It is well established that chronic, high-level lead exposure is a significant risk factor for kidney disease.  A new study conducted at the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research in Baltimore examined a less well understood problem, the effect of low-level lead exposure such as that found in everyday environments, especially as it may effect younger people.

769 adolescents aged 12 to 20 years were examined in the Third National Health and Nutrition survey (NHANES III) conducted from 1988-1994.  Their blood lead levels were measured, as well as their level of kidney function.

The conclusion was that higher blood lead levels, even those in a range below the current CDC designated level of concern (10 microg/dL) were associated with adverse effects on kidney function. In fact the higher the adolescents's lead level the more kidney function was affected.

This study further confirms what Environmental Doctors have been concerned about for a long time on the role that the environment plays on our children's health. 

We live in a highly polluted environment, particularly if we live in big cities.  Although laws have been made to protect us from acute lead poisoning, studies like this one show that toxins such as lead, even at so-called “safe” levels of exposure, may be keeping our bodies from functioning at at their best.  I carefully  evaluate heavy metals in the blood or all my patients especially new patients.

I have 60 year old woman in my practice right now with impaired kidney function. Her urologist is not sure why her kidney function is down. With a challenged urine test I found her lead level to be about 30 times normal ! So I have to wonder based on this new information if the lead might be the main cause of her kidney function impairment? 

Reference

I apologize to all my readers with questions that there was no way to REGISTER on my forum.

That is now FIXED and I love your questions. So let me know !

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Dr Soram

While soy is widely known to be a positive dietary alternative to animal protein, reports in the news  media have led many of my patients to fear that  "plant estrogens", such as those found in soy foods, will cause breast cancer, or can be harmful to breast cancer patients.

However, what is not widely known by the public is that the type of phytoestrogen that  soy is  rich in is called isoflavones,which actually may help protect against breast cancer.

New evidence from a December 2009 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the most widely-circulated medical journal in the world, supports the idea that soy is beneficial to women concerned about breast cancer.

[Read more…]

Five Harvard researchers recently published a theory in the journal Medical Hypotheses, which has not yet been tested but may be of interest to many patients worried about the controversial autism “epidemic.”

No one knows for sure what causes autism or what accounts for its increase in recent years, but here’s a brief rundown of these researchers’ thoughts:

Autism is associated with “de novo” mutations in the child’s genes. “De novo” means these mutations are not inherited from the parents’ original genetic codes, but occurred in their reproductive cells during the parents’ lifetime.

It is thought that environmental toxins such as mercury, cadmium, nickel, trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride may trigger these mutations.  This is supported by the fact that children from areas with high concentrations of these toxins have higher rates of autism.

The Vitamin D connection is that Vitamin D plays a key role in repairing and protecting DNA from mutation, caused by these environmental toxins.

Support for this connection was found in a population of Somali immigrants who experienced a high rate of autism in children born to parents who had moved to northern latitude cities in Minnesota and Sweden.  Autism had been unheard of in these families when they still lived in Africa.

In other words, if you are planning to have a baby at any point in the future, whether you are a man or a woman—you may be able to begin protecting it from autism now by ensuring that you have adequate Vitamin D levels.

Also, this is the reason that I measure heavy metal levels in my patients before they get pregnant. I then help the woman detoxify the metals before she conceives.

Reference  

Amusing news from Canada: Vitamin D testing, once rare, has become so popular among the general public that the healthcare system can hardly keep up. For instance, demand has outpaced the $645 million annual cap provided by the province of Ontario for such services.

Nothing like below-zero temperatures and several feet of snow to make people aware how much we need “the sunshine vitamin.” Let’s hope for some of that great public awareness to make its way down into the United States! You can get an at-home Vitamin D test from my Website

The Globe and Mail  

This is the actual title of an  article from a very recent edition of the prestigious medical journal Archives of Internal medicine.

This study reviewed the findings from a European prospective study into the prevention of chronic disease. There were over 23,000 participants in this study. The authors looked at the four major chronic diseases of modern society. These included type II diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and cancer.

They then looked at four lifestyle factors which included: never smoking, having a body mass index less than 30, exercising 3.5 hours per week or more, and adhering to healthy dietary principles. Their definition of healthy dietary principles was a high intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain bread and specifically low meat consumption.

[Read more…]