I had lots of questions and concerns raised when I posted my hair mineral analysis test a short time back. In fact some people were scared for my life due to the super high arsenic levels. So I figured I would address those concerns a bit more here.
Is arsenic bad?
Arsenic and many of its compounds are especially potent poisons. Many water supplies close to mines are contaminated by these poisons. Arsenic disrupts ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits lipoic acid, which is a cofactor for pyruvate dehydrogenase; and by competing with phosphate it uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which, it is speculated, has potential to form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure, it is presumed from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis. A post mortem reveals brick-red-coloured mucosa, owing to severe haemorrhage. Although arsenic causes toxicity, it can also play a protective role. From wikipedia.
What caused this high arsenic level?
Unfortunately I’m not sure on this question. There are two options.
1) My body actually has accumulated a lot of arsenic at some point.
2) The sample was somehow contaminated.
Here are a list of symptoms:
- Headaches
- Confusion
- Severe diarrhea
- Drowsiness
- Convulsions
- Changes in fingernail pigmentation
- Vomiting
- Blood in the urine
- Cramping muscles
- Hair loss
- Stomach pain
Since I have zero of these symptoms, and in general am completely healthy, I’m leaning toward option two. However that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything about it.
So where might it have come from? Again I’m not sure.
Sometimes water is contaminated. I suppose I could have my sources checked. But having moved around much in the past year my sources have often changed.
Recently in the news lots has been made of high arsenic levels in juices. Besides using some apple juice for certain cleanses (when I couldn’t freshly juice my own) I don’t drink juice. So this couldn’t be it.
Perhaps I just somehow got arsenic in my hair that day? The truth is I don’t know where it came from but I can move onto the next step and see what can be done about it.
What can be done to remove Arsenic?
There are some really great chelating natural foods like chlorella and cilantro. I’ve heard many times from many sources these remove heavy metals. But arsenic is not a heavy metal or is it? Technically it’s classed as a metalloid, something that has metal and non-metal characteristics. And with some more research I found that these foods do seem to be not just heavy metal removers but metalloid removers too.
A new experiment conducted at the Department of Pharmacology at the Mymensingh Medical College in Bangladesh discovered that Spirulina extracts can effectively remove arsenic from the livers of mice suffering from arsenic poisoning (arsenicosis)
It also appears that garlic specifically scavenges arsenic from the blood.
The good news is these are foods I use some-what regularly and plan take even more now.
After doing this for awhile I’ll get another hair mineral analysis and see what the changes may be.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Comments
You might want to have your equipment tested.
https://artofstrength.squarespace.com/poison-bells/
Hello Logan I just finished reading the post and I thought I might be able to help with some possible sources. The first place we usually see high levels of arsenic is wood decks that are preserved, then other sources would be chicken(especially if farmed and fed chicken feed),seafood,drinking water,insecticides (on fruits and vegetables), pesticides, coloured chalk, house hold detergents, car exhaust, rat poisons, wall paper dye and plaster,glue’s, contaminated wine, Metal foundry. Hope that helps.
Dr.Michel
@Dr.Michel: I eat mostly organic and not all the much chicken. I suppose it could be from seafood.
I also have suspicions about the old house I lived in in Oregon. Perhaps the arsenic came from somewhere there. I know the paint had lead in it.
@Paul: Interesting. I don’t have an issue with Cadmium though, but I wonder if Arsenic could be a problem in equipment too?
apple seeds.
Just a thought, but if you’re looking to re-rest, might be worth talking to the lab about how to take the hair sample. For anyone with long hair you might get the best data from sampling the portion of hair closest to the scalp, rather than what’s already grown (& may already have an arsenic level).
@Gaspode: That’s the standard procedure for these tests, in using the new hair, rather then the old. And yes this is what I did.
Logan I have read that scientists at the Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata (India) treated rats with garlic/water mix and found that the amount of arsenic in the blood dropped dramatically. There is this product called kyolic wich is aged garlic that is wonderful as a detox. About the experiment in Kolkata read here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691507004565
Cheers
Not sure if you get down with any of this type of stuff, but…
I read a study not long ago that showed very high levels of arsenic in a bunch of protein/sports drinks. I definitely remember muscle milk on the list and I think some other big name brands….
Hey Logan, here’s another possible hidden arsenic source to watch out for:
https://gma.yahoo.com/organic-brown-rice-syrup-hidden-arsenic-source-194615982–abc-news.html
Hi Logan, I decided to do a hair mineral analysis test. It showed that I was low in both sodium and potassium which apparently will affect my thyroid and adrenal glands and apparently my metabolism is “slow type #1”.
It’s definitely useful to have some numbers to be able to look at to see how I can improve my diet, I think the culprit for the low sodium is the amount of calcium I consume as I eat a lot of natural yoghurt at the moment. As for the potassium I will just have to look at eating more foods with higher percentage of potassium to calcium to help restore some balance.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for bringing this to my attension as I didn’t realise these tests were relatively affordable. Cost me £55 here in the UK.
@Kris Wragg: Glad to hear you got tested. You’re right. It’s great to have the numbers in front of you, instead of making assumptions, even if they show you’re not perfect. It gives you something to work from and test new things out with.