The Body Burden of Lead is Two Hundred Times What it Should Be!Lead from Gasoline is Everywhere On the peaks of the Sierras and in the depths of the Pacific. Every urban dweller is exposed to it and carries it in his body.
This Toxic Metal Poisons an Important Enzyme This enzyme is oncerned with the manufacture of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to body cells and tissues. This enzyme is extremely sensitive to this toxin, and at blood levels so low that none is found in the urine, inhibition of the enzyme occurs. All of us who drive are slightly poisoned. There's enough around to toxify us for the next 100 years. In 1950, the world’s cars burnt 1.4 billion barrels of gasoline per year with this toxin in it; by the early 1980’s this already enormous figure had climbed to 5.5 billion barrels. This toxicity affects multiple organ systems:
The major effect is the impairment of cognitive and behavioral development in infants and young children.
Effects Occur from Low-Level Exposures Sources include paint and household dust in homes containing surfaces covered with it. There's increasing awareness of the dangers from this toxicity from solder and fittings in residential plumbing. The toxic metal that's in water is more absorbed than that in food. Nutritional deficiencies of essential metals, such as calcium, iron, and zinc, can increase the hazard.
Calcium and Lead Interactions These two metals are metabolically related, and it has been known since 1926 that the "lead stream follows the calcium stream." A low-calcium diet results in considerably higher blood and tissue concentrations of the toxic metal than a diet that's adequate in calcium intake. One of the most important impacts of this toxin is on calcium homeostasis because it blocks important regulatory systems within each and every cell of the body. Lead-calcium interactions occur at all levels of biological organization:
Absorption of it is 30-40% of the dose one is exposed to through the lungs and about 5% from food and water. It's is a deadly poison, and its effects are cumulative, resulting in a large number of health problems.
For more about lead and other heavy metal toxicities, click here. Early Symptoms are Fatigue, Dizziness, and Headaches Eventual problems are:
Summary of the Effects of Its Toxicity This toxic metal is an effective substitute for calcium in six calcium-dependent processes: in all, it has a higher affinity to enter into these processes than calcium: which blocks calcium use. This effect has been shown to occur in very low doses. Glutamate has a toxic effect in neuronal injury including:
These effects occur with blood levels as low as 1 mg/dL and US averages are at 3-4 mg/dL. Available data suggest that even low blood levels cause cognitive defects in young children. |