heavy metal detox

Hi All
I have PM for heart block. recently told I have high levels of mercury and that may have been the cause. have come across a powdered volcanic rock called zeolite. it is negatively charged and claimed to attract the heavy metals in the body (which are positively charged) which are then excreted.

my question is will the zeolite effect the metal components of the Pm and leads?
kind regards
Jan

4 Comments

Mercury

by lenora - 2009-11-24 08:11:40

There are plenty of heavy metal "detox" cures out there like milk thistle, cilantro and garlic. I'm not sure I'd trust my health to a volcanic substance that is used in, and this is just a brief list: nonclumping cat litter, aquarium filters, odor eliminators, additives to asphalt, and laundry detergent. In a medical lab it is used to extract cholesterol from serum for analysis. I have no clue what effect if any it would have on your pacemaker or leads. What did the physician who detected the mercury overload recommend you do?

Maybe I Can Help

by Jmiller - 2009-11-24 09:11:04

I'm a chemist who has worked with zeolite minerals for most of my career. You are correct that zeolites adsorb positive ions like mercury ions but I don't think it can be used to detox you body of mercury. If you eat the stuff it will adsorb any positive ions that are in you digestive tract. It will not act to adsorb mercury throughout the rest of your body. The material will pass right through you and have no effect on your PM. It can't get to your PM or leads.

Zeolite

by SMITTY - 2009-11-24 10:11:42

Hi Jan,

I would say zeolite will not affect the PM or its leads. It may remove trace amount of mercury, but I never heard of it being used for that. I worked with the use of zeolites in water treatment for more than 40 years, so I will say a few words about zeolite.

The material Zeolite usually refers to a manmade material, which when in the sodium cycle can be used to remove heavy metals, such as calcium and magnesium and minute traces of other metals from fluids such as water. I never saw it used for treatment of blood so I can't speak on that subject.

The naturally occurring material you mentioned is most often called greensand. It will also remove calcium and magnesium from fluids and possibility other heavy metals but in lessor amounts. As for iron removal, they will both remove iron from fluids but by a different mechanism than which it removes Ca an Mg. It removes iron by physically attracting it to the outside of the resin beads.

Na zeolite is a standard of the industry for softening hard water and when it will no longer remove Ca and Mg it can regenerated by passing a strong sodium chloride over the resin. The resin bead is a matrix that traps the metal ions in its microscopic pores. When a strong sodium chloride is passed over the resin beads the sodium over powers the resin matrix's ability to hold the calcium and magnesium ions and they are replace by sodium ions. The calcium and magnesium become calcium chloride and magnesium chloride and are then removed from the resin bed by rinsing the bed with fresh water. That is a very brief and simplified description of how either greensand or zeolite works. Zeolite can also be used in the hydrogen (acid) cycle to remove heavy metals, but I know you don't want that form of zeolite in your body

Whether the resin, when in the sodium cycle, will remove mercury for the blood stream or not I can't speak to that. I do know that any thing the zeolite removes from a fluid stream, other than iron, will be replaced by a sodium ion. Because of these facts, I would say tread carefully when using zeolite to treat your body for the removal of mercury, because it may grab and hold some ions you don't want to lose.

I have seen activated carbon used to remove some toxic materials from the digestive system. I do doubt that activated carbon would be beneficial to you for removal of mercury.

There is one material, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) that is promoted as being able to remove dissolved metals from the body. I have received literature from some of the purveyors of this treatment telling me that it will work wonders in unclogging plaque loaded arteries. The reason being this plaque contains Ca and if you chelate the Ca, which serves as a kind of binder, the remaining plaques will be free to flow from those arteries.

I have used EDTA many times to chelate heavy different metals in water and essentially make them an inert ion in the water.

A couple of last words to a long dissertation on nothing important, is if I had mercury in my system I would first check with my doctor and as a last resort look up one of the firms that gives chelation treatment and see what they have to say. I will bet that if you mention chelation treatment to your Dr. you will be told it is all hog wash and it may be. But I have talked to two people that gave it credit for saving their lives.

I retired from my profession of industrial water treatment consultant in 1994. I'm sure this is the most time I have spent thinking about zeolites, activated carbon and chealants, during the last 15 years. So if I have made a mistake is was an honest mistake. Or just blame it on old age and my constant companion named Al.

Good luck,

thankyou for your kind input

by Jaaan - 2009-11-30 05:11:06

Lenora, JMiller, Smitty and Arabella
As yet I have been unable to contact the Physician but the local Doctor (also naturopath) thought it would be ok. She said that there was information on zeolite, that it would not pass into the blood stream and until I got the amalgam fillings out of my teeth it would be useful to take the mercury from the gut.
the people selling it say that it is so fine that it does pass into the blood but I get no response from their chemist.
I had not thought that it would be harmful to me to take as I was thinking only of the metal components of the PM - so I value your responses
oooooau and I am soooo attracted to Iron Maiden and Guns and Roses
cheers
Jan

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