Posted by bleauberry on January 16, 2010, at 5:37:04
In reply to Copper deficiency (low serum copper), posted by janejane on January 15, 2010, at 19:47:21
I think the only ones that have researched the copper/psychiatry thing is the Pfeiffer Institute (spelling?). They do indepth testing of vitamins and minerals, with copper being a big player, and then treat patients with the appropriate supplements to reverse the deficiencies or excesses. Copper, according to them, does play a big role in psychiatry. Either deficiency or excess are both problematic.
Why it is low is the puzzling question. Where is all the copper going? Is it being displaced by something else and excreted instead?
I am not aware of candida being an issue of gobbling up copper, but it could certainly be an issue of not allowing the copper to properly absorb in the intestines. That's a thought. I only mention that because I know you are looking into candida. Smart move.
In the book Amalgam Illness, it is made scientifically very clear that mercury displaces metals, even itself. For example, someone with longterm low level chronic mercury exposure...such as from amalgams...will very often not show any mercury in their hair samples. Mercury displaced its own movement into hair. As well as other metals. Interpretation of hair tests is usually done by looking at patterns, not amounts, of metals present.
Example. My first hair sample showed elevated mercury, and fairly normal levels/patterns of all other metals. At the time, I thought this was all hocus pocus alternative hogwash. I blew it off. A few years went by. I progressively got worse, month by month, new symptoms, worsening of old ones, slow but sure. Somewhere along the line the mercury/amalgam issue came up again. I had forgotten about it. After all, I had concluded the whole idea was unproven garbage. I was focused on science and proof, not logic. Of course, there really isn't any solid science or proof of anything in psychiatry, so I was misled as most of the crowd is. Anyway, a second hair test, and then a third to confirm, were very strange...no mercury, but hardly anything else either. Even normal amounts of minerals were just hardly detectable. That was clearly mercury's fault, which led to the DMSA urine challenge test, which confirmed the suspicion in a big way.
You asked if mercury could be a factor in the low copper. The answer is yes. But it probably isn't just the copper. Other minerals, enzymes, receptors, and glands are likely impacted too, which all have an impact on our neurotransmitter function, and of course the resulting mood disorders.
Low copper in the face of ongoing copper supplementation is a solid clue something is going on. Top culprits, given your history and situation, as I see it, are mercury and possibly candida. Those two almost always go together.
For the immediate future, since you are kind of trapped from doing any chelation as long as there is suspected amalgam under crowns or root canals, is to increase the doses of supplementation. Much of what you are currently taking seems to be getting wasted, displaced, or not absorbed. So it may take higher amounts to bridge the roadblock. Selenium is recommended to help neutralize mercury's effects.
And of course, maybe low copper doesn't mean anything. Maybe that's just the way it is, and is not meaningful? I don't buy that, but it is a stance someone could take. Maybe there is another cause of low copper that I don't know or have forgotten. Mercury and/or candida are for sure at the top of the list in what I am aware of at this point in time.
poster:bleauberry
thread:933837
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100113/msgs/933902.html