That’s an interesting survey.
Do you happen to know if the study is also identifying where the lead is originating from?
Thanks.
No I don’t. The original studies simply looked at patients blood from those with a confirmed diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and compared these a sample from the general population. There was a strong correlation between elevated levels of heavy metals and those with AML. However we are not talking acute toxic levels.
For lead the average was about 25 nano mols per litre of blood. ( in grams, molecular weight of lead is 207 grams per mol, so we talking 25x207x 10 to the minus 9 grams per litre - don’t have a scientific calculator to hand).
In the studies there was no indication that the patients had had any abnormal exposure to heavy metals. The cohort of patients and comparitor populations were from hospitals in Texas and in France.
This basic research was published in early 2020. There has been a lot of ongoing research since then.
1) method of action - laboratory based models have demonstrated that lead etc mess up the p53 protein and stops it unfolding. p53 provides a vital role in your body capturing cellular material that has mutated - ie cancerous. Lead and other heavy metals stop this action, and thus stop the bodies ability to capture this material and get rid of it.
By getting rid of the heavy metals the function of the p53 is reinstated and can get rid of the cancerous materiel.
2) based on understanding the method of action and with initial clinical studies, the therapies to remove the metals received orphan drug status from the FDA are now in use in clinics to treat AML.
Lead and other heavy metals have two means of getting into your body.
1) through your lungs via lead dust - old lead paint, leaded petrol, electronic items such as vapes using lead solder etc
2) through the mouth and gut from contaminated water and food stuffs. Bear in mind that once lead is adsorbed in stays in your body, so over time it builds up.
There have been other studies looking at lead build up in indigenous peoples who live on hunted game. They seem to have elevated levels of lead and consequently have significantly higher levels of dementia, delinquency and cancer compared to the average. p53 is also involved in controlling neurological disease such as alzheimers and build up of stray proteins in the brain.
Most of the heavy metals are coming from environmental pollution. As many have stated there is quite a bit of lead in our food. Lead in the soil will be concentrated in seeds of plants, and grains such as wheat are a major foodstuff. Lead does occur naturally, but normally bound into rocks etc. On agricultural soils there will be lead from pollution etc.
There is a very obvious study that can easily be done. All firearms holders in the UK have flags on their medical records, and you could do a comparison between incidence of cancers against the general population - the data is there. Alternatively look at BASC members and general population.
The challenge with all such research is the cost of doing so.
But from a medical perspective it’s irrelevant. The slim resources available are being spent of developing treatments, rather than worrying about the source.
Despite abundant epidemiological data linking metals to leukemia and other cancers, baseline values of toxic and essential metals in patients with leukemia and the clinical impact of these metals remain unknown. Thus, we sought to quantify metal values in untreated patients with acute myeloid...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
