The other night I randomly ended up half-watching (not paying full attention to it) a TV show of some doctors, it was already started so I didn't catch the name, and at some point this police woman started having some symptoms that appeared of a neurological condition. One of the docs, a friend of hers, ran a scan on her but didn't find anything, he checked many other things in her, like reflexes/reactions, then I can't remember what it was that made him look at her eyes and then he told her she'd been poisoned and that's when I perked up, just out of curiosity. It turned out to be copper toxicity that had affected her brain and when he was explaining this to her they showed a big picture of an (green) eye that had this dark ring on the outer portion of the iris. I immediately went "boing!" because I'd seen something like that in my eyes, so I ran to the bathroom mirror and, sure enough, even though my eyes are dark brown the ring can be seen. I now did a search hoping to find pics of this but I could not, however, I read a post from another forum where someone was mentioning a "copper colored" ring in her eyes, which are blue, in mine it just looks black probably because they're dark.
Because I believe in "synchronicity" often meaning we need to pay attention to what comes repeatedly in front of us, I've taken the "coincidence" of me watching that unknown show as a personal message I need to heed.
So, I'm curious to see if anyone else with AF and/or confirmed copper toxicity had heard of this rings in the iris and/or has noticed them in their own eyes.
Ha! What a coincidence! I was just on that page, I did another search and found that the name is Kayser-Fleischer Ring as can be read in your link, and came here precisely to post that. I'm new at this copper toxicity thing, only read about it for the first time last week, and despite of my earlier reluctance I may have to give this NB thing a try, in fact I sort of am already because my liver acted up so bad 3 days ago I could hardly eat and then instinctively reduced proteins and fats. I just had a new "crash" that started last week of which I seem to be recovering very slowly and in the past 2 days have been very depressed and today got actually pretty weepy, something that's described as a symptom of dumping copper. But I've had things with chocolate in them, even today (guilt trip...) and chocolate contains copper, in fact I'd switched to dark chocolate, which contains more than the MDR of copper in 3 oz., years ago, and there would be periods of times when I ate it nearly every day (other times would not want chocolate at all). I also have kept a container of cocoa powder at home and even was drinking it in hot water sometimes during the cold months instead of coffee, which I cannot handle, but stopped because it was really not having the expected effect. Pehaps that and other copper containing foods plus the gluten eating is what contributed to my last major crash 3+ months ago, I'd say that ignorance is certainly NOT bliss!
Oh, I forgot the link I had wanted to post here which has pics of eyes of different colors: qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/04/28/qjmed.hcq065.full
I went back to reading about copper toxicity (not on Dr. Wilson's site) and it said that cadmium blocks copper and I remembered having read that chocolate might contain cadmium, so I did another search and found the thyroid site where I'd read it, apparently 2 studies revealed the presence of cadmium in cocoa, the speculation being that the cocoa beans got contaminated by being stored in containers that had cadmium, (and possibly also lead which showed up too), such being the case, although cadmium is usually not good news, in this case it probably bound with the copper and both went "down the drain". I've also taken zinc and manganese supplements on/off for years, especially zinc, so maybe unbeknownst to myself I helped diminish the copper damage a little bit as looking back I believe I've had adrenal issuess most of my life and my liver enzymes have been elevated - to my knowledge - for the past 10 years. I read that when the damage is serious the enzymes won't even rise anymore so at least I find comfort in that!
Hey, don't mess with my "angel", it's actually a "butterfly fairy"...
I'ts OK, I wasn't really asking for advice on copper toxicity, was just curious to see if others had noticed that and "Uat" mentioned that this has been discussed before and it's common among others with AF.
Thank you, I actually chose her because she reminded me of "me" when I was young. ;-)
"Copper Toxicity" that 99% of doctors know about is severe. It is copper poisoning at that point. That is what they are talking about on this wikipedia page, which has a picture of an eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity
It is a level of toxicity far greater than we are usually talking about on these forums. I have very high copper on my hair analysis, but I do not have these golden rings. It would have to be even higher to for that.
So I'm not really sure if it is common for Adrenal Fatigue. It's the first I've heard of it. Not saying it's not possible. But you would think with all the people with AF doing the Iris contraction test, more would have noticed the yellow ring.
Think of how many people Dr James Wilson did the iris test on over the years. You would think he would have mentioned in his book that golden rings are common, even if he didn't know why.
Dr Rind did the iris test on me and I'm sure he has done it on hundreds of people. Didn't mention a thing.
Below is an excerpt from Ann-Loiuse's book What am I so Tired, that explains the level of copper toxicity that the doctor on TV was talking about.
For the more sublte level of copper toxicity we are talking about from chronic stress and adrenal fatigue, it is a short list of doctors practitioners in the world that know about it.
COPPER OVERLOAD: THE TRADITIONAL VIEW
In traditional medical circles, only two types of copper toxicity are readily accepted and recognized: acute copper poisoning and Wilson’s disease. Acute copper toxicity occurs when food or drink contaminated with high amounts of copper—vinegar-containing foods or acidic beverages like cider stored in copper vessels, for example—is ingested.
This toxicity results primarily in vomiting and diarrheameans by which the liver tries to eliminate the excess copper quickly. Prompt vomiting and diarrhea generally protect a person who’s been poisoned with copper from more serious systemic effects, but not always. If the exposure to copper is too great, red blood cells can actually rupture en masse, and death can result. Rest assured, though, that this is extremely rare.
Unlike acute copper poisoning, Wilson’s disease is a chronic form of copper overload. It’s a hereditary disorder that causes copper to accumulate in tissues and produce extensive damage. In this disorder, a genetic defect prevents the liver from secreting copper into the blood or excreting it into the bile. As a result, the copper level in the blood is low, but copper builds up in the liver, causing cirrhosis, and then spills over into other organs, such as the eyes and brain.
Treatment of the disease needs to be lifelong and requires consistent, periodic monitoring by a physician. The conditions of acute copper poisoning and Wilson’s disease illustrate quite dramatically that too much copper can be hazardous to one’s health. However, these conditions represent two extremes that affect a very limited number of people. The average person with copper overload doesn’t experience the symptoms and long-term effects of acute copper poisoning or Wilson’s disease; he or she experiences a subtle degree of copper overload that most doctors aren’t trained to recognize.
Yes, you are right, the term used in the show was "poisoning" and the ring around the iris was very pronounced, mine is thin but it's there.
Apparently you didn't read the Wikipedia page, so I'm pasting a paragraph here:
Kayser-Fleischer rings are a sign of Wilson's disease, which involves abnormal copper handling by the liver resulting in copper accumulation in the body and is characterised by abnormalities of the basal ganglia of the brain, liver cirrhosis, splenomegaly, involuntary movements, muscle rigidity, psychiatric disturbances, dystonia and dysphagia. The combination of neurological symptoms, a low blood ceruloplasmin level and KF rings is diagnostic of Wilson's disease.[1]
While they're probably referring to a more advanced stage, notice that the one thing in common is that the liver is affected, and I've always seen liver disfunction associated with hypoglycemia and/or AF. But I just noticed something else, which is what I originally thought I was told about my "rings":
Other causes of KF rings are cholestasis (obstruction of the bile ducts), primary biliary cirrhosis and "cryptogenic" cirrhosis (cirrhosis in which no cause can be identified).[1]
In any case, I'm sure there are different stages of copper "overload". And btw, in the TV show, which I know must not be taken as "truth", when the patient asked how that had happened to her the doc said there was no good way to know, that she'd probably had been accumulating it most of her life. From what I've read so far, it's actually the liver's inability to produce sufficient ceruloplasmin in the first place which causes the copper build-up, and of course, like some other conditions the cause also facilitates the progression of the disease by producing a vicious circle of sorts.
I'm not sure I understood your above post... For the purpose of my post, what does it matter that Wilson's disease is a different illness? The point is that the ring is caused by copper being deposited around the iris, and as you say it could be one of those "chicken or the egg" kind of things.