Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities
by Andrew Hall
Cutler,
PhD, PE
© 2004, 2008, 2009
Andrew Hall
Cutler
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Read some excerpts from
the book: |
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Other books of
interest (vaccines cancer autism hormone balance etc) |
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Because the dominant
belief in
medicine is that toxicity problems are an occupational hazard, most
research on
metals causing cancer (and other diseases) has been performed on people
exposed
in the workplace. Regardless of
where toxic metals come from, if they get into someone’s body they
behave
however they are going to behave.
The real issue is whether the metals are there, and one way to
determine
that is a hair test.
One would expect
toxicology books to
mention heavy metals and cancer if the association is well known, and
in fact
they do. In Clinical Toxicology, by Ford, first edition
(2001),
page 718:
“Inorganic
arsenic is a recognized human carcinogen,
primarily of the respiratory tract and skin (International Agency for
Research
on Cancer group 1 and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency group A).”
Textbooks on cancer would
be
expected to have significant coverage of any links between heavy metals
and
cancer, and they do. Perusing Clinical Oncology by
Abeloff, second edition (2000), we find
much useful information.
Page 289:
“Medicinal use of inorganic arsenic was associated with skin
cancers in the early 20th century. More recently, excess skin cancer
has been
observed in populations exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water.”
and
“Reports
of skin and lung cancers among vineyard workers with
exposure to arsenic fungicides and pesticides appeared during the late
1950s.”
and
Page 290:
“Elevated risk of prostate and lung cancer among workers
exposed to cadmium has been reported.”
and
“Experimental
investigations indicate that the hexavalent salts
of chromium are highly carcinogenic, whereas trivalent chromium is not
carcinogenic.”
With mainstream
medicine’s focus on
occupational exposure which usually happens by breathing dust at work
we would
expect to find this topic covered in relevant texts if an association
between
heavy metals and cancer was believed to be important.
In fact, the Textbook of Respiratory Medicine by Murray and Nadel,
third edition
(2000) has a lot to say on this topic:
(page
1400) “Occupational exposure to inorganic arsenic in
copper smelting causes a 2- to 14-fold increase in respiratory cancer
risk.”
(P 1401) “Hexavalent
chromium
compounds are established human carcinogens.”
and
“The
increased lung cancer risk prevalent in nickel refinery
workers was initially attributed to exposure to metallic nickel and
nickel
carbonyl, which are carcinogenic in animals. However,
subsequent epidemiologic evidence has suggested
that exposure to combinations of nickel sulfides and oxides encountered
in the
refining industry increases lung cancer risk.”
(page 1402):
“Two cohort mortality studies have
reported a significant excess of lung cancer associated with exposure
to
beryllium.”
(page
1403):
“Follow-up from a cohort study of cadmium smelter workers
reported a
relative risk of 1.49 not explainable by smoking.” (The risk is for
lung
cancer).
The role of heavy metals
in causing
cancer is so well known that basic medical texts covering internal
medicine and
pathology also discuss it.
In table 193-2 of Cecil
Textbook
of Medicine,
21st edition (2000) arsenic, chromium and
nickel are listed as being carcinogenic.
Table 8-3 on page 274 of Robbins
Pathologic Basis of Disease, by Cotran, Kumar and
Collins, sixth edition (1999) lists arsenic and
arsenic compounds as causing lung and skin cancer as well as
hemangiosarcoma1, beryllium and its compounds as
causing
lung cancer, cadmium and its compounds as causing prostate cancer, chromium and its compounds as causing
lung cancer, as well as nickel and its compounds as causing lung and
nasal cancer.
Checking the Textbook
of Natural
Medicine
by
Pizzorno and Murray, second edition (1999) we find on page 168:
“One
study which evaluated bladder cancer mortality over a
5-year period in 26 counties in the US, found that bladder cancer was
significantly
higher in counties with documented arsenic exposure.”
In addition to excessive
levels of
toxic elements being carcinogenic, inadequate levels of certain
nutrient
elements may also increase the risk of cancer. For
example, in Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal
and Liver Disease
by Feldman, seventh edition (2002), the authors state that low dietary
selenium
can cause colon cancer. Low levels
of selenium (and other relevant nutrient elements) may be detected by a
hair
test as long as mineral transport is normal and orderly.
There is an extremely
large amount
of journal literature on the topic of what causes cancer.
The most useful study is Environmental and
Heritable Factors in the
Causation of Cancer: Analyses of Cohorts of Twins from Sweden, Denmark
and
Finland, by Lichtenstein et al., New England Journal
of Medicine,
volume 343, number 2, pages 78-85
(2000).
“Inherited
Genetic factors make a minor
contribution to susceptibility of most types of neoplasms. This finding
indicates that the environment has the principal role in causing
sporadic
cancer.”
and
“We
conclude that the overwhelming contributor to the
causation of cancer in the population of twins that we studied was the
environment.”
...
If you go from the
research
literature to the clinics of health care providers who actually do
screen for
heavy metal problems in cancer patients and look over the tests it is
quite
apparent that mercury and lead show up in a lot of these people in
addition to
arsenic, nickel and chromium.
Heavy metal exposure is
one risk
factor that can be easily screened for with a hair test, and for which
there
are effective means of removing the cancer causing material from the
body if it
is found.
1)
a
malignant tumor derived from blood vessel cells
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