Vitamins and Minerals Ahoy
It's no wonder I'm so attracted to rocks - it looks like minerals are going to play a significant role in my next phase of treatment. This is an information-rich post about recent medical findings and treatments, intended primarily for my own records, so it might be a little light in the entertainment stakes (unless you're my Middle Sister who seems to enjoy this stuff).
On Friday 16 August I went back to Dr NF to get the results from my hair mineral analysis. I already had copies of the blood test results, but the doctor really put those into perspective for me. I've always really hated the way blood test ranges are treated as a trinary Bad (below range), Good/"Normal" (within range), and Bad (above range). They never tell you if a bit below is not too bad but a bit above might be really serious. Argh.
Buckets of Blood
So, to the bloods, and the notes from Dr NF as they relate to me and sundry interactions (with disclaimers of roughness of information here - these are personal notes and I've not transcribed all details):
B-Histamine 1.3 (0.2-2.0) This qualifies as very high and apparently reflects my chemical sensitivities.
Caeroplasmin 0.59 (0.20-0.45) Apparently very high. In combination with my P-Copper I am off the chart. It's a miracle that my blood isn't green.
P-Copper 30.8 (13.0-25.0) Extremely high. Note interaction with Caeroplasmin levels. I've likely picked up most of this from aging copper pipes and local water.
P-Zinc 12.4 (9.0-19.0) Woefully low especially considering how much supplementation I do. I'm just not absorbing it, which is one of the main symptoms of Pyroluria, so it's consistent with that result and possible toxic contamination (see hair results, below).
Iron (sundry) Despite a few odd looking numbers including high Transferrin, the net result (somewhat to my surprise) is that there's nothing wrong with my iron at all.
Folate 1119 (629-1453) Happily within range, but apparently I should be avoiding folate supplementation because it interferes with some of my other strained biochemistry. The beige diet is low in folate so I've been taking extra, but I'll suspend that for the time being until other stuff gets more into balance.
B12 500 (139-651) Bang within range, keep doing what I'm doing. Don't do what I was previously told to do (have shots every three months), but I wasn't doing that anyway because of extreme reactions. Go me.
Homocysteine 5.9 (5-15) I don't eat enough red meat. Watch out farm animals, I'm coming for you. Most info on this is about how bad high levels are, and I can't recall any other notes. Possibly related to why I shouldn't push my folate levels any higher.
Hair Mineral Analysis. Sort of.
Now, the mineral hair analysis. These results are difficult to interpret for the following reasons:
- A high toxic content in the hair could mean that I have high toxic content in my body, that I have low or normal toxic content in my body and it's being appropriately excreted, or that the sample was contaminated.
- A low toxic content in the hair could mean that I have low toxic levels in the body, or that I have high toxic levels in the body and am failing to excrete it properly.
So yes, I can see why the average GP would have a problem with such results. DR NF says the guide to interpreting the results is to use them as pointers to other investigations, and more importantly to look at patterns of results. For example, my hair scored very highly in Cadmium contamination. As suggested above, such a result could mean that I have high Cadmium, or low Cadmium (helpful, eh?) However, I also have quite low Zinc and Calcium levels, despite dietary intake. Cadmium interferes with the absorption of Zinc and Calcium, so it's more likely than not that I do actually have high Cadmium levels in my body. Combine Cadmium exposure with the genetic predisposition to not correctly absorb Zinc (i.e. Pyroluria), and we're starting to get a picture.
Throw in a bit more lead, arsenic and aluminium than the rest of the population(results are visualised as percentile rankings) and I've got a damn high level of contamination. Where from? I don't know for certain, but it's possible I picked up some at home from Dad's radio gear, perhaps more directly by my bad habit of disassembling electronic equipment for Art, maybe too many poorly ventilated fumes from melting CD-ROM plastics and hot glue. Possibly even some of the dyes in my tattoos could be leaching ever so slowly into my bloodstream. Cheap jewellery from the '80s could have contributed. It's unlikely to be a simple answer.
It doesn't really matter where it came from (as long as I'm not currently being exposed to any fresh sources), I'll be getting chelation treatment to deal with both the copper and other toxic excesses.
There were dozens of individual values in the results, but I scored above average on nearly all the toxins (although my hair is totally free of Beryllium, Platinum, Thalium, and Thorium, which is nice). On the vast majority of Esential and Other Elements I scored well below the 50th percentile of humans in the reference group. Oddly enough, my Copper hair level was one of the few that clustered near the norm. That and Zirconium - I'm totally just like the other kids with Zirconium.
Lowlights in the good stuff in my hair included Calcium, Magnesium, and Germanium. Oh Germanium, was it something I said? (Note caveats on interpretations, above.)
So , to treatments. Because I have a woeful sensitivity to side effects I'm getting a few things made up by a compounding chemist so they can control for fillers and things like preservatives. They're also starting conservatively with some of the dosages, particularly B6. Theory says I need lots of B6. My body has previously said hell no to this, as reflected in the B-Hystamine results. Also, while more of these things could have been blended together we're in an early experimental phase and need to separate a few variables. Finally, although some of the things I need were the stuff given to me by the original psychologist Dr N, I'm trying out new sources.
The new routine looks like this:
Morning
- Morning Custom Cocktail (x3): equivalent Vit C 1250mg, Vit E 400iu, Biotin 1000mcg, Methionine 500mg (this is the chelation treatment)
- Custom B6 (x2): eq 200mg
- Magnesium Citrate (x1): eq 150mg
- Calcium (x2): eq 500mg
- Manganese Picolinate (x1): eq 15mg
- Vit D (x4): eq 4000iu (To be reassessed after testing - I'm to request a test from Dr T who put me on this dose indefinitely.)
Night
- Night Custom Cocktail (x3): equivalent Vit C 1250mg, Zinc Citrate 75mg, Vit E 400iu, Biotin 1000mcg, Methionine 1000mg (The Zinc was Zinc Picolinate but as I seemed to lose Zinc after a month on that variety I changed it to the Citrate).
- Custom P5P (x1/2): eq 20mg
- Magnesium Citrate (x2): eq 300mg
- Manganese Picolinate (x1): eq 15mg
- Calcium (x4): eq 1000mg
...plus my current crop of painkillers, prescription meds, enzymes and digestive aids. Expensive as all hell, too.
I see Dr NF in 5 weeks, and he warned that I might not see any improvement (if at all) for 8 weeks (that said I think the extra Calcium and Magnesium are already having a positive effect on my muscle pain). If that is the case I go on to further tests including a Cadmium challenge which sounds all sorts of not fun. I'm told that chelation treatment is also not fun. Heavy metals really do like to screw you both coming and going.