“I didn’t know SAM-e was so inexpensive!”
K.B. is always cheerful, but she sounded even more happy than usual.
I like when my employees are excited about our products. But they usually tell me how well Accel works, or rave about the new Pure Radiance mineral makeup. SAM-e doesn’t come up much.
“I just went to ‘Dr. K.’ She’s going to get rid of my lead.”
I knew she was getting tested at my office, but I hadn’t known what we had found until now. I had a hunch, though.
I originally asked for K.B. to be tested because she came to me with nasal congestion, pressure headaches, bone problems and joint problems. These can all be the result of metal toxicity.
When we tested her, we found she had small, pale red blood cells. That could be from low iron, or low vitamin B12 intake… but also from lead overexposure. So I sent her for one more test.
“I did the heavy metal testing, and I have a lot of lead. Dr. K. told me I have the second highest lead reading she’s seen the entire time she’s worked here.”
She handed me a list. It read:
SAM-e – 200 mg
N-acetyl cysteine – 250 mg
Alpha lipoic acid – 250 mg
“I’m going to be on a 10-week chelation program. That’s what I have to take.”
It’s a good thing we discovered K.B.’s high levels of lead, because lead can also disrupt your hormones, cause foggy thinking and lowered IQ, irritability, and chronic fatigue.
In a study presented at the International Symposium on Functional Medicine, people with chronic fatigue were tested for mercury and lead. 45 percent of them showed a hypersensitivity to mercury and 49% to lead.
77% of those people reported improved health after lowering their blood levels of those two toxins.1
Normally lead gets into you through inhaling very old lead-based paint dust, or from working in or near an industrial area. But before I could ask any questions, she beat me to it:
“I never worked anywhere except an office… but I grew up in a really old house in New York, so it could be from lead paint. And my dad’s a mechanic, so I’ve been in shops since I was a little kid, too.”
And it’s not just old paint and industrial areas. You can ingest lead from old canned goods, corroding lead-lined pipes, batteries, and from being around antique items with old glazing. Even some imported toys and candies have been found to have lead.
To help you avoid suffering from having lead inside you, here are my three most effective and easiest ways to steer clear of lead, and get rid of it if there is any in your body:
1) Purify your body with a fast: Contrary to what I often see in the media, fasting is quite safe. You may see health pundits proclaim how foolish and dangerous fasting is. We are not so fragile. Not eating for a few days won’t hurt you. This, of course, would have been a common occurrence in our natural environment. It’s the modern “abnormal” situation to have constantly available food. People have fasted for religious and health traditions for thousands of years.
There are a number of different types of fasting for detoxification. Water fasting is the most extreme. It is the only 100% true fast. Simply eat or drink nothing but water for 1 to 3 days. Never avoid water during a fast.
2) Drink purified water: Try to use purified water all the time, not just during a water fast. And remember, not all water is necessarily good for you. Bottled water can have pollutants, or might merely be tap water. Distilled water is pure H2O, which may sound good, but it’s unnatural. It doesn’t occur in nature.
My favorite is ozonated water. It’s probably the most efficient, reliable and affordable way to purify, not just filter, your water.
A method called “corona discharge” adds a third atom to oxygen molecules, thereby creating ozone. As the ozone moves through the water, the third atom seeks out and destroys all impurities.
Unlike carbon filters, ozonation also removes other dangerous elements found in your tap water like bacteria, cryptosporidium, nitrates and of course, lead.
3) Use these three purifying nutrients:
- N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is remarkable. It boosts your levels of one of your body’s strongest antioxidants, glutathione. It also saves lives every year as a treatment for acute poisoning with acetaminophen-containing pain-relieving drugs. And it detoxifies.
When researchers bathed cells in lead, the DNA of the NAC-treated cells lived longer, and had their DNA protected from damage.2 NAC directly boosts cells’ antioxidant defense mechanisms to defend against lead toxicity.
- SAM-e is also an effective detoxifier when it comes to poisoning from toxic metals like cadmium and lead. It also boosts glutathione levels, which helps protect your cells. Take 200 mg a day.
- Alpha lipoic acid (LA) is called the “universal antioxidant” because it fights free radical damage to cells in both fatty and watery areas of the body. It goes everywhere. And it can extend the life of other antioxidants like vitamins C and E, and CoQ10.
And, LA is able to chelate transient ions – which means it’s effective at treating heavy metal intoxication. Take 250 mg a day.
1. Stejskal, V. “Immunological reactions to metals in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.” International Symposium on Functional Medicine. Presentation Abstracts. Palm Springs, CA, 1994.
2. Yedjou C, Tchounwou C, Haile S, Edwards F, Tchounwou P. “N-acetyl-cysteine protects against DNA damage associated with lead toxicity in HepG2 cells.” Ethn Dis. 2010;20(1 Suppl 1):S1-101-3.