Copper and Mercury - Autism and Other Neurological Root Cause

A recent study titled "Level of Trace Elements (Copper, Zinc, Magnesium and Selenium) and Toxic Elements (Lead and Mercury) in the Hair and Nail of Children with Autism" caught my eye. The reason it caught my eye is that while it is generally well accepted that Autism has a multi-factorial pathology, toxic metals and chemicals are thought to be a significant cause of the spectrum. If you know someone with Autism I would strongly suggest you get them tested with a hair mineral analysis to assess for some of the elements thought to be associated with autism such as high copper/mercury and low selenium/magnesium.  In my opinion is is shocking that more parents are not made aware of how important this testing can be and rely instead on blood tests which are not as definitive.

High copper is increasingly becoming a hidden epidemic amongst the population from my experience and research. In this study they found that "The children with different grades of autism showed high significance (p<0.001) in the level of copper in their hair and nail samples when compared to healthy controls. The level of Cu in the autistic children could be correlated with their degree of severity (the more Copper burden, the more severe is autism)."

Why is this happening? The answer lies partially in the fact that copper has the net effect of blocking certain nutrients from functioning correctly in the body. Copper stops magnesium and zinc along with Vitamin C from functioning properly. In other words, even if you have magnesium present you can't use it. It turns out that this is essentially what this study found although it didn't use these exact words. "The levels of trace elements Mg and Se were significantly decreased (p<0.001) in autistic children when compared to control."

We might now ask why selenium is important. The answer is that it helps to mitigate the negative neurological effects of mercury. In the study they found that there was "a significant elevation (p<0.001) in the levels of toxic metals Pb and Hg in both hair and nail samples of autistic children when compared to healthy control group. The elevation was much pronounced in low functioning group subjects when compared among autistic groups with medium to high functioning autism". When we have high levels of mercury we use up our selenium much faster.

Mercury also has the distinct ability to block nutrients from getting into cells as well as out of them. The more mercury present the worse the problem.

I like this study as it is confirming what many have known and suspected for many years, and that is that autistic spectrum issues can and are caused by these factors.

I really like this study as it made use of HAIR analysis. The reason is that it is one of the absolute best ways to monitor these toxins and minerals.

They concluded that "Potential neurotoxic effects of this metal (copper) include depression, irritability, nervousness [24], and learning behavioral disorders in children [25].

They also conclude that "there are studies reporting that in autistic children, there is often a failure to convert glutamate to ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in sufficient amounts. This results in an imbalance that lead to neuronal excitation (which can lead to "stimming" behaviors) and too little GABA calming (which can lead to speech impairment). One of the frequent findings in autistic children is the presence of a chronic viral infection (like measles). Viral infections are known to inhibit the conversion of glutamate to GABA. Excess copper, a common finding in 85% or more autistic individuals, also interfere with the function of GABA."

A final conclusion from this study is that "Evidences show that autistic children show an increased build-up of toxins which may not arise simply from excessive exposure (because the autistic children selected for this study were from the metal pollution-free living areas), but from a marked inability to process and eliminate toxins from the body. Such a mechanism could lead to a back-up of toxic heavy metals and chemical toxins and increases free radical activity in the body"

A nutritional balancing program that includes the use of a near infrared sauna is a very important way of addressing autism in the sense that it is looking to address root causes and not be distracted by symptom chasing.

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