no simple, fast, reliable
and inexpensive method available to detect ionic metals - either in the environment
or ourselves.
All test apparatus for hair analysis, blood and urine analysis are very expensive
and hence inaccessible to the individual health practitioner and patient.
And that is not even the real point; the real point is that none of these
methods will allow you to test for ionic metals ONLY - to the exclusion of
chelated metals.
Metals which are ‘bound’ to amino acids, for example,
and hence electrically neutral can be either utilised by the human body or
else eliminated. The reason for the inability to differentiate between these
forms of metals (ionic and/or chelated) lies in the fact that samples
have to be 'ashed' before they can be investigated in 'atomic absorption
spectro photometers', by devices employing electron stripping or other physical
detection methods. Ashing means that all organic compounds are 'incinerated'
- burnt, destroyed.
Hence we will get an overall view of the metals present
only and have no idea how many metals are chelated and how many ionic. And
I believe that it is this kind of approach, which prevented us until now
to see the 'real' picture. The real picture is that some people can
chelate (or
bind to an amino acid) ionic metals effectively and others can't. This also
explaines why some people get affected by 'acquired' metals ( see autism, for
example) and others don't.
Ionic metals are electrically charged and ‘stick’ to the
body like hair sticks to the balloon which we rubbed against a woolen
jumper. These metals build up to levels which we call ‘toxic’.
But more importantly, as we understand today, they are involved in the over-production
of free radicals. And free radicals are considered to be the root cause of
all chronic diseases and ageing. So the circle closes.
What we needed was a method to determine the presence of ionic metals exclusively
in order to determine whether a body could ‘cope’ with ionic metals.
Whether the body could ‘chelate’ these metals and use them where
needed, or eliminate them if they are not needed.
The IHMT allows us to SEE ionic metals only. If the test turns red,
for example, we know that the body cannot chelate effectively ionic metals
which get ‘stuck’ in tissues and produce avalanches of free radicals.
When we give the right amount of the right chelating agent over the right
period of time, or help the body to 'chelate' by improving protein digestion
and amino acid production etc., we will SEE how the test turns green. Green
is the colour that indicates that the body chelates all metals.
Thus, the IHMT provides
a means not only for the detection of ionic metals, but also for monitoring
and controlling the ‘therapeutic’ approach. We do not need
to guess any more whether the kind and quantity of the ‘remedy’ for
the problem may be correct, or the necessary length of therapy. All these
aspects of a therapy can be clearly observed and individually adjusted by
means of the IHMT.
The average person (take one tablet three times per day) becomes a true individual
again.
What is chelation ?
I remember that I read a book written by Leon Chaitow many years ago. It certainly
left an impression and hence I will cite Leon here to make the idea of chelation
more accessible to the reader:
Not one of us can survive without the chelation
taking place throughout your body at all times. Digestion and assimilation
of foods, because your body uses protein substances (amino acids) to chelate
with minerals for transportation to their destinations, or in which blood
cells latch on to, and thus acquire, iron. Indeed, hemoglobin is a chelate
of iron (as is the enzyme catalase, which your body uses to 'switch off'
the free radical activity of hydrogen peroxide). When you eat meat or green
vegetables which contain iron, after the digestive process has released the
iron from the food in which it is bound it has to be combined (chelated)
with amino acids (protein fractions) so that it can be carried through the
intestinal mucous membranes into the bloodstream. For
full article, please click here.
A large number of web sites is trying to explain chelation and promote
chelation
therapy.
Here is a simple statement: if we cannot chelate metals (such as calcium,
potassium, magnesium, iron etc.) we cannot utilise these 'essential' metals.
If we cannot chelate ionic metals, we also cannot get rid of 'toxic'
metals, such as lead, cadmium, mercury etc.
The only 'cure' the medical profession has for
'lead
poisoning' - is some form of chelation therapy - often EDTA chelation.
What are Toxic Metals ?
Mercury, lead, cadmium and so on are sometimes called ‘toxic metals’.
The reason: they don't seem to have any benefit for the proper function of
a human body. But then again, language may be a very blunt tool. Lots
of things can be said which do not make a lot of sense when we investigate
further. For example: what does the word ‘toxic’ mean in a human
context ? According to the famous medical genius Paracelsus of the middle ages, ‘a
substance in itself is not a poison, but the quantity can make it one’.
So ‘science’ may lay down certain limits…only to change these
limits at which the ‘substance becomes a poison’ when new evidence
comes to light. See what happened with the ‘poisonous levels’ of
mercury, lead and so on over the last 20 years or so. They certainly have come
down considerably. Does that mean that the metals have become more ‘toxic’ ?
Certainly not, but our viewpoint has changed.
Some metals simply should not be present in our body at all and we should try
and get rid of them by chelating these metals.
Every human body has available mechanisms which will allow that body to eliminate
unwanted toxic metals. Basically these mechanisms are the same for – or
in - everyone, but they certainly do not function the same way in
everybody. Example: one day I went to a school in Argenton, near Newcastle ….and
very near a metal smelter which had contaminated the entire area with lead.
The Department of Health screen tested the kids attending that school for
lead levels in their blood. The officers were at a loss to explain why some
kids had high blood lead levels whereas others had low levels. What was the
secret ?
First of all an acid body ‘traps’ metals and especially lead. Lead
is very ‘acid sensitive’. We can see that with the IHMT.
If you have a red test sample and the red colour is caused by lead, a tiny
amount of acid (lemon juice) will turn it back to green ! All other metals
need much more acid to turn back to green…and some metals (especially
mercury) don’t seem to worry about acid levels at all. Mercury simply
keeps its yellowish colour. Hence children who are highly acidic will ‘keep’ lead
much more readily than those with a more alkaline body.
Secondly, if the stomach and small intestine do not work very well - do not
digest proteins very well - which means that the body cannot ‘manufacture’ sufficient
amino acids, which ‘chelate’ the metals and make them electrically
neutral in order for the body to use them where necessary or eliminate them
where not, the mechanism or system simply does not work ! Furthermore the by-product
of a bad protein metabolism is over acidity….and so the cycle closes.
Heavy Metals
Similar to ‘toxic metals’, ‘heavy metals’ have to be
taken with a grain of salt. 'Heavy' implies that these metals are heavy…but
then some authors call aluminum a heavy metal as well ! And yet everybody knows
that aluminum is not very heavy at all ! Language ! And concepts ! Some authors
try and class ‘heavy metals’ as metals having a certain ‘density’…and
others class them as ‘transition metals’.
They are called transition
metals because their ‘valence’ electrons, those electrons the atoms
use to form ‘compounds’ with other elements, are to be found
in more than one electron shell. Unfortunately aluminium does not belong
to the transition metals either. Let us simply remember that all metals in
ionic form (the presence of which we can show by means of the IHMT) can be a danger
to our health and well-being.
If the urine sample turns the green test solution (TESSOL) red.....then
that spells simply 'danger' !!
Transition Metals
Here is a list of metals classed as transition metals:
· Scandium · Titanium · Vanadium · Chromium · Manganese · Iron · Cobalt · Nickel · Copper · Zinc · Yttrium · Zirconium · Niobium · Molybdenum · Technetium · Ruthenium .
Rhodium · Palladium · Silver · Cadmium · Hafnium ·Tantalum · Tungsten · Rhenium · Osmium · Iridium · Platinum · Gold · Mercury · Rutherfordium · Dubnium · Seaborgium · Bohrium · Hassium · Meitnerium · Ununnilium · Unununium · Ununbium
And I copied them from a site which allows you to read up on everyone one
of the transition metals – if that is what you want to do.
Generally we can say that all these metals in ionic form (including aluminium
and especially so iron) can increase the production of free radicals
a million-fold, stick to the body like hair sticks to the balloon and build
up to toxic levels.
Let us look specifically at one metal without which life would be impossible – iron.
It is considered to be the worst perpetrator when it comes to the over
production of free radicals. Isn’t it strange, something which
is so essential to life can also destroy life. But this is the case with
many things. Just consider oxygen. We could not live without it for very
long at all, but it also causes severe illness and ageing and ultimately
death. Please have a look at ‘oxygen
free radicals’ .
Everything in nature has to be ‘just right’. If iron is in its ‘wrong’ form,
if it is ionic, for example, it will accumulate rapidly in tissues and produce
avalanches of free radicals, which in turn will manifest as diabetes, liver
cirrhosis, liver cancer and so on. Such an iron overload disease - IOD -
(hemochromatosis)
is classed as the ‘most wide spread and deadly genetic disorder known
to man’.
Copper can be quite deadly as well. Years ago, I read in the Encyclopedia
Britannica that ‘one copper atom can catalyse a million molecules’,
rip these molecules apart and turn them into free radicals. A couple
of copper atoms in peanut butter can make the peanut butter ‘rancid’,
i.e. ‘oxidise’ the oils and fats – just as free radicals
over produced by ionic metals oxidise cholesterol, testosterone and generally
fats in a human body. In order to prevent rancidity, many packaged foods
today contain chelating agents. Often the species of free radicals involved
are the most dangerous kind, so-called hydroxyl radicals. How transition
metals produce hydroxyl radicals is explained by the
‘metal
mediated Fenton reaction’.
When I operated a health practice in Newcastle, Australia, quite a number
of people would come to visit me from the Australian ‘outback’. A
still largely pollution free area – that is at least what I thought.
They brought with them some of the most hyperactive children I had ever met.
An Ionic Heavy Metal Test (IHMT) revealed that these kids were absolutely
full of zinc. Where did that zinc come from ?
Well, in that pristine outback
farmers are using artificial insecticides, pesticides and especially fertilisers.
And they are spraying the stuff by plane ! That causes acid rain. Most
roofs and many water tanks are made of galvanised iron. Zinc in that galvanised
iron gets dissolved by the acid water and ends up in the drinking water of
these people ! And this is how the kids got their ‘zinc overload’. The
good news is, when we gave the kids CH-7 (our clinically tested ‘metal
remover'), the 'uncontrollable' children became very much 'controllable'
within days.
On the strength of that observation, we developed a product which chelates
the metals in drinking water etc.
But there is more: the IHMT also allows us to clearly monitor the effect
of any remedial effort and it tells us how effective these efforts are and
even when most of the free radical over producing ionic metals have been chelated
and eliminated.
Since we are talking about balance and harmony, here is another important aspect
and that is pH.
Balance and Harmony
Everything in nature depends on balance and harmony. From the smallest
particles such as electrons and protons, to the largest planets and stars
- and especially also health and well-being. Today, some people eat handfuls
of antioxidants to stop free radicals from causing chronic disease and
ageing. The problem is that free radicals also form part of our immune
system…and if we do
not have sufficient amounts of free radicals, we will get eaten by the ‘bugs’ !!
Too much of a good thing may turn into a bad thing. As so often the answer
lies in the middle. But…if we can prevent the ever present ionic metals
from ‘over producing’ free radicals, we may be able to ‘intelligently’ balance
the system. That is why it was so important for us to develop a test which
would allow us to SEE whether the body was burdened with an excess of ionic
metals or not and make visible the results of our remedial efforts.
What is the use of taking handfuls of anti-oxidants, if the metals keep on
producing more free radicals than the anti oxidants can control ? Isn’t
it better to remove the cause of the problem ?? And if, on the other hand,
we do not produce avalanches of free radicals, the anti-oxidants we are taking
may lower the free radicals to a level at which yeasts, viruses and bacteria
cannot be controlled any more.
Once the free radical overproducing metals are removed, the body will experience
a greater level of balance and harmony.
Since we are talking about balance and harmony, here is another important aspect
- and that is pH. If the
alkaline/acid
balance (pH) of your body is not within certain limits, you cannot
be healthy and cannot live a long and happy life either. Full stop. According
to research the tissue pH of a women has to be between 7.35 to 7.44 and of
a man between 7.39 and 7.44. It is said that even a slight variation
of the pH outside these limits can cause severe disease symptoms to occur.
When looking at urine pH, the above tissue pH values would relate approximately
to the following: urine pH in the morning around 6.5 to 7.0 and in the evening
around 7.0 to 7.5. Saliva pH should be alkaline, i.e. around 7.5. I
found that the pH can change rapidly when eating food to which the body reacts
allergically.
Now, here is the connection to the metals: when the tall ships sailed the
oceans of planet earth, a lot of seamen developed scurvy. Then somebody found
that the disease was caused by a lack of vitamin C. Hence lemon juice (a
natural source of vitamin C) was added to the water in the big holding tanks
on the wharfs. From the wharf, the water was conducted into the ships water
storage tanks via lead pipes…now the seamen did not develop scurvy
any more, but many suffered from lead poisoning.
Acidity dissolves metals. Allegedly
the Roman
empire was wiped out by lead poisoning. Romans had an elaborate water
supply system with pipes consisting of lead and used lead in cooking, storing and
drinking vessels.....and even to sweeten their wine. In the English language
we have a saying: 'He (or she) is thick in the head', implying that the persons
IQ is rather low. Today we know that
lead
reduces the IQ.......and lead is a 'thick' (dense, heavy) metal.
If our body is acidic, metals remain dissolved and stay happily where
they are. The same is true for other metals. 'She is as mad as a hatter',
refers to hat makers (mainly women) in the middle ages who used mercury to
make the felt more pliable. This mercury entered their body through the skin
(and/or inhalation) and literally 'drove them around the bend'.
Another example: I am interested in everything that is beneficial for human
beings and the environment they have to survive in. Hence I developed an
alternative to chlorination which can be used in drinking water, cooling
towers, swimming pools etc. A fact which is well known in pool maintenance
is, that you have to bring up the water pH to an alkaline level of approximately
7.5 before you can ‘floc’ a pool, i.e. reduce the ‘total dissolved solids’ – or
in other words, drop out the suspended particles in the water. We often forget
that a human body is a kind of swimming pool as well (up to 80% water) and
that similar laws apply. Many people must look on the inside like green,
stinking ponds…no wonder that they don’t feel well.
How to balance pH
Myself, I have taken the pH balancer for years and so have a lot of other people
I recommended it to. What is this pH balancer ? Simply bicarbonate of soda
(from the super market) and citric acid (from the super market as well). It
is cheap and it works effectively and demonstrably.
Here is what to do: mix approximately one teaspoon full of bicarbonate into
one half glass of water. Stir well. Now slowly add citric acid – slowly
because it will fizz. You should have a ratio of 1.2 parts of bicarb to 1 part
of citric acid. That means just take a little bit less of the citric acid.
When the mixture is right, it will taste ok…..rather sweet.
After you had your mixture drink a glass of water (preferably filtered etc.).
Both bicarbonate of soda and citric acid are natural to the body. A healthy
pancreas produces bicarbonate of soda (which we use in swimming pools as
a ‘buffer’ – it
can be an electron donor and an electron acceptor !) in order to ‘buffe |
