metal toxicity Archives - Amazing Health Advances

WARNING: Your Protein Powder Might be Loaded with Toxic Heavy Metals

The AHA! Team — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 05:03:04 +0000

Stephanie Woods via NaturalHealth365 – Protein supplements are a big business in the United States. In 2023, the market exceeded $9.69 billion. As more people strive to improve their health, lose weight, and get more fit, this figure is expected to continue climbing. The general consensus among consumers is that protein supplements are “natural,” and since they are typically found in health food stores and wellness sites, then they must be safe. But are they? The Clean Label Project’s Protein Category analyzed 160 products from 70 of the leading brands for protein supplements. The 2024-25 Protein Powder Category Report provides vital data regarding some concerning ingredients and potential contaminants that consumers should know before taking them. The results are eye-opening. An alarming 47% of the products tested exceeded the toxic metal safety threshold set forth by California Proposition 65. In simple terms, most of the protein supplements tested were potentially unsafe. Understanding proposition 65: Context for the findings To put the findings in context, you have to understand Proposition 65. This California law has a list of chemicals maintained by the state. These chemicals are believed to cause reproductive harm or cancer in humans. Businesses must place warning labels on foods containing these chemicals at levels that exceed the “safe” levels set forth by the law. The Proposition 65 list contains many synthetic and natural chemicals commonly found as ingredients or additives in solvents, dyes, household products, pesticides, drugs, and food. These chemicals may be used in manufacturing or as a byproduct of a chemical process, such as fumes or exhaust. Key findings from the study The study tested 160 products from 70 popular brands for 258 heavy metals and chemicals, focusing on heavy metals and bisphenols. The analysis yielded a total of 35,863 findings. 47% of all tested products exceeded state or federal safety regulations, including Proposition 65. 21% of all products contained more than double the acceptable levels of lead as defined by Proposition 65. Organic protein powders: 79% exceeded Proposition 65 levels for lead. 41% contained over twice the acceptable levels of lead. Plant-based protein powders: 77% exceeded Proposition 65 levels for lead. Whey protein powders: 28% exceeded Proposition 65 levels for lead. Collagen protein powders: 26% exceeded Proposition 65 levels for lead. Chocolate protein powders: 65% exceeded Proposition 65 levels for lead. 29% contained over twice the acceptable levels of lead. These findings highlight significant safety concerns regarding heavy metal contamination in protein powders, particularly in organic, plant-based, and chocolate varieties. What should you look for in a protein powder? The analysis revealed that plant-based protein powders had the highest levels of contaminants, while whey-based protein powders showed the lowest levels. If you’re looking for a safer option, choosing a product with minimal contaminants is key. For added peace of mind, consider buying from Clean Label Project Certified companies. Some trusted brands include: Genetic Nutrition Gorilla Formula 23 Nutrabox Oziva Puori Ritual Wellbeing Nutrition Wicked Protein You can also visit the Clean Label Project website to learn about more certified products and make informed health choices. Editor’s note: I highly recommend LuvByNature Grazing Goat Whey Protein – which comes from goats that graze – 365 days per year – on pesticide and chemical free pastures. No hormones, antibiotics or pesticides are used – ever. This product is non-GMO and gluten free. Sources for this article include: Cleanlabelproject.org Health.com Oehha.ca.gov To read the original article click here.

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NIH Grant Supports Study of Copper’s Role in Killing Harmful Bacteria

The AHA! Team — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 06:07:49 +0000

University of Arizona Health Sciences via News-Medical – A researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his research into uncovering the mysteries of copper – specifically, how it can be harnessed to kill harmful bacteria and other microorganisms. “We started using copper tens of thousands of years ago to cut down on bacterial infections. People used to store their food in copper pots, which helped cut down on spoilage. Copper doorknobs have been shown to cut down on hospital-acquired infections. We’re still finding more things it can do.” -Michael D.L. Johnson, PhD, associate professor of immunobiology Johnson said he hopes one of these potential new uses could form the backbone of a next-generation antibiotic; however, to build a solid foundation for the pharmaceutical research, his lab aims to learn more about what makes copper toxic to bacteria in the first place. The research is being made possible by an R35 grant, which is reserved for scientists with outstanding research records and the potential to make major contributions to their fields. Using Streptococcus pneumoniae as a model organism, Johnson and his team will attempt to learn what makes bacterial cells vulnerable to copper. “It’s a pretty prominent pathogen. More than a million people die per year because of these bacteria,” he said, referring to the bacteria that can cause infections in the lungs, brain, nose and blood. “Our laboratory is interested in trying to figure out how it ticks. Our way of doing that is to understand how it gets its nutrition.” The human body uses minerals such as iron and calcium, which we get from our diets, to keep bodily processes running. Bacteria are no different in that they need minerals to function, but copper, which is essential in the human diet, can be toxic to bacteria. “There are certain minerals that bacteria don’t want in excess, and that’s where copper comes into play,” said Johnson, who is a member of the BIO5 Institute. “There are a lot of ways we can weaponize copper. We’re trying to study how our body uses copper as a mechanism to kill pathogens.” Johnson believes that by flooding bacteria’s environment with excess copper, researchers may be able to trick them into building essential proteins with the wrong materials. We’re trying to study how our body uses copper as a mechanism to kill pathogens “Copper can displace iron, manganese or other metals and inactivate the protein,” he said. “It would be like me trying to start my wife’s car with my key. It doesn’t work.” Johnson will build on his previous studies investigating how S. pneumoniae reacts to copper and complement parallel studies performed in his lab to learn more about copper as an antimicrobial. He said his goal is to untangle exactly what makes copper toxic to S. pneumoniae and use that information to draw conclusions about similar bacteria. “All bacteria are different, but there are some mission-critical systems that are the same from bacteria to bacteria. How they process some of these metals is almost identical,” he said. “What I’m studying can be applied to other bacteria, but first we need to understand the basic mechanism of how these things work.” Johnson said that while new antibiotics are slow to be developed and approved, antibiotic resistance is on the rise among pathogens, meaning that infections that were once easily cured with medicine could someday be deadly again. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers antibiotic resistance a danger to public health, with drug-resistant S. pneumoniae classified as a “serious threat.” “Bacteria are quite crafty. They will mutate to overcome antibiotics,” Johnson said. “Our bodies have evolved to use copper to kill bacteria, and to this day, copper is still toxic. We want to take advantage of that to help people with life-threatening infections.” This research is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health, under award no. R35GM128653. Source: University of Arizona Health Sciences To read the original article click here.

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Is Stainless Steel or Cast Iron Cookware Best? Is Teflon Safe?

The AHA! Team — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 06:38:10 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What is the best type of pots and pans to use? In my last video, I expressed concerns about the use of aluminum cookware. So, what’s the best type of pots and pans to use? As I discuss in my video Stainless Steel or Cast Iron: Which Cookware Is Best? Is Teflon Safe?, stainless steel is an excellent option. It’s the metal chosen for use “in applications where safety and hygiene are considered to be of the utmost importance, such as kitchenware.” But what about studies showing that the nickel and chromium in stainless steel, which keeps the iron in stainless unstained by rust, can leach into foods during cooking? The leaching only seems to occur when the cookware is brand new. “Metal leaching decreases with sequential cooking cycles and stabilizes after the sixth cooking cycle,” after the sixth time you cook with it. Under more common day-to-day conditions, the use of stainless steel pots is considered to be safe even for most people who are acutely sensitive to those metals. A little leaching metal can even be a good thing in the case of straight iron, like a cast iron skillet, which can have the “beneficial effect” of helping to improve iron status and potentially reduce the incidence of iron deficiency anemia among children and women of reproductive age. The only caveat is that you don’t want to fry in cast iron. Frying isn’t healthy regardless of cookware type, but, at hot temperatures, vegetable oil can react with the iron to create trans fats. What about using nonstick pans? Teflon, also known as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), “is used as an inner coating material in nonstick cookware.” Teflon’s dark history was the subject of a 2019 movie called Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway. Employees in DuPont’s Teflon division started giving birth to babies with deformities before “DuPont removed all female staff” from the unit. Of course, the corporation buried it all, hiding it from regulators and the public. “Despite this significant history of industry knowledge” about how toxic some of the chemicals used to make Teflon were, it was able to keep it hidden until, eventually, it was forced to settle for more than half a billion dollars after one of the chemicals was linked to “kidney and testicular cancers, pregnancy-induced hypertension, ulcerative colitis, and high cholesterol.” “At normal cooking temperatures, PTFE-coated cookware releases various gases and chemicals that present mild to severe toxicity.” As you can see below and at 2:38 in my video, different gases are released at different temperatures, and their toxic effects have been documented. You’ve heard of “canaries in the coal mine”? This is more like “canaries in the kitchen, as cooking with Teflon cookware is well known to kill pet birds,” and Teflon-coated heat lamp bulbs can wipe out half a flock of chickens. “Apart from the gases released during heating the cooking pans, the coating itself starts damaging after a certain period. Some of the Teflon can start chipping off and make its way into the food It is normally advised to use slow heating when cooking in Teflon-coated pans,” but you can imagine how consumers might ignore that. And, if you aren’t careful, some of the Teflon can start chipping off and make its way into the food, though the effects of ingestion are unknown. I could find only one study that looks at the potential human health effects of cooking with nonstick pots and pans. Researchers found that the use of nonstick cookware was associated with about a 50 percent increased risk of colorectal cancer, but that may be because of what they were cooking. “Non-stick cookware is used in hazardous cooking methods (i.e. broiling, frying, grilling or barbecuing) at high temperatures mainly for meat, poultry or fish,” in which carcinogenic heterocyclic amines (HCA) are formed from the animal protein. Then, the animal fat can produce another class of carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Though it’s possible it was the Teflon itself, which contains suspected carcinogens like that C8 compound from the movie Dark Waters, also known as PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid. “Due to toxicity concerns, PFOA has been replaced with other chemicals such as GenX, but these new alternatives are also suspected to have similar toxicity.” We’ve already so contaminated the Earth with it, though, that we can get it prepackaged in food before it’s even cooked, particularly in dairy products, fish, and other meat; now, “meat is the main source of human exposure” to these toxic pollutants. Of those, seafood is the worst. In a study of diets from around the world, fish and other seafood were “major contributors” of the perfluoroalkyl substances, as expected, given that everything eventually flows into the sea. Though the aquatic food chain is the “primary transfer mechanism” for these toxins into the human diet, “food stored or prepared in greaseproof packaging materials,” like microwave popcorn, may also be a source. In 2019, Oral-B Glide dental floss was tested. Six out of 18 dental floss products researchers tested showed evidence of Teflon-type compounds. Did those who used those kinds of floss end up with higher levels in their bloodstream? Yes, apparently so. Higher levels of perfluorohexanesulfonic acid were found in Oral-B Glide flossers, as you can see below and at 5:28 in my video. There are a lot of environmental exposures in the modern world we can’t avoid, but we shouldn’t make things worse by adding them to consumer products. At least we have some power to “lower [our] personal exposure to these harmful chemicals.” This is the second in a three-video series on cookware. The first was Are Aluminum Pots, Bottles, and Foil Safe?, and the next is Are Melamine Dishes and Polyamide Plastic Utensils Safe?. What about pressure cooking? I covered that in Does Pressure Cooking Preserve Nutrients?. So, what is the safest way to prepare meat? See Carcinogens in Meat. Key Takeaways While concerns exist about nickel and chromium leaching from stainless steel cookware, these typically diminish with use. Stainless steel is generally considered safe for cooking, even for those sensitive to these metals. Cooking with cast iron can increase iron intake, potentially benefiting iron-deficiency anemia. However, frying in cast iron can lead to the formation of trans fats. Teflon (PTFE) coating in nonstick cookware has raised health concerns due to the release of toxic gases and chemicals at normal cooking temperatures. Prolonged use or overheating can damage the coating, leading to ingestion of Teflon particles. Research suggests a potential link between the use of nonstick cookware and an increased risk of colorectal cancer, possibly due to the cooking methods used with these pans and the formation of carcinogens. Chemicals like PFOA, used in nonstick coatings, have widespread environmental contamination, affecting food sources like seafood. Meat is the main source of human exposure to these toxic pollutants. Additionally, consumer products like dental floss may contain similar compounds, contributing to personal exposure. To read the original article click here.

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Toxic Heavy Metal Found in Food and Tobacco Products Being Linked to Higher Risk of Death from Viral Respiratory Illnesses

AHA Publisher — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 08:00:48 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – If you know any cigarette smokers in your life, there is no better time than now to encourage them to quit. Why? Because even though there have yet to be specific studies looking at the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on people who smoke, plenty of prior research on other viral diseases suggests that smokers are probably at an increased risk of COVID complications and premature death. This makes intuitive sense, of course; smoking damages your lungs and increases systemic inflammation. But, what many people might not realize is that increased heavy metal exposure is one of the significant smoking risks, too – and unfortunately, even nonsmokers may be risk of it, too. COVID Warning: Toxic Heavy Metal Found in Food and Tobacco Products Being Linked to a Higher Risk of Death from Viral Respiratory Illnesses Cadmium is a naturally occurring metal. And, yes, it’s found in high concentrations within tobacco products as well as other common goods such as, batteries and fertilizer. Because of its widespread presence in the environment, cadmium can easily seep into soil and water via pollution – and therefore leech into plants and animals we eat. Unfortunately, long-term chronic exposure to cadmium increases the risk of health problems including kidney, bone and (notably) lung disease, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA). Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health published the results of their study in Environmental Health Perspectives. They wanted to clarify if and how heavy metal exposure could contribute to severe COVID illness. The researchers had to look to earlier research to support their hypothesis, given the current lack of peer-reviewed studies on heavy metals and COVID-19. To do this, they assessed health data of 16,000 people who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1988-1994 or 1999-2006. Specifically, the researchers looked at cadmium levels in both smokers and nonsmokers from this large sample. After adjusting for factors like age, sex, race, weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure readings, the researchers determined: People with 80 percent higher levels of cadmium than all others were 15 percent more likely to die of the flu or pneumonia compared to people in the bottom 20 percent of cadmium levels Even in nonsmokers, those with the highest levels of cadmium exposure were 27 percent more likely to die of viral infections compared to people with lower levels of the metal Overall, their analysis confirms earlier research showing that exposure to cadmium – whether through food or cigarettes – increases the risk of serious illness or death from the flu and pneumonia. Their research supports the idea that this heavy metal could also be contributing to current pandemic deaths, and that by reducing heavy metal exposure for all people (whether they smokers or not) is an important public health measure. Action Step: Here Are Some of the Foods Most Likely to Absorb Heavy Metals, According to Research Other than not smoking, you might be able to reduce your risk of cadmium exposure by avoiding certain foods known to contain high levels of it. These foods include: Animal organs such as liver and kidneys Soybeans Cereals Rice Leafy veggies including spinach and lettuce Other veggies including carrots, radishes, and zucchini Of course, you don’t have to swear off veggies forever. Other plants, such as cabbage and broccoli, generally have lower levels cadmium yet very high levels of protective antioxidants – so consider working these into your weekly diet more often. The key here is to have a variety of healthy, organic plant-based foods to reduce your overall risk of exposure to heavy metals. Being well-hydrated with clean water (daily) and occasionally doing an effective detoxification program – throughout the year – is not a bad idea either. When it comes to animal-based foods, eat only the highest quality possible from grass-fed or pasture-raised sources. Naturally, there are always pros and cons to every food choice … but, making the effort to eat (and live) better is certainly worth it. Sources for this article include: Studyfinds.org, NIH.gov, NIH.gov, NIH.gov, OHSA.gov, Tandfonline.com, Sciencemag.org To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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