I.M.120 Helping you to BE YOUR BEST SELF

By now we have all heard about the lead contamination disaster in Flint Michigan. Thousands of people have been exposed to high levels of lead in the drinking water. Irreversible damage is being done to their brains. The future consequence for children will be mental retardation. For adults, increased risk of heart disease, cancer and dementia.

There are 5300 water systems right now that violate EPA rules.

In addition to the systems that are blatantly violating EPA rules, probably twice as many manipulate the rules in order to avoid testing outside of the limits for lead.

Millions of people are drinking water from systems that have failed EPA rules. Some of them have not tested properly, others have failed the test but there is no consequence. There simply is not enough money to fix the system. Think of all those potholes and bridges in disrepair, along with other evidence of a visibly crumbling infrastructure. Now think about how easy it is to ignore the crumbling infrastructure that you can't see. Municipal water systems are highly neglected. Residue and sludge buildup on the lining of pipes and seeps into your water. Many of the older pipes leech lead into the drinking water.

Compound that with the fact that even "lead free" faucet systems are allowed a certain percentage of lead that they don't need to list. You're talking about an inevitable accumulation of lead in our system.

Unfortunately, water is not the only source of lead. There is lead in the air we breathe, the food that we eat, even the wines that we drink and the glasses we drink them out of can have trace levels of lead that can add up over time.

"Allowable" levels of lead keep going down.

Over the years the threshold of what is allowable continues to be decreased. That tells us that they really don't know where the threshold should be. We know that lead is toxic at any level. No one knows at which point that toxicity will cause irreversible damage.

Recent findings suggest that even levels below 10 mcg/dL can extend beyond cognitive damage and include cardiovascular, immunologic, and endocrine damage as well.

Lead has been demonstrated to shorten Telomeres thereby decreasing life expectancy and increasing cancer risk as well as the risk of heart disease.

Chronic exposure to low levels of lead as documented by measuring the amount stored in bone has correlated with a decrease in brain function over time. (Article in neurology, 2006 and American Journal of Epidemiology, 2004)

Slowly rotting brains, increasing cancer risk, corrosion to arteries and the heart are all the consequences of neglected lead that is stored in our bodies.

What to do?

1. Start by eliminating any potential sources of lead. Have your water tested, or filter it for lead.
2. Obtaining a blood level of lead is a good idea, but not adequate. You must also test the levels of lead stored in your cells and especially in the bone. The best way to do this is with "provocative" urinary lead testing. In this test, a safe intravenous infusion of calcium EDTA is given in order to pull the lead out of its hiding places. We then measure the amount that is passed through the urine. This gives a reflection of the total body storage of lead. Depending on the amount of lead and other heavy metals in your body, your age and medical condition, a program can be designed to safely and affordably remove the heavy metals and diminish your risk.

The likelihood that the government and other authorities will address the situation is small. It's incumbent upon all of us to be accountable for our own health, get tested, and implement a plan when we are young to protect our brains and our general health now and in the future.

Living 120 years is an achievable goal. To get there with all of our faculties requires action to avoid the consequences of chronic heavy-metal toxicity.

To your best health,

Dr. Stephen Petteruti