Magnesium and Radiation Protection

by Dr. Mark Sircus

It is in a list of medicinals that prevent and treat
cancer that we find helpful substances that treat
and strengthen us against radiation contamination.

"In the years leading up to Chernobyl, some dairy farmers in Austria were using remineralization as a part of their operations. They added rock dust to liquid manure as well as combining it with compost, thereby removing odors and greatly increasing soil biota. As a result, cows had twice the normal lifespan and produced much more milk. Amazingly enough, after Chernobyl, the cheeses that were remineralized (as well as biodynamic cheeses) measured no radioactivity whatsoever. Austrians would stand in long lines in order to buy these safe, remineralized products" writes Joanna Campe.

Iodine is obviously not the only substance that we should run to in the face of increasing radiation threats. Magnesium is a vital mineral whose lack leaves us open to not only radioactive damages but also those from heavy metals and thousands of chemicals, which we are commonly exposed to. Mercury and now a long list of radioactive particles are floating in the environment like invisible clouds that have spread out everywhere. They are raining down on us, damaging and damning our future. We can no longer be passive about building our defenses against the toxic onslaught.

Without sufficient magnesium, the body
accumulates toxins and acid residues,
degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely.

Just about everyone who is writing protocols for radiation toxicity is forgetting about the importance of magnesium salts. Worse still are governments and the entire institution of medicine that are purposely ignorant about magnesium, so they cannot possibly be trusted for valuable health and medical information that will help us in our time of dire need. The need was dire before Fukushima but they did not want to admit that; they let the public get obsessed with CO2 emissions and said nothing about the mercury. Now with radioactive nuclides steadily building up in the background, we are in trouble than any of us care to admit. Today the situation has gone nuclear and there has never before been a need so great for detoxification and chelation.

Magnesium is a crucial factor in the natural self-cleansing and detoxification responses of the body. Magnesium is also necessary for effective chelation. It stimulates the sodium potassium pump on the cell wall and this initiates the cleansing process in part because the sodium-potassium-ATPase pump regulates intracellular and extracellular potassium levels. The healthy cell wall favors intake of nutrients and elimination of waste products.

The involvement of free radicals in tissue injury induced by magnesium deficiency [1] causes an accumulation of oxidative products in heart, liver, kidney, skeletal muscle tissues and in red blood cells, [2] leaving them more vulnerable to oxidative stress caused by radiation exposure. Both radiation exposure and heavy metals produce oxidative stress through the creation of increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS-oxygen free radicals, peroxides, and singlet oxygen). It is known that these increased levels of intracellular ROS are sufficient to trigger apoptosis (cell death).

Glutathione is Magnesium-Dependent

Glutathione protects the cells from oxidative-stress-induced apoptosis and glutathione levels are magnesium dependent! "Glutathione is a very important detoxifying agent, enabling the body to get rid of undesirable toxins and pollutants. It forms a soluble compound with the toxin that can then be excreted through the urine or the gut. The liver and kidneys contain high levels of glutathione as they have the greatest exposure to toxins. The lungs are also rich in glutathione partly for the same reason. Many cancer-producing chemicals, heavy metals, drug metabolites etc. are disposed of in this way," says Dr. Patricia Kongshavn, former professor, department of medicine at McGill University.

Glutathione is a polypeptide,
C10H17N3O6S, of glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid.

Glutathione synthetase requires -glutamyl cysteine, glycine, ATP, and magnesium ions to form glutathione. [3] In magnesium deficiency, the ss y-glutamyltranspeptidase is lowered. [4] There is a direct relationship between cellular magnesium, GSH/GSSG ratios, and tissue glucose metabolism. [5] Magnesium deficiency causes glutathione loss and this is unwelcome as the clouds of radiation are touching down across the northern hemisphere. Magnesium deficiency causes glutathione loss, which is not at all healthy because glutathione helps to defend the body against damage from cigarette smoking, exposure to radiation, cancer chemotherapy, and toxins such as alcohol and just about everything else.

According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, low magnesium is associated with dramatic increases in free radical generation as well as glutathione depletion and this is vital since glutathione is one of the few antioxidant molecules known to neutralize mercury. [6] "For every molecule of pesticide that your body detoxifies, you throw away or use up forever a molecule of glutathione, magnesium and more," says Dr. Sherry Rogers who goes on to say that, "Your body uses nutrients to make this glutathione and it uses up energy as well. Every time we detoxify a chemical, we use up, lose, throw away forever, a certain amount of nutrients."

Mineral Deficiencies

Deficiencies in basic minerals like magnesium and selenium can make all the difference between health and disease, between being able to withstand chemical, heavy metal and radiation exposure. Dr. Rogers has indicated that there is as much as a 500-fold difference in the ability of individuals to detoxify the same chemicals and much of that will be true for radiation as well. A key marker of this difference is each individual's magnesium level. Deficiencies in magnesium will wreak havoc with our body's ability to detoxify and chelate heavy radioactive particles and explains much of the difference between one person withstanding radiation exposures and another person falling to radiation sickness.

Dr. Leslie Fisher has treated in excess of 35,000 patients where mineral therapy was prescribed as the sole form of medication. He has conducted research within his own clinics and the Department of Psychiatry, Austin Hospital, Melbourne. Mineral therapy is the foundation upon which chelation [7] treatments and protocols are built. Magnesium does protect cells from aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel, which explains why re-mineralization is so essential for heavy metal detoxification and chelation as well as radiation protection. Magnesium is essential for the survival of our cells but takes on further importance now where our bodies are being bombarded on a daily basis with heavy metals and radiation.

Radiation and Diabetes

No one is going to convince the public that the increasing radiation will have a general effect on our health that can be easily traced back to the source. Even before we get cancer from radiation we have a general down-spiraling of body functions because of all the oxidative stress. In my book, New Paradigms in Diabetes, I write extensively about the direct relationship between magnesium deficiency and the onset of diabetes.

Pancreatic beta cells are sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS) [8] attack when they are exposed to oxidative stress, [9] because of the relatively low expression of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and glutathione peroxidase. [10] Diabetes is typically accompanied by increased production of free radicals and/or impaired antioxidant defense capabilities, indicating a central contribution of reactive oxygen species. It is also a fact that ROS is one of the major factors that induce oxidative modification of DNA and gene mutation. [11]

The Chernobyl incident was a major disaster of humanity, which has resulted in a plethora of health problems that are still far from being fully recognized. Most studies analyzing the medical consequences of this catastrophe have so far focused on diseases such as thyroid cancer, leukemia, immune and autoimmune pathology [12] [13] even though an increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus, a disorder involving the immune system, was observed within the residential population of Hiroshima among survivors of the atom bomb detonation. [14] Studies have also shown that thymectomy and a sub-lethal dose of gamma radiation induces type 1 diabetes in rats. [15]

Researchers at the Pediatric Hospital A. Meyer, Florence, Italy studied this question by assessing the incidence of the disease in children in Gomel, Belarus in the years subsequent to the Chernobyl disaster. The results of the study seem to confirm the hypothesis that environmental pollution such as that subsequent to the Chernobyl accident can cause diabetes. [16]

Mass screening for diabetes mellitus has been conducted on 64,000-113,000 atomic bomb survivors residing in Hiroshima City since 1961. From 1971 to 1992 a 2.7-fold increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus was observed in males and a 3.2-fold increase in females. [17]

We have a significant and documented increase in
the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children and
adolescents after Chernobyl in the radioactively
contaminated area of Gomel compared to Minsk.
Heinrich Heine University

When beginning to build a protocol against the radiation and heavy metal onslaught, we need to stick with the basics and they are magnesium, iodine, sodium bicarbonate, vitamin C, selenium, clay, THC (cannabis), as well as a natural chelator and superfoods. Properly filtered water also is essential. There is always more we can do but even affording these basics is a challenge to many.

Special Note: One of my readers wrote saying, "Thank you for the labor of love you've given to the inhabitants of the world. All the information about magnesium, iodine, baking soda, etc. is priceless and very much appreciated. I know we can't thank you enough for your generosity with the knowledge you've accumulated from all of your research. I know you've had your detractors–ignore them!" These basic medicines are not only the mainstay of emergency rooms and intensive care wards but are the backbone of a my new form of medicine called Natural Allopathic Medicine, which makes sense in the age of toxicity that we all have live in.

References