North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[list@ginda.us]

Interesting - I had no idea hemochromatosis was so common.  My father 
is a doctor, and when I was a kid I remember him coming home one day 
and telling us about how doctors still bleed people, and he had just 
cured a very sick man by bleeding him.  (He didn't personally "bleed" 
the guy, he just arranged for his to have blood drawn.)  The man was so 
grateful that he invited my  father and his three little children to 
spend a day with him on his fishing boat in the ocean.  I have never 
been more bored in my life.  :)  But I caught a very tasty flounder.

Ginda

On Mar 3, 2005, at 3:51 PM, kieran or donna wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> nafex mailing list
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> **YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
> All other messages are discarded.
> No exceptions.
> ----
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can 
> be used to change other email options):
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>
> File attachments are NOT stripped by this list
> TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
> Please do not send binary files.
> Use plain text ONLY in emails!
>
> Message archives are here:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex
>
> NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/