Life-Long Effects of Lead Poisoning on Adults – Part 1

Life-Long Effects of Lead Poisoning on Adults – Part 1

If you asked my family to describe me in one word they would immediately respond by saying, “dramatic” or “odd.” I’ve been accused of this most of my life and I won’t say I necessarily disagree. You see, when I was growing up in a family of nine children, if you needed attention you had to be dramatic about it. There was too much noise to meekly say, “Hey, I need some help here.” The help would never come unless you got peoples’ attention. So, yes, I grew up in a dramatic family, however, being dramatic isn’t a good tool to resolve trauma, or as I refer to it as, “Trauma Drama.”

I remembered this term last week when I was told by my client, Sue Gunderson, executive director of CLEARCorps (CCUSA), that there was a high probability that I was lead poisoned as a child.

“WHAT???????” my inner child screams. “I was lead poisoned!” Okay, before I get dramatic I must do diligent research and review the long-term effects of lead poisoning. And, I must face the facts:

EFFECTS* FACTS
· Delayed neurodevelopment [e.g. in sitting up, walking, talking] · I didn’t start walking until I was 15 months old – my relatives thought this was odd
· Decreased reading, math, non-verbal reasoning ability & short term memory, (even at blood lead levels less than 10µg/dL) · I suck at math and computer technology
· Impaired pituitary-thyroid endocrine system · I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid in my 30’s and had radiation to destroy my thyroid. I also have had two pituitary tumors
· Osteoporosis in later years · I have osteoporosis and have had it for 20 years
·  Attention problems; distractibility, restlessness · I have difficulty concentrating — all of my life
· Irritability · Me and all of my siblings are extremely irritable
· Lead-based paint was legally use until 1978 · My childhood home was built in the 1940’s in a community with a large industrial factory
·  Tremors · My siblings and I all have tremors in our hands and extremities
·  Learning difficulties · In kindergarten I registered as retarded on the Iowa Basics test
· Chronic lead nephropathy [kidney disease] · I was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection at the age of 5
· Hypertension, elevated blood pressure · Many of my siblings and I take high blood pressure medication
· Depression · I’m on an anti-depression medication since I was 22
· Anxiety · I’m on a prescribed anti-anxiety medication and have been for 10 years
· Headaches · I suffer from headaches / migraines — most of my life
*Vance Vella et al., Health Impacts of Lead Poisoning. The Lead Education and Abatement Design Group. (Updated March 2011) For more information go to http://www.lead.org.au/.

industry-1149888_1280I could go on but my point is — out of the possible 121 effects of lead poisoning for a woman my age, I count more than 30 effects that’s approx. 25 percent! If you had anything at 25 percent, you’d be diagnosed with diabetes and cancer (which I have). The authors of the cited article state, “… remember that most people who are lead poisoned present no symptoms at all.”

I didn’t write this blog for sympathy – no way! In my search to understand my ill health I wanted to find out the possible sources for so much illness. I wasn’t born a sick child but at the age of five I started what would be a life-long quest for answers. And, thanks to Sue Gunderson’s comment to me, I found another piece to my health puzzle. Does this understanding make me angry? Sure, but I don’t want to spend my energy on something I can’t change, because I can’t go back and “fix” where I lived as a child. Literally, it’s lead under the bridge! (I’m sure a bad sense of humor is an additional effect.)

Rather than asking “Why me,” or “Why us,” I like to put myself back in the driver’s seat and ask instead, “Now that I have this information, what am I going to do about it?” My answer is simple: I’m going to educate my friends and family!

Lead poisoning makes you “dramatic and odd!”

 

[IMPORTANT NOTE: Do you have unexplained medical conditions? Do you currently live in a house built before 1978 or near industrial sites? Do you remember tasting paint chips from peeling windows as a child? (I do.) If so, I recommend that you look deeper into lead poisoning.]