Heavy metals

The link between multiple sclerosis and heavy metals is so strong that the number of cases can be predicted by studying the composition of a city’s drinking water. On more than one occasion, situations have already been described in which replacing water pipes with contaminated ones provoked an entire epidemic of demyelinating diseases. It is also possible to predict the number of diseases based on distance from various types of steel mills or thermal power plants. Patients also have higher levels of various heavy metals in their blood: in one study, they had nine times as much zirconium, twice as much manganese, three times as much antimony, four times as much nickel….

Fortunately (and unfortunately), most heavy metals are very easy to get rid of. There are, of course, no clinical trials of therapies to remove heavy metals in multiple sclerosis patients. The cost of removing these poisons from the body is sometimes literally a dozen dollars, the cost of treating the disease sometimes runs into the hundreds of thousands. If the therapy proved successful, it would be a blow to the heart of pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, despite such clear and obvious correlations between poisoning and disease, no one has ever tried to detoxify people. It is a therapy that is too simple and too cheap. We only have a single case where EDTA therapy was used on a patient in a clinic:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10534-012-9537-7

As a result, her condition improved, doctors described it as “reversal of the disease”.

Detoxification can be done on your own, without moving from home. Admittedly, home remedies have much lower effectiveness, for that they are practically completely safe. The main difference is that “home” remedies, as a rule, do not cross the blood-brain barrier, so they cannot pull heavy metals from where they actually are harmful. What’s more, during the initial stage of treatment, they are removed from “safe” areas, such as fat tissue. There were concerns that they could then be “transferred” to the central nervous system. However, studies with EDTA have shown that it is sufficient to remove heavy metals from the blood for the brain to improve within days. The fears turned out to be misplaced.

„Air Pollution in Toronto” by United Nations Photo is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Where do heavy metals come from in our bodies? Studies of the skeletons of our ancestors from just a few hundred years ago have shown that we now have much more lead stored in our bones.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7123205

The above study shows that the amount of lead in the bones of modern Germans is 20 times higher than in bones from the excavations of primitive cultures that had no contact with this metal.

Metals surround us on all sides: our neighbor burning the cheapest coal, thermal power plants, cigarettes, metallic fillings in our teeth, cars, paint, even the metal doorknobs we touch. Everyone has probably seen a doorknob worn out from wear and tear. Ever wondered where the metal went? It has also been shown that the biggest source of mercury is eating fish.

Three things are being pursued. First, to allow the body to excrete heavy metals naturally, mainly by increasing glutathione concentrations. Second, to “knock them out” of the places where they are deposited, so that they pass into the blood. Third and finally, to bind them with specific agents, the so-called chelators. They we can simply pee them out.

But before this can be done, the sources of poisoning must be cut off. Quitting smoking is a priority, e-cigarettes are completely harmless and, on top of that, cheaper. All kinds of old paint can contain very high amounts of lead, it used to be that this was not controlled. Amalgam fillings basically consist of only mercury and dissolve very slowly, they should be removed before any detoxification therapy, otherwise the drugs, instead of taking the mercury out of the body and removing it outside, may take it from the fillings and distribute it through the body. Under no circumstances should animal organs be eaten. They store toxins in them throughout their lives. Meat, too, has many times higher concentrations than plant food, with fish flesh being particularly highly poisoned.

We never know if the previous occupant of an apartment smashed a thermometer in it, and we never know what is sitting in the ground in our allotment garden. Hobbies such as shooting an air rifle, hunting or fishing (where lead objects are often touched) are asking for trouble. When playing the guitar, a sizable portion of the nickel-plated string is left on your fingers, and you need to wash your hands thoroughly when you’re done. Likewise, after working with money for a long time, for example, at the cash register in a store. The list could go on for a very long time, but it’s probably easiest for everyone to find potential sources of poisoning in their own environment.

Below I will describe the use of a chelator, which in principle should be used under the supervision of a doctor. Admittedly, doctors promoting such therapy encourage patients to do it on their own, but EDTA is not an ordinary supplement. I am explaining their recommendations, but if someone wants to use it, they do so at their own risk.

The basis of the therapy is a substance called EDTA, specifically its disodium salt. You can buy this in powder form or tablets. There are centers where one can do intravenous EDTA therapy, with high doses, but first of all it is very expensive, and secondly it is dangerous. Orally it will simply take longer. In addition, oral doses can bind heavy metals from the bile, which is not possible with infusions.

Dosage is 1-3 grams several times a day, not mixed with any meals. The disadvantage of EDTA is, firstly, the binding of beneficial elements in the digestive tract, making them unpalatable, and secondly, their rapid removal from the body. Therapy should be carried out only for a few days, up to 2 weeks, then take a longer break, dedicated to supplementing primarily zinc and iron. Elements such as calcium and magnesium are also removed to a lesser extent.

Some studies suggest that mercury is removed by using coriander leaves, dried as a last resort. Admittedly, only a few studies using this herb have been published, but the effects presented there were simply sensational. Coriander proved to be more effective than the best patent medicines. Unfortunately, there is no certainty that this therapy will work, as the studies were conducted in a rather “murky” center and just might have been made up, but there are currently no over-the-counter mercury chelators.

Cysteine causes a very large increase in the amount of mercury in the urine, by the way, it helps with other autoimmune conditions, quieting them, and also reduces the risk of many conditions, including cancer. You should use about 1 gram a day, up to 2 grams.

Iodine is said to be quite effective in knocking metals out of the body, making them easier to remove, but this requires high doses (several mg) of the element. MS patients have a much higher risk of autoimmune thyroid conditions, which can be accelerated by using such doses of iodine. Saturating with it brings many other benefits: probably several times lower risk of breast or prostate cancer, general improvement in immunity and health, but in this case it should be decided by oneself whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Statistically, a few people should have a damaged thyroid after such therapy, several times more perhaps save their lives by avoiding cancer. These effects of iodine as a heavy metal chelator are not fully confirmed, the scientist who published these studies is very unreliable.

Alpha – lipoic acid. It should be taken in small doses throughout the day, by the way it shows a protective effect on nerve cells.

Milk thistle seeds, they raise the level of glutathione in the liver by up to several hundred percent.

Substances such as lithium, MSM and beta-alanine are quite often advertised as being able to remove heavy metals and protect the brain from their effects, but thorough studies are lacking. Nevertheless, they are very useful for other reasons, so they are worth including in therapy.

You can take vitamin E in the form of a mixture of tocopherols (not another), and you should also eat large amounts of plants containing carotenoids (such as carrots).

A somewhat problematic herb is garlic. On the one hand, it had a powerful effect on heavy metal concentrations in animals, sometimes removing up to 90% of lead and cadmium in a short period of time, additionally reducing the number of attacks in rheumatoid arthritis patients, it also reduces the risk of cold-type diseases that can trigger flare-ups, on the other hand, some systemic lupus patients claimed that it increased the number of attacks. It’s really hard to give a definite answer here.

That’s more or less it. Any kind of strictly medical, DMSA-type methods should only be used under medical supervision.

I would like to warn against the popular “elemental hair test” scam. There was a clinical trial where scientists sent the same person’s hair to several different laboratories performing this pseudo-testing, each time getting completely different results.