Cadmium toxicity found in athletes with bone and joint disease

One of the things I love about my job is the challenge of unraveling unexplained health problems in people who, by any kind of measure, should be at the pinnacle of good health.

In this article, I present the cases of two athletes, Trevor, a former friendly running rival of mine, and Natasha, a professional triathlete. Trevor is now 59 and Natasha is 22 years of age. Both are health conscious people who appear to have been doing all the right things to remain in great condition. However, something has recently gone terribly wrong for both of them!

Natasha's Story

"I am a 22-year-old triathlete. I began my journey with the sport around 10 years ago. I slowly increased my commitment to the sport during this time, to where I am now able to train almost as a full time athlete, with some part time university study thrown in. During my time in the sport I had some good results, but over the years have struggled with various health issues, and have found it difficult to find proper answers to the issues causing them.

My problems started with iron deficiency and energy issues. I then began (and still am) getting multiple stress fractures. Some of which I can pin point some contributing factors for their occurrence, but no overriding explanation for them. I also had an unusual and serous blood infection following a cycling crash which required being on intravenous antibiotics for several months. It was after this crash I first made contact with Gary Moller to attempt to rebuild my immune systems more naturally.

I have had good results with the work I have done with Gary, but still have not been able to reach a healthy enough state to race as an elite triathlete (which is my goal). I do not have bone density issues, but I still continue to get stress fractures, suggesting that my bones are weak.

It wasn’t until recently that I feel I may have finally begun to find an answer to my bone issues and some of my other health issues. My HTMA test showed an excessive level of cadmium in my body, which can contribute to bone weakening, low iron and energy production issues.

This was an interesting finding, and when I began to consider how the cadmium may have got into my system at high levels I have been able to narrow it down to almost one thing; eating very large amounts of strawberries and grapes. In season, for a number of years I would have consumed up to four chips in one day. I have cut my strawberry intake to only home grown, spray free fruit. My large intake of strawberries was mostly due to the supposed ‘health’ benefits I thought they possessed, as well as the incentive that they were ‘low calorie’.

I am now working through the low process of cleaning the cadmium out of my system."

Natasha Bowyer

Trevor