Guest guest Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 Dave's explanation below is of the " Deranged Mineral Transport for Dummies " -type that's really helpful for us non-biochemists and engineers. Could we keep it in the Files for future reference if Andy approves? If I can add anything to this, one resource that can really help in getting a grasp on this is a basic physiology textbook. I found one recently at a used bookstore for $6. After a year, I still didn't understand all of the technical vocabulary used in Andy's books. The pictures, graphs & tables alone can fill in a lot of the 'blanks' that keep us from better understanding what's going on. Thanks, Joanne > > Darren. > > This is a valid question, which I've asked him. This is my > understanding, limited though it is. > > There are transport molecules on the surface of cells that allow various > molecules to get in or out. There is a great deal of work that shows > that mercury is such a systemic toxin that it interferes with basically > all of those biochemical transport systems. So, there is a biochemical > basis for the notion of " disordered mineral transport " . Now, how would > you tell if there is some kind of systemic problem going on? Well, the > basic idea is simple. You have a lot of minerals that have to be taken > in to the cell and whose levels have to be managed. You would expect > that if you look at the levels of these minerals, they should cluster > around the mean. If they don't then there is some kind of overarching > problem. Here is where the engineering rule of thumb that he mentions > in his hair test book comes in. How do you tell if you are faced with a > systemic problem? Well, you could have things coming out systemically > high or low (so you look at how many are above the mean or below the > mean and see if that number is improbably high) or they could come out > basically balanced, but highly scattered, eg on average they are too far > from the mean (so you look at how many are outside of the green band; > you might also check how many are in the red zones and in either case > flag it if you are seeing something highly improbable). Highly > improbably means, in this case, about 2.5% of the population. > > A further point that he has made is that you look for congoners. These > are elements whose electron structure are similar. If they are at > similar levels in the cell, then that means that the cells capacity to > differentiate between these elements is being lost. This, as I > understand it, is one of the specific characteristics of disordered > mineral transport. > > Finally start looking at hair tests. I have downloaded and looked at a > couple of hundred of them now. There is an absolutely unmistakable > pattern that is recognizable and seems reasonably well operationalized > by Andy's counting rules. > > I believe that is a fairly good rendition of where we are with this at > the moment. > > Someone who knows more, please add it! > > Dave. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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