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Tim's Log
@arket I was hypothyroid from a child. I felt healthy up to like 10yo. Once they filled my mouth with amalgams I was a mess and eating diet basically junk food diet low in all key micronutrients was not helpful as well.. I did some hair tests and I had high mercury and low trace minerals like selenium, molybdenum etc.. Classic case of mercury toxicity. When I started bodybuilding around 19 yo and I started taking zinc, selenium, b complex etc.. Started eating good amount of eggs and meat everything was better, but then I started taking steroids and that crashed my endocrine system again. Had high estradiol for a long time. Which depletes all the cofactors needed to metabolize estradiol to less potent forms of estrogen for elimination.. B vitamins and iodine are very important for this process.. Also taking 100-200mcg of selenium is far from excessive.. People take doses in miligrams for mercury toxicity.. With iodine around 2-3mg a day it is also far from excessive if it is even normal intake achievable from the diet in Japan and as I see it good intake of iodine is the key thig to not end up with aggressive types of estrogenic cancers like prostate in males which runs in my family. I think today eating fish like @tim-2 is saying for selenium and iodine when it is loaded with toxins is not a good idea.. 100 years ago I would eat animals from the ocean all day every day. But today it is counter productive. Every practitioner will tell you that they can see it on the hair test if they eat a lot of sea foods.. I also know many bodybuilders who were eating good amount of sea food and fish because it is healthier than poultry, beef etc.. and they all ended up with mercury toxicity.. But it is ok everyone can do whatever wants with his body. I will rather take selenium pill or iodine drop without ingesting other toxins..
The main source of mercury in seafood is not from human activity. It's from underwater volcanos. Seafood mercury levels haven't changed that much through history.
Only certain species are high in mercury. It's common for bodybuilders to consume tuna which contains about 350mcg mercury/kg making it a high mercury fish. Consuming tuna frequently can lead to mercury toxicity. Consuming low mercury species like sardines (13mcg/kg) and salmon (14mcg/kg) frequently does not cause mercury toxicity.
Hair analysis can be useful but a lot of the time data from it is interpreted in ways that aren't scientifically sound.
Now let's compare heavy metal intake from low mercury fish to other foods. 100g of sardines contains 1.3mcg mercury.
Dietary Cadmium Intake and Sources in the US
The food groups that contributed most to Cd intake were cereals and bread (34%), leafy vegetables (20%), potatoes (11%), legumes and nuts (7%), and stem/root vegetables (6%). The foods that contributed most to total Cd intake were lettuce (14%), spaghetti (8%), bread (7%), and potatoes (6%).
Cereals and bread supply 1.57mcg cadmium/day/person. Potatoes supply 0.52mcg cadmium/day/person. Fish and shellfish supply 0.04mcg cadmium/day/person.
Sardines, salmon and a lot of other seafood does not stand out as high in heavy metals.
Heavy metals are present in most foods. Our physiology is designed to be able to detoxify the amounts normally present in the diet. Liver dysfunction can lead to a slowing of metal detoxification. Liver function determines if the trace amounts of heavy metals present in most foods bioaccumulate long term.
I used to think too that taking those supplemental mineral dosages that you say is safe and beneficial, but not anymore. I used to suffer from bad skin (dirty, oily and acne) for years and I always supplemented zinc and selenium once or twice a day. Two years ago I stopped taking mineral supplements and miraculously my skin cleared right away. It has been totally clear since then until I decided to try taking just a modest 15mg of zinc and 50mcg of selenium per day. I started them last Friday and now my skin is swimming in oil and I have started to get some red pimples in several places on my face and my skin looks red and blotchy. Zinc and selenium is supposed to be very good for clear skin and still this is the real world effect that happens to me. So should I just mindlessly continue taking these two minerals because every source says that they are good for your skin and just suffer from bad skin for the rest of my life? Or should I just stop them and enjoy clear skin? My choice is obviously stop taking them but with your logic, you would choose to continue taking them.
@arket It is hard to tell without testing what is going on in your case, but when you take minerals like zinc, selenium, iodine etc.. you can experience detox symptoms. Because they push out of the tissues to the blood toxic metals. The main way how to keep toxic metal load in the body low is to not be deficient in essential minerals.. The more toxic you are in mercury for example the more selenium deficiency you will have. Same with iodine and other toxic halogens.. Also iodine is antibacterial, anti viral and the more you are filled with garbage the more detox symptoms you will have. Healthy person without any major toxicity can take big dose of iodine for example and don't feel much at all. Person with low metabolism, filed with toxins can even die from taking big dose of iodine at once.. Most people who start nutritional balancing program after they did hair tests and minerals were recommended they feel really bad.. Usually the first hair tests are low in toxic metals, but once they start taking essential minerals and they start pushing halogens, and toxic metals out that is the time when you see it on the hair tests and when you have the most herx reaction symptoms(detox symptoms)... I felt like shit first 6 months on low vit A diet. Should I stop it and increase vit A intake again? Most people think like that. But from what I know in that case for example you just have to deal with it for a while..
@tim-2 it looks like ALA can deplete even B1, biotin, can lower thyroid hormones.. So it realyl is a bad idea to take big doses. 🙂 I will take like 1/3 of a capsule here and there not even daily. Because the last thing that I want is to lower my thyroid function even more and deplete B1 or biotin heh.. Btw how do you take that sunflower lecithin? Mixed in food or on empty stomach with water? I wonder if I should take it with food where I have fats to help break them down or if I should take it on empty stomach so it can break down some potential gallstones or some liver fat in the liver..
Well in my case I started taking zinc and selenium supplement when I was 18 years old. I took them every day until I was 38. I had bad skin the whole time. I have been two years without zinc and selenium supplements and in those two years of time I have had zero bad skin days. So you think I was just "detoxing" 20 years while taking zinc and selenium?
@arket Like I said I have no idea what is going on in your body. But taking minerals just because you want to take minerals obviously is not a good idea. Especially taking zinc twice a day you can easily deplete your copper.. The only reason why would zinc cause acne is detox or hormonal change like increase in testosterone and/or DHT.. But without testing who knows. All I am saying is that just because you have acne from taking zinc and selenium doesn't mean that nobody should take any mineral supplements..
Quote from Arket on November 8, 2023, 2:17 am“ The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results” – Albert Einstein
With that quote I retire from this subject.
I agree that's why you should have a reason why to take zinc and selenium. Just take supplements blindly because everybody is taking them will do more harm than good..
I read today an interesting study where they gave animals (can't remember what animals and can't find the study because I read all day so many different studies) vA toxicity and the animals became vitamin E deficient because of it. They tried to correct the vE deficiency by giving the animals adequate vE diet but they couldn't raise the vE levels with it.
I'm definitely going to start supplementing vE now. I get my iHerb orders next week and then it's ON! 👊
Edit: just found the study. The animals were rabbits. Vitamin A Toxicity and Vitamin E Deficiency in a Rabbit Colony (ingentaconnect.com)
I always take lecithin with food.
Racemic ALA contains 50% of the S enantiomer which is not used by cells.
The smaller the dose of lipoic acid taken the more the beneficial effects will outweigh any negative effects.
So it's best to take low doses of R-ALA. I'm taking 75mg once per day. 75mg R-ALA probably has the same physiological effect as 150mg racemic ALA.
Taking even lower doses say 30mg 3 times a day would reduce any negative effects even further.
Lipoic Acid Reduces the Activities of Biotin-Dependent Carboxylases in Rat Liver
I think this must be the study that raised concerns about lipoic acid inhibiting biotin dependent enzymes.
"The d,l-racemate of lipoic acid was used."
So they didn't use R-ALA, the form that the body uses..
"4.3 μmol/(kg·d)"
This is the dose they gave to rats. The molar mass of ALA is 206.33 g/mol. Is this dose 887 mcg per kg per day? Can anyone here confirm? I think I'm wrong since it seems too low.