Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities
by Andrew Hall
Cutler,
PhD, PE
© 2004, 2008, 2009
Andrew Hall
Cutler
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The federal Centers for
Disease
Control (CDC) did a study1 based on blood
and urine samples taken from 3,800 people in 1999.
CDC found that 10% of young children and women of child
bearing age had mercury levels high enough that the children or unborn
babies
may reasonably be expected to suffer health damage.
Previously the National
Research
Council (NRC) had estimated that 60,000 children were born annually
with too
much mercury in their system - a HUGE number - but this CDC study shows
that
was a substantial underestimate.
To make matters worse,
until 20042 these children received
vast quantities of highly
toxic organic mercury in their vaccinations in addition to the already
high
levels present in their bodies!
Other CDC studies showed that in the 1990’s, 4.4% of children had too much lead in them. Since almost none of them received treatment, it is still there, making them less intelligent and functional than they should be. The good news is that in 2001, only 2.2% of young children had too much lead. The bad news is that 2.2% of the population is an incredibly high number. We are talking about roughly a million little children with brain damaging chemicals in their system that nobody is doing anything about, and maybe 2 million older children in the same situation.
Over the last 30 years
the
“threshold” for lead in children’s blood has been reduced from 45 to 10. Current studies3
show that a blood level of 10 corresponds to an average loss of 7 IQ
points. Of course, half the people
lose more than this, half less, since it is an average.
And of course adults who were children
back when 45 was an acceptable blood level might have lost 32 IQ points
due to
lead levels physicians didn’t consider worth doing anything about. To put this in proper perspective, 100
is an average IQ. People with an
IQ of 68 usually can’t live on their own as adults, they need to be
taken care
of in a group home or institution.
There is a lot of
discussion of the hazards
of mercury in fish. In fact, women
of childbearing age should not eat more than one can of tuna a week if
that
is their only source of mercury exposure due to the risks it poses
to their unborn
children. It is politically
incorrect to talk about the facts that fish mercury is a much smaller
source of
exposure for the mother and her unborn child than dental amalgam
fillings, and
is much smaller for the child than infant vaccinations were until last
year. Unfortunately, once mercury
was removed from all existing childhood vaccines, flu shots were added
to the
list of vaccinations children routinely receive and these still do
contain
mercury.
Also curiously absent
from the news
is much discussion of the effect of the arsenic treated wood that
suddenly
replaced creosote treated wood in the early 1990’s.
This new kind of wood has dramatically increased children’s
and adults’ exposure to arsenic. There is also little discussion of
antimony
from flame retardant pajamas and bedding.
Both arsenic and antimony are well known to be toxic, and are
being
observed at high levels in surprising numbers of people by those few
doctors
who check. “Mainstream medicine” says don’t bother to check for
antimony or
arsenic unless people work in factories or occupations using it. Unfortunately this attitude comes from
older experience gathered before these poisons were placed in every
home as
wood preservatives and flame retardants.
The primary problems with
heavy
metals are that people’s metabolism of them varies greatly, and that
individual
exposure can also vary greatly.
Most people are not exposed to unusual amounts, and clear the
metals at
an “average” rate. These people are fine.
It is the people who clear the metals slowly or who are exposed
to more
than usual that have trouble. This
presents health care providers with a very confusing situation where
everyone seems
to be
exposed to
about the same amount of heavy metals and most people are fine. Thus many doctors “don’t get it,”
because it is often impossible to figure out that someone has an
unusual
exposure level, or had a large past exposure, and it is also difficult
to
figure out how a given individual’s metabolism for heavy metals works.
For a detailed discussion
of
individual variations in the metabolism of mercury, see pages 16-25 of Amalgam Illness: Diagnosis and
Treatment.
We have a situation today
where we
know large numbers of people accumulate too much toxic metal and suffer
ill
effects from that. Unfortunately we have a system full of health care
providers
who weren’t taught how to tell if you are one of them, but were taught
not to
order any tests to check. Since
metal toxicity doesn’t fit the general “medical model” of disease,
which is
that either you are OK or you are obviously sick (that is, your arm is
either
broken or not, you either have the flu or you don’t) health care
providers may
have trouble recognizing that there is a problem until it is severe.
The most important reason to worry about heavy metals is quite straightforward. The kinds of problems heavy metals cause are generally considered to be untreatable by mainstream medicine, and to have poor outcomes. Heavy metal poisoning IS treatable, treatment usually has a good outcome, and neither testing nor treatment are particularly expensive or unpleasant. So whenever someone has a condition that is chronic and has a negative impact on their life it makes a lot of sense to check for heavy metals.
1)
The study
is not yet published as of the time this
book was written. It is expected
to appear in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, MMWR.
The prior study for 1999 is reported there and can be downloaded
on the
internet at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5008.pdf.
2)
While
thimerosal
containing vaccines were taken off the market earlier, many doctors
continued
to administer their stock of thimerosal containing vaccinations until
those
expired – a year or more after
their manufacturing date. For
practical purposes vaccines are made and bought a year in advance so
children
were still receiving mercury laden vaccines until 2004.
3) Recent Developments in Low-Level Lead Exposure and Intellectual Impairment in Children, Koller, Brown, Spurgeon and Levy, Environmental Health Perspectives, volume 112, number 9, pages 987-94, 2004. Downloadable on the web for free at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/6941/6941.pdf.
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Read some excerpts from
the book: |
||
|
|
||
|
Other books of
interest (vaccines cancer autism hormone balance etc) |
||