Heavy Metal Toxicity Affects Brain Development May 21, 2008
Posted by brainbalancer in Metal Toxicity.Tags: arsenic, lead, manganese, mercury, Metal Toxicity
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A new article listed at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/106334.php listed a study from Children’s Hospital in Boston:
Evidence is slowly building that manganese in air, water and even soy-based formula can sometimes accumulate to toxic levels in children. There are no federal health standards for manganese exposure, in part because data are only beginning to emerge on its effects. Occupational exposure has long been known to be neurotoxic, producing behavior changes, memory loss and a Parkinson-like syndrome.
This study, led by Children’s toxicologist and emergency physician Robert Wright, MD, is among the first to document manganese neurotoxicity in children. In collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health, Mexico, investigators collected blood samples from 300 12-month old Mexican children who were at risk for high-level manganese exposure. High manganese levels correlated with low neurocognitive scores at the age of 24 months, as did the lowest levels (likely because manganese is also an essential nutrient).
Exposure to high levels of both manganese and lead appeared to be synergistically toxic. Wright believes manganese “is where lead was 50 years ago” in terms of its recognition as a toxin and suggests that health based standards for manganese exposure are needed.
This article, along with a number of others lately about lead and arsenic, tell us the damage caused by these toxins on developing nervous systems. Of course, that doesn’t even include methyl mercury.
These metals short-circuit vital enzyme systems. If they are not released from our bodies (and of course, the brains of our children), we will continue to see an upsurge in neurodevelopmental disorders.
I recently lost a dear friend to arsenic poisoning. She grew up in an area of Saskatchewan, Canada, where the water supply had a high arsenic content. As an adult, she also lived in an area of high arsenic content. She was hospitalized for over 14 months before dying of kidney shutdown (a prime target for arsenic) in her early 50’s. Unfortunately no one figured it out until right before her passing.
