Why are heavy metals toxic?

[ralph124c]

@MikeS

I do seem to recall an episode of House which involved gold poisoning; I think it was this one (spoilers). Of course, relying on prime-time TV for your medical information might not be the best plan.

Does anybody know why gold salts relive arthritis pains? Gold salts injections are frequently a last resort, but they sometimes work very well.

[Pushkin]

@Rysdad

Hm. I regularly persuade people to consume heavy metal. I even ‘inject’ it into them.

Guess the heavy metal and guess my job.

Lead and soldier? Uranium and USAF pilot?

[Johanna]

@Der Trihs

Not always; I recall a story from the eighties about a minor yuppie fad for gold coated food. They used some sort of technique that basically coated normal food in a thin foil gold layer; I saw pictures. Gold steaks aren’t my style.

In India they’ve been coating food with thin silver foil for centuries. They have people who sit in the marketplace all day long beating silver into foil with mallets, just to decorate food.

[Trunk]

I was going to guess “Barium” and “nurse”.

But, I don’t know why he would have put ‘inject’ in single quotes. So, maybe “music” and “guitar player” or something like that.

Anyway, this weekend I was reading the “diagnosis” article in the New York Times Magazine. They were having a hard time diagnosing a guy who was taking a shitload of vitamins. The money paragraph was this:

First she looked into vitamin A. She knew it could be toxic at high doses, and he was taking more than 10 times the recommended amount. A quick search, however, turned up nothing. What about zinc? She didn’t know much about that mineral, but he was taking 15 times the usual dose. She did another search, and — bingo! A half-dozen reports appeared on the screen describing cases in which high zinc intake had caused neutropenia, and sometimes anemia. She read on, fascinated. Zinc itself didn’t cause the problem; it was that zinc and copper were absorbed by the body through the same cellular doorway. If you consumed too much zinc, you absorbed too little copper. And that mineral was essential to making blood and tissue. Maybe he had a copper deficiency after all, she thought triumphantly.

So, that’s one way that zinc can f u up.

[Dead_Cat]

@Rysdad

Hm. I regularly persuade people to consume heavy metal. I even ‘inject’ it into them.

Guess the heavy metal and guess my job.

Mercury and dentist? Well, maybe if it was a few years ago!

[KP]

Gold salt therapy is indeed associated with a variety of side effects. Most are relatively mild (e.g. skin and nail changes, diarrhea), but rarely cholestatic hepatitis, nephropathy, diffuse pulmonary effects are seen. I don’t know the mechanism, but it seems more an idiosyncratic personal reaction than a true heavy metal toxicity. BTW, in 1996, I was surprised to see The New England Journal of Medicine report a case of lichen planus brought on by consumption of gold-bearing liquor (which I found surprising); after a trial of that hoary medical wisdom “Well, then, stop doing that,” the condition disappeared

I’ve eaten my share of Indian desserts with silver foil, but as with all things moderation is key, silver toxicity is indeed possible. Generally, exposure to metallic silver is considered safe – though a spike in the use and concentration of colloidal silver(a suspension of ultrafine metallic particles) after the Clinton alternative medicine “deregulation” did lead to a rash of argyria (a characteristic greyish skin due to silver deposition) and reports of toxicity. Exposure to soluble silver compounds may produce toxic effects, including liver and kidney damage, irritation of the eyes, skin, respiratory, and intestinal tract, and blood cell changes.

I wouldn’t worry too much about gold and silver, both of which are used medically in both their metallic and soluble salt forms, and in dentistry as well, but it’s worth noting that they are not utterly harmless – at least not for all people

[Rysdad]

@GawnFishin'

Barium??

Radiologist??

I was going to say Proctologist but I didn’t want to be an asshole.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner, and first out of the box, as well.

You win…a Full Column Barium Enema! (That’s why I put ‘inject’ in quotes. I don’t inject it into a vein, but somewhere else.) Now just lay on your left side, draw up your knees, take a deep breath, and slowly breathe out.

And, I’m not a Radiologist, but a Diagnostic Radiologic Technologist–fancy title for X-ray Tech.

But the guesses were outstanding.

[GawnFishin]

@Rysdad

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner, and first out of the box, as well.

You win…a Full Column Barium Enema! (That’s why I put ‘inject’ in quotes. I don’t inject it into a vein, but somewhere else.) Now just lay on your left side, draw up your knees, take a deep breath, and slowly breathe out.

:eek:

@Rysdad

And, I’m not a Radiologist, but a Diagnostic Radiologic Technologist–fancy title for X-ray Tech.

But the guesses were outstanding.

Well if I am not 100% correct I would feel uncomfortable accepting any ‘Prize’ offered. But thanks anyway.

[Rysdad]

@GawnFishin

'Well if I am not 100% correct I would feel uncomfortable accepting any ‘Prize’ offered.

Heh. So you would.

[Turek]

@GawnFishin'

:eek:

Well if I am not 100% correct I would feel uncomfortable accepting any ‘Prize’ offered. But thanks anyway.

You should go for the cash equivalent. Or at least make him buy you dinner first.

[GawnFishin]

It’s snowing here today. Anyone want to guess, how much snow will accumulate on the top of a 1"x1" stake by midnight tonight? Closest guess wins a prize.
Anyone?

[Snooooopy]

@GawnFishin'

It’s snowing here today. Anyone want to guess, how much snow will accumulate on the top of a 1"x1" stake by midnight tonight? Closest guess wins a prize.
Anyone?

It depends on if the prize is also something that goes up the ass.

[GawnFishin]

Anyone at all?

@Snooooopy

It depends on if the prize is also something that goes up the ass.

I’m sorry but I can only discuss potential prizes with people who have entered the competition.