What are the sources of too much of aluminium?

Aluminium is everywhere – it is found in food, water, air and many other things which we use every day. A small amount of aluminium is not toxic and most of it is excreted directly. It is toxic if we take too much of aluminium.

The main sources of aluminium include:

• Food – most of the foods contain small amount of aluminium. Tea, cucumber, spices and herbs contain high amounts of aluminium. Aluminium is bound with many substances present in food and thus the absorption is not very high. The common food sources of aluminium are tea, coffee, cereals and soft drinks. Processed food also contains too much of aluminium. The food additives with E-Numbers, E173, E541, E554 and E556 have aluminium or aluminium salts. Compared to breast milk most cow milk formulas have 10 to 20 times more aluminium. Soya based formulas have 100 times more aluminium. Baking powders also contain aluminium in large amounts.
• Water – drinking water has very low amount of aluminium. But this could be absorbed easily. In some countries to remove the turbidity in the drinking water aluminium salts are used and here the levels can be very high. Not all water filters can remove aluminium from drinking water.
• Aluminium cooking vessels – normally aluminium pans and pots are not bad. The problem starts if you cook foods which contain more acids. These foods have very high levels of aluminium. It is better to avoid aluminium cooking vessels. There are many good alternatives available today.
• Packing materials – most of the foil-lined cartons or aluminium cans have little aluminium as they have a lacquer, cardboard or plastic coating. The food can be contaminated with aluminium when food containing acids are packed or cooked in aluminium foils or aluminium trays. Do not store food in aluminium foils.
• Medicines – Many antacids for treating ulcers or indigestion contain large amount of aluminium salts. Normally very little is absorbed. Do not take vitamin C supplement or food rich in vitamin C during you take this medicine and vitamin C makes more aluminium to enter in the blood. Most of the deodorants contain aluminium salts or even aluminiun crystals are directly used as deodorants. Some of the shampoos contain also too much of aluminium.

If you take food rich in aluminium like tea or cucumber vitamin C must be avoided completely. This means tea with a fresh slice of lemon is very bad and you must avoid this completely. These foods must also be avoided during the major meals so that more iron is absorbed. Here vitamin C supplement or fruits containing vitamin C are very useful.

Do not cook acid containing foods like tomatoes or tarmarind in aluminium cooking vessels. These release more aluminum from the vessels to food.

If we know the sources it is easy to avoid aluminium.

What is red and white gold?

Pure gold (24 carat) is soft and can not used to make jewels. In India, it is normally 22 carat and in Europe it is 14 carat and very rarely 18 carat.

It is always the metal in the alloy that makes the colour different.

Normally copper, silver and other base metals form the gold alloy.

• Copper is the most common metal and it forms a red alloy.
• 25% copper in the antique created a rose gold.
• Iron alloys with gold gives blue gold.
• Aluminium and gold give purple gold alloy.
• 14 carat and 18carat with silver give a greenish yellow gold.
• The white gold alloy is made with palladium or nickel.

This is the story of gold colours.

What are the common toxic heavy metals in our food?

Although iron is essential it is also toxic and the toxic metals include:

• Arsenic
• Lead
• Mercury
• Cadmium
• Iron
• Aluminium

Arsenic - It is the most common cause of acute heavy metal poisoning. It is released from different industries to the environment. Shellfish, cod and haddock contain arsenic. Paints, rat poison, fungicides are the other sources. The target organs are kidneys, central nervous system, digestive tract and skin.

Lead - It accounts for most of the cases of paediatric heavy metal poisoning. It reduces the intelligence of the children. The old houses still have the lead pipes. Industry produces every year 2.5 million tons of lead and most of this is used in batteries. Bones, brain, kidneys and thyroid gland are the target organs. The paints also contain lead salts to dry them quickly. Therefore children should not be allowed to lick painted doors or windows. It is a problem throughout the world. Back hair dye and black printing ink have also lead.

Mercury - Its emissions are there from nature as well as from the industry. Chloralkali plants and paper industries are significant polluters. Dental amalgam is also a source of pollution. Fishes have more mercury. Target organs are the brain and kidneys. The present problem of mercury in our environment is the incandescent light bulbs, which we use in our houses. Some politicians want to ban these bulbs because they consume much more electricity. Politics and industry, therefore, recommend energy saving compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. But, the problem is they keep silent about the mercury present in these energy saving CFL bulbs which then could become one of the serious environmental contamination to our soil and ground water. When these bulbs are used up, they form solid wastes. In Western countries we can give back fused bulbs where we bought them and it is the law which regulates this. What will happen in other countries where there are no such possibilities? People simply throw used up bulbs with their household waste or near their houses, the mercury goes to the soil and ground water. The plants take these metals and the animals along with their feed or grass and we are the last in this chain to get it from our food. We must be very careful to keep ourselves and our families free from such poisons.

Cadmium - it is used in nickel-cadmium batteries, PVC plastics and paint pigments. Cigarette (tobacco) also contains cadmium. The absorption is through respiratory system. Liver, placenta, kidneys, lungs, brain and bones are the target organs.

Iron - it is a heavy metal of concern because iron supplements may acutely poison young children, 5 to 9 years. If the children consume 30mg iron tablets per day, it may spoil their health. The health problems associated with free radicals are dangerous to children. Too much of iron supplement is not healthy for adults. It accumulates in liver, heart muscles, kidney and other organs, rusting a reddish brown oxide coating forms on iron by the action of oxygen and moisture there and producing countless number of free radicals.

Aluminium - it is not a heavy metal but it is ingested through the use of food additives, antacids, nasal sprays and antiperspirants. Other sources are drinking water automobile exhaust, tobacco smoke, aluminium foil, aluminium cookware, ceramics and fancy fire works. Target organs for aluminium are the central nervous system, kidney and digestive system. The question of Aluminium and Alzheimer’s disease is not yet answered. It is proved that aluminium could cross the blood-brain barrier without any problem.

Reply to Kanti after going through her Aaron Analysis Form and 14 days food and fluids intake...

This is for you Kanti....The Food and our Health is not accepting this huge information. This is the reason why I put this in my blog...

You have 5 kgs overweight. Although resear has not given a clear picture whether aluminium is one of the culprits for Parkinson's disease, you must avoid cooking vessels with aluminium and using aluminium foils to cover or transport food. It is applicable to rice cooker also.

Moreover, tea and cucumber have lot of aluminium. If you use this you must be careful with food that have lot of vitamin C. Vitamin C prefers aluminium than iron if aluminium is present in high concentration to take to the blood. So eat cucumber alone and do not put it with your salad where the possibility of the presence of vitamin C is high. You are now fixed to a certain type of food. If i have to write a plan it will be entirely different. There will be no or very little supplements only. So, if you are happy with your present food follow it. At the same time try to avoid the following risk factors...

Wood furnitures - what are the chemical preservatives used?

Wool carpet -

It contains pesticide in high concentration...Normally it is soaked in a pesticide solution so that the insects will not attack it. The pesticide used is permethrin which is a neurotoxic. In which room you have this. If it is in your bedromm it is the worst.

Amalgam -

if it is done properly amalgam is good teeth filling. If not it is released continuously in your mouth and is deposited in your body. The possibility of a mercury allergy is then there. You could ask your skin specialist to do the mercury skin allergy test.

What are the industries nearby? Could you tell me exactly please?

What about your detoxification system and free radical scavenging system? In your case there are many environmental questions which must be cleared or solved...After that we have to see what is left...

I heard lemon tea is very good, how much I can drink this daily?

I do not know your medical history and food habits and so it is difficult to give you an individual answer, but I tell you what is happening if you drink lemon tea.

Because of acid rain, soil is rich in aluminium and it is not an essential element to our body. Very few plants can take the aluminium from the soil and tea plant is one of them and has a lot of aluminium. Now comes the lemon which contains vitamin C and it is necessary for the absorption of aluminium.

Few decades ago we thought aluminium cannot be absorbed; it may be because before 1980 we had no analytical methods to estimate aluminium in blood. The products of dialysis had lot of aluminium and that was the beginning of the analysis of it in water, blood and in other tissues. Now we know aluminium can be absorbed to the blood and even can cross the blood-brain barriers and may be a reason for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s sickness. So, lemon tea could be consumed, may be a small cup per day, but avoid it to drink with your meals.

Aluminium disturbs the absorption of iron.

I have iron deficiency, what is the relationship between iron and vitamin C?

This is a very important question, if we understand the relationship between these two lots of problems could be solved by us, I mean the iron deficiency.

We need vitamin C for the absorption of iron, so as also aluminium, moreover the transport protein is the same for iron and aluminium. That means if we have more aluminium in our meals, more aluminium is absorbed than iron and this can lead to iron deficiency, thus low haemoglobin values.

If we keep the aluminium levels in our food low and eat foods rich in iron and vitamin C, automatically more iron is absorbed and converted to haemoglobin. This is possible, if we know all the sources of aluminium in our food or also the contamination from aluminium cooking vessels and even from aluminium foils if you pack acidic foods directly in it.

Cucumber and tea are rich in aluminium. Think of rice cooker, the bowel there is aluminium so that our rice is quickly ready. Deodorants are also rich in aluminium which can enter our body through the skin.

The aluminium value of Indian human hair is found to be the highest in the world and I have examined approximately 250 Indian human hairs, most of them had low iron.

The relationship between iron and free radicals in our body

Our body needs iron to produce red blood cells and they are in charge of transporting oxygen to all cells in our body to produce energy. Less iron means less haemoglobin with many adverse effects, particularly not enough energy to carry out your day today work.

If you take iron supplements, all the iron absorbed cannot be converted into haemoglobin and the excess iron deposits in kidneys, liver and in heart muscles rust there. 37 degrees C and enough water are the best medium for the iron to rust. They produce lot of dangerous hydroxyl free radicals from Fenton’s chemical reaction and too many free radicals are dangerous to our body.

The iron tablets could be taken 14 days to 3 months under the strict supervision of you doctor.

Consult a dietician and improve the iron status only through your food, it is easy, if you know how to do it. Here, do not forget the role of vitamin C and aluminium.

Other poisons in the Household

Now, we see the other poisons in our houses.

What are the poisons expected in our houses?

These poisons are the substances in our building materials, furniture, soap, cosmetics, substances used to clean the house, disinfections solutions, electronic articles, vessels made up of aluminium, nickel jewellery and nicotine due to smoking. Pesticides are also used in the household to kill mosquitoes or cockroaches. The following substances are mostly used:

Asbestos - mixed with plastic to strengthen them and also mixed with cement to prevent fire spreading. Lung cancer is seen normally after 45 years. All the asbestos buildings are being demolished now in Germany.

Formaldehyde - paints, tobacco smoke and few other plastic products contain formaldehyde. When enough contact is there, irritation of mucus, headache and allergy are possible.

Isothiocyanate - it is present in polyester covering of the floor and polyurethane foam. Strong inhalation leads to irritation of the eyes and isothiocyanate asthma.
.
Solvents - solvents are necessary for the production of gum, paints, artificial leather, cleaning solution for the house and industry etc. Contact or breathing the vapour brings health problems.

Ozone - nowadays it comes from laser printers and Xerox copying machines and can make irritation of the eyes.

Phenols - present in paints and may affect liver and kidney.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - found in tobacco smoke, fried meats and chimney smoke of industries or burning wastes can cause cancer.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - floor spreads and foams contain this. They (don’t forget PCBs are a group of 209 organochlorine chemicals) are present in the white paper it is formed during the bleaching process with chlorine. Chlorine is also used to bleach the sanitary napkins for women and these PCBs too. A longer contact with PCBs may spoil the liver.

Organochlorine compounds as pesticides, fungicides etc.

Leather covered furniture – leather tanning is carried out using more than 40 different chemicals and other treatments. Even nowadays pentachlorophenol is used in leather tanning in several countries. The allowed amount is 5 mg/kg. But in several cases it exceeded this limit and persons who have problem with detoxification become sick and this is an environmental illness.

Case study: One of my colleagues bought a new leather sofa set and was very happy. In the weekend she invited her friend and her husband for coffee and cake in the afternoon. All were sitting in the sofa for more than three hours. The visiting woman was not feeling well. She had skin reaction, headache and other neurological problems. She went to the doctor and the problems were still there. Then they came to me and after a personal talk with that woman I ordered the estimation of Pentachlorophenol in her blood. It was 5 times more than the reference value. The owner of the sofa had very low pentachlorophenol in her blood. I have asked the colleague to rub some cotton wool strongly on the side of the sofa and bring it to me. We analysed this and also found very high amount of pentachlorophenol. The sofas were produced in a foreign country. The furniture shop has taken back the sofas and she could select a different one. This is possible in Germany even today.

But the important thing what we must learn from this is, 4 persons were sitting on the sofas. Only one became sick and all the others were not affected. Only in that woman the detoxification system was not working properly and so the problem of excretion from the body and the environmental sickness.

If there is any unexplainable sickness always think about the environmental factors also.

Think of the old North Arcot district with all its leather tanning industries where even the tender coconuts had all these environmental poisons long ago.

Apart from these, metals like aluminium, cadmium, lead, nickel, palladium and others are in our house. Have you seen small children standing in front of the window and licking the painted wood? These paints contain many metals including lead. The taste of the lead is sweet and so the children like this taste. Be careful and intervene immediately in such conditions. Lead is not dangerous to adults, but it makes children bad in their brain work, thus bad ranks in the school. WHO has studied with tens of thousands school going children and have proved it very clearly. This means as long as we are healthy and our detoxification system is working properly, there will be no problem for us. When there is disorder in our detoxification system or we fail to support our system with proper food then, we have really a problem. Individual food is very important here.

Can I do anything to reduce these environmental pollutants in the house?

Don't use too many chemicals and solvents.

Yes, you can do a lot. You can aerate the house by opening the windows regularly. With a wet cloth you can clean the floors to minimise the fine dust particles. Vacuum cleaning will not help because it will scatter the fine dust more.

But, once your house is contaminated with some chemical poison there is no chance to clean it because of the equilibrium between the walls and the air. In that case an expert must renew the walls to remove the poisons.

Why is vacuum cleaning not advisable?

When you do vacuum cleaning there should be no children in that room in order to avoid exposition from dust, excrements of small insects, bacteria and viruses. Small children are normally about 60 to 80 cm tall and in this height also the fine dust and others are scattered. The small children who then get all the dust and poisons excessively become sick. This is one of the reasons of your child’s allergy and other environmental sickness. The enemies of our health are everywhere.

Is there any relationship between dress and environmental poisons?

The colour in our dress may contain azo-dyes which are considered cancerous. If we sweat very much, then the possibility is more to get these substances in our body. Salicylic acid, formaldehyde, metal salts, particularly lead, chromium, nickel and sulphonamide are used to conserve the textiles against insects as well as to give good colours. These could bring contact allergies. The alternative is paraffin emulsion but prolonged contact may cause skin irritation.

Costly wool carpets are soaked in pesticide solution before it is sold. Never buy these.

How did the human beings select their food in the past when they had no chance to analyse?

It was not easy for them to select the correct food, but they observed everything very keenly and carefully. In course of time, sometimes they took years or decades to arrive to the correct conclusion.

In my observation I have seen one thing very carefully when my mother or sister put the mustard seeds in the hot oil, it bursted out and spreaded everywhere, but I could never get an explanation for that. When I came to Germany I had seen that they ate mustard sauce, mild, middle, hot or sweet with grilled pork or meat or sausages. When they ate sausages either in the home or outside, mustard paste was taken in enough quantity. I started to think about our bursting mustard. I found later the reason that mustard neutralises the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) released when fat is burnt at high temperature. It is produced when from the grilled pork the fat drops in the fire, it burns there and produces the PAHs. This happened in a different way in our frying pan but the result was always the same.

The substance which neutralised the poisons was present inside the mustard. They made it a paste and we allowed it to burst, the purpose was same, if we do not break it, the mustard seeds will be excreted along with the faecal waste without being digested. I asked several old Germans to have an explanation for this. The oldest, 96 years old, told me that he had been eating mustard paste since his childhood. Look, how intelligent were our forefathers. They have think and observe much and now we need not think – the industry and others are thinking for us – and we become sick without knowing why. Ask always why and try to find out the answer also.

Why does new furniture smell bad?

Many chemicals are used to impregnate the furniture. The paints or varnish used contain organic solvents which are also dangerous for us. The new ones must be kept open for several days before we use it.

Here I want to give one more good tip. It is applicable to new cars also. Do not close all the windows and sit there with air-conditioner on. You get all the poisons from the new plastic products there. Drive for few months with open windows.

Men’s Cosmetics

Men’s cosmetics, is it necessary? The cosmetics companies say yes because it is a big market for them. It is like half of the Asian women smoking for cigarette companies. Their argument is that the men’s skin is thicker and oilier and therefore has different needs. Many companies have developed specific lines of skincare for men.

Taking bath daily in the morning and evening is a must for men. A mild shampoo and a mild soap are good to remove the dirt and the dead cells on the skin. Shave after the bath or shower. Use a mild after shave lotion.

A moisturizer is always important. If the skin is very oily do not use the moisturizer. Toner and acne concealer powders are bad. The so called experts say after a good make up the men should not touch their face. It is a wit – if you watch somebody we touch our face several times in an hour – such wonderful unnatural suggestions for men to stop their reflex reactions.

A man can use deodorant only in his armpit and it is applicable to women also. All Deodorants contain Aluminum salts which remove the bad smell. Aluminum is a very dangerous metal. It gives problem to iron absorption and it is suspected that aluminum play a role in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Very little deodorant is enough. Whole body deodorant is dangerous, never use it.

My advices to men include:

• Avoid exposure to excess sun. If you have a white skin you have to protect with SPF 15 cream or lotion. If you are brown it is not necessary. Even then avoid excess sun.
• The food you take must be healthy. You must eat lot of vegetables, fruits, pulses, beans, nuts and whole grains products. Avoid processed food and junk food. Make up can do only little for your skin but the real beauty of the skin comes from inside with you healthy life style.
• Physical activity is very important to your skin shape. Quick walking, skipping, gym, swimming, bicycling, or any team sport like soccer, basket ball or volley ball is good. You must do it every day.
• Think positively, avoid stress and treat problems as challenges.

The dose makes the poison. Too much of anything is never good. It is applicable to food, sweets, alcohol, tobacco, stress, fatigue and even for make up.

I have talked about the body smell of men with women in all continents. For them men’s hygiene is very important. But all like their partners’ body odour. So men decide what you want.

Sesame oil pulling makes and keeps your mouth and breath fresh which is highly appreciated by many women.