Heavy Metal Toxicity connects to MANY Health Issues

I have written about heavy metal toxicity regarding many health issues including cancer. Mercury, Fluoride, Arsenic, and Aluminum may be the biggest culprits to bring ill health to many of us. Metals can inhibit critical metabolic processes, block necessary genetic pathways, and imbed themselves in cell membranes wreaking all sorts of havoc. Metals have received much press due to the damage they can do to brain neurons and a possible source of inflammation that can lead to neurological disorders from Alzheimer’s to Autism to Multiple Sclerosis to Parkinson’s disease.

New research is showing that metals, especially Aluminum introduced via vaccination, can become engulfed inside macrophages, a specialized immune cells known for killing pathogens through a process known as phagocytosis. Macrophages literally digest their enemies into their cell bodies and break them to pieces. When macrophages encounter Aluminum, especially the nano-sized particles found in nearly every vaccine including the Flu shot, they attempt to do what macrophages do best – they engulf it, bringing it into itself to phagocytize it. However, as you might guess, Aluminum is not a living organism that it may die so it simply goes along for the ride, piggybacking its new friend through the human body.

This can lead to catastrophe. Aluminum, riding through the bloodstream inside of immune cells, simply waits until to macrophage is summoned to a site by immune messengers needing killer cells help. You see, the immune system is stimulated, or ‘turned-on’, when an antigen (a pathogen enemy like strep) enters the body in an attempt to set up territory. Neighboring cells sense the intruder and ring a siren of sorts by spilling chemicals called cytokines that draw immune killer cells to the rescue. So, if I breathe in strep bacteria and it attempts to colonize my nasal passages and throat, my cells release signaling cells to call in the police force. Macrophages and T-cells march on the area to destroy the enemy.

This natural immune response also happens following an injury and is easily demonstrated in a twisted ankle. The summoned immune cells bring swelling and a host of defensive killers to the area just in case there was a wound involved with nasty pathogens trying to enter. It’s a beautiful thing really; I don’t need a bazillion, over-zealous killer cells menacing with law-abiding citizen cells when a few thousand, willing to quickly respond as needed, will do.

Can you begin to see the problem that might ensue if a toxic substance was hijacking a ride directly to injured tissue? What could be the outcome of carrying a poisonous substance directly to the site of a mild concussion or infected throat or wounded intestinal wall or inflamed breast or damaged liver cell? When macrophages carrying Aluminum attempt to aide at these site, their cargo can spill into intercellular spaces just waiting to bully-up and cause problems.

Metals and Their Maladies

It’s bad enough to have metals in spaces around cells. If, in higher concentrations, they can mass together and become surrounded by macrophage clumps forming what are called granulomas. These are harmless enough if they remain in this state but often heavy metal granulomas leach their contents over time. Metals leached can join the ranks of other freeloading bad guys that can damage cells through many mechanisms yet to be discovered. One such idea came to me when studying how intracellular Aluminum can block, and essentially disable some cell membrane receptors.

If we can think of a cell as a giant city containing thousands of manufacturing plants and factories serving very specific purposes and imagine the cell membrane as the protective walled fortress, it may help our discussion. Our city wall keeps bad guys out and lets good guys in, bringing needed products for the factories. These products come through specific doors called receptors that are unique to each product. Some of these receptors are just stimulated by chemicals outside of the wall which then sends a message which then signal a host of internal processes necessary for cell (or city) function.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Should a metal like Aluminum block enough key receptors, messages fail to pass and aberrant, nefarious outcomes can arise. Back to our metaphor, if doors are blocked that carry goods to the factories that make shoes, production ceases. I admit my example is crude but the point is simple: Metals that get inside cells can cause problems; they can damage mitochondria (the cell’s energy production factories), damage cell membranes leading to early cell death, and even stimulate cancer growth by inhibiting receptors that are to stimulate apoptosis (normal, programmed cell death). Intracellular metals can directly effect cell replication cycles in the nucleus, setting cancer in full motion. They need to be addressed!

I’ll discuss heavy metal detoxification in future blogs but begin by reading my blog on the 7 phases of detoxification here.  Also, check out the 7 Phases of Detoxification Course.  I find it interesting to say the least, that we find heavy metal toxicity as well as toxicity from pesticides and herbicides to be the most common contributors to cancer. Now, I’m beginning to understand the mechanism of toxicity, carried like baby swaddled inside its mother macrophage and deposited to a site of cells already made vulnerable by injury or infection. We just must never stop supporting detoxification.