Apple Pectin for Radioprotection

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Apple Pectin for Radioprotection

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Apple_Pectin_for_Radioprotection.php

A group of doctors and scientists risked their lives and careers to help

children living in the most contaminated areas of the Chernobyl fallout and

discovered a simple treatment that clears the radionuclides from their bodies,

offering hope for future generations of Chernobyl and Fukushima victims Dr.

Mae-Wan Ho

Apple pectin reduces radioactivity in children’s body

Meanwhile, the BELRAD, under the direction of Nesterenko, carried out radiation

monitoring of the inhabitants of the Chernobyl contaminated zone and their

foodstuffs, and developed measures for the maintenance of radiation safety and

radioprotection. Nesterenko also pioneered a treatment with apple pectin for

children living in highly contaminated areas and eating highly contaminated

food.

As a complement to standard radioprotection measures, apple-pectin preparations

have been given especially in Ukraine to reduce the Cs-137 uptake in children.

Pectin acts by binding to the radionuclide in the gut to block its absorption.

The question was raised as to whether pectin might also be useful in clearing it

from tissues. Caesium is chemically similar to potassium, and therefore has a

wide distribution in tissues and cells, and is also excreted in urine.

Researchers at BELRAD carried out a randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled

trial to test the efficacy of dry, milled apple-extract containing 15-16 %

pectin on 64 children from contaminated villages of the Gomel regions.  The

average Cs137 load in the group of children was about 30 Bq/kg body weight. The

trial was conducted during a one-month stay in the sanatorium Silver Spring

where only uncontaminated food was given to the children.

The results showed that Cs-137 counts in children given pectin-powder were

reduced by an average of 62%, whereas the average reduction in those children

given only placebo powder was only 13.9 %. The difference was significant at

less than 1 % level.  The reduction was medically significant, as no child in

the placebo group reached values below 20 Bq/kg body weight, which is considered

by Bandazhevsky as potentially associated with specific pathological tissue

damages.

Among the children living in the contaminated areas, 70 to 90 % of the children

had Cs-137 exceeding 15-20 Bq/kg body weight. In many villages, the levels

reached 200-400 Bq/kg; the highest values were measured in Narovlya district

with 6 700-7 300 Bq/kg. As shown by Bandazhevsky, the chronic accumulation of

Cs-137 contributed to progressive deterioration of health [7, 8].

In a second study published in 2007 carried out by the BELRAD and the Research

Centre Jülich in Germany, a joint data-base was created to include all

available data from previous measurements at both research institutes and

evaluated to identify settlements with potentially enhanced radiation burdens.

Serial measurements of the Cs body burden were then performed at those

settlements. The new data for 17 000 children were used to evaluate the actual

situation with special attention to the critical group – the 10 % in age group

1-19 y with the highest dose. These children were recruited into further

investigations on the effectiveness of different treatments including apple

pectin to reduce the Cs-137 burdens in the body.

Although total annual doses for most of nearly 17 000 children assessed in

2002-2003 were generally below 1 mSv (the international exposure limit,

approximately equivalent to 1 308 780 Bq), there are still cases where the limit

is exceeded merely due to a high ingestion dose. This calls for remedial

measures for agricultural land and the use of clean food and control of food

contamination.

A brand of pectin called Vitapect consists of apple pectins with added vitamins,

mineral nutrient and flavouring. In a placebo controlled double-blind study, 8

groups of internally contaminated children were treated with Vitapect (5 g twice

a day) for a two-week period during their stay in a sanatorium. An equal number

of control groups were given a placebo preparation. Each group comprised 40-50

children. A total of 729 children participated in the study. The Cs-137 body

count of each child was measured at the beginning and end of the treatment.

The relative reduction of specific activity was 32.4 + 0.6 % for the pectin

groups compared with an average of 14.2 + 0.5 % for the control groups. The

mechanism of action of pectins is assumed to be similar to that of Prussian

Blue, a proven and recommended agent for removing Cs-137 from the body. It

blocks the re-uptake of Cs-137 excreted into the gut, thereby reducing the

biological half-life by a factor of 2.5 from 69 to 27 days, in good agreement

with a theoretical model.

It is of interest that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in

the United States has suggested the following dietary countermeasures against

ionizing radiation for astronauts [9]:

**Dietary countermeasures are drugs, that when ingested by an astronaut, may

have the potential to reduce effects of ionizing radia­tion. These supplements

can be broadly categorized into two groups. The first group includes specific

nutrients that prevent the radiation damage. For example, antioxidants like

vitamins C and A may help by soaking up radiation-produced free-radicals before

they can do any harm. Research has also suggested that pectin fiber from fruits

and vegetables, and omega-3-rich fish oils may be beneficial countermeasures to

damage from long-term radiation exposure. Other studies have shown that diets

rich in strawberries, blueberries, kale, and spinach prevent neurological damage

due to radiation. In addition, drugs such as Radiogardase (also known as

Prussian blue) that contain Ferric (III) hexacyanoferrate (II) are designed to

increase the rate at which cesium-137 or thallium are eliminated from the

body.**

BELRAD holds training seminars for parents and children, who receive the

booklet, **How to Pr0tect Yourself and Your Child from Radiation**, containing

practical advice such as how to reduce the levels of radionuclides in wild fowl,

mushrooms and fish, before they are cooked: by soaking them for two periods of

3-4 hours each in salted water (two tablespoons of salt with one tablespoon of

vinegar in 1 litre of water) [10].  

To-date, BELRAD has performed 433 000 whole body count measurement (WBC) in 300

villages in the provinces of Mogilyov, Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk, Minsk and

sk. In 2001, the WBC laboratory of the Institute was officially accredited

and certified. The large scope of the work required the collation and evaluation

of all the data received, which was then combined to produce The

Radio-ecological Atlas: Human Beings and Radiation, a systematic analysis of

whole body count measurements of Cs-137 performed on children in villages in 19

districts of the Chernobyl region of Belarus between 2001 and 2007. The Atlas is

regularly updated as the Institute continues the radiation monitoring of

children. It now includes measurements performed up to 2011, including

additional results from two further provinces.

Seaweed alginate for radioprotection

Radioprotection is an urgent issue not just for the victims of Chernobyl but

especially now for those living in highly contaminated areas of Fukushima (see

[11] Truth about Fukushima, SiS 55). A study carried out at the Institute of

Radiation Medicine in Beijing China in 1991 demonstrated that sodium alginate

prepared from seaweeds such as Sargassum sp. and kelp (Laminaria sp.) was able

to block radioactive strontium uptake [12]. Na alginate from S. siliquastrum in

particular, reduced the body burden of strontium 3.3-4.2 fold in rats, and  by

78% (+/- 8.9) in human subjects. No undesirable effects on gastrointestinal

function was observed nor were Ca, Fe, Cu and Zn metabolism altered, both in the

animal experiments and in human volunteers. A more recent study at the Institute

of Radiation Protection, Ingolstadter, Germany, found that sodium alginate added

to Sr-90 contaminated milk reduced the uptake of Sr-90 by a factor of 9 [13].

The seaweed Nori in the Japanese diet is also a rich source of alginate.

References below.............