Lead Poisoning and Low Creatinine
Oct. 3rd, 2008 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liveonearthRecently I did a DMSA oral bolus and a 6 hour urine collection after that, to provoke the chelation and renal secretion of any heavy metals that I have stored in my tissues. The news is: my previous hair test was inaccurate, mercury and arsenic are not the highest pollutants in my system. I have lead toxicity. Not just a little bit of lead, no, I have over 3 times the limit.
Before lead was removed from automobile fuel, a major source of exposure was breathing exhaust, but that is no longer true. The common sources of lead are all the places you might imagine, old paint, batteries, smelting, foreign ceramics, bullets and fishing sinkers, artist paints and lead welds in old plumbing. Of all of these, the only one that I've contacted is old plumbing. I wonder, did I get lead poisoning from the water system in the Barn? That building is over a century old.
Whatever the case, the manifestations of lead buildup in tissue in children are well documented, including loss of IQ, hearing loss, and poor growth. As the lead burden increases these can occur (in order); impaired vitamin D metabolism, detrimental effects on erythrocyte precursor cells, increased erythrocyte protoporphyrin, headache, decreased nerve conduction velocity, metallic taste, loss of appetite, constipation, hoor hemoglobin synthesis, colic, frank anemia, tremors, nephrotoxic effects with impaired renal excretion of uric acid, neuropathy and encephalophathy. Out of the last I can lay claim to headache, constipation and tremors, and the headache and tremors have been with me for several years now.
Aside from the very high lead burden that this test shows I have, I also have an elevated level of aluminum, and I show values that are "within reference range" for arsenic, cadmium, thallium and mercury, with mercury being the highest of those. The report says "This individual's urine mercury is higher than expected but not sufficiently high to assume pathophysiological effects." ...which means to me that it's up but nobody has admitted officially that that level is bad for you. I know where my mercury came from. I have a mouth full of mercury amalgams, and I had a sushi habit for a while there.
My urine creatinine is over 2 standard deviations lower than their mean, and I have no idea what that means. Time to look it up. Creatinine, along with BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and Creatinine Clearance are measures of renal function. The best approximation of the GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is Creatinine Clearance. The best test to evaluate tubule function is a fractional excretion of sodium.
Serum creatinine is a catabolic product of creatine phosphate from skeletal muscle, or in the words of the lab text, "it is the byproduct of muscle energy metabolism and is produced at a contant rate according to the muscle mass of the individual". Muscle mass fluctuates very little unless some muscle-wasting pathology exists. I have lots of muscle mass, so why should my creatinine levels be so low? Creatinine is completely filtered by the kidneys, and is also secreted by the proximal tubule, so we want to get rid of it when we have it. Again, my lab text says "Disorders of kidney function prevent maximum excretion of creatinine". Do I have a kidney disorder? Later the book says "Determination of urine creatinine is of little value for evaluationg renal function unless it is done as part of a creatinine clearance test. OK then. What do I need? I think I need a blood creatinine test.
My lab diagnosis notes only speak of increased levels, and they say that creatinine increases later than BUN, and that elevations suggest chronic disease process. A doubling of the serum creatinine suggests a reduction by half of the GFR. Nobody in the clinic said anything about the creatinine. But I have learned to not wait for someone else to sort out whats my labs mean. I am the one in charge of the investigation.
At this moment I have this gleam of hope that the chelation therapy that I brought home with me will be the thing that clears my mind, lifts my headaches and depression permanently, and makes the tremors in my hands go away. Today I was trying to feed myself a spoonful of EFA oil, and would have spilled it only myself except I knew to bring the spoon to my mouth very quickly, before I could spill it. There's this shake in my once smooth movements. If I am lead poisoned, and the lead can be removed, perhaps I can be healed. Naturopathy is about removing obstacles to a cure, and I think that's what I'm finally getting close to.
OH just found something useful. DECREASED urine creatinine is found in: hyperthyroidism, anemia, muscular dystrophy, molymyositis, neurogenic atrophy, inflammatory muscle disease, advanced renal disease, renal stenons, and leukemia. Whoa that's a scarey list. I better check with my doc before I take these pills that chelate heavy metals. Hmmm.
Oooh, just found this: "a decreased (urine) creatinine may indicate muscle wasting. This is usually seen in patients with chronic debilitating disease states such as cancer and extreme malnutrition." I'm not malnourished but I can't rule out cancer. I know I'm crazy, you don't have to tell me that.
Before lead was removed from automobile fuel, a major source of exposure was breathing exhaust, but that is no longer true. The common sources of lead are all the places you might imagine, old paint, batteries, smelting, foreign ceramics, bullets and fishing sinkers, artist paints and lead welds in old plumbing. Of all of these, the only one that I've contacted is old plumbing. I wonder, did I get lead poisoning from the water system in the Barn? That building is over a century old.
Whatever the case, the manifestations of lead buildup in tissue in children are well documented, including loss of IQ, hearing loss, and poor growth. As the lead burden increases these can occur (in order); impaired vitamin D metabolism, detrimental effects on erythrocyte precursor cells, increased erythrocyte protoporphyrin, headache, decreased nerve conduction velocity, metallic taste, loss of appetite, constipation, hoor hemoglobin synthesis, colic, frank anemia, tremors, nephrotoxic effects with impaired renal excretion of uric acid, neuropathy and encephalophathy. Out of the last I can lay claim to headache, constipation and tremors, and the headache and tremors have been with me for several years now.
Aside from the very high lead burden that this test shows I have, I also have an elevated level of aluminum, and I show values that are "within reference range" for arsenic, cadmium, thallium and mercury, with mercury being the highest of those. The report says "This individual's urine mercury is higher than expected but not sufficiently high to assume pathophysiological effects." ...which means to me that it's up but nobody has admitted officially that that level is bad for you. I know where my mercury came from. I have a mouth full of mercury amalgams, and I had a sushi habit for a while there.
My urine creatinine is over 2 standard deviations lower than their mean, and I have no idea what that means. Time to look it up. Creatinine, along with BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and Creatinine Clearance are measures of renal function. The best approximation of the GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is Creatinine Clearance. The best test to evaluate tubule function is a fractional excretion of sodium.
Serum creatinine is a catabolic product of creatine phosphate from skeletal muscle, or in the words of the lab text, "it is the byproduct of muscle energy metabolism and is produced at a contant rate according to the muscle mass of the individual". Muscle mass fluctuates very little unless some muscle-wasting pathology exists. I have lots of muscle mass, so why should my creatinine levels be so low? Creatinine is completely filtered by the kidneys, and is also secreted by the proximal tubule, so we want to get rid of it when we have it. Again, my lab text says "Disorders of kidney function prevent maximum excretion of creatinine". Do I have a kidney disorder? Later the book says "Determination of urine creatinine is of little value for evaluationg renal function unless it is done as part of a creatinine clearance test. OK then. What do I need? I think I need a blood creatinine test.
My lab diagnosis notes only speak of increased levels, and they say that creatinine increases later than BUN, and that elevations suggest chronic disease process. A doubling of the serum creatinine suggests a reduction by half of the GFR. Nobody in the clinic said anything about the creatinine. But I have learned to not wait for someone else to sort out whats my labs mean. I am the one in charge of the investigation.
At this moment I have this gleam of hope that the chelation therapy that I brought home with me will be the thing that clears my mind, lifts my headaches and depression permanently, and makes the tremors in my hands go away. Today I was trying to feed myself a spoonful of EFA oil, and would have spilled it only myself except I knew to bring the spoon to my mouth very quickly, before I could spill it. There's this shake in my once smooth movements. If I am lead poisoned, and the lead can be removed, perhaps I can be healed. Naturopathy is about removing obstacles to a cure, and I think that's what I'm finally getting close to.
OH just found something useful. DECREASED urine creatinine is found in: hyperthyroidism, anemia, muscular dystrophy, molymyositis, neurogenic atrophy, inflammatory muscle disease, advanced renal disease, renal stenons, and leukemia. Whoa that's a scarey list. I better check with my doc before I take these pills that chelate heavy metals. Hmmm.
Oooh, just found this: "a decreased (urine) creatinine may indicate muscle wasting. This is usually seen in patients with chronic debilitating disease states such as cancer and extreme malnutrition." I'm not malnourished but I can't rule out cancer. I know I'm crazy, you don't have to tell me that.
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Date: 2008-10-04 04:19 pm (UTC)