Get the Lead Out!: Heavy Metal is for Rock Bands Only

     I had read all about the effects of heavy metals on the body, and I knew that my mouth had been the home of several amalgam fillings which contained mercury.  I had the last 2 of those replaced a few months ago, and I knew that the process may have exposed me to more mercury.  Thus, I expected to see an elevation in mercury when I did a heavy metals test.  What I didn't expect was a level of lead which extended off the chart!  I grew up in the 70's, when there was lead everywhere. Leaded gas, leaded paint, not just on the walls, but on the toys as well.  So, this elevated lead level should not have surprised me, but it did!

     There are many sources of lead exposure, including lead paints, batteries, solder, some toys and products from China, glazes on ceramics, leaded fuels, bullets, fishing sinkers, lead pipes, and leaded joints in municipal water systems. According to the Wikipedia,

"poisoning by organic lead compounds has symptoms predominantly in the central nervous system, such as insomnia, delirium, cognitive deficits, tremors, hallucinations, and convulsions. Early symptoms of lead poisoning in adults are commonly nonspecific and include depression, loss of appetite, intermittent abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and muscle pain. Other early signs in adults include malaise, fatigue, decreased libido, and problems with sleep. An unusual taste in the mouth and personality changes are also early signs."

     The more lead you're exposed to, the more serious the symptoms, including, in order of severity: impairment in Vitamin D metabolism, red blood cell problems, headache, decrease nerve conduction speed, metallic taste inthe mouth, loss of appetite, constipation, poor hemoglobin synthesis, colic, anemia, tremors, kidney impairment, neuropathy (nerve disorders) and encephalopathy (brain disorders).

     Over-exposure to one metal can cause synergistic problems with other toxic metals as well.  And wouldn't you know it, I have elevated levels of mercury and barium, too.  According to my report from Doctor's Data, Inc., early signs of mercury contamination include decreased sense of touch, hearing, vision, and taste, metallic taste in the mouth, fatigue or lack of physical endurance, and increased salivation.  These symptoms can progress to anorexia, numbness, tingling, headaches, high blood pressure, irritability, and immune problems.  At the advanced level, symptoms can include tremors and loss of coordination, anemia, psychoses, manic behaviors, autoimmune disorders, and kidney dysfunction or failure. 

     You may be exposed to mercury through dental fillings, explosive detonators, a broken mercury thermometer, batteries, and fungicides and pesticides. 

     Barium exposure usually comes from diagnostic medical tests, like a barium enema. You can also be exposed to barium in some decorative glass and paints, insecticides, and some forms of water purification (using barium aluminates).  High levels of barium can interfere with calcium metabolism and potassium retention. 

     There are many other metals that can be problematic for the body, and a chart with symptoms associated with each metal can be found here.  In my next post, I will talk about Chelation Therapy, a method for removing heavy metals from the body.

A Stressor By Any Other Name is Still a Stressor

    Our stress response systems were developed back when people had to be ready to fight off a saber toothed tiger at a moment's notice. Thus, the fight or flight response. Nowadays, our stressors are more likely to come in the form of illness, infection, traffic, death of a loved one, time pressures, work deadlines, and things of that nature.  However, our bodies don't know the difference between those things and an attacking bear when it comes to our stress response.  We react the same way no matter what the stressor.  That is, adrenalin shoots through our system, making us ready to either fight off the tiger, or run like heck away from him as fast as we can.  This same thing happens to us no matter what we are facing. 

     Over time, cumulative stressors can weaken your adrenals, the system responsible for energy production and immune function, among other things.  This can happen from an acute illness, surgery, sudden, unexpected death, job loss, etc., or it can happen after a number of episodes of seemingly lower stress situations, like time pressures, worries, sleep deprivation, chronic infections, traffic jams, and things like that. Remember that, physiologically, we're still reacting like we're being attacked by a bear or a tiger. The syndrome this causes has been called Adrenal Fatigue.  Over time, your adrenal glands can no longer do their jobs, and you end up tired, worn out, irritable, intolerant, and unable to handle even the smallest stressors because your adrenals have nothing left to give to the cause. 

Symptoms of low adrenal function (low cortisol) include the following:

• Difficulty getting up in the morning
• Fatigue not relieved by sleep
• Depression
• Decreased tolerance (people irritate you)
• PMS
• Low libido
• Fuzzy thinking
• Becoming light-headed when standing up from a seated or lying position
• Taking longer to get over illnesses
• Craving salty or sweet snacks
• Using coffee or other caffeine to get going and/or stay going
• The daily demands of life easily get you down

If you think you might have adrenal fatigue, check out Dr. James Wilson's site, at http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/.  His book, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome, contains a wealth of information on the subject and how to heal from it. 

     The best way to test for adrenal fatigue is through saliva testing.  One company who provides this testing is ZRT Lab.  You can find their Cortisol test here.  It is simple.  You spit into a vial, 4 different times in a day, mail them off, and you get the results back in about three weeks.  You can also find a practitioner in your area that can order the test and explain the results for you.  Here in Indianapolis, I see Randee Miller, a Holistic Nurse Practitioner, with many years of experience in conventional medicine as well.  I have learned SO much about what's going on in my body and am so excited about the possibility of improving my health because I can actually see what's wrong and can pinpoint treatment to those problems, not just have medicines thrown at symptoms.  For instance, I've learned that my cortisol levels do not follow the usual circadian rhythm.  A normal cortisol rhythm looks like a relaxed, curved capital L.  Mine, on the other hand, looks like a backward, horizontal Z, being high in the morning, crashing precipitously at noon, spiking up slightly at 6 pm, and dropping way off at 10 pm. Mine doesn't land anywhere on the normal curve!  This may explain my pathological daytime sleepiness, which may not be narcolepsy after all.  Now that I know what might be causing it and can take steps to fix it, I am looking forward to a time where I can get up in the morning, stay up in the daytime, and sleep through the night. 

It's 5:00 somewhere, and it may be in your gut!

I have been perplexed by the increase in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, and depression in recent years.  In my search to find answers for what is going on in my own body, I stumbled across a book which may have some answers to my perplexion.  It is called Gut and Psychology Syndrome, and was written by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It is beyond the scope of this post to summarize the whole book, but if you or someone you love is autistic or has been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, schizophrenia, or depression, I strongly encourage you to read this book.  Research has shown a correlation between these disorders and gut dysbiosis, or unbalanced gut bacteria and dysfunction. In particular, biopsies of the small intestines of children with autism, have shown that the lymph nodes in the small intestine are enlarged and inflamed, because they are trying to fight off infections.  Based on the hunch that there might be a link between vaccinations, particularly the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine, and autism, Dr. Andrew Campbell, a British gastroenterologist, studied these tissues and found the same measles virus in the inflamed lymph nodes of the intestines of children with autism as that used in the vaccine.  This caused a lot of controversy, but clearly, the digestive systems of children with autism have been found to be inflamed, with enlarge lymph nodes, which are trying to fight off infection. 

Similarly, research has shown that many schizophrenic patients have digestive problems similar to celiac disease, a disorder caused by a sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in many grains, that makes the digestive system unable to digest fat, causing diarrhea, and anemia, among other digestive discomforts. Dr. Campbell-McBride also says that many people with ADHD, dyslexia, asthma, allergies, and eczema have symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, including abdominal pain, bloating, stool abnormalities, and flatulence (gas).

A Dry Drunk

In the last post, I mentioned how easy it is with the typical American diet to develop an overgrowth of a yeast called Candida in the gut.  Candida can take the glucose we need for energy from our food and digest it in such a way itself that it produces alcohol and its by-product, acetaldehyde.  Thus, we can be drunk without drinking a drop.  It is very easy for alcohol to get through the gut barrier and straight into the blood, and thereby, straight into the brain.  Alcohol can be very toxic to our bodies.  One hangover will prove that to you!  It is one thing for that to happen to an adult who chooses to consume alcohol, knowing of this potential, but think of the children whose systems produce this alcohol on their own because of an imbalance in the gut bacteria.  Aside from being toxic, this alcohol can interfere with the absorption of vitamins, too.

Acetaldehyde has the ability to alter proteins in our bodies, which can then cause different autoimmune processes, where the body begins to attack itself.  A person can develop multiple sclerosis, where the body attacks the myelin covering of nerves, Hasimoto's thyroiditis, where the body attacks the thyroid tissue, or rheumatoid arthritis, where the body attacks itself, and causes severe inflammation in the joints.  In fact, having one autoimmune condition means you are also more susceptible to other autoimmune conditions as well. 

I will go into more detail about gluten intolerance in another post, but one of the most surprising things I found in the Gut and Psychology book is that in people with imbalanced gut flora, one of the byproducts of the body's inability to properly digest gluten (from grains) and casein (from milk products) is some substances with chemical structures very similar to opiates, like heroin and morphine! These substances can get through the blood-brain barrier and block certain areas of the brain like heroin and morphine do.  Dr. Campbell-McBride says that substantial research shows these morphine-like substances in the urine of patients with schizophrenia, autism, ADHD, post-partum psychosis, epilepsy, Downs syndrome, depression, and some autoimmune diseases.  Yikes!

The Gut: the root of all evil and good

Traditional medicine focuses its efforts on addressing whatever symptoms you present with, and giving you a medication to address that symptom. This doesn't get to what is causing the problem in the first place, so the core dysfunction continues unabated.  Many times new symptoms arise, and we are then given a different medicine for that symptom, continuing with the previous medicine for the previous symptom. This can go on and on indefinitely,while the original dysfunction may contine to worsen. Symptoms are our body's way of telling us that something is wrong, and it will keep throwing them out there till we finally pay attention to what's causing them in the first place, instead of just trying to shut the symptoms up with a new medicine.

I began to see this very thing happening an older beloved family member.  Over the years, she was given more and more medicines to manage her ever-increasing symptoms, never having any of the previous medicines taken away.  Eventually, she was no longer able to digest food properly, was becoming malnourished, had no energy, didn't feel like leaving her house, and in general, her usual effervescent spark was going out.  I started to attend doctor visits with her and began to get more and more disillusioned with this process.  Most doctors have to deal with "managed" care, and thus, have only a few minutes to spend with each patient. Everything is happening so fast in these appointments that, especially for an older person, who may not be able to hear well, half of what is said is lost.  Doctors may mean well, but in this system, they often simply don't have time to do as well as they could. 

Never one to leave not-well-enough alone, I started looking into all her medications, and how they were beginning to spiral her out of control. She was taking one medication to deal with the symptoms another one was causing, and so on, and so on, never getting to the bottom of the issue of what was causing the original dysfunction.  I finally got her to see a non-traditional medical practitioner, and I am very hopeful about her future.  The reason being that alternative, complementary, holistic, or natural medicine, or whatever name you want to give it, looks to find what's causing the body not to work properly in the first place, and tries to restore healthy functioning. 

No Guts, No Glory

According to Hippocrates, all diseases begin in the gut.  Our guts are filled with bacteria, and that’s the way it should be. These bacteria line our entire digestive tracts, and provide a barrier to keep invaders out and food particles in. They can also break down toxins, viruses, etc.  The problem is that for many of us, the good bacteria get overtaken by the bad bacteria, creating a cascade of troubles. When this protective barrier is broken down, undigested food particles can slip through the wall and into the blood stream, where they were never meant to be. This activates the immune system, which tries to kill off the invader, and over time, it can begin to attack the body itself, causing autoimmune conditions.

When our gut bacteria get out of balance, the cells that help with digestion and the absorption of food can’t do their jobs properly.  Though you might be taking in plenty of food, if it is not getting properly digested, you will not be able to get the nutrition out of it that you need.  Also, you can begin to develop food intolerances when your cells cannot properly digest your food.  The same is true of vitamins and other supplements: if you can't absorb their nutrients, it doesn't matter how many you take, you won't get the benefits.

One of the most important functions of the gut bacteria or “flora” is in the immune system.  Gut flora help with the production of lymphocytes and immunogobulins, which protect the body from invaders.  If gut flora is not healthy, then we are not well protected from infections.  Additionally, if there is not enough beneficial bacteria in the gut, the neutrophils and macrophages can’t do their jobs of surrounding, cleaning up, and destroying viruses, toxins, etc. Finally, if the gut flora is not healthy, the production of interferons and other immune response regulators, the things which call the immune system troops to arms, and turn off the immune response when the invader has been killed, is interfered with as well. This can cause the whole immune system to get out of whack. 

There are a number of possible ways our gut bacteria can get out of balance, and cause the rest of our bodies to get out of whack, too. Antibiotics, whether from medication we’ve taken or those given to the animals we later eat, can be devastating to gut flora.  If you’ve taken oral antibiotics, you’ve probably experienced the nausea and/or diarrhea that can follow a few days after starting them.  If so, you’ve experienced what happens when good bacteria in the gut are killed off.  Your body can’t process your food properly without the good bacteria, so you are left with the aftereffects of undigested food trying to move through your system.

Some drugs, if taken over long periods of time, can cause the overgrowth of harmful bacteria in our guts.  For example, birth control pills can cause an overgrowth of Candida, a yeast which can overtake your gut and become a systemic problem, where the Candida is carried around the body in the blood.  Antacids kill of the stomach acids necessary to break down food, so the undigested food ferments in the system, causing an overgrowth of harmful bacteria.  Certainly, the foods we eat in the typical American diet, lots of sugar, lots of starches, not many vegetables, etc., can cause an overgrowth of Candida.  Candida thrives on sugars and starches, and puts the toxins from its own digestive processes right back into your system. So now you’ve got a digestive system that can’t do its job, which then has to fight even more toxins from the yeast’s digestion. It can become a very vicious cycle.

 Probiotics can help restore balance in your digestive system.  These are live microorganisms that can help restore healthy bacteria to your gut. There are many different types available, but they must be kept refrigerated to keep them alive. Check out Wikipedia if you are interested in learning more about the specific strains of good bacteria. The one I take is by Garden of Life and is called Primal Defense Ultra. If Candida has gotten out of control in your system, you may need to attack it directly. You can find many products online and in health food stores that will help in this process.  It can also be helpful to use digestive enzymes every time you eat, to help your body break down foods more fully. The one I like is also by Garden of Life, and is called Omega Zyme. I should point out that I have no affiliation with this company, I just think they make high quality products.