• Dense Iron/Copper-Induced Blood Clots Linked To Brain, Eye, Heart and Diabetic Diseases; Some Natural Remedies Identified

    Posted August 27, 2014: by Bill Sardi

    In just the past two years researcher Etheresia Pretorius at the University of Pretoria in South Africa has published a flurry of reports that may turn modern medicine on its ear.

    Dr. Pretorius’ research may provide an explanation why efforts to quell Alzheimer’s disease with agents that reduce beta amyloid plaque in the brain or by maintaining brain chemicals (acetycholine) that facilitate memory have not been met with success. [Folia Neuropathologica 2014]

    Dr. Pretorius’ and colleagues scientific investigations involve the role excess iron and copper play in the altering the shape of red blood cells that results in less oxygen being delivered to tissues in the brain, eyes, heart and elsewhere.  Her work may help explain many other circulatory conditions such as ischemic heart disease (oxygen deprived heart), macular degeneration and stroke.  [Frontiers Human Neuroscience Oct 2013; Current Neurovascular Research Aug 2013;

    As Dr. Pretorius explains, normally blood clots form to seal sites of bleeding and hemorrhage.  Under normal conditions, these fibrin clots are gradually and completely dissolved and removed from the site of a blood vessel wall injury to make room for connective tissue and proper wound healing.  If these stubborn clots are not removed they become a source for chronic inflammation. [Toxicology Mechanisms Methods June 2013]

    Thanks to Dr. Pretorius and colleagues, newly recognized factors that make blood clots impervious to their normal enzymatic breakdown and disposal have now been identified.  [Current Neurovascular Research Aug 2013]

    Iron overload, as evidenced by elevated iron storage levels (ferritin blood test) as well as excess copper can generate the dreaded hydroxyl radical, the most destructive oxidizing agent in the body.

    Dr. Pretorius puts her theory to the test

    As Dr. Pretorius so authoritatively documents, the hydroxyl radical creates a network of fibrinoid strands that are literally impervious to even the strongest enzymes such as streptokinase or nattokinase.  She proved this by adding iron to a lab dish with red blood cells to demonstrate how iron accelerates blood coagulation and forms clots resistant to breakdown.  [International Journal Molecular Medicine Feb 2014]

    Dr. Pretorius also conducted an experiment to show that an iron-chelating drug partially reversed the iron-binding to fibrinogen, a precursor to fibrin. [Blood Coagulation Fibrinolysis July 2, 2014]

    The result of iron overload is that the shape of these iron/copper overloaded red blood cells is altered so that circulation and oxygen delivery is compromised.  [Cardiovascular Diabetology April 2013]

    These dense blood clots can form spontaneously in iron-overloaded blood and are found in blood vessels in the heart and brain. [Heart Lung Circulation June 2013]  Iron-induced fibrin-like deposits are also found cancer, atherosclerosis (blood vessel disease), brain and some autoimmune disorders. [Hematology July 2012]  In the brain, these clots can lead to irreversible brain damage. [Microscopy Research & Technique Sept 2012]

    Natural antidotes

    The antidotes that Dr. Pretorius recommends are magnesium, which “disaggregates fibrin” and natural iron/copper chelators (key-lay-tors) like quercetin and curcumin.  [Frontiers Human Neuroscience Oct 2013; Toxicology Mechanisms Methods June 2013]  IP6 phytate derived from rice bran should be added to the list. [Carcinogenesis April 1988; Brain Research July 18, 2003]  Resveratrol should be used for copper chelation. [Biochemical Pharmacology May 1997]

    Fish oil has also been found to inhibit fibrin clots when added to standard therapy for blocked coronary arteries. [Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis Vascular Biology July 2011]

    It is also possible to avert the development of these dense clots by removal of iron via blood donation (blood letting). [PLoS One Jan 9, 2014]

    Dated science and natural remedies ignored

    As early as 1948 scientific reports were published on the insolubility of fibrin clots. [Science Sept 10, 1948]  In 1953 researchers reported that the use of various lithium and sodium salts help to dissolve fibrin clots, apparently a long-forgotten remedy. [Journal General Physiology July 1953]

    A decade ago it was shown that fibrin clots initiate the sprouting of abnormal blood vessels (called neovascularization) and that anti-clotting agents are potential inhibitors of these abnormal blood vessels. [Thrombosis Haemostasis Aug 2004]  This occurs in wet macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

    And more than a decade earlier researchers reported that fibrin that forms as part of bleeding episodes behind the retina of the human eye can tear away the light receptor cells and damage them permanently. [Archives Ophthalmology May 1991]

    So the problem of insoluble blood clots was well described decades ago but the origin of the problem remained obscure until Dr. Pretorius and colleagues fingered loosely bound or unbound iron and copper as the instigators of unremitting fibrin clots.  Or were they the first?

    In 1983 a report published in the American Heart Journal identified iron and fibrin within plaques in coronary arteries, but researchers at the time said “the significance of iron and fibrin in atherosclerotic plaques remains unclear.” [American Heart Journal May 1983]

    There was no need to develop new iron-chelating drugs in 1983.  Turmeric spice that provides curcumin, rice bran that provides IP6 and apple peel that provides quercetin, all natural iron chelators, were available for extraction.  How many lives would have been saved from mortal heart attacks caused by the insoluble blood clots in coronary arteries over the past three decades if cardiologists had utilized natural remedies to prevent clots instead of expensive blood thinners that inappropriately depleted vitamin K instead of iron?

    The late James Privitera MD, who was fondly called “Dr. Blood Clot,” performed live blood cell analysis using a dark-field microscope in his office which provided immediate visual information about the clotting status of one’s blood.  He told me that he had rarely seen a report on the status of a patient’s blood platelets in his many years in medical practice even though 90% of all heart attacks are caused by the formation of a thrombus (blood clot).  Dr. Privitera said one of three patients visiting his office had undetected blood clotting problems.  For this Dr. Privitera was branded as a health quack by surrounding doctors.  [LewRockwell.com Sept 2, 2009]

    Commercial interests have taken over the practice of medicine.  Measures that truly prevent disease from occurring in the first place as shunned for expensive treatments that do not address the cause of the problem and leave patients in chronic ill health.  Will practicing physicians in the USA take heed and begin using natural molecules to prevent morbid and deadly blood clots?  They haven’t addressed the iron problem since it was first reported over 30 years ago.

    Dr. Pretorius is already facing opposition to her work.  She wants to halt transfusions of “rusty” misshapen red blood cells obtained from iron-overloaded subjects.  The Superior Health Council in Belgium opposed the idea.  — ©2014 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.

    Red blood cell

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