Everyone knows that smoking is bad for your health. It can cause heart disease, cancer, and a whole host of other problems.  But here's something you may not know: There's a toxin found in cigarette smoke that's so prevalent, it can affect you even if you're not a smoker.

I've been warning my readers for years about this toxin because it's one of the major causes of heart disease and Alzheimer's.

And now a new study provides further proof of what I've been telling you all along.  Here's the story.

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It's a well-known fact that cigarettes cause peripheral arterial disease (PAD). For years, scientists have assumed that the damage was done either by the smoke or the nicotine.

But when researchers studied a group of smokers, they found something very surprising. They discovered that the ones with the most artery damage were those that had high levels of lead and cadmium in their blood. In fact, those who had the highest blood levels of those metals were almost three times as likely to develop PAD!

The authors concluded that the lead and cadmium in cigarette smoke damages the lining of arteries, leading to more pronounced disease. So it's not the smoke that does the artery damage, but the heavy metal content of the smoke.

And blood levels of these metals don't have to be very high to cause problems. The researchers found that PAD was associated with lead concentrations that were only 13% higher on average than in subjects without PAD. Likewise, the cadmium levels were about 16% higher in persons with PAD than in those without it.
Now here's the shocker: The highest levels in the study were well below what the medical establishment considers "safe."

The truth is, you don't have to be a smoker to have levels of heavy metals in the danger zone. You can easily absorb enough from your environment and from the things you eat to put you at risk. That's because heavy metals are everywhere.

You drink a little lead every time you sip your daily coffee out of a ceramic mug. The newspaper ink that smudges your fingers when you read the paper contains lead. Each computer monitor and television set in your home contains four to eight pounds of lead.  And burning candles with lead in their wicks can raise the concentration of lead in the air by as much as 36 times that allowed by the EPA.and it can linger for hours even after the candle stops burning!

As for cadmium, it can be found in batteries, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, processed meats, galvanized pipes, rubber carpet backing, seafood, instant coffee, and more.

Fortunately, there's something you can do about toxic heavy metals. That something is chelation therapy.

Traditionally, the best form of chelation therapy was to use an intravenous drip. But oral chelation has made incredible strides in recent years and is now a viable alternative.

I've written about oral chelation in past issues of Second Opinion. Subscribers can simply search for `oral chelation' on the website.  If you're not yet a subscriber, sign up on the website.  You'll get access to all the articles I've written in Second Opinion, plus up to 17 special reports.

I'm also researching some brand new chelation products. If they work as well as they appear to, I will recommend them to you.

I'll have more details in a future health alert. Stay tuned!

Ref: Circulation, June 8, 2004.