Re: iron/zinc deficiency and "A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing"

You may benfit from a different perspective of your body, one that doesn't see the body as a machine that is making mistakes or is malfunctioning whenever it shows signs of imbalance.

First, I would not so heavily rely on hair analysis tests, since they have about the same inaccuracy rates as blood analysis, that is, 30-50%. Most people are not reading the studies in the Medical Journals, nor does the media report such flaws in the system, for reasons I would rather not discuss here.

Also, the so "real" looking numbers on the printed hair analyis reports may not accruately reflect the true the workings of the body. First, you cannot successfully treat an iron-deficiency by taking iron, especially if you are taking inorganic forms of iron (metallic iron versus ionic, organic plant iron). The body won't know what to do with it and will try to discard it, if it can. The process of increased iron removal also forces the good organic form of iron out of the body, which can lead to dangerously low iron levels. For the same reason, in studies on rats who are bing fed with breakfast cereals fortified with iron, the rats develop severe iron deficiency and suffer liver damage.

The same principle holds true true for other minerals that are of unorganic or non-ionic origin, as is the case with most supplements. Taking such forms of zinc, for instance, forces useful zinc out of the body. Drinking the calcium-rich cows milk (crude calcium bound by casein) leads to calcium deficiency and bone loss. Green leafy vegetables, advacado or almonds, on the other hand, provide the ionic calcium and numerous other minerals that is absorbable, provided there is sufficient bile flow neccessary for calcium digestion and metabolism. If you seek to take additional minerals, you would be bette of with ionic water dissolvbable minerals as offered by ENIVA in Minneapolis, see eniva.com. They only sell through distributors. I am a listed as a distributor although I don't act as one, but you can use my ID if you want (#13462).

If you do have low iron levels, you must ask the question, why does the liver keep blood iron that low. The liver control iron levels for a reason. There rarely is a shortage of iron supply, and most iron gets dumped by the liver, in fact, only a small percentage is used. So theroretically, you can hardly ever run out of it, unless your liver must keep blood iron low in order to protect the body against potentially serious blood infections.

Iron is one of the most preferred foods of infectious microbes. Menstruating women lower low blood iron, usually about a day or two before they actually discard the blood. If iron levels were normal at that time, the microbes would enter the blood and body during the menstration and destroy haemoglobin, the oxygen carrying substance of the red blood cells.

A similar situation occurs on the 8th month of pregnancy, in preparation for the delivery of a baby. The open "wound" would be susceptible to serious blood infection, in case iron were normal or high. Giving a pregnant woman extra iron can lead to major delivery problems that may require an operation. And doing the same for a menstruating woman can cause her to develop such phenomena as endometriosis or cysts.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" is common practice in today's medical system because doctors never anticipate and trust that the body is doing the right thing, given the circumstances we create. We are meant to believe that body is doing something wrong and therefore must be treated or interfered with. The risk for infection is even higher when there are other bacteria-attracting toxins in the blood due to an impaired ability of the liver (the liver is the blood detoxifying organ number one) to clean it up (bile duct congestion being the main reason).

Having said all that, I would suggest that you begin to trust that the body is doing the right thing at every circumstance. If these include diseases (which are nothing but survival mechanisms) then ask why does the body need to defend itself. This will take you back to the basics, e.g., maintaining a clean liver, clean kidneys and clean intestines, eating sensibly (for example, meat, fish poultry, etc. pollute the blood, clog up the blood vessel membranes and infest the intestines with worms and parasites) and living according to the cycles of nature and biological rhythms (see The Key to Health and Rejuvenation).

With best wishes,
Andreas

http://ener-chi.com