Garlic Powder to Lower Lead Levels
However, for lower grade, chronic lead poisoning, such as at levels under 45 mg/dL, there was no clear guidance as to whether these chelation drugs were effective. When they were put to the test, the drugs failed to bring down lead levels long term. Even when they worked initially, in dose after dose, the lead apparently continued to seep from the patients’ bones, and, by the end of the year, they ended up with the same lead levels as the sugar pill placebo group, as you can see at 0:50 in my video. It was no surprise, then, that even though blood lead levels dipped at the beginning, researchers found no improvements in cognitive function or development.
Since much of lead poisoning is preventable and the drugs don’t seem to work in most cases, that just underscores the need “to protect children from exposure to lead in the first place.” Despite the medical profession’s “best intentions to do something to help these kids…drug therapy is not the answer.” Yes, we need to redouble efforts to prevent lead poisoning in the first place, but what can we do for the kids who’ve already been exposed?
The currently approved method, these chelating drugs that bind and remove lead from our tissues, “lack[s]…safety and efficacy when conventional chelating agents are used.” So, what about dietary approaches? Plants produce phytochelatins. All higher plants possess the capacity to synthesize compounds that bind up heavy metals to protect themselves from the harmful effects, so what if we ate the plants? “Unlike other forms of treatment (e.g., pharmacotherapy with drugs), nutritional strategies carry the promise of a natural form of therapy that would presumably be cheap and with few to no side effects.” Yes, but would it work when the drugs didn’t?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!