"How to Lower Lead Levels with Diet: thiamine, fiber, iron, fat, fasting?"
There are certain nutrients whose intake has been associated
with lower lead levels in the body.
For example, women with higher thiamine intake, vitamin B1 intake,
tended to have lower blood lead levels,
the same with lead- exposed steel workers.
Fiber and iron intake were also associated,
with lower lead levels in the body to a lesser degree.
The thinking is that the fiber might glom onto the lead
and flush it out of the body,
and the iron would inhibit the lead absorption,
whereas the thiamine may accelerate lead removal through the bile.
Thus, they suggest eating lots of iron, fiber,
and especially thiamine-rich foods
“may induce rapid removal and excretion of…lead from the tissues.”
But thiamine’s never been put to the test,
where you give people thiamine and see if their lead levels drop.
The closest I could find is a thiamine intervention
for lead-intoxicated goats.
And, much of the fiber data are just from test tube studies
like this, where, under simulated intestinal conditions,
complete with flasks of feces,
both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber were able to bind up
large amounts of mercury, cadmium, and lead to such an extent
that they may have blocked absorption in the small intestine;
though, when our good gut flora then eat the fiber,
some of the heavy metals may be re-released down the colon.
So, it’s not completely fail safe, and like thiamine,
there haven’t been controlled human studies.
But look, where is thiamine found?
Here are some of the healthiest sources that also contain fiber,
concentrated in super healthy foods like beans and greens
that we should all be eating anyway.
So, even if thiamine and fiber-rich foods
don’t actually lower your lead levels,
you’d still end up healthier.
Iron was put to the test, though, and it...
failed to improve the cognitive performance of lead-exposed children,
failed to improve behavior or ADH symptoms.
No surprise, because it failed to bring down lead levels,
as did zinc supplementation.
Turns out that while iron may limit the absorption of lead,
it may also inhibit the excretion of lead
that’s already in your body.
And, iron may not even inhibit lead absorption in the first place.
That was based on rodent studies,
and it turns out we’re not rodents.
Same story with zinc.
It may help to protect rat testicles,
but didn’t seem to help children.
Nevertheless, iron is routinely prescribed
in children with lead poisoning.
“Given the lack of scientific evidence
supporting the use of indiscriminate iron supplementation in...
children with lead poisoning, its routine use should be re-examined.”
Though obviously, if you have iron deficiency,
supplementation may help.
High fat intake has been identified
as something that may make things worse for lead exposed children.
Dietary fat has been associated with higher lead levels
in cross-sectional, snapshot-in-time type studies,
and there is a plausible biological mechanism.
Dietary fat may boost lead absorption by stimulating extra bile,
which in turn may contribute to lead absorption,
but you really don't know until you put it to the test.
In addition to testing iron, they also tested fat.
They gave a group of intrepid volunteers
a cocktail of radioactive lead.
Then, with like a Geiger counter, they could measure
how much radiation they retained in their body.
Drinking the lead with iron or zinc didn’t change anything,
but adding about 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
boosted lead absorption into the body from about 60% up to around 75%.
The only thing that seemed to help,
dropping lead absorption down to about 40%
was eating a light meal with the lead drink.
What was the meal?
Coffee and a doughnut.
I think this is the first doughnut intervention
I’ve ever seen with a positive outcome.
Could it have been the coffee?
Unlikely, as, if anything, coffee drinking has been associated with
a tiny increase in blood levels.
If fat makes things worse, and the one sugar they tried didn’t help,
they figured it was just eating food, any food,
not taking in lead on an empty stomach,
that made the difference.
And, indeed, if you repeat the study with a whole meal,
lead absorption doesn’t just drop from 60% down to 40%
but all the way down to just 4%!
That’s extraordinary.
That means it’s 15 times worse to ingest lead
on an empty stomach.