MS or Lead Poisoning?

[nuthatch]

I was recently having a conversation with my husband about Mercury and how we both played with Mercury from a broken thermometer when we were young. We were discussing things that we have been exposed to that have since been determined to be detrimental to health, when I had a revelation!

Shortly before I started having symptoms that led to my MS diagnosis, I had purchased a "project" at a swap meet. It was a nice little art deco cabinet shaped very much like an old fashioned juke box. It was covered in thick, old white paint which I planned to strip off to reveal it's true beauty.
Once I got it home, I set to work, first trying to sand the paint off. I decided that would take me forever, so I got a heat gun to take the paint off with. If you've never used a heat gun, it's a hairdryer-like thing that blows very hot air, so that the paint blisters up and can be easily removed with a putty knife.
Anyway, to make a long story short, in the process, I was breathing fumes and dust most likely from old lead based paint!

Knowing that lead poisoning can cause neurological symptoms, I decided to look it up. And wouldn't you know, the symptoms are about identical to every symptom I have. Check them out here, adult symptoms are down the page a bit.
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There seems to be so many differential diagnosis for MS, and this is just one more. The confusion is enough to make one SICK!!!
My probable exposure to lead paint never even occurred to me at the time and surely is not something routinely checked for, even when presenting with neurological symptoms, although a simple blood test could rule it out. I sure don't remember being asked about any possible exposures to lead, although I was checked for Lyme and B12 deficiency which is routinely done.

If I had known then what I know now . . .

Color me FRUSTRATED!

[SalpalSally]

Thanks Nuthatch. That is probably one of the reasons a cure is so hard to find and why the DMDS work for so few. Because there are so many possible triggers for MS, that, like with cancer, more than one cure may be necessary. :ambivalence:

[northernlite]

leadened

i'm sure i'm the same.

As a youngster we mucked about with air guns , holding the lead pellets in our mouths while both hands were occupied. Later as a tech i used to enjoy the smell of fresh soldering , that is of course lead , zinc , tin fumes.

wouldnt surprise me if this has had an effect

[Gary]

I have long thought that one of the top triggers for autoimmune diseases is environmental stuff. As I have farmed and worked in the trades all my life I cannot begin to tell you all the really harmful stuff I have handled because when you are young you are invincible and bad things never happen to you. And that a lot of stuff we handled we had no idea what the long term effects would be. I also think that there are also second hand effects as well. Both my kids have an autoimmune disease (type1 diabetes) there is no history on either side of our family. I try not to dwell on that for obvious reasons.

And there is also the "tough guy" thing no one in the trades would ever admit it until, like me, it is too late. I am after the family that rents our farm about safety all the time. There is a reason for personal protective equipment (PPE) whether it is on the job, tinkering around your house or merely cleaning the bathroom. It only takes a second to ruin the rest of your life or God forbid end it. I tell people you don't get do overs when it comes to your health or your safety.

[Gabriella7]

Environmental Exposures

For those of us who live in urban areas where the pollution from the automobiles, planes, and trucking industry usually runs extremely high for lead content as well as other pollutants, there is not anything we can do about it. Since I worked for the Department of Defense for 25 years I usually had a job located on air bases with the last one on a shared Air Force, Naval Air Reserve, and Georgia National Reserve base for the last 10 years.

In the urban areas one also has interstates with a large amount of pollution from the traffic. The area I live in Metro Atlanta has surpassed Los Angelos in the amount of air pollution. Unfortunately, we cannot control this fact of life unless we want to move way out and have fewer conveniences.

In my early years, from birth until age 20, I lived in a town, Gadsden, Alabama with a U. S. steel mill, Goodyear Rubber plant, and other industries. The run off area from the steel mill is on the government's Super Fund clean up list and has been for years. I have read we get the triggers for MS according to where we live by age 15.

The town also had the first chemical warfare training army base for two years. It was named Camp Sibert and if you don't believe the USA was into making chemical weapons, you can google to find it. They had nerve gases, and other chemicals stored on the base. It is also a Super Fund clean up area. After it was closed the land (30,000 acres) was sold off at cheap prices and my father bought his American dream of owning two acreas where he grew our vegetables and mother would can them to eat in the winter. Some of the land still has munitions left and the owners will not let the government have permission to clean them up.

There's no doubt in my mind that all this exposure contributed to a lot of auto-immune disease, cancers, and other diseases which have killed about 1/2 of my graduating high school class. The ratio of MS is much greater than the national average. Sad, but true and there's not a damn thing any of us can do about it. It's better just to forget about the cause which is something as unchangeable as the genes we inherited from our parents and try to live each day we have left in the best way we can with the challenges we have.

Sorry, I know I have related all this before and not certain if it was on this board and hope I don't bore anyone again.

In Jamaican song...."Don't Worry......Be Happy!

Gabriella:angel:

[SuzE-Q]

Lol, I also played with the mercury in the thermometer, it is so interesting looking, isn't it? :)

If you tell any naturalpathic doctor about your possible exposure to lead, they'll be salivating to chelate you for heavy metals. In fact, if you even tell them you have MS, they'll want to chelate you just because of the similarities to heavy metal toxicity.

If you want to pursue it, go see a naturalpath. I'm not sure if there's a heavy metal test beyond the test-chelate they can do. But apparently that ALWAYS shows up as a problem because we all have some kind of heavy metal in our bodies that will be activated by the exposure test when what you have may not be a problem and may be sitting quietly inside not actually causing problems.

So see if there's another kind of test for it. Google the chelating test and you'll come up with the issue of false positives that shouldn't warrant an entire chelation program that also has risks.

In my experience, I've found that naturalpaths tend to want to assume you have problems that require costly treatments without actually testing to confirm that you have the problem they think. It cost me $1,000 before walking out of the office on just the first visit and any test being done (and no, their 'treatments didn't help except to lighten my wallet). But I do believe in naturalpathic medicine, so don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

If you think you've had exposure, try to find a reliable test for it and proceed accordingly...you're right, heavy metal toxicity certainly causes the same neurological issues as MS!

[Lady]

My first symptom, eons ago, was an odd tremor. A very fast myoclonic tremor, of both of my hands.

They thought I had Wilson's Disease. I was tested and had high copper in my blood and 24 hour urine collection. I also had low ceruloplasmin, which removes excess cooper in normal people. I had to have a liver biopsy to final rule out Wilson and constant eye tests.

I was told to avoid copper in foods and take Zinc supplements to chelate the excess copper.

I am glad I didn't have that one. Whew! They went on to rule in and out other diseases, in this NYC hospital. Then gave me my dx of MS when all tests came back and more symptoms appeared.

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PS: As a young kid I had a thermometer break in my mouth. Oops!

We could tell stories until we are blue in the face, a cure is needed for MS and other diseases. This is the future, we should have many cures for all diseases by now. They can't even cure the common cold or flu.:ambivalence:


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