Smarter People More Susceptible to Heavy Metal Toxicity?

On Autism Mercury, Andrew Hall Cutler wrote that he suspects intelligence plays a role in heavy metal poisoning:

... the dirty little secret that is peeking out here is that smart people are more susceptible to heavy metal toxicity than ones of lesser intelligence. Lead dumbs them down, mercury makes them crazy. There are hints of this in journal literature data, though the authors work mightily to not notice it.

When asked for more information, he provided a journal article reference from Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 112, Number 9. The article, Recent Developments in Low-Level Lead Exposure and Intellectual Impairment in Children) is here [PDF format]. The figure he mentions is on page 5.

To understand his point, assume there is a normal distribution (or bell curve) of intelligence among a subset of children with the same level of lead in their blood. In other words, take a vertical slice of the graph - this is your bell curve at that blood-lead level.

An obvious assumption is that as the blood level of lead increases, intelligence will decrease in direct proportion. If this was the case, the bell curve should exhibit a linear change as you move to the right on the graph.

In other words, the top and bottom "edge" formed by the bell curves as you move to the right should be linear.

However the figure shows that it is not.

The cluster of dots gets tighter as you go to the right, due to the top half been "squeezed" down. The top edge decreases very quickly with increasing lead - it shows an obvious curve which indicates a non-linear relationship. But the bottom edge barely decreases, and is roughly linear.

This is the effect noted by Andrew Hall Cutler - that children with higher intelligence seem to be more affected by increased lead than children of lower intelligence. And as he notes, this effect is not really explained by the authors of the paper.

Fathers with Large Heads and Autistic Offspring

One mother recently wrote of an intriguing connection between Autism in the child and a father with a large head on Autism Mercury:

... the geneticist ... said that the one pattern he has seen in parents of autistic children is a history of mental illness on the mother's side of the family and a large head (I'm not making this up!)/very high intelligence of the father...

The association between parental intelligence and autism was first widely publicized in a Wired magazine article, The Geek Syndrome where they reported the high incidence of Asperger's and Autism in the children of Sillicon Valley tech workers.

Lacto-fermentation bad for MSG-sensitive people?

There has been a really interesting discussion on Chapter Leaders on how much MSG is created by the lacto-fermentation process, and whether this should be avoided by just MSG-sensitive people, or by everyone. One of the speakers at the last WAPF conference was Jack Samuels, who described how lacto-fermentation could break down proteins and produce free glutamic acid. This has a bad effect on people who are sensitive to MSG, and is considered a neurotoxin by Samuels. Russell Blaylock wrote a well-regarded book on this effect of MSG and aspartame (the artificial sweetener), titled Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills.

During the last couple weeks, Luana followed up with Jack Samuels for more details. In the discussions that followed, Samuels pointed out that bone broths can also yield free glutamic acid if they were simmered past a certain point.

Luana sums up her findings so far:

Jack is an expert on MSG and has made it his life's work to study glutamic acid and its effects on people. Both he and Russell Blaylock, the renowned excitotoxin expert, say that it's important to eliminate all free glutamic acid (FGA) from one's diet--whether you are healthy or not. We have established that both bone broths and vinegars have FGA. The latest question has been whether or not naturally lacto-fermented foods (not fermented with vinegar or enzymes) have it--i.e. can we make conclusions about l-f foods from vinegar studies. Jack is certain that we will find MSG (free glutamic acid) in all l-f foods, but the only way to know for sure, and in what quantities is to have them tested.

Jack has stated in the conversations that cabbage (sauerkraut) does have MSG, and many who are MSG-sensitive have severe reactions. But the MSG in a higher protein fermented food (dairy, etc) will be much higher and even more problematic.

Jack has stated rather strongly that from his research he does not believe it is wise for anyone to consume fermented foods (as well as glutamic acid supplements--see archives), whether they know themselves to be MSG-sensitive or not. He theorizes that the reason that the natives Price studied didn't show signs of reaction is because they had many health factors going for them other than just food, they weren't constantly bombarded with carcinogenic environmental toxins as we are, and they weren't born out of generations of sick people as we are--thus their immune systems were able to process the excitotoxins.

Her summary is here.

Previous threads on this subject are here, part of which split off to here, and most recently, here. These previous threads are long but provide more details for those who are interested in further reading.

How Frying and Baking form the Carcinogen, Acrylamide

You may have heard about an undesirable substance created when frying or baking starchy food in high heat. In 2002, Swedish researchers discovered acrylamide in a variety of fried and baked goods. This substance is used in a variety of industries and is known to cause nerve damage and cancer in large quantities. In a recent post on Native Nutrition, Heidi Schuppenhauer posted some links showing the relative levels of acrylamide in various food products. She also points out that Nourishing Traditions advocates boiling or slow baking which may avoid this issue.

Some digging in Google produces some interesting results. As Heidi points out, the amino acid asparagine is an important part of the acrylamide-forming reaction. Foods that have higher levels of asparagine tend to yield more acrylamide. More specifically, this page summarizes:

In October 2002, articles in the journal Nature confirmed earlier observations that acrylamide may be formed in foods during baking and frying, but has not been found in raw food, or food cooked at the lower temperatures reached during boiling.

The authors showed that acrylamide is formed during the Maillard reaction. Products of the Maillard reaction are responsible for much of the flavour and colour associated with fried, roasted and baked foods. This reaction requires sugars, proteins (or free amino acid) and high temperatures to proceed. Model systems used by the authors showed that heating the amino acid asparagine with glucose at 185°C results in most of the asparagine reacting to form acrylamide.

A very recently published paper says further that lower temperatures and longer cooking times can also produce acrylamide:

... reaction time and temperature were found to be covariant parameters: acrylamide was preferably formed by reacting glucose and asparagine at 120 degrees C for 60 min, whereas 160 degrees C was required at shorter reaction time (5 min).

And finally, this page suggests certain herbicides may be another source of acrylamide in your food, via the breakdown of polyacrylamide which acrylamide is a constiuent of:

Strangely, the WHO releases did not mention the fact that polyacrylamide is a well known additive to commercial herbicide mixtures (25% to 30% solutions) to reduce spray drift and to act as a surfactant [2]. The glyphosate (ie Roundup) herbicides of Monsanto Corporation are of particular concern because the herbicide interacts with the polymer [2-4]. Experiments showed that heat and light contribute to the release of acrylamide from polyacrylamide, and glyphosate was found to influence the solubility of polyacrylamide, so care was advised in mixing the two.

However this does not address how much acrylamide would survive until it reaches the final food product. The EPA says "Acrylamide does not bind to soil and will move into soil rapidly, but it is degraded by microbes within a few days in soil and water. Its has little tendency to accumulate in fish."

P.S. Your Onibasu blogger has been under the weather all week and quite unproductive. Maybe I can get Liat to post about her fermentation experiments while I recuperate. :-)

Caspian Sea Yogurt: From the Caucasus to Big In Japan

Imagine a smooth, creamy yogurt that's not so sour, rich in minerals and possibly the secret behind the longevity of a group of Georgians in Eastern Europe. That's the 'matsoni' strain of yogurt that a Japanese scholar brought back with him to Japan, renamed as "Caspian Sea Yogurt" and has since become immensely popular. Fans tout its strong health benefits, from healthier intestines, less allergies and stronger immune systems. Last but not least, it's very easy to make.

Caspian Sea Yogurt was a recent topic of discussion on Kefir Making. Unfortunately only a couple people have the culture, and one of them is figuring out how to ship it to satisfy all the requests. If you are interested in learning more:


Instructions by one member of Kefir Making who has this yogurt.

Recent discussion from Kefir Making here and two English-language news stories from Japan about this yogurt.

Discussion from 2 years ago on this subject.

Finally, we dug up the main Japanese source for cultures, Fujicco, and they have it in some nifty packaging for an great price. Their extensive main Caspian Sea Yogurt page has links to history, instructions, nutrition and recipes. Unfortunately it's all in Japanese.

Kimchi may stop bird flu

A Korean research team has shown that kimchi may fight the bird flu. In an experiment with three groups of chickens infected with the bird flu virus, the recovery rate of the two groups that received a bacterial culture present in kimchi (11 of 13 recovered in both groups) far exceeded the group that did not receive the culture. All 13 chickens died in the latter group.

Korea times story.

Treating Pre-Menstrual Breast Pain

An acupuncturist recently described a simple method for treating pre-menstrual breast pain on the TCM mailing list. However this treatment cannot be self-administered - you will need to ask an experienced TCM doctor or acupuncturist to apply the method. She says:

I have women now who no longer can tell the onset of menstruation because the breast no longer beats like a drum.

The message is here.

Is the Nourishing Traditions diet for everyone?

A new WAPF chapter leader recently asked if the diet described in Sally Fallon and Mary Enig's book Nourishing Traditions ("NT") is right for everyone. After describing some of her experiences with health problems introduced by other diets, she asks:

So my question to all of you, who have much more experience seeing yourself and others follow the NT diet, is this: Does the NT diet not work for everyone or for everyone at different stages even though they are buying the highest quality ingredients and processing the foods in the NT way?

Many responses point out the dangers of blindly following one diet or perspective without consideration of individual differences. Some also suggest that Nourishing Traditions is more of an approach to food, rather than a particular "diet." And finally, Dr. Weston Price himself found that there were significant differences in diet among the healthy native cultures he studied. He describes his travels and findings in his classic book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

The thread starts from here.

The Naked Warrior: rave reviews

Paul Idol posted a rave review of Pavel Tsatsouline's The Naked Warrior on Native Nutrition recently. If the title is making you scratch your head, it's a book about getting fit using high intensity, low rep exercises that require no special equipment. You may be more familiar with Tsatsouline's other popular works on kettlebells (The Russian Kettlebell Challenge and targetting female readers, From Russia with Tough Love).

Paul writes:

If one-legged squats and one-armed pushups sound daunting, particularly those of you who are either out of shape or in poor health -- or more likely both -- don't worry about it. They are (very much so) but Tsatsouline provides a wide variety of alternate forms and modifications that allow you to ease into them, customizing the intensity of your workout to your particular needs. One major crutch: elevation. You can do partial one-legged lunges, for example, letting your knee come to rest on a box or other platform (I'm using a short stack of books because it gives me fine control over the height), and you can start pushups from an elevated position, thus reducing the weight on your arm.

Just as importantly, since the entire _Naked Warrior_ program is based on the two exercises I mentioned above, it's not complicated or difficult to begin, and the forms are very easy to master, so there's no need for a trainer or even a video.

The thread starts from here.

Amazon.com links to The Naked Warrior: the book, DVD video and VHS video.

Detoxification through the skin

Mark Sircus of Autism Mercury describes why detoxification through the skin should be seriously examined as a way to get rid of toxins and heavy metals:

One of the most overlooked aspects of elminination is actually the skin which offers a vast exit route to poisons trapped in the body. The skin is actually an amazingly complex organ and, by weight, the largest in the body. It covers, on average, some 22 square feet and weighs around nine pounds (roughly 7% of body weight). The skin provides the front line of defense for the body, as well as being expressive of both physiological conditions and emotional states. The skin is the extension of our nervous system to the outside and defines our existence as a physical form. The skin is involved in dynamic exchange between the internal and external environments through respiration, absorption and elimination.

To get rid of the toxins, he describes methods such as saunas, clay baths, wood vinegar-based skin patches and far-infrared saunas, along with various personal accounts to go with them. Follow ups to his post provide additional useful information.

Link to Mark Sircus' post.

The dangers of cooking in stainless steel

Is stainless steel cookware safe? This perennial topic sprung up again recently on the WAPF Chapter Leaders mailing list.

Generally speaking, it's the nickel in stainless steel that concerns people. Nickel is a well known toxin and some people are even allergic to skin contact with metals that contain nickel. The rule of thumb is that magnetic stainless steel is ok because it does not contain nickel, and non-magnetic stainless steel should be avoided because it contains nickel. (See this thread from WAPF Chapter Leaders for an example.)

More detailed information can be found on the Stainless Steel Information Center's faq which explains that: "The 300 series (which contains nickel) is NOT magnetic. The 400 series (which just contains chromium and no nickel) ARE magnetic." (But 300 series steel can be made magnetic according to this page.)

The faq also explains that 18/10 and 18/8 stainless steel means 18% chromium and 10 or 8% nickel. Unfortunately, 18/10 stainless steel seems to be the most common material for stainless steel pots in stores around here.

But as Bill Sanda points out, the leaching of nickel from cooking in stainless steel pots has not been well studied. A quick search in Pubmed finds conflicting reports about the level of nickel leaching into food. Of the ones that found nickel in food, you might find "Stainless steel cookware as a significant source of nickel, chromium, and iron", and "Nickel in foods and the diet" to be interesting.

You are polluted

A fascinating Globe & Mail article titled "I am Polluted" was posted by Julie Griffiths on several groups including Autism Mercury and Native Nutrition. Mark Stevenson writes about being tested by researchers studying "body burden," the accumulation of toxic compounds and minerals and their effects on humans. Most of these chemicals, ranging from pesticides, cosmetic components and fuel additives were never studied for their effect on humans when they were approved for use.

Magnetic bacteria.. and humans?

Someone on Microbial Nutrition posted an interesting reference to bacteria found on a meteorite that ingest iron compounds and are affected by magnetic fields. Iron oxide (magnetite) or iron sulfide (greigite) encased by membranes inside the bacteria and are called "magnetosomes". Interestingly enough, magnetosomes have been found in higher life forms as well, including humans. The research area of bioelectromagnetics is yielding interesting theories that link biological magnetic susceptability to forms of therapy (and actual devices) that most people would consider esoteric.

Check out the bioelectromagnetics Yahoo group for more information.

The best coconut oil, cellulite reduction and others

There was a brief network outage at 1507h EST on March 4th that caused a change in our network address. Some people may not have been able to access us for up to an hour.

The last update of the archives was March 4th.

Interesting posts:

On Autism-Mercury, someone posted a University of Calgary video showing dramatic footage neuron degeneration from exposure to a solution containing a low concentration of mercury. Interestingly, the researchers found that exposure to other heavy metals such as aluminum and cadmium did not have this effect.

Native-nutrition has been pretty busy with political posts lately, but Laura Cooper asked why it is bad to cook milk in meat. Heidi Jean pointed out the curdling of milk in acidic solutions (as many soups are), and Wanita Spears mentioned that it had a worse effect on her than just meat and gluten alone (i.e. spaghetti).

Coconut oil lovers will be interested in a long thread on WAPF Chapter Leaders that debates different brands. Apparently, Quality First International supplies Wilderness Family Naturals with their Coconut Oil, and it seems Tropical Traditions is considered inferior in quality. The thread starts from here.