Bromism

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Kitchen Cures for Bromism
Bromide, Chlorine, and Iodine are halogens. Chlorine and Iodine will dislodge bromine. Chlorine will dislodge both bromine and iodine.

Drink 12 to 16 oz of salt brine (¼ tsp. of unprocessed sea salt to 1/2 cup of warm water), every 30 minutes until you being to urinate frequently. Once the urination begins to flow, stop drinking the salt brine.

Some doctors and naturalpaths prescribe 12.5 mg of iodine Take several grams of vitamin C spaced through the day with increased water intake.

Note: one may have higher symptoms of bromism as the body tries to excrete it.

Flour without Bromine
We found Pepperidge Farm, Arnold, Pillsbury, and Entenmanns used flour without bromine. King Arthur flour is labeled as "never bromated."

Health Destroyer
Bromides disrupt the endocrine system. It is in the same family as Iodine and fight for the same receptor spots. This pair is similar to lead and iron. Iodine builds health whereas bromine (like lead) destroys it.

Sources of Bromine / Bromide
Asthma inhalers
 * 1) Bromated flour also called “Enriched Flour”
 * 2) Brominated vegetables
 * 3) Brominated vegetable oil in citrus sodas and sports drinks (Fresca, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Sun Drop, Squirt)
 * 4) Cosmetics
 * 5) Flame retardants especially in children’s clothing and mattresses
 * 6) Hair dyes and permanent waves
 * 7) Hot tub and swimming pool treatments
 * 8) Furniture, carpeting, bedding, cars
 * 9) Medicines Atrovent Inhaler, Atrovent Nasal Spray, Pro-Banthine (for ulcers), and anesthesia agents
 * 10) Non-prescription antiseptic and astringent in toothpaste and mouthwash
 * 11) Pesticides (methyl bromide) sprayed on produce and in homes for insect control.
 * 12) Plastics which is everywhere
 * 13) Shrink-proofing wool
 * 14) Swimming pools
 * 15) Water purification

Death by bromine?
My friend Denise told me that she had cancer the week she died. Afterward (because I have not gotten over the loss), I did some research on cancer. The doctors (with the best success rate) linked many cancers to a lack of iodine and too much bromine. Iodine and bromine displace one another. Excessive bromine and a lack of iodine have many similar symptoms. This condition is called bromism.

As I explored bromine, I found many of my family’s symptoms, which I thought had been unrelated. My oldest daughter developed something that looked like Parkinson’s. My second daughter had acne that simply would not clear up and blood sugar problems. My third daughter had/has CRMO, an auto-inflammatory illness. I was almost bald. The upstairs neighbor got MS. None of the symptoms seemed related until I read articles about iodine that also spoke about bromism. The apartment building was spraying every two weeks as a pest control method. My family improved when I took everybody off grains. Both are sources of bromine.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=23343 Bromism: A disease caused by chronic exposure to bromine or one of its compounds. Bromism is characterized by mental dullness, memory loss, slurred speech, tremors, ataxia and muscular weakness, a transitory state resembling paranoid schizophrenia, and a skin eruption (bromoderma). Once a common problem, (it is still a problem) bromism was generally due to chronic ingestion of proprietary bromide preparations. Also called brominism.

Lynne Farrow, MA. The Perfect Storm,1970-2000: The Breast, Iodine Deficiency and Bromide Dominance http://westonaprice.org/conference/2008/presentations.html

Breast Cancer rates rose from one in 23 to one in seven over the last 30 years. During this time, the nutrient, iodine, was removed from the food supply and the the "anti-iodine," toxin, bromide, was introduced widely into many consumer products. Stealth (unlabeled) bromide exposure from fire-retardants surrounds us in our daily life to a degree unacceptable in some other countries. The presentation will first explore how bromide dominance may function as the biochemical equivalent of global warming as iodine-deficient women reach the age for breast and other hormone-sensitive cancers. Next, we will explore how some forms of benign breast disease can represent a precancerous condition by examining research on iodine and the breast from 1954 to the present. Finally, we will show how at-risk breast patients have used iodine to improve or reverse fibrocystic breast disease.

Most available data come from studies involving chronic exposure to bromides in the form of oral medications. This type of exposure has lead to depression, ataxia and psychoses (bromism). Chronic exposure to methyl bromide has caused peripheral neuropathy. Soviet literature has described loss of corneal reflexes, joint pain, vegetative disorders, thyroid dysfunction and depression of bone marrow. Sticht G & Kaferstein H (1988) Bromine. In: Seiler H, Sigel H, Sigel A, eds. Handbook on Toxicity of Inorganic Compounds. New York, Marcel Dekker Inc., 143-154.

Bromine vs Iodine
Bromine is to iodine as lead is to iron. The public is aware of lead poisoning, but few know anything about bromism (bromine poisoning). Just as lead displaces iron, bromine displaces iodine and chlorine. Like lead, bromine is toxic and can be life altering and damaging. Since lead poisoning is widely understood, there are campaigns to purge sources that could be ingested or absorbed into the body. The same should be done to eradicate the use of bromine.

Bromine and iodine are halogens (fluorine, F; chlorine, Cl; bromine, Br; iodine, I; and astatine). The halogens are one electron short, which makes them highly reactive and as such are usually found in nature as compounds or as ions. Many applications for chlorine as an oxidizing agent can be substituted for bromine, such as disinfectants. Bromine was used in early photography, but quickly found its way into medicine.

Medicine?
During the 1800’s and early 1900’s, doctors used bromine for anticonvulsive and sedative medication (Shorter). Even AlkaSeltzer began as BromoSeltzer, a popular hangover medication. In 1975, America discontinued using bromides as tranquilizers because they were too toxic. The Montreal Protocol (on substances that deplete the ozone layer) is targeting (trying to prohibit) some forms of bromine. Yet, bromine is still everywhere. The swimming pool industry offers bromine as an alternative for chlorine. Like chlorine, the hot temperature creates a chemical vapor. So not only are you soaking in it, you’re breathing it. Bromine is in our clothing, cleaning products, food, etc. Many food products are brominated.

Health Problems
The website for Breast Cancer Choices, Inc has a good overview of bromism. This site blames a lack of iodine as a source of breast cancer. This site claims that bromine depletes iodine, which can cause breast cancer. http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/bromidedominancetheory.html “What products contain bromide? Currently, bromide is found in pesticides (methyl bromide),  some bread products (potassium bromate), brominated vegetable oil that may be added to citrus-flavored drinks, hot tub cleansers, certain asthma inhalers and prescription drugs, plastic products, some personal care products, some fabric dyes, and as a fire retardant in mattresses, carpeting, etc.”

This article goes on to explain how bromine affects each organ.

Bromine in any form can cause dreadful symptoms. http://www.iodinesource.com/ThyroidGland.asp see #24. Under the subtitle: Health Risks of PCBE's (another form of bromine) Of the many different kinds of fire retardants, one of the most common is a class of bromine-based chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs. A growing body of research in laboratory animals has linked PBDE exposure to an array of adverse health effects including thyroid hormone disruption, permanent learning and memory impairment, behavioral changes, hearing deficits, delayed puberty onset, fetal malformations and possibly cancer. Research also shows that exposure to brominated flame retardants in utero or infancy leads to much more significant harm than adult exposure, and at much lower levels. Today PBDEs are in thousands of products, in which they typically comprise 5 to 30 percent of product weight. During manufacturing, PBDEs are simply mixed in to the plastic or foam product, rather than chemically binding to the material as some other retardants do, making PBDEs more likely to leach out. PBDEs are the chemical cousins of PCBs, another family of persistent and bioaccumulative toxins that came to the attention of regulators only after millions of pounds had been released into the environment. Used primarily as electrical insulators, PCBs were found to be rapidly building up in people and animals before they were banned in 1977.

Many of the known health effects of PBDEs are thought to stem from their ability to disrupt the body's thyroid hormone balance, by depressing levels of the T3 and T4 hormones important to metabolism. In adults, hypothyroidism can cause fatigue, depression, anxiety, unexplained weight gain, hair loss and low libido. This can lead to more serious problems if left untreated, but the consequences of depressed thyroid hormone levels on developing fetuses and infants can be devastating. One study, for instance, found that women whose levels of T4 measured in the lowest 10 percent of the population during the first trimester of pregnancy were more than 2.5 times as likely to have a child with an IQ of less than 85 (in the lowest 20 percent of the range of IQs) and five times as likely to have a child with an IQ of less than 70, meeting the diagnosis of "mild retardation." Even short-term exposures to commercial PBDE mixes or individual congeners can alter thyroid hormone levels in animals, and the effects are more profound in fetuses and offspring than in adults. These results aren't surprising, but are ominous as data in humans indicate that pregnancy itself stresses the thyroid, and developing fetuses and infants don't have the thyroid hormone reserves adults do to help buffer insults to the system. Most studies on thyroid hormone disruption by PBDEs have been very short--with exposures of 14 days or less. The real question is how low doses over the long term affect the body's thyroid hormone balance. The answer is important, because the entire U.S. population is exposed daily to low levels of PBDEs, and studies of other thyroid hormone disrupters have found that long-term exposures can cause more serious harm at lower levels of exposure. Although no direct link could be made, one study found higher rates of hypothyroidism among workers exposed to brominated flame retardants on the job.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/528671 Boyer EW, Kearney S, Shannon MW, et al. Poisoning from a dietary supplement administered during hospitalization. Pediatrics. 2002;109:E49. A 10-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital with upper respiratory infection, seizures, increasing lethargy, anorexia, and fever. Physicians found that his mother had administered multiple doses of a dietary supplement (Diankenxing) obtained from an herbalist and found to contain bromine. The patient’s symptoms were consistent with bromism…

Canad. Med. Ass. April 19, 1969 J.100 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1945871&blobtype=pdf This article documents a 61 year old women suffering from bromism that was misdiagnosed with mental illness and hospitalized. Bromism can look like mental illness. Mental dullness, slurred speech, poor memory, apathy, anorexia, constipation, fetid breath, furred tongue, drowsiness and loss of sensitivity to touch and pain. Conjunctivitis and lacrimation may occur, as well as bradycardia and diminished reflexes. There may be insomnia, restlessness, change in personality, loss of memory, disorientation, dilated pupils, ataxia, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, delirium and stupor, coma and death. The bromide rash is indistinguishable from acne.

A teen’s stubborn acne might be bromism from a huge intake of soft drinks. Journal of toxicology. Clinical toxicology   ISSN 0731-3810 1997, vol. 35, no3, pp. 315-320 (27 ref.) http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2649935 “The patient presented with headache, fatigue, ataxia, and memory loss which progressed over 30 days. He consumed 2 to 4 L of cola containing brominated vegetable oil on a daily basis before presenting with these symptoms. His significantly elevated serum chloride, as measured by ion specific methods, and negative anion gaps were overlooked during a prior hospitalization and emergency department visits.

The Gulf War illness is said to be caused by Pyridostigmine Bromide pills and exposure to pesticides (also bromine). See the following two links. http://salaswildthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/11/gulf-war-illness-is-due-to.html http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Gulf-War-Illness-Strongly-Linked-to-Chemical-Exposure-13953-2/

Neuropathology Volume 17 Issue 1, Pages 52 – 57 Published Online: 21 May 2007 This article shows that MS can be caused by ethidium bromide.

Propantheline bromide is a medicine that causes MS symptoms. http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/treatments/medications/propantheline/index.aspx “… difficult to distinguish between certain common symptoms of MS and some side effects of propantheline”

Bromine and cancer. http://iodine4health.com/overviews/clinicians/rowen_clinician.htm

Quoting verbatim: Just how likely is deficiency in cancer? In an in-house study, 60 cancer patients (various types) were given the iodine-loading test and then measured for urinary excretion. All 60 patients were found to be seriously deficient in body stores of iodine and some had great excesses of bromine. The best case excreted only 50 percent of the load and the worst excreted only 20 percent (that means they were retaining a very high 80 percent). Folks, these are some serious numbers. One hundred percent of these cancer sufferers were deficient in iodine! I assure you the problem is population wide.... "If you’re deficient and think iodized salt is your answer, I can assure you it’s not. First, the amount of iodine (as potassium iodide) added is relatively small. You will need a minimum of 100 grams of iodized salt daily (20 tsp) to get adequate levels. Even saltaholics can’t eat this much salt...."

Dr. Fecha on diabetes and iodine. I am including this because bromism causes a loss of iodine. This article doesn’t go into why the patient was so low on iodine, but bromism can cause iodine levels to plummet. http://www.iodine4health.com/disease/diabetes/flechas_diabetes.htm

Iodine
It was while treating a large 320-pound woman with insulin dependent diabetes that we learned a valuable lesson regarding the role of iodine in hormone receptor function. This woman had come in via the emergency room with a very high random blood sugar of 1,380 mg/dl. She was then started on insulin during her hospitalization and was instructed on the use of a home glucometer. She was to use her glucometer two times per day. Two weeks later on her return office visit for a checkup of her insulin dependent diabetes she was informed that during her hospital physical examination she was noted to have FBD. She was recommended to start on 50 mg ofiodine(4 tablets) at that time. One week later she called us requesting to lower the level of insulin due to having problems with hypoglycemia. She was told to continue to drop her insulin levels as long as she was experiencing hypoglycemia and to monitor her blood sugars carefully with her glucometer. Four weeks later during an office visit her glucometer was downloaded to my office computer, which showed her to have an average random blood sugar of 98.

I praised the patient for her diligent efforts to control her diet and her good work at keeping her sugars under control with the insulin. She then informed me that she had come off her insulin three weeks earlier and had not been taking any medications to lower her blood sugar. When asked what she felt the big change was, she felt that her diabetes was under better control due to the use of iodine. Two years later and 70 pounds lighter this patient continues to have excellent glucose control on iodine 50 mg per day. We since have done a study of twelve diabetics and in six cases we were able to wean all of these patients off of medications for their diabetes and were able to maintain a hemoglobin A1C of less than 5.8 with the average random blood sugar of less than 100. To this date these patients continue to have excellent control of their Type II diabetes. The range of daily iodine intake was from 50 mg to 100 mg per day. All diabetic patients were able to lower the total amount of medications necessary to control their diabetes. Two of the twelve patients were controlled with the use of iodine plus one medication. Two patients have control of diabetes with iodine plus two medications. One patient had control of her diabetes with three medications plus iodine 50 mg. The one insulin dependent diabetic was able to reduce the intake of Lantus insulin from 98 units to 44 units per day within a period of a few weeks."

I invite (or rather should I say implore you) the reader, to search for “bromism or bromine and {your symptom}”. {| border="1" cellpadding="1" !width="190"|Kitchen Cures !width="190"|Super Foods !width="190"|Herbs as Tonics !width="190"|Supplements for Nutrition !width="190"|Remedies that Build Health