Chemical Sensitivity, Bleeding Gums, Heart Palpitations

[The Ultimate]

3 years ago I developed chemical sensitivity. An alternative Dr told me to take DMSA to remove toxic metals from my body. Ever since I took it I've been having a heart beat more prominent than usual at all times, increasing when I eat, waking me up every day and causing me problems going to sleep. Even my girlfriend cannot go to sleep on my chest because it is so forceful. Yet when the hospital analysed a 24 hour heart monitor I wore they said that my heart beat was normal.

At the exact time I developed chemical sensitivity my gums started bleeding, and have every day since. I've managed to reduce the amount to a minimum with flossing, coconut oil rinsing, and swilling my mouth with water after eating, but they still bleed slightly. And if i go to bed without cleaning my teeth just one night I have a mouth full of blood when I brush.

I've read that pregnant women often get bleeding gums due to hormones, but cant find out which hormones exactly. From my minimal understanding of hormones I'm suspecting I have high cortisol. How can I lower cortisol? What other hormones may I need testing? Thanks guys.

 

[natedawggh]

Hi ultimate,

a couple different things going on here:

Heart Beat: if this is strictly happening after you eat, it's actually a good thing. In a hypothyroid state (which a great majority of people are at least partially) your heart rate slows down because there is either A: not enough fuel/food or B: not enough thyroid. Eating increases both the availability of food and thyroid, especially if it is carbohydrates, and your heart rate will naturally pick up to the rate it wants to go. If you're not used to this or your heart is overcompensating, it may feel stronger than what you're used to. When I first started Peating I also noticed my heart rate a lot. In correlation with an increased body temperature, this is therapeutic and can actually lead to better cardiovascular health, especially if you don't go for long periods between meals, as the heart is now able to fully relax and contract instead of partially, as it does in the depressed state. A therapeutic heart rate after eating can be anywhere from 80 to 100 beats per minute. If this were to happen far away from the time of food consumption, that would be a worrisome event because it would be caused by stress hormones, not fuel intake. If you keep up your blood sugar and protein throughout the day you can keep it even, instead of spiking after long intervals of fasting.

Chemical Sensitivity: It's possible that after taking the DMSA it got rid of a lot of heavy metals (even Iron, which can be bad too) made your senses more sensitive, being in a healthier state you actually just became more aware of toxic reactions, whereas before you probably didn't have the ability to even detect them.

Bleeding Gums: This is actually caused by high levels of localized estrogen, which causes blood vessels to weaken and the blood plasma to leak easily. Also, sodium laureth sulfate in toothpaste can exacerbate this because its actually very aggressive, and causes the water in the blood to move out from the capillaries in the gums. You could try using a toothpaste without it (and other harsh chemicals like fluoride). Increasing your overall cellular energy output through a healthy diet and what necessary supplements you may or may not need can reduce localized estrogen levels and prevent this from happening in the future.

 

[Blossom]

Welcome The Ultimate. In addition to natedawggs points I would check your nutrition on http://www.cronometer.com to make sure you are getting adequate vitamins C and K in your diet.
Edit: for bleeding gums.

 

[4peatssake]

This is the only reference I have found where RP addresses DMSA and possible effects from using it.

[Question: Does the body quickly or gradually get rid of DMPS or DMSA chelating agents? I have many people who nearly died when they took DMPS or DMSA. But, I should think that the body would eventually detox it. What do you think?]

RP: The idea of using it to remove metals is that it leaves the body rapidly. The damage produced by moving the metals around could be fairly permanent, but the chelator leaves very quickly. Environmental pollutants, food fats, and cosmetics are the things people should worry about accumulating in their tissues.

Source

 

[The Ultimate]

natedawggh, I didnt get chemical sensitivity from DMSA. I took DMSA to remove heavy metals, which is supposed to reduce chemical sensitivities. It seemes DMSA triggered the excessive heart beat. It's permanent, not just after I eat, but moreso after eating. Non of this coincided with a change in diet. I'm not even fully into Peaterianism, I just know that you guys know alot about hormones, which is why I'm here. I used chemical free toothpaste, as well as chemical free soaps etc. How do I reduced localised estrogen, and what does that actually mean? I'm already taking progest-e.

Blossom, thanks

4peatssake, DMSA sure messed me up. I've taken humifulvate since, which is a lot milder.

 

[mujuro]

How did you take the DMSA? ie. dosing schedule, dosage, how many days on/off, how many weeks? It can be dangerous if not done correctly.

Dr Andy Cutler has spent much of his work focusing on mercury chelation. In short, he advises DMSA taken in rounds i.e. 3 days on 3 days off, and also taken multiple times around the clock based on the compound half life, thus blood-borne metals are constantly circulating and not redistributing to other tissues. He also adds ALA in with the DMSA later on, in order to chelate intracellular and brain-bound metals. The doses he advises at the beginning go as low as 1mg for ALA and 2.5mg for DMSA -- very conservative indeed. Again, heavy emphasis is placed on routine dosing on the dot, over the course of each round so as not to allow metals to be moved around the body and take rest in new tissues, causing more damage. This is designed to be a very, very slow process, taking anywhere from 1-5 years depending on metal burden.

 

[tara]

The Ultimate.

Disturbingly strong heartbeat (as opposed to an increased heart-rate) does not sound like a good thing to me, and to me as a non-expert it suggests one or more of:
- higher than optimal blood viscosity
- high blood pressure. Is your blood pressure high?
- vascular inflexibility
- as natedawggh suggested, possibly high estrogen,
- too much protein and/or ammonia in the blood. If this is the case, sometimes just drinking a little water or juice frequently throughout the day may help lessen it. But it's possible to overdo fluids too, if metabolism is struggling.
- hyperventilation - low CO2 levels.
- could well be something else; as I said, I'm no expert.


Aside from hospital heart monitor, have you had any opinions or tests from the medical system about it?
Want to give rough idea of what/how much you are eating and drinking on a typical day? It might give people here more clues about what could be going on and what might help.
If you've done any monitoring of temperatures and heart-rate, feel free to post that info too if you want.

How does your chemical sensitivity manifest itself? Does it involve very high histamine levels? Does sugar help? Peat has recommended the older antihistamines diphenhydramine and cyproheptadine as safer than many of the newer ones.

I tend to think for many situations it is usually good to see what improvements you can get by tuning up diet and attending to breathing (ie not breathing too much) and to sunlight (getting enough) before adding a lot of supplements. Food choices, breathing and red light can make a big difference to hormone profile. Adequate carbohydrates are one factor in keeping cortisol from being unnecessarily elevated. I think I've read a couple of stories of people solving bleeding gums by changing from low carb to highish sugar diet.
Enough protein (at least 80-100g) is needed for the liver to do its jobs, but for people with low metabolism, too much protein can be hard to deal with. Potato protein helps avoid this bind because the ketoacids in potatoes allow for more internal nitrogen recycling.
Grated carrot salad can help reduce estrogen burden by reducing its reuptake from the gut.

At some point it might be worth trying activated charcoal (away from meals and supplements), as another way to soak up estrogens and endotoxins.

How much progest-e have you tried? Did you notice any difference from it? Not sure if you are male or female, but women can often use quite a bit more than men.

Many of Peat's articles mention the heart. I recommend reading them id f you haven't already. Here are a couple - don't know whether they relate to your issues.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/ed ... enia.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/coron ... rone.shtml

Good luck.