North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

Charlie,
    I'm only about 6 days behind on this discussion, not bad for me.  First
I'd check with my county agent and find out if zinc deficiency is EVER a
problem in your area.  Next I would ask myself how wide an area I planned to
cover with the compost, and then see what the standard dosage would be if a
person simply wanted to add some zinc sulfate, at the standard #'s per acre.
If you plant to spread this compost pile over half an acre, you'd use a
different amount from if you were putting it all in a few pumpkin hills.  At
a small enough dose, it probably won't hurt anything, but I will try to look
it up in Neal Kinseys' book and see what zinc interacts with.  Then when you
call the county, you can ask about the competing minerals too, if you are
short on one, the extra Zn could make it unavailable.
    This goes on in the human body too.  Like many women, I disliked the
smell of pennies, till I decided to run an experiment, and took Zn and
Manganese for 2 months.  Not only did I muscle test fine for copper after
that (it used to make my arm go weak when tested) but I found roses smelled
much better to me.  You can play with this by passing a penny, preferably
pre 1980, around a group of people and have each one rub the penny between
their hands for about 30 seconds, then sniff the penny and sniff their
hands.  A lot of men like the smell, a lot of women will have to go wash
their hands afterward.  Estrogen causes copper accumulation, but more
important is the relationship with iron.  Women in their childbearing years
tend to be short of iron.  Men tend to have higher levels, and 1 in 7 of
both sexes carry a gene to absorb more iron, 50% more in the case of
carriers, 3X more in the 1 in 200 people with double genes for
hemochromatosis.  Low copper levels increase the problem, and the same
enzyme that "chaperones" the excess iron to keep it out of trouble is
supposed to be also transporting copper and zinc for use by the cells.
    Do try this fun experiment on your friends and co-workers, and if you
know someone with a ruddy face & red-tipped ears who really likes the smell
of the penny, suggest he get his serum iron tested, by a young dr who knows
something about hemochromatosis.  There are about 3 organizations on the net
giving out info on this potentially deadly condition.  I just met a woman
whose brother recently died at age 55, in spite of being in excellent shape,
and it turned out to be hemochromatosis.  We were very very lucky that
someone told me all about this before my husband got achy, fatigued, and
depressed for no apparent reason.  We got his ferritin and serum iron
tested, and they were just a little over the line.  After he got rid of
about 6 pints of blood over the next 3 months, he felt fine.  The
alternative was years of feeling like hell before the full blown symptoms
showed, arthritis, impotence, diabetes, heart arrythmias, congestive heart
failure, and primary liver cancer.  Not to mention the indignity of
developing cirrhosis of the liver and being accused of being being a closet
drinker (without even the fun of being a closet drinker!)  We hear all kinds
of tales on the hemochromatosis support group about encounters with ignorant
drs.  Fortunately this is changing, at least the PUBLIC is learning about
it.    Donna