The Iron Key

Arsenic & Autoimmune disease - The Arsenic Files Part 8

We have approached arsenic question from two sides. On the one side looking at everything arsine and arsenic do to the body, and the other looking at other illnesses and how their symptomology could easily be attributed to arsenic poisoning, or radiation. We were still missing the key element that linked the two parts together. It has taken two and a half months of reading paper after paper, entering new variations of search terms to try and find the link between arsine and the spectrum of illnesses we have seen during Covid (assume poisoning comes after that word through this article) and before. By looking both at the effects of arsine gas on the blood, at chelators and a variety of other treatments and illnesses, we think we have finally found it.

The next part of the Arsenic Files series will be looking at a range of illnesses from autoimmune, neurological, cardiovascular to tropical diseases. The aim is to identify quite how many have this common thread.

We know that toxins, heavy metals and metalloids, and imbalance/displacement of essential forms, present the biggest threat to life (homeostasis).

What we know so far about arsine gas and arsenic species:

- Many people and animals are showing high arsenic in hair/fur samples.

- Arsine gas is likely to be the initial form, and mode of entry through the lungs.

- The gas is non-irritating so goes unnoticed for a number of days or weeks after initial exposure (until levels are very high or lightning strikes!)

- As it is a gas the level of exposure is very difficult to measure.

- Repeated exposures in areas of concentration will likely result in illness.

- Illness can be classic detoxification – diarrhoea/vomiting, cough/rhinitis, rashes/pustules.

- According to dose, more severe illness can span a broad range of conditions connected to the respiratory, cardiovascular, gut, organs, neurological, tissue, lymphatic, skeletal systems.

- Range of illness seems to mimick a vast range of diseases and ‘viruses’, differing from person to person according to physiological state and makeup.

- Arsine gas changes form on its journey through the body and is not always excreted.

- Proteins, enzymes, essential minerals, metals and other factors are all affected.

- Arsine gas is the most haemolytic (blood cell destroying) agent in the gas making industry.

In ‘Chelation – a new form of blood letting?’ we noted that chelating agents use three key atoms which act as electron anchors (donors) to metals, metalloids and other elements. These were oxygen (sometimes hydroxyl groups OH and HO), sulphur and nitrogen. Each chelator can either form a single bond with the target metal, or, depending on the carbon structure of the compound, how many electron donors there are an how flexible it is, a single compound can encapsulate a metal atom. EDTA is a good example of a compound that can completely surround a heavy metal. Heavy metals require more ties to remove them safely. Elements such as arsenic, require two sulphur atoms (dithiol) to tie them firmly.

Antibiotics

Researching classes of antibiotics, it was surprising to see many have some sort of metal binding ability. Aminoglycosides have the ability to bind iron (III). Gentamicin is contraindicated in people low in potassium, calcium and magnesium, and can form a ‘planar’ (interlaced) structure around ions including cadmium, nickel, cobalt and tin. Chepalosporines, penicillimine (a simple derivative of the penicillin class) and quinolones are also noted for their ability to bind metal ions.

The tetracycline class is a particularly strong chelator of iron. It can also chelate other cations (positive ions) including copper, magnesium and calcium. It is of some concern clinically, as anti-bacterial treatment can result in leeching of essential metals. The upside, however, being that the lowering of iron levels does seem to stop many pathogenic bacteria in their tracks.

All bacteria require iron in order to grow. Pathogenic bacteria seem to be able to thrive in particularly high iron environments to the detriment of beneficial bacteria. This article proposes that high levels of iron in the blood and tissues prevent immune system cells, white blood cells and T cells from effectively clearing the excess iron. This would leave fertile ground for bacteria and other pathogenic organisms with high iron tolerance including ‘klebsiella, aeruginosa, listeria, tuberculosis, gonorrhoae, candida albicans’.

Most of our 3-4 grams of iron is contained in haemoglobin, the remainder is stored in the liver, spleen, bone marrow and muscle tissue as ferritin and hemosiderin. Iron exchange in humans and other animals is strictly controlled by its attachment to transferrin and lactoferrin. Without these containment molecules iron would cause damage to tissues.

Bacteria, fungi, yeast and plants have the ability to acquire iron (III) or Fe3+ using what is called a siderephore. This could be described as an iron capture molecule in an octagonal form. Our internal population of bacteria, fungi and parasites are constantly scavenging for this free iron, and it is this relative shortage in healthy humans that keeps populations under control.

Antibiotics with the ability to bind to this free iron, can act as a trojan horse, gaining access in to the bacterial siderephore. The antibiotic attached will halt the siderephore transfer of iron in to the bacteria cell, thus preventing iron metabolism, energy production, growth and replication of the cell. The only issue with this is that all bacteria have these siderephores, not just the pathogenic ones. This means the administration of antibiotics will affect the whole body bacterial population, and, if the body is under great physiological stress, may create more problems.

There are many other mechanisms antibiotics employ to control bacterial populations, but as we are talking about iron and arsenic, we will not discuss these here.

If free iron (III) is normally in short supply as it is all safely bundled up in protein carriers, what causes a rise in free serum iron levels? Going back to the article The Battle Field, we know that exposure to arsine gas can cause destruction or apoptosis of exposed red blood cells (RBCs). Other gases can have a similarly damaging effect including carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, stibine and cyanide. Arsine gas is electrochemically attracted to the oxygen in the blood cells, causing rupture and release of their contents. Some blood cells suffer crenation, or damage to the cell membrane, which leaves it dehydrated. This article states that the changes are due to a change in ionic charge in the blood, however the change only comes about because of the initial damage to red blood cells, white blood cells and vascular endothelial cells. Electrolytes leak in to the blood stream from the cells causing the ionic change. Crenation is a direct effect of that damage. Further damage comes from production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the products both of arsine and free iron.

The key search term

So how can we connect the arsine/arsenic end of the chain, to the wide variation of illnesses we have seen with Covid? As we mentioned a while ago, learning medical and biochemical terminology is like learning a new language. The term we were missing from our ‘free iron’ lexicon was ‘non-transferrin-bound iron’. This term is the key that opens the whole Pandora’s Box of afflictions.