my minerals

“An Uncoupling Agent Containing Strontium Prevents Bone Loss by Depressing Bone Resorption and Maintaining Bone Formation in Estrogen-Deficient Rats” study

yes

an extra five years on the compendium !

least !

“bone acts as a repository for toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, so when people get older, they lose bone. when this happens, these toxic materials are released back into the body and may adversely affect health. by preventing bone loss, bisphosphonates prevent some of this toxic metal release.”

________________________

it replaces calcium in the heart muscle and may make it less susceptible to fib, but could also lower its level of activity

i think the strontium does something for the joints too, i took 1/4 of a vrp capsule last night (350/4 = 88 mg)

might be heart postive, my heart is quiet this morning

however, that 88 mg may have made me a bit migrainy and large amounts are linked to blood clot formation

when you first start taking strontium take only a super tiny amount to allow the body to adjust or the blood will thicken too much and make for migraine or headache, possibly even stroke risk if you have cardiovascular problems

i do suspect however that in these tiny amounts it just thickens the blood a bit without promoting clotting, however this blood thickening is enough to create problems if you have any tendency to glaucoma !

________________________

i went to bed and slept for about four hours then woke and took about 1/8th of a capsule of strontium carbonate then went to sleep again a bit later and woke two hours later from that (23rd march 2011)

i do find strontium good for sleep !

BUT

when i woke from the second sleep period after taking strontium i momentarily saw a very thin angled grey line going from my toe up at about a 30 degree angle as far as the visual field extended

it disappeared immediately but is a worry !

i have had periods of seeing short thick black wavey lines right across the visual field for a very short period on waking prior to starting on strontium and my grandmother had glaucoma and i have thick blood which seems to be getting worse as i get older so there are some deep seated issues going on here !

i relate these wavy lines to oxygen shortages from increased overnight IOP, decreased overnight blood pressure and also sleeping on one's back and the weight of the aquous humour resting on the back of the eye is also a factor imo

also glutamate stress to the nerves in the eye which zinc and possibly vitamin C help with !

i do try to avoid sleeping on my back now and don't eat as much pig skin as i used, a source of high glutamate imo !

at the least however imo strontium requires caution with amounts

however glaucoma is not listed as a side effect of strontium renelate which is taken by women in large amounts to improve their bone density so who knows what the story is !

strontium is an exception to the rule that minerals must be chelates as are calcium, lithium carbonate and iodine !

you can get strontium renelate through prescription to build bone strength i think, that might be ok !

the benefit of taking strontium is so strongly in favour of it sending me to sleep for that second sleep period of several hours very early in the morning that i am continuing to take it then and doing several other things to help reduce the risk of glaucoma !

________________________

another downside of strontium is that it increases bilirubin levels, this suits me a bit because increased bilirubin inhibits heme biosynthesis, but for a low iron person this may be an issue. study

________________________

strontium does something, i am not quite sure what, maybe a positive effect on the brain, immune system and joints, but only a small amount is needed, 1 mg per kilogram of body weight a day seems about right (52 mg a day for me :o)

its really hard to judge the amount so i look at it in terms of how many days a capsule will last

one capsule might last 7 days?

340 mg divided by 7 days is approximately 50 mg a day

there's no studies on the web for very low dose strontium, however i have seen a figure of 792 mg a day (strontium chloride) causing "reduced plasma 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 level following the inhibition of 1alpha-hydroxylation by strontium"

so the amount taken needs to be metered by recording when you start and finish a capsule to get the amount per day you are taking

calcium also acts identically to inhibit 1alpha-hydroxylase study

________________________

it is best taken on an empty stomach as strontium carbonate is not soluble in water but is soluble in a dilute acid like vinegar so adequate stomach acid is important !

crunching the strontium carbonate between the front teeth to make it finer helps it be digested and absorbed more effciently

it will dissolve in vinegar leaving small bubbles where the strontium carbonate particles were

maybe it could be dissolved in lemon juice ?

stronium citrate is much better absorbed than the carbonate but promotes biofilm (as citrates always do), i intend to try the citrate in lemon juice to see if that reduces the biofilm promotion !

tasmania may be low in strontium as my hair test was low for it, however i don't eat any grains and they are high in strontium !

i think it improves mood and has a definite neural effect which would make sense as strontium is similar to calcium chemically and calcium is important in the brain

strontium carbonate, unfortunately, is best absorbed when the stomach is emptiest, that is, before breakfast.

it's absorption is strongly inhibited by high calcium foods like yogurt and cheese

________________________

strontium intake in pakistan varied from .9 to 5.7 mg daily study

in that study the ratio of the average intakes of calcium to strontium was 141

following the BCD or SCD or atkins diets may leave the body short of strontium as it is much more concentrated in grains than animal products

“in ocean water, strontium is the most abundant trace element, reaching values of up to 8 mg/l. natural water sources, such as rivers, springs, and wells, contain smaller amounts of the element ranging from 0.021 mg/l up to 0.375 mg/l

strontium is a natural constituent of food and beverages. meat, poultry, vegetables, and fruit contain relatively low amounts of the element (range 0.3–5.1 mg/kg), whereas in cereals, grains, and seafood it may be present at concentrations of up to 25 mg/kg”

________________________

a mean of 94.4 microg/L for strontium in japanese mineral water study, that's 1/10th of a milligram which is not enough

most must come through food

1.96-4539 microg/L range for strontium in that same study

so at the highest loadings of stontium in mineral water, thats 4.539 millig/l which is very significant

perhaps that used to be a benefit of some spa waters they used to drink

high strontium

however, the amounts i take, being in the order of 50mg a day are much higher than they would intake from drinking these spa waters

________________________

eileen writes:

well i did sleep really well on the strontium but i do usually anyway so not sure if its done anything (12th december 2009)

slept really well last night maybe ur right about the strontium, bit hard for me to tell if it was deeper sleep than i usually get tho (13th december 2009)

u might b right about the strontium being like lithium im surprisingly calm considering its like it makes for more placid somehow calmer or something

this time and last time i got upset at that issue there was a calmness i couldn't shake off Lol even tho i wanted to be really mad

my comment:

i think lithium and strontium taken as per the compendium have a synergy giving a steely calm

taking strontium strongly reduces the amount of lithium aspartate needed

________________________

strontium update (december 9th 2009)

i have been taking say 15 mg first thing in the morning for a couple of weeks now and my thoughts are as follows

1. taking it on an emptish stomach does work and you can tell when it hits cause it thickens the blood just a tad and i feel that touch migrainy

2. it definitely heals and improves bone and teeth and enamel strength, also desensitizing nerves in teeth and possibly fibromyalgia

3. it is soporific (sleep inducing) to the extent i now may take it just before bed as well as first thing in the morning

its about 20 minutes from when you take the stronium to when the sleepiness cuts in and then the sleepiness lasts for about four to five hours

you may wake early from a rebound effect as the strontium wears off while sleeping if you take too much strontium just before bed, especially if you have circulation insufficiency

if i wake early i usually get up and take a bit more strontium, then go back to bed and sleep

if you have circulation problems you may have to reconsider wether you can take strontium

4. it is a very unresearched mineral and i think essential, it has a heap of unknown benefical effects taken the way i do

5. since one of the main dietary sources is grains, then it will be short on the SCD/BCD diet

6. absorption is strongly inhibited by calcium, especially yogurt

7. long term it really helps the joints and strengthens connective tissue, bones and the teeth

________________________

1/10th of a strontium capsule may be too much, more like say 1/20th and maybe you need to take it about 6 hours before bed and then on bed time, but you have to take it away from calcium high food like dairy and possibly on an emptyish stomach as possible so that the stomach acid can dissolve the strontium carbonate, otherwise its not well absorbed

also strontium is synergistic with vitamin D, wether oral or skin

when the sun is not adequate, i will use my homebuilt uvb lamp or take about 300 iu of oral D, men tolerate a lot less oral vit D than women imo

also adequate folic acid is needed in the diet (especially pasturised fruit) or from folapro

ALSO i expect to wake once in the night, which won't be the case for everybody and i will take say about 1/8th? of a strontium capsule then (strontium first) then at the same time or a bit later a very small amount of vit C, then go back to bed

the thing about strontium is it takes about 20 minutes or longer to hit and only lasts about four hours in the blood stream

strontium is also synergistic with lithium aspartate

i used to have to take melatonin once or twice a week but no longer need too

sleep is so difficult a problem you do need synergies including attention to circadian rhythms, enervating supplements and oils, and red versus white light if you are staying up late

________________________

just thinking a bit about strontium maybe a bit concerned about it calcifying or otherwise stiffening collagen

however my heart has been good since starting to take it, but i might take a tad less i think

just thinking about my lower back pain a bit but there could be other factors

“strontium is incorporated into new bone but does not make its way into older bone, which remains virtually free of strontium even after three years of treatment. findings, based on high resolution X-ray microanalysis, also suggests that strontium does not affect the quality of the bone mineral, but it does affect the quantity. the microarchitecture of bone is improved in those taking strontium ranelate. It appears that the bone mass is increased with a normal degree of mineralization

the best way to think of this is to imagine bone as a tube filled with styrofoam packing. with strontium ranelate, the nature of the packing does not change, but the amount of packing and how it fits together does.

strontium does, in fact, rearrange bone architecture. Bone is made up of two different types of structure, a spongier honeycomb core and a harder outside layer called cortical bone. the bone making up the honeycomb appears as flatter, plate-like mineral in samples taken from patients treated with strontium ranelate, whereas in control samples the bone appears as rod-like structures. the outer cortical bone becomes thicker. The three-dimensional changes in trabecular and cortical bone may improve bone mechanical strength, explaining the decreased risk for fracture in those on strontium ranelate treatment ”

studies

----------------------------------------------------

MAGNESIUM

higher levels of magnesium in the brain are a significant inhibitor of cortical spreading depression

magnesium has a role in supressing amyloid plaques !

it's pity that “magnesium chelate” has unreacted magnesium in

there is no ideal magnesium supplement at this point and bulk magnesium has to be got through food

one of the reasons magnesium is such a difficult mineral to supplement is that the amino acid chelates are significant in terms of biochemical function and the supplements are unbalanced

______________________

if i have a migraine i used to take more of the douglas labs magnesium taurate, but now have switched to taurine only

don't let parts of the crushed tablet stick to the biting surfaces of the back teeth, plaque explodes on magnesium

biofilm generally goes ballistic on inorganic magnesium (though magnesium taurate is organic and somewhat less accessible to biofilm)

i swallow the half of the tablet, with say one muted crush by the teeth so it will go down the throat, followed by a small amount of water, the water is to wash the magnesium off the teeth since if any remains it promotes erosion of the enamel surface by plaque

also i think its important not to take the magnesium taurate too soon after a meal, i take enzymes then (zinc and copper and then b vits - order uncertain), then mag taurate

the cardiovascular research magnesium taurate seems to be not so good, it has significant inorganic arsenic levels of 0.279µg per serving (compared to california's proposition 65 sets the maximum allowable dose level for the inorganic component of arsenic at 0.1µg per day) and also maybe having some unreacted elemental magnesium in!

_________

magnesium supplementation will likely significantly displace manganese, so manganese supplementation as per this page is necessary and would need to be in proportion to the amount of magnesium taken if say above 30mg elemental magnesium equivalent.

interestingly virginia and kentucky can have high levels of manganese in soil and water and supplementation with magnesium taurate works the other way, the magnesium displaces excess manganese

these two states may have a higher susceptibility to brain prion diseases because of the high manganese, kentucky has possibly several instances of people getting 'mad squirrel disease' from a possible prion disease epidemic amongst squirrels about 30 years ago, and eating squirrel brains is a kentucky custom.

lymes, iron, magnesium and manganese are connected

_________

magnesium glycinate lowers blood pressure and seems to be depressing.

the glycine may also interfere with tryptophan uptake in the brain and liver possibly interfering with sleep

not recommending the glycinate at this point, the douglas labs magnesium taurate (cut down for children) is the best tolerated

S. writes: Mg glycinate has too much glycinate for the Mg it gives. It makes me feel weird and my child does not like it- he is only 3 but when he says 'no' to a medicine there usually is a reason. Also he seems to get hyper on it- apparently the glycine can (according to Amy Yasko) heighten either GABA or Glutamate which ever is higher in a particular brain.

________________

“magnesium chelate” (also called “chelated magnesium”) has some degree of unreacted magnesium oxide in, which will be laxative and a biofilm feeder.

magnesium citrate and oxide are inorganic and laxative.

milk of magnesia is possibly a useful constipation remedy, no doubt due to its promotion of malign biofilm and the osmosis that results, very ambiguous

magnesium malate may help with the energy cycle (malate) and mild constipation. the problem with inorganic magnesiums is they are BIOFILM feeders, citrate is particularly bad for this.

the heart seems to be loaded with magnesium taurate so you need to step the dose coming off it like i went down to half then 1/3 from one capsule a day

its mainly sold to help stabilise fluctuating heart beats i think

the malate form is more laxative and fermenting than the other forms and should only be used very occasionally if at all. used this way it may promote the right sort of colon bacteria and yeast, or maybe the overall effect is bad cause it is feeding biofilm construction.

from mead

"Malic acid is mainly found in apples, peaches, pears, etc. [B3]. Some yeasts and bacteria can metabolize it. Malo-lactic fermentation, due to bacteria, turns malic acid into lactic acid (sensory threshold: 400 p.p.m. [B10]). Lactic acid being less acidic than malic acid, the result will taste less acidic. This phenomenon is used to improve the quality of acidic wines.

Citric acid is found in citrus, cherries, etc. It can be metabolized (consumed) by yeast's. It is therefore likely that citric acid added at the beginning of fermentation will have vanished at the end of fermentation."

there is some mild stool softening effect even with chelated magnesiums, mineral forms like oxide and citrate are outright laxative. this will be in part due to invasive biofilms in the gut using inorganic magnesium (and calcium and zinc also) to provide structural support by crosslinking the sugars in the the biofilm matrix, facilitating increased bad gut flora populations.

________________

Blood Flow and Cardiac Disease (paste of a summary of a talk off the australian abc site):

"If we are healthy, five litres of blood per minute flows round our body regulated by a series of oscillators: mostly these are processes that adjust the diameter of the capillaries to optimise the blood flow. Professors Peter McClintock and Aneta Stefanovska are developing software to monitor that process and apply it to the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, such as congestive cardiac failure. "

my comments:

i think the heart trouble is more than the heart, there is nerve damage and the oscillations and opening of the capillaires is not quite right, magensium relaxes the capillaries making it easier.

i think the blood goes out in a pulse through the body, the heart pumps but the pressure is carried though in a wave

------------------------------

MAGNESIUM OIL

i have tried magnesium oil transdermally and didn't like it, it's a biofilm feeder used that way !

sprayed some magnesium oil on last night (13/2/10), though a water based solution it feels slippery like an oil!

that was the “magsorb” brand, 110mg/ml of elemental magnesium as magnesium chloride which is standard loading

i'm not that rapt with it, made me feel a bit strung out, however the next day i felt more energetic

didn't itch, maybe thats because i only applied it once

it does get a bit of magnesium in, just think that the form that gets absorbed doesn't suit the body quite

i think even tho its absorbed by the skin it still feeds internal biofilm because it takes a while to be bound to proteins and the ones it gets bound to are not particularly helpful

i probably get enough magnesium from the pasturised fruit i eat

later

eileen and myself have both tried it with similar effects

it works much more rapidly with permeable skin, like 20 minutes compared to 6 hours ?

so it would be a good test for skin and gut permeability

(the speed with which melatonin is absorbed is another good test)

the worst effect is that it is a definite biofilm feeder as evidenced by candex being very effective for remedying the gut queasyness or cramps the magnesium oil induces

candex is best tipped out of the capsules into a small amount of water, mixed and swallowed

magnesium oil does raise energy and libido and creates an altered mental state that neither of us liked

it's good confirmation of the general compendium stance against most inorganic minerals

its a supplement that has pros and cons and on balance i find that the gut problems make it not worthwhile, except possibly very occasionally

the gut problems will be so severe for some that without candex it may be dangerous to apply

the way magnesium oil has been promoted as cure all by those whose should know better is very deceiving

__________________

there is a basic issue with getting enough of a bulk mineral like magnesium into the body in a non destructive way

__________________

living in the country i had to get my water at one stage from a stream in 20 liter plastic hdpe (recycling no. 2) containers and i sorta “ brewed ” the water with 1.75ml of magnesium oil per liter of water, that is, i put the magnesium oil in the water container, mixed it in and let the bugs in the water convert the magnesium oil into organic forms of magnesium over several weeks and this seems to work quite well though it may be impractical for anyone except a hermit : o )

when needed for use, the water is boiled to sterilize it

that amount of magnesium oil also gives .333 of a gram of chloride per liter which is perhaps a touch on the high side ?

this use of magnesium is to offset the tannins in the stream water inhibiting the absorbtion of other minerals and also give some flocculant/biofilm processing, however, water with some "polishing" , because it has no organic matter in, is not suitable at these high doses because lacking the conversion to organic forms of magnesium, it feeds malign gut microbiome and creates stomach discomfort !

it also has a possible use with mineralizing and making more palatable reverse osmosis water in much smaller doses!

magnesium chloride is the least laxative of the commonly available magnesium mineral forms !

------------------------------

CHROMIUM

GTF = glucose tolerance factor

i take a 200mcg capsule of the jarrow chromium GTF every day by say late afternoon as it is stimulatory

a friend at double my weight takes one capsule twice a day and finds that like me, the effect is difficult to discern, but gives him a more even energy

i do pasturize it by mixing with 55°C water, but most people may not need to do this

alternatively i could take a similar quantity of the polynicotinate form as it doesn't need pasturizing

i weighed a “ source naturals ” “ chromemate ” ie 200µg polynicotinate tablet at 271 milligrams which divided into sixths is 45mg and which comes out to 33µg of polynictotinate per segment which seems to work well and is very low cost

to give you an idea of how tablets are mostly filler and excipients, in this case, the ratio of the bulk tablet to active ingredient is 271 ÷ 0.2 = 1,355

chromium seems to accumulate over several days of highish doses and you notice the feeling of a bit much so you just leave off taking it for a day or cut back on the amount

even the form of chromium common in food (trivalent or Cr^III ) oxidises within cells to a carcinogenic form (primarily Cr^VI thiolates) so you definitely don't want to take more than necessary !

a friend with blood sugar problems tripled her dose of chromium picolinate to lose weight, but after a week of this started to pass out from low blood sugar, it worked a bit well, but i have reservations about the picolinate form

she went back to a more moderate dose and says her doctor said she (the doctor) had never seen blood sugar levels improve back to normal the way that happened with this friend

chromium picolinate does work and is readily available, however i do think the polynicotinate and pasturized yeast forms offer more and are less DNA damaging !

an interesting study on how chromium helps maintain lean body mass

taken straight from the capsule, the chromium yeast/gtf can be a biofilm feeder, which is why i am now pasturizing the chromium yeast to 59 to 74C ! 61C ideal?

it's important to keep the capsules dry to reduce their biofilmic potential, i keep them in an airtight bottle with refreshed dessicants so the killed chromium yeast stays dry and not soggy !

this pasturization is to kill any biofilm that may have grown up in the fertile killed yeast medium, the manufacturers do sterilize it when they make it, but it's still a very nutritious substrate for biofilm !

chromium polynicotinate/chromemate is used to make the GTF in the body, so it has a delayed action of quarter to half an hour, its almost as good or equal to the pasturized yeast GTF and certainly easier to use travelling !

there's a bit of finesse as to when you take the gtf form, in a high sugar fruit meal it really helps keep the blood sugar pulse nipped !

i really am suspicious the jarrow's chromium GTF has a problem , maybe unreacted (inorganic) chromium in from trying to get too much chromium in the yeast to make the capsule size smaller ?

an interesting web comment from a user of killed yeast chromium gtf

“ it works but... too well. it's a good product but sends my blood sugar down to hypoglycemic levels if i take it every day. i would get super hungry right after i ate. now i take it every other day and it is great ”

________________________

chromium really does help with hyper and hypoglycemia and can normalize blood sugar for prediabetics and help prevent diabetic induced alzheimers !

it is also useful for glaucoma which follows from its utility in alzheimers and diabetes since new research is showing that glaucoma is really a whole brain and especially the optic nerve neurodegenerative condition !

study showing that “ brain insulin resistance contributes to cognitive decline in alzheimer's disease ”

chromium is significant in keeping a clear mind into old age !

the risk of developing alzheimer's disease is increased by 50 percent in people with diabetes !

i have found the solaray chromium gtf terrific for blood sugar, somedays i eat nothing but fat , but if i take enough chromium i get enough sugar converted to get by

chromium's fat burning properties may possibly extend to removing fat from the pancreas

also the chromium really helps to keep blood sugar level after a huge meals of pasturized fruit which i sometimes/often have

neither eileen or myself liked the bluebonnet GTF chromium, something not right with it, maybe its bleached and has lost something because of it?

they feed yeast a high chromium diet and them kill them to make this supplement, however even killed yeast can feed stomach biofilm a bit so i have an open mind about alternatives for this form of chromium, however to date the solaray chromium gtf has come out well ahead

the killed yeast chromium soaks up moisture and ferments so you need system of dry dessicants with a good sealing bottle or it will get a bitter taste (unlike the fresh which is almost sweet), tho on balance it keeps its potency quite well

this fermenting gtf chromium seems to be the same in effect as the dry unfermented , but may be a biofilm seeder

___________________

chocolate provides chromium, so a craving for chocolate may in part be a need for chromium

i don't like doing anything by force and make changes as they come naturally

if you needing the chromium in chocolate, then its better to supplement chromium and hopefully the craving for chocolate should reduce

actually chocolate like a lot of other things was never really a goer for me because of the migraines it induced, i can remember working that out as quite a young child at the beach

alfa/myco toxins can be a problem with chocolate

the world's oldest documented person, jeanne calment ate 1 kg of dark chocolate a week, smoked two cigarettes a day for 100 years and drank port wine !

she used olive oil liberally on food and also put it on her skin !

there are various studies showing a very positive effect of chromium on lengthening lifespan !

interestingly despite living to 122, she left no descendents !

nikolai zak is of the view by his statistical anaylsis that from 1989, her personal likelihood of living until 1997 was less than 0.5% and on closer inspection, that in fact her daugher yvonne had switched identities with her mother on the mother’s death

perhaps not so oddly, the second longest living woman, sarah deremer knauss was “ a known chocoholic, she had a daily dose of chocolate right up until her death ”

_________________

the poet charles bukowski has puzzled me

how he could write such good poetry and survive as long as he did and be alcoholic from quite a young age

i do think los angeles at that stage had the right climate, warm, dry and not too much smog

but he seems to have mainly drunk beer and wine which have some chromium in and i think there must have been some offsetting nutrition from them, (and antioxidants in the wine)

he also sunbathed a bit

_________________

low chromium can cause pica study

_________________

chromium inhibits the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) which converts angiotensin I to the potent vasoconstrictor angiotensin II

inhibition of ACE leads to low body fat, faster sugar processing/lower insulin resistance, and lower blood pressure

the angiotensin pathway is interesting because it affects both blood sugar/sugar metabolism and the cardiovascular system which matches the association of diabetes with cardiovascular disease

the problem of high blood sugar and a high sugar diet generally is that the sugar metabolism is very oxidising and generating of free radicals, increased longevity from calorie restriction may in fact be due to a downregulation of the sugar metabolism

_______________

i have tried the source naturals chromemate which is polynicotinate, but, while it's less biofilm feeding than the unpasturized solaray GTF yeast chromium, it's definitely missing something compared to the solaray so i am sticking with the solaray and pasturizing it ! (5th may 2008)

niacin is a chromium co-factor in reducing insulin resistance (polynicotinate = niacin bound gtf chromium)

might need to be kept away from taking manganese if they inhibit the absorption of one another, however i take them close together

you can definitely take too much, makes me feel sort of 'hard' and a bit in overdrive.

it's synergistic with copper for improving sugar metabolism, increased visual acuity is a sign here as with blood sugar shortages the lens changes shape.

i also think some vanadium in the diet is necessary for glucose metabolism

vanadium is in shellfish, it accumulates in scallops, oysters and mussels

bug bites with a diabetic like slowness to heal are a sign of impaired glucose metabolism, maybe in combination with staph which is often carried at the end of the nose where the hairs are (picking! then scratching the bug bite which gets infected with it)

obesity is associated with insulin resistance, the first step toward type 2 diabetes

chromium in synergy with the other compendium minerals and povidine iodine will assist with wound healing like slow to heal bug bites from impaired glucose metabolism

it helps with blood sugar issues by lowering insulin resistance

chromium picolinate or any mineral picolinate chelate may not be not advised, both the chromium and the picolinate ligand damage dna and together it's an amplified effect

i think if you can't get a satisfactory chromium yeast it is permissible to try chromium picolinate which is effective for blood sugar control and weight loss

i haven't tried the chromium picolinate, but have a friend (female) who has very good results taking it (after going back on it when a naturopath took her off the picolinate and put her on chromium chloride which didn't really work)

feedback on negative side effects of chromium picolinate would be helpful thanx (ed. illys said she didn't like it and it fed biofilm !)

chromium seems to be a bit pro viral, maybe because viruses and bacteria seem to be able to utilise the better blood sugar levels it promotes

“ My NT daughter gets them every year at this time. Halloween candy (even when limited). That extra sugar equals a cold sore for her every year. She's learning... ”

---------------

the basic response of the body to high fat induced insulin resistance is to increase pancreas beta cell mass, but with vaccine impaired damage and/or insuffcient trace minerals its not going to happen sufficiently

also coming from the other side chromium is needed to reduce cell insulin resistance, biofilm scd is a high fat diet and needs the support of chromium

it fits with the notion of the paleo diet being a high nutrient diet and defines a high fat/offal/trace mineral space that the body seems to be able to function under with various adpatations in the genes

decent trace mineral supplements were not available to elaine gottshcall so you can see why she veered towards fruit's to provide adequate blood sugar

---------------

an enzymesandautism post on chromium (3/5/04) titled 'chromium magnesium balance point'

chromium gtf i think wants to be taken to the point you need less magnesium since chromium faciliates the movement of magnesium into cells and then backed off i think.

i usually (used to! ed.) take about 50mcg very three days or so which gives me a hair test level just a bit higher than normal but going up to 50 mcg a day for a week or so i need about half the magnesium i usually do but i am feeling the amount of chromium is just a bit much and will back off to 50 mcg every two days.

chromium is quite oxidising and too much can damage genes but too little means you waste magnesium into urine, have insulin resistance and develop arterial plaques.

from an enzymes and autism post (9th june 04) titled 'visual perception'

the shape and flexibility of the eye lens and eye health in general are very related to blood sugar problems, i know my eye lens reversed a lot of aging effect and became more flexible after supplementing chromium !

another useful thing is eye exercises, moving them around to the full extent and also changing focus !

chromium particularly helps with reversing blood sugar problems causing damage in the eye !

the blackmores dunaliella betacarotene also helps with lens clarity and shape

if your son is getting eye strain i wouldn't bother forcing him to read, wait until you get the blood sugar and other issues (intestinal yeast!?) right enough so that is less of an issue

---------------

chromium gtf may promote t4 to t3 conversion

manganese and chromium seem to give quite an energy boost and they look like being both thyroid promoters

they may have a beneficial synergy (taken well apart on the same day, 12 hours?)

chromium by reducing insulin resistance encourages t4 to t3 conversion

a dr. ray peat quote

“ The amount of glucose in liver cells regulates the enzyme that converts T4 to T3. This means that hypoglycemia or diabetes (in which glucose doesn't enter cells efficiently) will cause hypothyroidism, when T4 can't be converted into T3. When a person is fasting, at first the liver's glycogen stores will provide glucose to maintain T3 production. When the glycogen is depleted, the body resorts to the dissolution of tissue to provide energy. The mobilized fatty acids interfere with the use of glucose, and certain amino acids suppress the thyroid gland. Eating carbohydrate (especially fruits) can allow the liver to resume its production of T3. ”

-----------------------

Department of Animal Nutrition, Veterinary Faculty, University of Firat, Elazig, Turkey.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of chromium (chromium picolinate, CrPic) supplementation at various levels (0, 200, 400, 800, or 1200 microg/kg of diet) on performance, carcass characteristics, and some serum metabolites of broiler chickens (Ross)

One hundred fifty old male broilers were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups, 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The birds were fed either a control diet or the control diet supplemented with either 200, 400, 800, or 1200 microg Cr/kg of diet.

Increased supplemental chromium resulted in an increase in body weight (p = 0.01, linear), feed intake (p < or = 0.05, linear), and carcass characteristics (p < or = 0.05, linear) and improved feed efficiency (p = 0.01, linear).

Increased supplemental chromium decreased serum corticosterone concentration (p = 0.01, linear), whereas it increased serum insulin and T3 and T4 concentrations (p = 0.01). Serum glucose and cholesterol concentrations decreased (p = 0.01), whereas protein concentrations increased linearly (p = 0.001) with higher dietary chromium supplementation.

my comment:

so blood sugar and thyroid tie together, low blood sugar = low t3

so you get adrenaline to compensate for impaired brain blood sugar with low thyroid which sorta explains hyper yet hypothyroid

-----------------------------

steve irwin's death

i think steve irwin had a number of issues that led to a judgement error that he would not have made in younger years

he violated rule number one, don't get in a animal or fishes strike zone, he was always very clever at keeping out of the dynamic strike zone while appearing to be in danger

though i did see him on one video quickly look up a snake species book when bit by an unknown snake in cape york once ;o)

basically he was adhd and had blood sugar issues that was compensated for by high adrenaline

so on the one hand he had poor t4 to t3 conversion from a lack of glucose in liver cells (see ray peat interview above)

on the other hand he must have been sweating out all his iodine up in port douglas, no way daily iodine in salt intake would be adequate

he would have been moving in treacle when he was close to that bull ray

MOLYBDENUM

i am very occasionally taking half (75mcg) a solgar chelated molybdenum tablet (150mcg), and this seems ok, its possibly just plain glycinate and not the bis-glycinate, which may suit some better than me but i find the bis-glycinate marginally better for phenol processing which i need, being prone to migraines.

the solgar chelated molybdenum does contain a small amount of casein which may be an issue with leaky guts

i was taking 1/4 (62mcg) or 1/3 (83mcg) of a tablet every two to five days of the douglas labs/amni molybdenum which is a bis-glycinate chelate, but ran out and am finishing off a solgar chelated molybdenum bottle

it used to be daily and since getting my iron levels down i seem to need it less !

it is bis-glycinate from the manufacturer's data sheet even though it says chelate on the bottle

on average this is about 70µg (approximately 1.4µg per kg of body weight) of molybdenum a day and i am not comfortable taking more as excess molybdenum is neurotoxic

molybdenum is biofilm promoting so you need to keep the bottle regularly updated with a dry dessicant so the tablets are always dry

the douglas labs has no dairy but does have silica which i am not keen on, whereas the solgar has no silica

silicon and molybdenum apparently have a deprecating effect on each other's tissue levels !

the douglas labs form appears to be better absorbed or more potent on a weight basis, but i think which suits best may depend a bit on the person.

the kirkman labs chelated molybdenum may also be ok (not a bis-glycinate i think), but i think i did prefer the solgar when i was still taking these non bis-glycinate forms.

the carlson moly-B is ruined by the addition of a rice flour filler which is indigestible and biofilm promoting !

laura writes : “ i've tried the carlson vit D drops 2000 iu/drop and didn't like it. really the only carlson's product i've used that i like is their vit C gems ”

if i have been eating pineapple or stewed apple or a lot of grapes which seem to stress my phenol or sulphite to sulphate processing and make me feel migrainy i will take more molybdenum, and also the houstonni no fenol enzyme which also helps.

molybdenum is an essential mineral.

molybdenum availablity seems to be a rate limiting step in the sulphite to sulphate pathway so if you increase molybdenum you increase the conversion of sulphites to sulphates, and is a better way to go than epsom salt baths to improve sulphates

i'm not keen on epsom salt baths, they encourage fungi like tinea and seem to have a variable effect on body biochemistry, sometimes not good.

molybdenum also chelates copper so i think it might work the other way and one of the problems with high copper might be low molybdenum. looking at some hair tests there appears to be an inverse relation between copper and molybdenum, if copper is high molybdenum is low and vice versa so molybdenum is an important modulator of copper levels.

molybdenum helps with phenol processing and with detoxing yeast/biofilm metabolic waste.

a rotten egg smell from urine is symptomatic of extreme yeast/biofilm metabolic toxins

i have tried the allergy research group liquid molybdenum (ammonium molybdate) which is an inorganic mineral and it feeds intestinal bacteria and yeast causing fermentation and is not ok. maybe it helps boost their processing of their own waste products or something.

i generally take molybdenum with selenium no sooner than about 3/4 of an hour after a meal, molybdenum does promote bacteria i think and it may be benefical to not take it to close to a meal.

molybdenum only works for headaches to a point, in my experience its usually a virus that's at the bottom of a headache, messes liver function

molybdenum especially in synergy with zinc is such a strong chelator of copper that you should read 'copper and zinc' in the compendium index. high doses of molybdenum are given as a 'poor man's chemotherapy' to bring down copper levels to the point that cancerous cells can no longer divide.

take the molybdenum away from the copper, like not within half an hour.

__________________

a pecan bread thread (3 jul 04)

The Solgar molybdenum tablets have casein in the ingredients. We are still casein free right now. What about the WaterOz molybdenum from Desert Rain nutrition? Would that be okay? It is a liquid. (abemom)

my reply:

i did try the ammonium molybate from allergy research but it was a definite yeast and bacteria feeder so i can only assume that yeast and bacteria like their sulphites converted to sulphates as well.

i am definitely in favour of a chelated molybdenum, kirkmans do an ok/good molybdenum without casein, but i did find i preferred solgar to the kirkmans. i am going to look at the carlson lab 500 mcg molybdenum which is scd legal with the idea it could be cut down and so less filler, but have yet to get around to that.

(note: personally i am not concerned about casein, but the solgar chelated molybdenum has it in, and the kirkmans and douglas labs chelated molybdenums don't)

i really am against liquid supplements except the mycel vitamin A

__________________

molybdenum good for strengthening tooth enamel

i occasionally drink freshly squeezed lemon juice, either pasturized, or mixed into water of a pasturizing temperature which is important for oldish lemons as they get yeasty, but it is erosive of the enamel on my back teeth biting surfaces and molybdenum as above and vitamin k2 are a great help with this

BORON

for a while, once a week, i took a solaray tetra boron tablet (3mg).

i have stopped taking the boron because the increased fruits i eat on the bcd provide enough boron i think.

boron seems to retain magnesium and promote estrogen which may be of interest for women in menopause but too much is a problem as well.

(9 june 2004) i have pretty much discontinued boron, suspect it is quite high in fruits and apples and i am eating a lot of these.

however a woman i know approaching menopause finds boron useful for estrogen promotion, though one tablet a day seemed to cause a knee twinge

even 1/4 of a tablet (.75mg tetra boron) once very three days was too much? affects the brain (eileen)

never take on an empty stomach, it is a bit poisonous and without the buffering of food will cause discomfort

it is used as a rat poison and pesticide so be careful

boron potentiates the action of vitamin D on the cell wall, thus moderating osteoarthritis

GERMANIUM

organic germanium is of assistance with viruses, and hopefully displaces lead and is a useful vasodilator and possibly blood oxygenator

"Although synthetic carboxyethyl germanium sesquioxide is a well known compound, its molecular structure has been shown to be dependent on the synthetic method employed. Uses of germanium in the human diet include preventing the overproliferation of cells, stimulating the production of interferon, and inducing contrasuppressor T cells."

i know its not cheap, but a bottle (30 x 150mg caps) lasts a long time.

if you have the flu then vitamins A, K2 and germanium for one or two days is hugely effective, in fact that combination and is a very effective preventative anti-viral !

the 150mg of carboxyethyl germanium sesquioxide translates to about 64mg of elemental germanium by my calculation, which is a fair wack imo, don't overdo it.

i take a jarrow formula's 150mg germanium sesquioxide capsule once every three or four or five days

maybe one on the day if i have a virus since it is an immune stimulant, but not for several successive days in a row

it seems to be retained well by the body so more frequent divided doses don't seem necessary

the nutricology germanium is a bit flat and not as effective

the better made germanium sesquioxide definitely costs more, the molecular structure needs to be right and the product free of germanium dioxide and metallic germanium

i may take a capsule of germanium sesquioxide a bit before retinyl acetate/mycel A for a virus

symptoms of too much germanium may be dizziness or a feeling like too much oxygen in the brain or body, and higher doses are damaging to the kidneys

germanium may displace lead from cells especially mitochondria, its in the same column as lead in the periodic table.

"Germanium is said to induce production of gamma-interferon - a molecule produced by the immune system that increases the body's ability to fight infection and malignancy..... the herpes viruses are particularly sensitive to interferon"

________________

"While the precise mechanism underlying this patient's response to germanium sesquioxide is not known, this compound has been reported to enhance immunity through stimulation of T cells, natural killer cells, lymphokines, and macrophage activity"

from

"Complete Remission of Pulmonary Spindle Cell Carcinoma After Treatment With Oral Germanium Sesquioxide"

http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/full/117/2/591

"While on a cruise 6 weeks later, the patient met a man who claimed that daily self-medication with germanium had cured him of oat cell carcinoma of the lung that was diagnosed 15 years earlier. The patient started daily self-medication with the same regimen (bis-betacarboxyethygermanium sesquioxide, 7.2 g qd, followed by a taper of the drug). Within a few days of beginning therapy, she felt her lungs "opening up" and required less supplemental oxygen. A chest radiograph 3 months later revealed 60% clearing of the left lung, and thoracic CT scans at 5 and 7 months showed near complete disappearance of the thoracic mass . At the time of this report, > 4 years after initial diagnosis, the patient continues to show no evidence of recurrent disease and has also continued to take low-dose germanium sesquioxide. The patient denies any significant side effects from her treatment. "

_____________

i do think that germanium is intsrumental in helping with lead

germanium may help retain bone mass and offset the effects of high retinyl acetate intake

"Effect of organic germanium compound (Ge-132) on experimental osteoporosis in rats."

Fujii A, Kuboyama N, Yamane J, Nakao S, Furukawa Y. Department of Pharmacology, Nihon University School of Dentistry, Chiba, Japan.

1. The therapeutic effect of organic germanium compound, 2-carboxyethylgermaniumsesquioxide (Ge-132), for experimental osteoporosis was studied using ovariectomized rats maintained on a low calcium containing diet.

2. Serum calcitonin (sCT) level was decreased and serum parathyroid hormone (sPTH) level was increased by ovariectomy and the decrement and increment rates, respectively, were reduced by administration of Ge-132. Thus, the sCT/sPTH ratio was greater in the groups given Ge-132, indicating that the resorption was somehow inhibited by Ge-132.

3. The transverse strength of femur bone was significantly enhanced by Ge-132.

4. A trend was found in the group given Ge-132 for a larger femur cortical bone index. 5. The relative femur bone wet weight was greater in the group given Ge-132. 6. These results indicate that Ge-132 prevents decreased bone strength, and affects the femur cortical bone index, and bone mineral mass caused by osteoporosis.

MANGANESE

lymes, iron, magnesium and manganese are connected

manganese in a low but optimal dose window has a strong anti-cancer effect

“ airborne manganese was associated at the county level with an 14 percent decrease in total cancer deaths, a 43 percent decrease in breast cancer deaths and a 22 percent decrease in lung cancer deaths.

additionally, there was up to a 28 percent increase in county-level colon cancer deaths and a 26 percent increase in lung cancer deaths at the county level related to the higher elevation of manganese in groundwater as opposed to air ”

it's a bit hard to work out what an average daily intake is, and presumably very variable depdendent on the amount of manganese in the air, groundwater, and soil, but 2-3mg ?

according to wikipedia “ the human body contains about 12 mg of manganese, which is stored mainly in the bones and also in the liver and kidneys ”

an overview of manganese

the solaray manganese capsules are 50mg of whole rice concentrate chelate which is quite a bit, so you are defintely into divided doses ! !

the whole rice concentrate is not scd/bcd legal, but neither eileen or i have ever had any trouble with it

if you have gastric upset from it, maybe you will have to get another version

there is a possibility that with these low amounts of supplementation (and you don't live in an area of high soil manganese) that it can improve dopamine levels !

by improving dopamine and no doubt other things, manganese helps with depression ( also vitamin K and copper ! ) and ADHD !

i stopped taking it for a while (august 2013)

i used to take 1/4 of a capsule (12.5mg) about once every three or four days (about 4 - 3mg daily)

then i upped it to 1/4 daily (12.5mg daily) for several months which impaired thyroid function?, but now i am pretty much continuing with this to help with depression and dopamine levels which in combination with vitamin K and copper seems to work very well !

july 2015, i have dropped manganese again except for taking occasionally !

eileen takes 1/10th (5mg) to 1/12th (4 mg) of a capsule daily

the capsule needs splitting into two capsules so you have empty space in the cap

i am discovering that manganese is very potent interferer of iodine in the thyroid, a small amount of manganese daily may be beneficial to taking a bit more iodine without going hyper

too much makes for hypothyroid however

this is possibly through manganese superoxide dismutase neutralising the hydrogen peroxide (a free radical) in the thyroid, hence inhibiting the organification of iodine

mice on a high manganese diet suffered an enhanced virulence of staphylococcus aureus in the heart since the bateria is able to use the bioavailable manganese to detoxify reactive oxygen species and protect against their being killed by neutrophils

manganese also promotes dopamine

" Dopamine is also a known inhibitory modulator of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) secretion. The involvement of dopamine and dopaminergic receptors in neurodevelopment, as well as TSH modulation, led us to hypothesize that excessive manganese exposure may lead to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes due to the disruption of thyroid homeostasis via the loss of dopaminergic control of TSH regulation of thyroid hormones "

its interesting, you can feel a bit of a lift when you take manganese which would be the dopamine induction i assume

i am feeling more energetic having cut my manganese intake back

between no fenol, manganese, iodine and lithium you can modulate the dopamine - thyroid hormone axis quite a bit

higher manganese levels seem to increase the need for b-12/cobalt in my observation

low iron allows manganese accumulation in the brain study

high iron biases manganese in the brain from intra-cellular to extra-cellular?

between GABA and the thyroid the effect of manganese looks complex

manganese promotes glutamate at the expense of gaba study

___________________

“ manganese may directly or indirectly affect thyroid function by injuring the thyroid gland or dysregulating dopaminergic modulation of thyroid hormone synthesis ”

___________________

“ Manganese treatment produced no change in thyroid T4 and T3 levels but induced a significant decrease in serum T4, T3 and TSH levels. This decrease can be interpreted as the result of a pituitary alteration which appears to be related to the high accumulation of manganese in the pituitary gland ”

___________________

it's important to have adequate magnesium as manganese displaces magnesium in glutamine synthetase and other enzymes.

manganese, copper and oxygen are important for mitochondrial function, especially oxygen as the anerobic atp/mitochondrial pathway is 20? times less efficent than the aerobic.

i like the solaray manganese because it has a special amino acid profile from chelating to the amino acids in brown rice which is better than soy which is normally used in supplements for amino acids in the broad sprectum amino acid chelates

however the filler used in the solaray manganese is “a whole rice concentrate” whatever that means and may create scd issues though i find it ok.

“manganese bacteria” is a known problem with manganese feeding biofilm in water pipes

so i would assume that manganese can feed gut biofilm, which, at the same time as killing viruses could lead to yeast and some bacteria getting away

manganese has a strong anti-retroviral effect through displacing magnesium atoms on reverse transcriptase and lowering this enzymes activity, so strong, it's a potential HIV treatment

the lymes bacteria are dependent on manganese which may fill in for functions that iron does since they don't need iron, hence excessive manganese supplementation would be problematic if u have lymes and indeed any manganese supplementation at all !

since manganese and magnesium are somewhat antagonistic, magnesium may have therapeutic value for lymes

lymes not needing iron may account for its virulence, since the normal fever mechansims of reducing the availablity of iron would not be effective against it

supplementing manganese may be a good if unpleasant diagnostic for lymes

streptococcus pneumoniae

manganese is an important cofactor with zinc. conversely magnesium displaces manganese so mangnese supplementation may be needed if taking magnesium. copper increases the requirement for manganese as well.

if iron is low, manganese will exacerbate that, for example, increasing a heart problem. raising iron levels by getting haem iron from liver and red meat is an easy way to improve the oxygen supply to the heart. really liver is needed and it is hugely dense in iron compared to muscle meat, though you do need to be careful where the liver comes from. commercial chicken in the usa is fed arsenic for parasite comtrol so i would imagine commerical chicken livers are damgerously high in arsenic.

manganese may not be that prevalent in the diet though i suspect that scallops have large amounts in. manganese is an important thyroid mineral, and too much manganese can make for an overactive thyroid. if you take too much then just stop taking it and thyroid activity will drop back over several days.

zinc, manganese, iodine, selenium and lithium seem to be the main thyroid minerals and i can modulate thyroidal activity from over to under by taking or dropping off these minerals, esp manganese iodine and lithium --- the lithium drops thyroid activity while the manganese and iodine increase it.

manganese goes to making a manganese based anti-oxidant enzyme in the brain

manganese is anti-viral, maybe in part by thyroid hormone promotion

________

if you live in an area with a manganese mine in the vicinity, there is likely a high level of manganese in well and ground water, and if you are drinking that then you will need to supplement magnesium and probably will have to have it removed from house water

also manganese is likely to be high in the soil and food grown in it may also have high manganese levels.

high manganese concentrations are also common in coal mine drainage water

groote eylandt, an island off northern australia has major manganese issues in its population from the high manganese in its soil and the mine there.

kentucky and virginia have high manganese levels which may have been responsible for an out break of 'mad squirrel disease' about 30 (1976ish?) years ago in kentucky, high manganese levels make for much greater susceptibility to prion diseases

the ferrosol/krasnozem red soils on the nw coast of tasmania are high in manganese and interfere with the availability of cobalt to plants and also needs compensatory iodine

manganese is well absorbed in the inorganic form through the skin and orally

__________________

manganese displaces copper in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD).

“ We found a decrease of up to 50% of copper and an increase in manganese of approximately 10-fold in the brain tissues from sCJD subjects ”

_____________________

see scd q&a for more comments on manganese.

IRON

ferrous salts are reactive and an oxidative burden

the natural haem iron in meat and liver is naturally passivated and the iron in liver has the additional advantage of being ferritin !

if you eat liver, it should be from a grass fed animal, as the liver accumulates organic toxins and pesticides, and feedlot cattle are exposed to various sources of toxins

another issue with cattle fed milled feed, is that the ethoxyquin preservative used with vitamin A put in feeds is very neurotoxic and accumulates in the liver.

if chickens are fed arsenic then their livers will accumulate that as well. arsenic is very underated as a toxic heavy metal. the flesh may be ok.

94% of the iron in an egg is in the yolk

supposedly eggs contain iron absorption inhibitors, however i do feel on balance that eggs, especially duck eggs are a significant source of iron !

i need lower iron and am looking to deplete it (which long term blood donation does effectively) but some women may have low iron and need more high haem foods, mineral supplementation is the way less preferred option

conversely, eating large quanities of onions (which are haemolytic) following blood donation can, imo, drop ferritin levels significantly, very useful for those wanting to reduce iron levels !

consistent fatigue a fortnight after donating is a sign of low ferrtin imo !

i have noticed that since eating less meat and donating blood that i am way less affected by magnetic fields from power drills, magnetos and the like !

i am less affected by cold and flu type viruses and feel i have quite a bit less oxidative stress generally with a Hb (hemoglobin) of 136 g/l (lower end of normal for males) and actually 130-135 g/l sits well with me, 134 may be a good balance point, enough energy without too much oxidative stress/migrainey, 132 is pretty well free of migraine but a bit fatiguey !

i am not sure what the bottom limit to iron long term is as per this study and article, and vegetarians seem to have a higher rate of parkinson's disease !

“ iron is a crucial cofactor of tyrosine hydroxylase, which plays a pivotal role in the synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters, and is involved in dopaminergic neurodevelopment. furthermore, low iron levels may decrease neuronal iron storage in the form of ferritin…a reduction in ferritin could decrease neuronal iron utilization by decreasing the pool of iron available for neuronal enzymes ”

there may be a difference in the Hb reading depending on the hand it is taken from, like on my 11th donation on the 13/3/13, it was 134 from my left hand middle finger and 136 from my right hand middle finger !

that may be because i am right handed!

that was up from 130 from my previous donation and i had been deliberately eating more meat and liver : o)

my original level of 145g/l (14.5 g/dl) was too high for me !

the australian red cross donation Hb range for men is 130 - 185 and 120 - 165 for women !

i'd be dead at 185 !

it pays to record your Hb each time you donate to try and infer your ferritin levels and watch for extended fatigue over several weeks after donating because this is a major issue with long term donors !

ed. check out the video in the above study link, makes it very understandable though i don't agree with the iron gluconate supplement they use !

hematopoietic stem cell exhaustion is another major issue for long term and too frequent donors

insufficient vitamin A means awakened hematopoietic reservior stem cells fail to return to the reservior, thus depeleting it !

small changes in Hb reflect large changes in serum ferritin as per tables 1, 2 and 3 in this iranian study !

in table 2 an Hb of 140.7 for first time donors corresponded to serum ferritin of 59.23

for those donating 21 times or more the average Hb was 137.3 and a serum ferritin of 36, which is low, i don't think that Hb only tests are adequate, especially for women and if you donate regularly, a ferritin blood test by a doctor will occasionally be necessary

i recently had a ferritin test and i was very surprised to see my ferritin levels at the low end of the range, despite me eating a lot of meat and only donating once in the past year

i feel its dishonest of the blood donation organisations not to require at least bi-annual ferritin tests for women

ferritin levels are inversely proportional to the number of donations per year

too much iron ( and zinc ? ) are implicated in alzheimer's w_k post [ I II ]

high amounts of retinal iron cause age-related macular degeneration [ I II ]

having done 11 consecutive donations (20/3/13) i am sure my vision is clearer (very clear!) and the lens more flexible and better able to adjust, though my chromium supplementation is a big help with this !

iron is also implicated in cataracts, corneal diseases and glaucoma as a general contributing oxidative stress to disease induction!

after enough blood donations (7) to draw down retinal iron, i stopped seeing a full visual field pattern of thick black wavy lines when i woke up sometimes

interestingly some people will be helped with sleep by consistently donating blood if their iron is too high as high ferritin promotes an enzyme that catabolizes folic acid so causing a rise in homocysteine

high iron levels in the liver degraded serum vitamin d levels and there was also an inverse relationship with body iron stores!

so people who need high levels of vitamin D supplementation could possibly have high iron levels in the liver?

i think the science is showing more and more that the supposedly discredited old fashioned blood letting is in fact a valid medical strategy since iron excess or sequestration seems to be such a ubiquitous problem, implicated in MS and diabetes and no doubt other diseases!

i now (10/4/15) eat a lot of pressure cooked onion which is hemolytic and i think reduces iron without having to donate blood, well that and some sun/uv on the skin which also reduces iron stores !

an interesting article ( study - “ divalent metal transporter dmt1 regulates iron-mediated ros and pancreatic cell fate in response to cytokines ” ) explaining why biofilm (pro-inflammatory) and high iron can cause diabetes

“ the inflammatory signal substances created around the beta cells in both type-1 and type-2 diabetes accelerate the activity of the iron transporter.

the evolutionary explanation of why the highly specialised beta cells are influenced by the inflammatory signal substances and contain the potentially dangerous iron transport proteins is presumably that the short-term increase in the amount of oxygen radicals is critical to the fine-tuning of insulin production during bouts of fever and stress. however, nature had not foreseen the long-term local production of signal substances around the beta cells, which we see in type-1 and type-2 diabetes ”

presumably, since vitamin D is anti-inflammatory and high iron depletes vitamin D in the liver then you get a double whammy effect on the induction of diabetes with this ! : o )

a study showing that lower iron really improves insulin sensitivity and gives a concomitant beneficial decreased insulin secretion ! : o)

____________

reducing body iron stores is a significant help for migraine !

____________

an interesting case of hemochromatosis inducting virulence in an attentuated form of the plague bacterium !

unfortunately europeans are descended from people who survived the bubonic plague/ black death/ justinian plague and there is an iron sequestering genetic mutation that was passed on that greatly favoured survival but but creates problems with too much stored iron which is why blood letting used to be such a prominent remedy in europe !

“ [..plague related changes ..] included genes involved in inflammation, and one associated with susceptibility to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis [..also..] genes coding for toll-like receptors, proteins which latch on to harmful bacteria in the body and launch a defensive response [..] the side effect seems to be that the europeans have a more proinflammatory immune system than those who have never experienced black death ”

“ the plague of justinian and the black death, each responsible for killing as many as half the people in europe — were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for the bubonic plague ”

“sharon moalem, an evolutionary biologist and author of “survival of the sickest,” posited that the disorder shifts iron from certain white blood cells, where it is typically sought by the plague bacterium.

people of european descent are twice as likely as the rest of the population to have hemochromatosis, according to previous studies. that’s because people with the condition were more likely to survive epidemics of the bubonic plague that killed millions of people in medieval europe and pass the hereditary condition to their descendants, according to moalem.”

there is an interesting parallel with our immune response to malaria, again where iron sequestered in organs is an instrumental response to the parasite, but people with a higher expression of H-ferritin have reduced tissue damage !

salmonella and iron !

a 40 million year battle in primates between transferrin (which sequesters iron away from pathogenic bacteria) and TbpA (transferrin binding protein) which is produced by bacteria to garner iron from transferrin !

____________

a blood donation of about 470ml contains about 225mg of iron which against a total body amount of about 3.5 grams is about 6% and is a useful reduction of iron burden

another advantage of blood donating is exercising mutagenic quiescent stem blood cells so they are exposed to the immune system study

the exposure to the immune system of activated mutated quiescent stem blood cells that are very rapdily dividing to the immune system could lead to their killing imo

for people with overactive blood production this is of huge benefit, but for some others a high level of long term blood donation may be problematic ! (ed. study showing a 30% increase in heart attacks for men giving 30 donations or more !)

on the other hand this study shows cardiovascular benefit for frequent donors over two and ten years

table 2 in the above study sure does show how frequent donation does tank ferritin down ! (17 ng/ml for frequent donors compared to 52 ng/ml for infrequent donors)

more research needs to be done on this and tests done that can indicate any increase in risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease !

serum ferritin and transferrin saturation tests (also the tests for haemochromatosis) for regular donors would be a good start !

limited (six monthly ?) donation lowers cardiovascular and diabetes risk

really, i think everybody except women who could become pregnant within three months after donation and anemics are advised to donate at least once every two years !

beyond limited donation, i think your Hb and ferritin levels, amount of iron in your diet and propensity to overabsorb and sequester iron have to be factored in

all the advantage is in whole blood donation and not platelet or plasma donation

plasma donation doubles the chance of non-hogkins lymphoma !

“ the risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma was higher among frequent plasma donors
( > 25 vs 0 donations, odds ratio = 2.14 ) ”

there may be some people with difficult hematopoiesic tendencies that will benefit from platelet or plasma donation !

however , my opinion is that apheresis is not a safe procedure (ed. pdf by dr. hubert schrezenmeier)

also by this logic, double red cell donations (erythrocytapheresis) where the plasma and platelets are returned into the circulation is not safe either, and actually the double RBC loss itself is problematic !

its actually an apheresis which has can have issues from the added citrate, plasticizers from the tubing and cell damage from the mechanics

we are evolutionarily designed to lose whole blood safely and that is all !

_________________

i think the truth of blood donation is it just about suits every man over 30 (and some over 18) to get their iron levels down for their own health benefit ! study

“iron accumulates in our bodies as we age and in the brain contributes to the development of abnormal deposits of proteins associated with several prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, such as alzheimer's disease, parkinson's disease and dementia with lewy bodies. higher brain iron levels in men may be part of the explanation for why men develop these age-related neurodegenerative diseases at a younger age, compared to women.”

if you are seeking to remove iron from the liver by donating blood, it pays to reduce the dietary iron (meat!) the day of donation and up to two to four weeks to two months after the donation to force the body to utilise iron in the liver and not get the iron by the body increasing absorption from the gut study

i think you have to do a combination of both donating and reducing dietary iron to “unsequester” iron as it is the combination of the severe need for iron after donation and consistent lower dietary iron levels that enables this sequestered iron to be withdrawn !

digestion places huge demands on the bodies oxygen supply and glucose transport so it pays to eat only a small or even no meal at the next meal time after donating and at the most, eat maybe a small portion of fish !

fresh squid tube (soaked in a sodium bicarbonate solution to tenderise it) is a great blood donation recovery food, has all the right elements needed!

also be careful of high sugar foods like pasturized fruit for at least 16 hours after, how much you may have of this is very dependent on how robust you are after the donation, sometimes you will need to almost completely avoid sugary foods, other times you will be more tolerant

blood donation basically deprecates immune/viral resistance and insulin transport up to 36 hours afterwards?

i really take the view that despite what the blood donation people say, that it's a huge physiological stress each donation and give myself 36 hours after the donation to rest, take it easy and avoid viral exposure !

the first six hours is critical and immune function is quite supressed !

really i feel it takes a week to fully recover from a donation and iron levels only fully normalise after three and half months !

fluid is replaced in the first ten hours after donation and it may be quite important to avoid viral exposure in this period and keep physical activity to a minimum?

just remember that donating blood is a considerable physical stress and how well you take it depends on what condition you are in, you will be much more robust at the height of summer with good food and less viruses and another time you may be off a bit and less robust after the donation and need to be more cautious !

a good page explaining vomiting and dizziness/nausea after donating

you also lose a significant amount of white blood cells with your blood (12%) so need to keep the immune system functioning!

“ generally speaking, after donating a unit of blood, the body replaces the fluid and white cells within 24 hours, and platelets and plasma proteins within 48-72 hours. the red blood cells are completely replaced in 4-6 weeks ”

total blood volume for me using this calculator is 3.8 liters so .44/3.8 = 12% blood volume and erythrocyte loss!

this is a very significant trauma, expecially if you are on the low end of the acceptable body weight and it takes me at least four days to properly recover : o )

the secret with donating is to sip a bit of water before and during the donation since the body seems to replace the lost fluid very readily !

the blood center advice on drinking large amounts of water beforehand is misguided imo and really you need to look out for yourself, they have a limited concern for your long term welfare, getting the blood litres is their focus!

you want to monitor the flow rate reading as you donate and if they give you a soft rubber toy to squeeze during the donation, it should have some sort of replaceable cover/barrier on it because you don’t want to be squeezing making direct skin contact with what the person just before you has used !

i find it best to look at the needle as it is inserted and also look at the finger prick Hb test as it is done !

also, since the body maintains a constant level of magnesium in the blood, taking magnesium taurate several hours before the donation helps

similarly since germanium oxygenates the blood i take a capsule several hours before donating as well

copper is important for blood ( serum, plasma and erythrocytes )

copper sebacate i have found works well as a copper supplement after donation, a spaced 2 x 1/4 tablet of the source naturals copper sebacate (0.75mg elemental copper per 1/4 tablet) seems to be ok, though people will vary on their need for it !

iodine as per the compendium also helps keeps the blood thin for donation, but this needs to be done on a regular basis for some which i do since my blood is a bit thick !

high doses of vitamin A may encourage autoimmune attack on the platelets, hence able to thin the blood after an intial thickening ?

blood donation may be of utility for glaucoma or helping prevent glaucoma by reducing the general oxidation potential and excess oxygen in the eye by reducing iron levels

a friend's beneficial experience of donation on eliminating his "floaters"

the greater susceptibility of african americans to glaucoma may be a genetic tendency to higher oxygen levels in the eye from superoxide anions and hydrogen peroxide from stronger immune action in the eye and this is problematic in combination with the low vitamin D levels that african americans have !

if the blood donation service won't accept your blood for their normal use and you can't get a prescription for therapeutic phlebotomy, you could bleed yourself, this might seem a bit extreme but you have to do what you have to do to survive !

i'm not recomending self-phlebotomy, the above is just a comment and i have absolutely no personal experience with it !

yeah let me say it again, this is not medical advice, discuss your phlebotomy and iron testing options with a doctor!

personally i won't be looking to self-phlebotomize unless i live past the maximum donation age which is 81 in australia and 76 in new zealand

for those unable to donate blood, i think it is becoming easier to get a prescription for phlebotomy for general therapeutic use rather than overt hemochromatosis

the big point about phlebotomy is it has been a mainstay medical remedy for thousands of years and they can't have been that wrong can they : o ) ?

“ I (ed. father jerome lobo 1624 c.e., end of chapter II) cannot, however, leave this country without giving an account of their manner of blood-letting, which I was led to the knowledge of by a violent fever, which threatened to put an end to my life and travels together

The distress I was in may easily be imagined, being entirely destitute of everything necessary

I had resolved to let myself blood, though I was altogether a stranger to the manner of doing it, and had no lancet, but my companions hearing of a surgeon of reputation in the place, went and brought him

I saw, with the utmost surprise, an old Moor enter my chamber, with a kind of small dagger, all over rusty, and a mallet in his hand, and three cups of horn about half a foot long

I started, and asked what he wanted. He told me to bleed me; and when I had given him leave, uncovering my side, applied one of his horn cups, which he stopped with chewed paper, and by that means made it stick fast; in the same manner he fixed on the other two, and fell to sharpening his instrument, assuring me that he would give me no pain

He then took off his cups, and gave in each place a stroke with his poignard, which was followed by a stream of blood

He applied his cups several times, and every time struck his lancet into the same place; having drawn away a large quantity of blood, he healed the orifices with three lumps of tallow. I know not whether to attribute my cure to bleeding or my fear, but I had from that time no return of my fever ”

that book btw is the best riproaring read you will ever have : o )

____________

“ polyphenols bind to iron in the intestinal cells, forming a non-transportable complex. This iron-polyphenol complex cannot enter the blood stream. Instead, it is excreted in the feces when cells are sloughed off and replaced ” study

there is an anti-viral window of medium iron levels as viruses do well with both high iron levels and the impaired immune system of low iron/anemia

normal menstration is only moderately consuming of iron but heavy flows can cause considerable depletion

i suspect also that females have metabolic differences or iron absorption differences that make getting adequate iron harder for them and maybe their metabolic design intentionally reduces iron so that viruses don't do as well.

their normal haemoglobin (Hb) levels are lower than for men

for some women, continuation of the pill over the period with intermittent discontinuation for some periods may be necessary

iron bisglycinate competes with the absorption of non-haem iron, but doesn't compete with the absorbtion of haem iron, which is the important one !

apparently it goes through the ferrous or inorganic absorbtion path as per this study

if you look at the graphs in the above study you will see that absorption gets very inefficient in amounts above 2mg for an adult and that the tablets are best cut right down and say maybe 1/9th of a blue bonnet or 1/12th of a solgar capsule taken four times a day will give a heap better absorption.

tableted calcium can inhibit the absorption of iron, the solgar “chelated iron” is tableted and contains calcium so is not suitable

the calcium-less bluebonnet iron bisglycinate capsules (18mg) work reasonably well taken in divided doses and most likely the solgar “gentle iron” is ok too

the cardiovascular research “ferritin” product is a mix of ferritin from horse spleens and iron as ferrous aspartate, however, the ferrous aspartate is not ferritin and they don't specify the ratios so i assume it's mostly the aspartate and anyway, i am suss of animal sourced supplements because you don't know the degree of sterilization that they have had and maintain so it's not recommended !

because the cardiovascular research magnesium taurate is also an unsatisfactory product i am forming a negative opinion of them as a brand!

the douglas labs magnesium taurate is recommended !

eating red meat, duck eggs, oysters (limited amounts only!) and really good quality fresh liver are the best ways to get iron

liver has other anti-anemic factors in like b-12 as well as the appropriate metabolic forms of folic acid that help with sleep and tryptophan from bile !

you have to worry about accumlulated toxins in liver, but muscle meat is not so critical in that respect

the liver is full of ferritin , which is the greatly preferred form

it's ferritin that gets lowered by menstration, the supplement iron has to be converted to ferritin

it's literally crazy not to eat liver for anemia if good quality is available

it gives the right forms and is much less damaging etc

the average menstrual blood loss is 35 to 50ml (70 to 100ml fluid as blood averages about 48% of total menstrual flow) which at 13 periods a year is 455 - 553 - 650 ml a year of blood loss which is roughly equivalent to one blood donation !

so for women who are over efficient iron absorbers, blood donation maybe twice a year or more could be a good idea!

a danish study showing haemoglobin and serum ferritin levels in donating women compared to non-donating women !

all in all i think it pays most women to at least occasionally donate, but if you were planning to get pregnant and a regular donor it would pay to stop donating well before conceiving to build up the serum ferritin

it would be a good idea for the blood donation organisations to provide serum ferritin tests for donating women

________________________

if iron and the circulation are adequate the color of the fingernail bed should be reasonably rosy red or at least a full pink and if the fingernail is depressed the colour should return instantly on release to the fingernail.

the fingernail beds are a little window into the general haem levels and circulation quality as the fine capillaries rise up into it

a very vigorous sneeze is a good indicator of adequate iron/oxygen as well

micheal lang's (sadly died october 16th 2007) important work on elucidating the instrumental role of iron sulphur enzymes in recycling glutathione

30 - 70mg of ester C after a meal seems to greatly help with iron absorbtion and mobilisation of body stores; in my case, too much so!

iron absorption efficiency is very genetic.

LOW IRON AND ANEMIA OFTEN = LEAD

blood lead levels should be below 1 ug/dl (NOT 10 ug/dl as the stupid standards say)

_________________________

“Iron balance in the body is regulated by the interaction between a liver-produced hormone called hepcidin and the iron transporting receptor ferroportin. Hepcidin binds to ferroportin to stimulate its break down, resulting in decreased export of iron out of cells. An excess of hepcidin in the blood can result in anemia and a deficiency of hepcidin causes a build-up of iron that is damaging to body organs.”

i think this binding is temperature sensitive and increases with an increase in temperature which might be how iron availability is reduced for bacteria and viruses when we run a temperature

it might also be why with my myeloproliferation i prefer high temperatures

“hepcidin's ability to bind to ferroportin decreases at temperatures below the normal human body temperature of 37°C due to structural changes in the hepcidin molecule at lower temperatures. This change in structure also affected the ability of hepcidin to bind to bacteria. This raised questions about the effect of low temperatures on iron metabolism and antibacterial activity.”

“The liver produces more of the hormone in response to inflammatory cytokines as a defense mechanism. Because microorganisms need iron, increases in hepcidin that lead to a decline in ferroportin and iron are believed to be antimicrobial”

study version 1 version 2

_________________________

meat eaten with it's fat enhances iron absorbtion study

butter and cream does not enhance iron absorption to the same extent as animal fat

presumably animal fat eaten with an iron supplement would enhance its absorption

if you have a high iron problem you have to cut back on red meat, i only eat about half what i used to

_________________________

“sodium iron chlorophyllin obtained from mulberries was found to be as bioavailable as heme iron”

1.8mg per 100mg in mulberries which is comparable to beef at 2.5mg per 75 grams (3.33mg per 100 grams)

pork liver is extraordinarily high in iron

meat iron page

_________________________

“The children with undue susceptibility to infections had significantly lower mean serum iron (p less than 0.05) and zinc (p less than 0.001) levels than the healthy controls.”

pubmed

_________________________

i really am in favour of blood donation for men (and also for women if they don’t have low iron levels) as high iron levels in the brain are a strong contributing factor for alzheimer’s

the first time is traumatic but after two or three it’s not so bad, just try it and by the 6th it's quite copeable if you have worked out how to eat etc !

i would suggest you do it at least once to see what it's like, believe me you get a lot more casual about bleeding !

just thick blood is well short of leukemia or other blood cancers, but it may be that extra mutation in the bone marrow stem cells is occurring and blood donation helps expose these mutated cells to the immune system for destruction !

the negative side is that “ the increased energy demands of the stem cells during the stress of the rapid replication need to recover hematopoietic cells result in elevated production of reactive metabolites that can directly damage DNA. If this happens at the same time that the cell is trying to replicate its DNA, then this can cause either the death of the stem cell, or potentially the acquisition of mutations that may cause cancer

normal stem cells can repair the majority of this stress-induced DNA damage, but the more times you are exposed to stress, the more likely it is that a given stem cell will inefficiently repair the damage and then die or become mutated and act as a seed in the development of leukemia

[..] when fanconi anemia mice were exposed to stimulation mimicking a prolonged viral infection, they were unable to efficiently repair the resulting DNA damage and their stem cells failed

in the same space of time that normal mice showed a gradual decline in hematopoietic stem cell numbers, the stem cells in Fanconi anemia mice were almost completely depleted, resulting in bone marrow failure and an inadequate production of blood cells to sustain life ”

people on medications that render them ineligible can still donate blood with a doctors note, but the blood is used for research purposes only i think or tossed !

phlebotomy basically !

the difference in iron tolerance, absorption and levels between women and men is so great than men can donate 4 or 5 times a year whereas menstruating woman can really only donate once or twice a year and some not at all !

_________________________

if you are female and your iron is on the low side i wouldn’t give blood, or at least not more than once a year

they do a haemoglobin test which is indicative, however the blood service is too ready to take blood from iron borderline women in my observation, it’s very unintelligent when there’s any number of men walking around who would benefit healthwise with donating

haemoglobin (Hb) is a useful, but not complete measurement and imo red blood cells and ferritin are separate pools of iron and don't transfer readily between each other, that is, you can have normal Hb, but still be fatigued from low ferritin !

grass fed liver is the best source of ferritin and most long term donors need to replenish this pool of iron from this source to avoid fatigue since ferritin iron is used to make enyzmes used in energy metabolism !

SELENIUM

stop press : the covid cure rate is significantly associated with higher selenium status

update december 2019 : i am taking 100 µg daily of the thorne or "pure encapulations" selenomethionine, it seems to be remedial for dry eyes and the mouth and helpful in reducing the degree of migraine

these two brands have the smallest capsules, the other ones have the large capsules and way too much filler

update may 2018 : i have dropped taking the methylselenocysteine and selenomethionine together and am just taking 50 µg of each on alternate days and then when i run out of the methylselenocysteine will only take the selenomethionine as that seems to cover the bases

taking methylselenocysteine doesn’t necessarily increase body levels at all, i’m not quite sure what it was doing when i was taking it, but it did help with migraine ?

update february 2015 : i went for a while of only taking the methylselenocysteine since i had run out of the selenomethionine and i really felt i was not 100% at all

that is, the selenomethionine is more essential which actually surprised me quite a bit . .

------------------

selenium supplementation needs to be limited to (or less than !) the compendium amounts (on a weight basis) and balanced with adequate iodine or there may be a risk of glaucoma, ocular hypertension or hypothyroidism

women are more susceptible than men to this ocular hypertension/glaucoma issue, possibly because of their higher need for iodine

an early warning sign for glaucoma is a loss of perception of small amounts of motion in the peripheral visual field, this may also show as poor contrast between an object and its background in distance vision

sometimes i see small static objects in the far peripheral field as moving for a flash, which would be an opposite effect to the above, what this means i do not know

skin vitamin D helps greatly with raised ocular pressure

excess salivation is a sign of taking too much selenium !

blood levels of selenium follow a U shaped curve in reducing depression !

_________________

i used to take in addition to selenomethionine aproximately 66ug (1/3 of a 200mcg capsule) of methylselenocysteine a day, but have yet to find a replacement for the discontinued vrp product

you open the capsules, tip out a portion directly into the mouth, and then put the cap back on the capsule

there is a risk; with selenium supplementation of excess apothosis and a depressed balance of extracellular matrix turnover of the trebecular mashwork with an increased chance of glaucoma or cataract, however my IOP is a very healthy low

i think there are limits to how much selenomethionine can be taken without interfering with sulphur metabolism

whereas more methylselenocysteine can be taken without causing that inteference, but then you run the risk of excess apothosis

you do have more selenium in your soil in the usa (except the south atlantic states) than tasmania, australia, new zealand or a lot of europe and parts of china, so you may need less than than the compendium protocol and it could be quite a bit less, maybe you might drop the selenomethionine and just have a small amount of methylselenocysteine, you will have to experiment

selenium deficiency is associated with skeletal problems study

there is an inverse relationship between body selenium levels and osteoarthritic risk and damage to the knees !

“ increased levels of selenium in the body may be associated with a 25% reduction in the risk of type-2 diabetes ”

_________________

“The highest average selenium levels of between 1.3 and 2.8 micromoles per litre of blood were associated with a 57 per cent reduction in the incidence of basal cell carcinoma, and a 64 per cent reduction in the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma, compared to the lowest average selenium levels of between 0.4 and 1.0 micromoles per litre.” study

that's a huge difference!

“On the other hand, blood levels of carotenoids and alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) were not associated with any influence on skin cancer risks”

_________________

“selenium appears to play a role in cell-mediated immunity. human supplementation with selenium was able to stimulate the proliferation of activated T cells of the immune system.

it elicited an enhanced response to antigen stimulation, an enhanced ability to generate cytotoxic lymphocytes, an enhanced ability to destroy tumour cells, and increased natural killer cell activity.

growth-regulatory interleukin-2 receptors on the surface of activated lymphocytes and natural killer cells became upregulated.”

_________________

the selenomethionine hits a ceiling when promoting glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and then goes into the RBC elements in the blood, methylselenocysteine gets around this and continues to ramp glutathione peroxidase, which being an anti-oxidant, also protects haemoglobin against oxidation

Anna writes:

“Se-methyl-selenocysteine is the only form that works for my son, but this is not the case for most kids. He freaks out on selenomethionine, even in small quantities. He acts like he his having a yeast flareup. Same thing occurs on sodium selenite, selenium chelate, etc, though it was worst on selenomethionine.

His RBC selenium was in the red and getting lower with each test despite constant selenium supplementation. Within a month of starting the methyl-selenocysteine, it was already well into the yellow.

He also had zero behavior or gut problems from it, no issues with tolerating this form at all.“

_______________

“ Selenomethionine is not an advisable form for supplementation because it may be nonselectively incorporated into body proteins instead of methionine, resulting in high tissue stores of selenium with potentially toxic consequences

Calomme et al observed that PKU patients supplemented with 1 µg Se•kg-1•d-1 as selenate or a selenocysteine-containing bacterial protein mixture had normal selenium and glutathione peroxidase concentrations in plasma after 14 and 18 wk, respectively, and that no accumulation occurred in plasma ”

in my opinion the 50µg (aprox 1µg per kg) selenomethionine as per the compendium is ok, but if more selenium is wanted it should be added in methylselenocysteine

_______________

adequate selenium is essential to prevent thyroid cancer and nodules and may have a role in down regulating thyroidal hyper (u do need adequate iodine of course)

more methylselenocysteine may tamp down thyroid production by increasing GPx hence reducing H2O2 and since H2O2 is the rate limiting step for the organification of iodine in the thyroid, thyroid hormone production is reduced

_______________

selenium deficiency is not universal; tasmania, new zealand, parts of the uk, eastern europe and china are deficient, but beef and grains grown in selenium replete areas of the usa make shortfalls less of an issue there

_______________

the source naturals yeast free selenomethionine now has modified cellulose gum in which is BCD and SCD illegal, it didn't used to and was ok then, but the modified cellulose gum has a toxic effect

anyway, i emailed them but they are too STUPID to see sense

the thompsons yeast free selenium which is made by the same people as solaray and kal and is l-selenomethionine, is ok, i would rather not have the peppermint flavour in it though.

the solgar seleno-6 most likely is ok, but i have yet to try it

the solaray yeast free selenium has an scd illegal 'whole rice concentrate' in, and seems to cause gut discomfort

lef.org also do a methylselenocysteine but the capsule is larger and has more filler and possibly has a quality problem so i no longer use it.

sodium or any selenite or inorganic selenium is not suitable.

the tRNA used to synthesize methylselenocysteine can be the target of antibodies in patients with Type 1 autoimmune hepatitis

maybe this cross reactivity extends to the pancreas?

__________

selenium yeast supplementation may promote type 2 diabetes

against higher blood plasma levels of selenium significantly reduces the risk of impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes in men

i have found selenium yeast to be problematic

maybe extra toxins in the yeast from the stress of growing at high selenium levels as well as unreacted elemental selenium since the yeast’s don’t fully uptake the selenium they are fed

also the amino acids forms in selenium yeast may not be optimal

however it may be that because they didn’t supplement iodine as well that the extra selenium created an iodine deficiency in the pancreas and this is the major cause

this study says 200µg of a special selenium yeast taken with 200mg of coenzyme Q10 capsules daily for four years gave a 40% lower cardiovascular mortality risk for women eight years after

__________________

selenium counteracts the postprandial formation of the atherogenic form of LDL (ldl_minus) and provides a rationale for the epidemiological evidence of the inverse correlation between selenium intake and the incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases.

selenium supplementation fully prevented the meal-induced increase in both the LDL_minus level and LDL susceptibility to oxidation

__________________

brazil nuts are not a suitable source of selenium as the form of selenium in the nuts is not useful, the amount is variable depending on where the trees grow, and they also contain radium and barium

a more positive view !

iodine levels should be adequate before supplementing selenium, as supplementing selenium on low iodine levels can lower T4 and T3, see my iodine page

it may be sufficient to start on both iodine and selenium if you are beginning supplementation

occasionally i will take an extra 50 mcg of methlyselenocysteine or selenomethionine depending. one woman i know with amalgam fillings noticed that her hair was odd and upped the methylselenocysteine to 150 mcg but doesn't take that dose all the time, which seemed to help it. she say the hair being odd was a good indicator of need. that would make sense because it helps remedy the sulphur metabolism and hair is basically sulphur like nails.

more recently i have been taking more methylselenocysteine and a little keratosis type skin cancer is disappearing.

these products are yeast free and scd legal.

methlyselenocysteine which is a substrate for methioninase promotes enzyme activity and gene expression to the net effect of strongly inhibiting carcinogenic potential and growth, particularly for mammary, prostate, lung, colon, and liver cancer risk

if lead levels are high extra selenium is likely needed.

without adequate selenium the metals conundrum will never unravel

paradoxically metal toxic people especially with amalgam will not tolerate much more selenium than the amounts in the protocol, because with more selenium, on balance the net effect is to mercury mobilisation and not passivation

the whole thing about selenium is chemically it is a sort of 'super sulphur', it is like sulphur but more so

so a little bit is good cause it takes out the heavy metals seeking sulphur

too much is bad cause it substitutes for sulphur and becomes toxic itself

so more selenium is not necessarily better and the amounts in the protocol are what i have found seems to work most consistently though at times i will modulate them, usually taking a bit more of the methylselenocystiene.

i have noticed that dropping eating fish (mercury) and shellfish (arsenic) has reduced the urgency of my need for selenium if not the actual amount.

i think the vitamin C i am taking now after meals may increase the need for selenium as per my protocol and selenium might need to be taken well away from vitamin C

a mechanism for this may be the increased need that more vitamin C has for regeneration via methylselenocysteine

the forms of selenium do change in the body, even if starting as selenomethionine, so i am a bit cautious, however the following research seems to indicate its not too much of an issue with organic forms of selenium

_______________

a selenoenzyme is essential for clearing T3

so i can see too much selenium reduces T3 too much, on the other hand, not enough will make for hyper and leave too much T3 in the system

i could be taking a bit much methylselenocysteine @ 3/4 of a capsule daily. might knock it back a bit, or maybe not

_______________

selenium supplementation very significantly decreases thyroid antibodies

more selenium needs more iodine

_______________

high intakes of vitamin C render selenite supplementation ineffective !

_________________

European selenium levels have been falling since the EU imposed levies on wheat imports from the US, where soil selenium levels are high. As a result, average intake of selenium in the UK has fallen from 60 to 34 micrograms per day. (august 06)

australian wheat also has high levels of selenium and therefore is a major source of selenium in the australian and north island of new zealand diets !

a lot of diets exclude wheat so in my view if you are doing that then you need to supplement selenium !

conversely, high dietary selenium like in the usa may obviate the need to supplement selenium !

_______________________

from a post on pecan bread (20/5/04)

selenium has to be dosed on a weight basis, 50µg would be too much for light kids, .45µg/lb (1µg/kg) of each on alternate days i find about right, but previously i have used more

i use a slightly complex protocol of selenium with selenomethionine and methylselenocysteine which is both the storage of of selenium (selenomethionine) and its active form in the liver (methylselenocysteine), the advantage of this is you get quite a big improvement in the detoxifying effect of selenium without the sulphur substitution issues that increasing amounts of selenium give.

this dual use gives substanially better results than just selenomethionine alone.

heavy metal kids often have trouble converting selenium out of its storage form into the active form.

selenite is an inorganic selenium that bascially seems to feed intestinal yeast better than humans.

also it doesn't seem to go to the right pathways in the body.

selenite forms of selenium are not good, they are not persitent in the body, feed yeast and in large amounts can cause cataract

it needs to be understood that selenium substitues for sulphur and so too much starts to interfere with body function, that tiny bit that is necessary has a super affinity for mercury and heavy metals, much stronger than any chelator like ala, its limitation is that it passiviates the mercury, that is prevents the mercury fom being toxic to the body, but it does not remove mercury. however i have found that with a broad based minerals supplementation that heavy metals are naturally flushed out with time.

i think this is the point that elaine gottschall (scd) is making that as the biochemistry rights that heavy metals will naturally start to flush.

there are also some specfic (liver?) enzymes that need selenium.

just a note on copper, is that high copper does not mean necessarily mean the body has high copper, i read of one mother having to give copper as well as zinc to get the high copper to come down.

chelation is not a very meaningful term, the use of a supplement like ala to maintain a constant blood level over a set period cycling with the supplement not being given over recovery periods would be a better way of looking at it. the effects are complex and intrinsically troublesome i feel because of this forcing the body to run in an unnatural biochemical mode over a sustained period. ala is used also as a diabetic treament to help rebuild pancreas insulin islets, but again i feel a broader dietary and supplement approach is better including chromium gtf, oral and skin vitmain d and fresh bone marrow (for its stem cell nutrient support)

a post on pecan bread (21/5/04)

question:

We do 1 cap. of Kirkman's Selenium per day. What are the chances we are removing mercury? Hope

reply:

the problem with mercury is that it is does a lot of damage as it moves in the body.

the other thing is that the amount of mercury in the body even in a high degree of mercury posioning is very very small.

the ideal solution is not to remove mercury but to have it bind to something that stops it interfering with body chemical reactions

this is what selenium does, though excess selenium is mobilising

over time with a broad based supplement and dietary approach the mercury will gradually wash in a safe manner out as part of a more normalised minerals transport.

i always thought that was all i had to do but then on taking whey i found that was the other half. well with some other things.

basically mercury has irrepairably destroyed a lot of things and you need the anabolics from whey to make the body regrow damaged organs and tissue.

whey is scd illegal and yeast feeding. it is definitely intestinal yeast feeding!

what i have found is that a broad spectrum of minerals esp zinc seems to keep the yeast under control enough to tolerate the plain whey.

however thats well outside the scope of scd, but in my opinion dairy tolerance is very important to work towards.

an adult metal chelation post (12 june 04) titled 'is ALA dangerous' also an enzymesandautism post titled 'why adults shouldn't chelate'

more and more i am seeing the danger of mobilised mercury to the brain.

theres something just wrong about the brain retention kinetics of mercury like it doesn't grip quite as hard as fat but is more sticky than say blood or other tissue so that you get a pinball effect with very long high scoring runs from bumper to bumper.

this is my basic gripe with chelation regardless of how supposedly safe the protocol is you are just flicking balls into the pinball game................

i have put a lot of work into my mineral and broad based supplementation approach and by and large it appears to be working, that is removing heavy metals as well as avoiding to a large extent this pinball effect.

the huge issue with adults is that brain structures have very limited recovery compared to children

its like firing a shotgun from some distance at a painting

the picture is still there but gets very degraded.

a pecanbread post thread (4 july 04) about a high zinc dose (150 mg daily ) study with adhd that claimed improvement and no side effects, the so called improvement imo being due to lethargy frorm zinc toxicity rather than real improvement.

u.'s post:

I wonder if it is possible to contact the people, that did the study of zinc - maybe they can come up with more information about whether or not high zinc dose's are tolerable.

I think I read somewhere, that the body gets rid of a lot of zink everyday - so maybe the body somehow will take what it needs and get the rest out.

And yes you are right about the ritalin - I would hate to give it to Jonathan.

(ed's note, above comment replying to the paragraph below by d.b.

I don't know about the long term effects of mega zink doses but the long term (and even short term) effects of Ritalin are tremedously harmful. My husband spent years fighting drug addiction because of ritalin. It has become one of the drug of choice in most high shcools and colleges. Chemically it is almost identical (and scientists use it interchangibly in studies) to cocaine. My husband's growth was severly stunted growing up. He has the worst stretch marks of anyone I've ever seen since he grew about 4 inches and gained 25-35 pounds within 3 months after discontinuing the drug when he was almost 19 years old when he should have been "finished growing". Please do your homework on the drug and exhaust every last option first. d.b.)

I did a hairtest long time ago - that showed too much copper and also a little too much mercury.

my reply :

u. you are wanting things to be a certain way rather than looking to see how they are

the people running that study are bad, you get a lot like them in pyschiatry and institutions, ignorant and cruel.

cruelty comes from a careless and overdiscrete way of looking at things and is generally not intentional but just there as a product of the mindset.

supplements are like sailing, you steer and giving large doses of something doesn't suddenly get you there, rather it overwhelms and can sink the ship.

copper is best approached with zinc and molybdenum and i have written up on my web page about this but apparently this is too much trouble to read.

adhd is bascially the brain unable to metabolise sugars through its normal metabolic pathways and being forced to go on adrenalin to get the energy it needs. minerals like chromium gtf are important here.

an enzymesandautism post (7th july 04) titled 'why lithium, selenium and skin vitamin d are important'

humans are basically descended from emigrations from sub saharan africa 27,500 to 52,000 years ago which is not long ago.

its one of the few places in the world with extended periods of the 'right sun ' as per my skin vitamin d web page

and the water and mineralisation of dry areas generally is rich in selenium and lithium. also uranium which is not desireable.

in other words we have all the genes to make these nutrients work if we take them.

from a scientific american article - "the most recent common ancestor of all subjects in the study lived in sub-Saharan Africa some 171,500 to 50,000 years ago", the emigrations were later but our genes evolved in that high sun, dry area minerlalised water and geography. must have had lithium in which is why it works (see lithium in the compedium index)

a who knows thread titled '' (august 06)

S. writes:

Since arsenic is used to treat selenium toxicity, the reverse?
(her comment on the research below ed.)

Selenium-arsenic interaction in renal cells: role of lysosomes. Electron microprobe study.

Berry JP, Galle P. SC27 of INSERM, Laboratory of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Creteil, France.

Selenium can modify the toxicity of different elements. Selenium and the element form a complex that is precipitated in the tissues and inhibits the toxicity of the element. We studied the interaction of arsenic and selenium at the subcellular level in rat kidney cells using electronic probe microanalysis that permits detection of elements in the intracellular organelles. This showed that arsenic and selenium are concentrated and precipitated in the lysosomes of the renal cells in the form of insoluble selenide (As2Se). In the long term, the lysosomes and their precipitate are eliminated in the urine. These processes enable the lethal toxicity of arsenic to be inhibited. This intralysosomal concentration and precipitation can serve as a model for the mechanism of interaction of selenium with other elements and can be compared with other mechanisms of concentration and precipitation of elements in the lysosomes

my reply:

yeah taking selenium seems to be not so critical after five months of not eating shellfish or fish and urination is better

selenium forms insoluble compounds with the sulpherhydral's attracting heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic and seems to slowly leave

i think dana still being on deck after her conventional (drilling) removal of four amalgams is a testimony to this formation of insoluble preciptates

[dana's amalgam removal protocol is 100mcg selenomethionine per day normally and 200mcg just before and after a dentist appt.

also regular vitamin C, ascorbic acid with rose hips. 1000mg per day normally, 2000mg before and after a dentist appt.

Those are basically the two things she takes. There are other antioxidants like vitamin E, grape seed extract, etc, altho she don't use them regularly.]

so i guess heavy metals and selenium are mutually consuming

i am really coming back on deck since stopping the eating of quite large quantities of scallops and fish

VANADIUM AND ALSO INSULIN AND DIABETES

the best form of vanadium ?

there's more to insulin than meets the eye

“ Insulin accelerates wound healing by acting as a growth hormone. It encourages skin cells to proliferate and divide, restores blood flow to the wound, suppresses inflammation and fights infection ”

vanadium is an essential trace element and is in shellfish , it accumulates in scallops, oysters and mussels

oysters if eaten whole seem to be benefical for blood glucose, scallops that have been gutted may lose a portion of their vanadium

diabetes is a lot more dehabilitating than is made out, nixes the immune system and the brain

vanadium is an insulin mimic

vanadium is also in the kidney, spleen, liver, bone, testes and lungs

i have occasionally tried (june 2014) the source naturals vanadyl sulfate, a tiny dose, 1/16.3th of a tablet which is 2mg of vanadium/16.3 = 123 micrograms, it seems to create higher energy levels, better focus !

however even in that small amount it is laxative so i have stopped !

it may be useful as a laxative who knows ?

maybe there's an available organic form of vanadium, i will try and get my vandium through oysters mussels and scallops, though the very good scollops here are gutted ! :o)

the average daily intake is of the order of 20 micrograms !

vanadyl sulfate may be poorly asborbed ?

april 2015 , i tried a 1/4 tablet of the source naturals ‘vanadium with chromium’ which was effectively 50 µg of polynicotinate/chromemate and 250 µg of bis-glycinato-oxo-vanadium and think i still noticed a laxative effect from the supposed “organic” version of vanadium so am not proceeding any further with its use !

__________________________________