Iron reduction has been a real fountain of youth for me (male, late 50s), & some of you may have noticed I sing its praise frequently. Bloodletting/donation has been my primary method, but I also chelate with IP6 (Inositol Hexaphosphate) and have found when taken properly on an empty stomach it really does chelate iron. In researching IP6 I have found a couple of potential drawbacks to its use I wish to explore, but alas my skills in organic chemistry are limited.
One issue is the possibility IP6 may also be over-chelating important trace minerals with extended use. The beauty of IP6 is that it spares important minerals like potassium and sodium, while aggressively snapping up potent hydroxyl generators like free/labile/serum iron and copper. Protein bound minerals (calcium in bone and iron in hemoglobin) are also spared.
Phytic acid in food has long been labeled an "anti-nutrient", and diets high in phytic acid are known to contribute to deficiencies by binding minerals in dietary foods. In IP6 chelation however, the supplement is taken between meals, thus avoiding the binding/withholding of dietary minerals, which are absorbed normally and are said to quickly replace any deficiency of important (macro) minerals created during chelation. To me, this would indicate deficiencies or imbalances of trace minerals as the only likely problematic effect of IP6 chelation.
Literature describes IP6 as a chelator of "divalent" metals (copper, zinc, lead, manganese, iron, cadmium, magnesium, calcium and arsenic), but other texts also describe IP6 as a good chelator of uranium. Dr Mercola used to utilize IP6 for chelation, but now states it may cause dangerous imbalances in trace minerals. The only trace minerals that stand out to me (I wouldn't want to run low on) in the above list are zinc and manganese... Copper is important, but from what I've read, most folks are overloaded with this already and could benefit from copper chelation. I also consume substantial amounts of high copper foods (chocolate, coffee, seafood, nuts) and have copper plumbing, so I'm not particularly troubled by this.
Zinc is easy to supplement, and I do take low dose zinc at a different time of day than my IP6. I believe I get plenty of manganese from daily tea consumption. What I'm wondering is... Are there any other trace minerals IP6 may be affecting that are not mentioned in the literature I'm reading? Iodine, Sulfur, Selenium, Molybdenum, Chromium, Boron, etc? If IP6 were affecting these, this might change the safety profile substantially. As I mentioned above, my organic chemistry is deficient... Anyone have any clues?
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My other issue is arsenic... In California, IP6 comes with a "Prop-65" warning it contains small amounts of arsenic which may cause cancer. Arsenic is found in many foods (chicken, apple & grape juice, rice, drinking water) and literature states there is "no safe level" for arsenic. Rice is particularly problematic for arsenic and as IP6 is derived from rice bran, this could be a problem with IP6 if the refining/extracting process either fails to remove or concentrates arsenic in the final product. All IP6 comes from a single source (Tsuno/Wakayama Japan), and they report their arsenic content for IP6 as "less than 2 ppm". I've seen one other source that reports arsenic in "rice bran extract" (another name for IP6) at up to 5 ppm.
Inquiries I've made into this matter get responses like: "The small amount of arsenic in IP6 remains tightly and safely bound to the IP6 throughout its journey through the body, and IP6 will actually pick-up and chelate additional arsenic it encounters in the body". This make sense to me, but I sometimes wonder if any biological processes might strip the arsenic out of IP6, allowing it to remain in the body.
I'm also poor at math, and can not figure out exactly how to convert and determine the actual payload of arsenic in a 1 gram dose of IP6 that contains arsenic at 2 or 5 ppm.
IP6 has some remarkable properties aside from its ability to chelate excess iron... It activates NK cells and up-regulates tumor suppressor/p53 genes, lowers inflammatory TNF-a at low doses, and is one of the few supplements that actually repairs double strand DNA breaks (in vitro). It appears to reduce lung cancer in former smokers and liver cancer in those with liver disease. My parents both have high iron, and are too old to donate blood. I would love to recommend IP6, but I'm having trouble working out the safety issues to my satisfaction. If anyone can help me out, I would appreciate it very much.
Here's a couple of interesting papers on IP6:
http://www.jbc.org/c...7.full.pdf html
Phytic acid. A natural antioxidant
http://www.pjoes.com...7.2/283-290.pdf
Effect of Inositol Hexaphosphate on Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Release of TNF-a from Human Mononuclear Cells
Edited by synesthesia, 27 November 2013 - 12:47 AM.