Toxins Cause Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy

Based on analysis¹ revealed in 1999, individuals with extreme coronary heart failure have 12,000-fold extra antimony of their myocytes (the center muscle cells answerable for contraction) than wholesome controls. Additionally they have 22,000-fold extra mercury.

Mercury is a extremely poisonous steel that causes oxidative stress, weakening of the antioxidant protection system, enzyme inactivation and elevated oxidative harm, all of which contribute to the deterioration of coronary heart perform.² Lengthy-term publicity to antimony has additionally been linked to cardiovascular issues. Antimony additionally has estrogenic exercise, which drives many persistent ailments, together with most cancers.

The oxidative stress attributable to heavy metals is among the major methods wherein they destroy your mitochondrial perform. Some heavy metals, together with mercury, cadmium and copper, additionally intrude immediately with the mitochondrial electron transport chain,³ resulting in decreased ATP manufacturing, which is essential for mobile vitality.

Mercury’s interplay with mitochondrial enzymes and membranes additional amplifies oxidative harm, impairs mobile respiration, and may set off cell loss of life.

Excessive Concentrations of Heavy Metals Are Almost All the time Current in Failing Hearts

In a November 2023 article,⁴ Dr. Thomas Levy, contributing editor for the Orthomolecular Medication Information Service, identified that the center is “the popular assortment web site” for many heavy metals, and as such, heavy steel toxicity is a standard contributor to, and typically direct reason behind, coronary heart failure.

Numerous toxins, particularly heavy metals like lead, copper, iron, mercury, aluminum, cadmium and others, can accumulate in coronary heart tissue, contributing considerably to coronary heart failure by immediately damaging coronary heart muscle cells and affecting their perform. As reported by Levy:⁵

“Many alternative toxins, together with many heavy metals, have been both linked to coronary heart failure or clearly proven to be the direct trigger. Moreover, a number of of those toxins is almost at all times current in excessive concentrations within the affected coronary heart muscle. A partial record of such brokers contains the next:

Levy cites research displaying how every of those poisonous brokers harm your coronary heart and deteriorate cardiac perform. Lead, for instance, is linked to acute coronary heart failure and myocarditis; copper toxicity to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; iron to congestive coronary heart failure; and mercury to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM).

Recognizing and treating heavy steel toxicity can dramatically enhance coronary heart perform, Levy notes, including that chelation remedy has proven promise in reversing toxicity-related coronary heart harm.

The Most secure Option to Decrease Your Iron

Whereas Levy critiques using an iron chelator (deferoxamine) for extreme iron overload, routine phlebotomy (blood donation) is one other, seemingly safer, possibility. Unwanted side effects of deferoxamine embrace however are usually not restricted to allergic reactions, respiratory points, imaginative and prescient disturbances, listening to loss, muscle spasms and bone ache.⁶

For these with elevated iron ranges, I like to recommend donating blood two to 4 occasions a 12 months. If shedding 10% of your blood in a single sitting is simply too problematic, you may take away blood in smaller quantities as soon as a month on the schedule listed beneath. When you’ve got congestive coronary heart failure or extreme COPD, it’s best to talk about this together with your physician, however in any other case it is a pretty acceptable advice for many.

Males	Postmenopausal Ladies	Premenopausal Ladies
150 ml	100 ml	50 ml

As reported by Levy:⁷

“[A] case report described a 27-year-old lady with ‘extreme coronary heart failure’ fully normalizing on an iron elimination routine. Sufferers with extreme iron overload cardiomyopathy have a median survival of just one 12 months when therapeutic phlebotomy (blood donation) and iron chelation are usually not utilized.

This type of cardiomyopathy begins with restricted filling of the center (diastolic dysfunction), after which evolving right into a congestive cardiomyopathy. Iron overload cardiomyopathy happens mostly in sufferers with hereditary hemochromatosis or secondary hemochromatosis (as with β-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia).

Nonetheless, extra iron in need of that seen in full-blown hemochromatosis can nonetheless be anticipated to inflict its personal dose-dependent toxicity. Most adults have already got extra ranges of iron of their our bodies, as mirrored by elevated ferritin ranges that erroneously stay thought to be regular in laboratory reference ranges.

Extra iron within the coronary heart can also be a predisposing issue to creating atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia that contributes its personal elevated morbidity and mortality.

In animal research, extra mobile iron in coronary heart cells has been proven to extend oxidative stress and impair the flexibility of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) to supply ATP. As ATP is the first energy-providing molecule within the physique, any lower in its manufacturing at all times leads to compromised mobile perform and illness.

Of be aware, resveratrol supplementation has been proven to dramatically enhance coronary heart perform in animal fashions of iron overload cardiomyopathy. In one other animal examine,⁸ both deferiprone or N-acetylcysteine was efficient in lowering cardiac iron focus.”

The place Does the Antimony Come From?

In private correspondence with me, Levy identified that one of many major sources of antimony is PET-containing plastics, with plastic water bottles being the highest supply.

“By comparability, antimony is extra poisonous than arsenic,” he informed me. “After presenting this information not too long ago, a Veteran within the viewers informed me that they dropped big pallets of bottled water to the troops within the Center East, and he would get sick each time he drank the water, however there was no different supply of water. In fact, warmth accelerated the antimony launch into the water.”

Chapter 3 in Defend Our Well being’s 2022 report, “Downside Plastic: How Polyester and PET Plastic Could be Unsafe, Unjust and Unsustainable Supplies,” element how antimony in plastic threaten our well being, particularly that of our kids. Right here’s a small excerpt:⁹

“Antimony (within the type of antimony trioxide) is the popular catalyst for rushing the ultimate chemical response that produces PET plastic. Small quantities of antimony can regularly escape from PET throughout use and disposal of plastic bottles, meals packaging, and from polyester clothes, kids’s merchandise, and different textiles.

Antimony has been recognized to adversely have an effect on well being for many years based mostly on well being research of uncovered individuals and laboratory animals … Kids are uncovered to a number of sources of antimony from its use as a plastic additive, together with its widespread use with flame retardant chemical substances, together with in PET and polyester.

Along with publicity from meals and drinks, antimony could also be ingested from home mud and from the mouthing of polyester-based toys and clothes. This mixture publicity to antimony by kids seems to exceed the utmost day by day dose established by the State of California to guard towards persistent organ toxicity.”

Importantly, antimony additionally has estrogenic activity and estrogen shouldn’t be one thing you need an excessive amount of of. The “Downside Plastic” report cites analysis that discovered estrogenic exercise in 7 of 9 PET bottles examined.

Apart from being a recognized carcinogen and a driver of weight problems, estrogen can also be a metabolic inhibitor that slows down vitality manufacturing within the cell. And, as careworn by Levy within the quote above, any lower in vitality manufacturing “at all times leads to compromised mobile perform and illness.”

Watch out for Drinks in Plastic Bottles

In February 2022, Defend Our Well being examined 20 in style drinks for the presence of antimony. All the drinks have been bottled in PET plastic, and all had detectable ranges of antimony. Eight of the 20 samples (40%) had antimony concentrations that exceeded California’s Public Well being Purpose for consuming water of 1 half per billion (ppb), and 18 of the samples (90%) exceeded the 0.25 ppb restrict beneficial by Defend Our Well being. Based on the “Downside Plastic” report:¹⁰

“The very best focus was discovered within the Campbell’s V8 vegetable juice pattern, which had 3.45 components per billion (ppb) of antimony, greater than 3 times California’s public well being aim for antimony in consuming water.

The soda pattern with the very best antimony focus was Coca Cola (packaged in 100% recycled PET) at 2.2 ppb. Nestle’s Perrier water had the very best focus of antimony among the many sampled bottled waters, at 1.58 ppb.

The plastic from 11 bottles had concentrations of antimony within the vary of 216 to 321 components per million (ppm). These concentrations fall inside or barely above the beforehand documented vary of 172 to 261 ppm in PET bottles recognized to make use of an antimony catalyst.

Three bottles examined had undetectable concentrations of antimony. These PET samples have been Merely Lemonade, Mountain Dew, and 7up bottles. Titanium concentrations for these PET samples have been discovered to be six to seven occasions increased than within the different examined bottle samples …

Aluminum ranges have been additionally elevated within the plastic from two of those samples (Merely Lemonade and 7-up), suggesting that these bottles could have been produced utilizing a titanium- and/or aluminum-based catalyst.”

Nanoplastics Linked to Coronary heart Assaults and Stroke

In associated information, latest analysis¹¹ has additionally linked nanoplastics to an elevated danger of coronary heart assaults and stroke. The examine, revealed within the New England Journal of Medication, analyzed tissue from 257 people present process carotid endarterectomy.

Arterial plaques have been discovered to comprise a number of sorts of nanoplastics, together with polyethylene, which was detected in 58.4% of sufferers, and polyvinyl chloride, present in 12.1%.

Disturbingly, people with microplastics or nanoplastics of their carotid artery tissues have been discovered to have fourfold increased danger of struggling a cardiovascular occasion resembling coronary heart assault or stroke over the subsequent three years in comparison with these with out such plastics. They have been additionally extra more likely to die from any trigger.

Rising Mobile Vitality Is an Vital A part of Coronary heart Failure Therapy

The guts and the mind between them eat practically one-third of your physique’s vitality. The mind is 2% of your physique weight and consumes 20% of your physique vitality, whereas your coronary heart is simply 0.5% of your physique weight (or 75% lower than your mind) but nonetheless consumes 7% to eight% of your physique’s vitality. Gram per gram, that is 50% greater than your mind consumption.

In case you are unable to supply satisfactory mobile vitality, you merely will not have sufficient energy to permit your coronary heart to pump effectively. That is why it’s so important to implement the methods we now have mentioned beforehand in different articles to enhance mobile vitality manufacturing.

The next are key ideas that should be built-in to enhance all mobile vitality, and definitely vitality produced for the center. All of them revolve round enhancing mitochondrial perform:

Decrease Your Poisonous Burden With Blood Donation and Sauna

Along with reducing iron, blood donation can even decrease the degrees of sure plastic chemical substances in your blood. One other efficient solution to excrete heavy metals and plastic chemical substances out of your tissues is thru sweating. I like to recommend utilizing a near-infrared sauna with low EMFs for this objective, because the near-infrared rays can penetrate far deeper into your physique than far-infrared.

Different benefits of sauna use embrace improved cardiovascular health and decreased all-cause mortality, decrease blood strain, decreased dementia danger, improved psychological well being, strengthened immune perform, improved athletic endurance, decreased irritation, stem cell activation, improved insulin sensitivity and a discount in stress hormones.

As a normal advice, keep within the sauna for 20 to half-hour, or till you attain subjective fatigue, which is an indication that you simply’ve maxed out the advantages you’re going to get. It’s not about reaching some extent of struggling — simply that time the place you’re feeling mildly anxious and drained and need to get out.

As for the frequency, analysis has constantly proven that it’s dose-dependent, so the extra usually you do it, the higher the advantages. The candy spot appears to be proper round 4 occasions every week, since you’ll even be shedding minerals together with toxins. So, it’s worthwhile to rehydrate and replenish these minerals to keep away from mineral deficiencies. For extra particulars, together with find out how to construct your individual near-infrared sauna, see “Near-Infrared Sauna Therapy — A Key Biohack for Health.”

Progesterone Counteracts Xenoestrogen Publicity From Plastics

To counteract the hazards of estrogenic publicity from plastics you should use progesterone, which is a pure estrogen antagonist. Progesterone is considered one of solely 4 hormones I consider many adults can profit from. (The opposite three are thyroid hormone T3, DHEA and pregnenolone.)

As a normal advice, I like to recommend taking 25 to 50 mg of bioidentical progesterone per a day, taken within the night one hour earlier than mattress, as it could additionally promote sleep. For optimum bioavailability, progesterone must be combined into pure vitamin E. The distinction in bioavailability between taking progesterone orally with out vitamin E and taking it with vitamin E is 45 minutes versus 48 hours.

One other good motive for taking progesterone with vitamin E is as a result of it binds to crimson blood cells, which permits the progesterone to be carried all through your physique and be distributed to the place it’s wanted probably the most.

Simply Progesterone by Health Natura is premixed with vitamin E and MCT oil. You may as well make your individual by dissolving pure USP progesterone powder into one capsule of a high-quality vitamin E, after which rub the combination in your gums. Fifty milligrams of powdered progesterone is about 1/32 teaspoon.

Don’t use artificial vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate — the acetate signifies that it’s artificial). Pure vitamin E shall be labeled “d alpha tocopherol.” That is the pure D isomer, which is what your physique can use. There are additionally different vitamin E isomers, and also you need the whole spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, particularly the beta, gamma, and delta varieties, within the efficient D isomer.

I don’t advocate transdermal progesterone, as your pores and skin expresses excessive ranges of 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which causes a good portion of the progesterone you take to be irreversibly transformed primarily into allopregnanolone and can’t be transformed again into progesterone.

Stopping Poisonous Exposures Is Key

In fact, prevention — minimizing your publicity to heavy metals and estrogenic compounds resembling microplastics — actually must be your first line of protection.

Whereas that sounds simple sufficient, it may be difficult enterprise, for the straightforward motive that these toxins are throughout us, in our meals, water, family mud, clothes, family and private care objects and even the air we breathe. That mentioned, making a concerted effort to rid your family of plastic can go a great distance towards minimizing your and your kids’s publicity. Listed below are a number of strategies to get you began:

Filter your faucet water and keep away from water bottled in plastic — If it’s worthwhile to purchase bottled water, go for glass bottles. Additionally make certain the filter you employ to purify your faucet water can filter out microplastics.

Select natural meals every time attainable.

Go for low-mercury fish resembling anchovy, catfish, wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and tilapia — These fish are categorized as “Finest Selections” for consumption as a consequence of their decrease mercury ranges, making them safer choices for everybody, together with pregnant girls and kids.12 Keep away from all farmed fish, nevertheless, as farmed fish are typically closely contaminated. Additionally keep away from massive carnivorous fish resembling marlin, sea bass and tuna, together with canned tuna, as these are likely to comprise a number of the highest concentrations of mercury.

Preserve correct air flow to cut back indoor pollution.

Boil onerous faucet water — When you’ve got onerous faucet water, take into account boiling it earlier than utilizing it for cooking or consuming, as onerous water traps extra microplastics. Current analysis reveals boiling onerous faucet water for 5 minutes removes as much as 90% of the microplastics within the water.13

Select options to plastic packaging — Go for merchandise packaged in glass, steel, or paper as an alternative of plastic. This may considerably scale back the quantity of plastic waste that probably breaks down into microplastics. At dwelling, use wax paper, parchment paper or paper baggage to retailer meals slightly than plastic wrap.

Use reusable containers — Substitute single-use plastic bottles, cups, and containers with reusable options made out of safer supplies like stainless-steel or glass.

By no means microwave plastics — Warmth could cause plastics to leach chemical substances into meals. Use glass or ceramic containers for microwaving.

Keep away from plastic slicing boards — Go for wooden or glass slicing boards as an alternative.

Go for pure fibers — At any time when attainable, select clothes and different textile merchandise made out of pure fibers like cotton, wool and linen, as artificial materials resembling polyester shed microfibers and leach xenoestrogens.

Wash artificial garments much less incessantly — When washing artificial textiles, use a microfiber filter in your washer to entice artificial fibers and forestall them from getting into the water system.

Go for meals grade cosmetics and private care merchandise — Some cosmetics, toothpastes, and private care merchandise comprise microbeads or different plastic particles. Search for merchandise free of those supplies. Ideally, go for all-natural, meals grade merchandise.

Guarantee correct disposal or recycling of electronics and batteries.