#21

There is a labcorp test for Galectin 3. Levels greater than 17 are a sign of heart failure. My daughter did take this a few times (because of the cancer) and she was on MCP (heavily at times) hers was in single digits. I’m thinking it was $60. My doc would probably order it for me, but I have not bothered.

I suppose if your galectin 3 was low without the MCP, then probably there would be little benefit to taking it. It increases with age.

#22

I’m taking it for chelation as I have found out through a routine prenatal test that I had lead exposure — although I never lived in a house with the common risk factors. It must be from 17 years of growing up in Eastern Europe in a town of heavy traffic before they had unleaded gasoline. That’s what the Chinese American OB concluded too, as he had seen the same in Chinese patients from polluted areas. Lead gets sequestered in bones and then during pregnancy it can get released (lovely ain’t it?). Anyway my daughter with whom I was pregnant at the time is now 11 and wicked smart but I always wonder if she’d be a certified genius if mom hadn’t been breathing so much car exhaust growing up. I’m sure the other kids got their fair share too, just didn’t happen to be picked up by the blood work (they only tested that one time because I lived by the WTC back then and it was standard procedure from 9/11).

Anyway. I take it, and it actually tastes delicious. I just often end up skipping because you’re supposed to be taking it on an empty stomach and it’s hard to find the right window of time, my mornings being so hectic.

#23

I have taken MCP episodically and have been fascinated by the research around it. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily cheap, however.

For the wimpy among us, I imagine that an organic, low sugar, chunky marmalade might give some benefit. I’m thinking that it would be lovely to snack on the dehydrated citrus slices with which they adorn craft cocktails these days. Most of us have fairly extensive stacks, so I have to think of ways to incorporate new products that also adds some pleasure.

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#24

No it’s not cheap at all.

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#25

I confess that I don’t understand the chelation thing entirely. My understanding is that there are very low levels in your blood normally. Somehow the chelators reach into your other tissues and pull it out. I don’t know if pectasol does that, I’ll believe it ties up and eliminates all that is in the blood. It’s a slow process in any case.

DMSA, which you can buy on ebay is the best lead chelator out there and per the amount removed, I’ll say it’s cheaper than pectasol. Though I admit I don’t have any proof, and only a few anecdotal reports of pectasol working. I still take it every 2 weeks and supplement copper and zinc because it takes them away even better than it removes lead.

I think the heavy metals are big negative players in longevity, particularly heart disease. Still working the problem here. Good Luck,

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#26

I didn’t know you could buy DMSA on eBay! Will look into it. Actually it’s my concern about any heavy metals being released into my milk that has kept me from using my pectasol frequently. I don’t know if it does that but in theory it’s a possibility. I’m waiting till I wean in the summer before getting serious with chelation. I agree that heavy metal toxicity is a big negative for longevity and I had forgotten for the longest time about my lead toxicity which I wouldn’t even have known about were it not for that random lead blood test 12 years ago. So lately it’s come back on my radar and my ears are pricked to make sure I address it and sooner rather than later.

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#27

The article below says PH has no effect; it is the heat.

One study noted that only heat-treated pectin powder induced apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells, while pH-modified pectin powder had no apoptotic activity.12

The abstract of the source (footnote 12)

https://academic.oup.com/glycob/article-abstract/17/8/805/612035?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false

says:

Commercially available fractionated pectin powder (FPP) induced apoptosis (approximately 40-fold above non-treated cells) in both cell lines as determined by the Apoptosense assay and activation of caspase-3 and its substrate, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. Conversely, citrus pectin (CP) and the pH-modified CP, PectaSol, had little or no apoptotic activity.

Heat treatment of CP (HTCP) led to the induction of significant levels of apoptosis comparable to FPP, suggesting a means for generating apoptotic pectic structures.

Looks like heating will do the job.

The study used human prostate cancer cells. It was not an in vivo study.

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#28

The article is very strange to me in that he acts like galectin 3 inhibition is uncertain and maybe a theory. But in the references he has these two studies:

The first sentence says “The pH-modified citrus pectin (MCP) has been demonstrated to inhibit galectin-3 in cancer progression.”

So then he cites another study that says it really doesn’t:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925820394709

I really wish I had tested my galectin 3 before I started treatment. I don’t know if my daughter did, I’ll ask tomorrow. This is something that should be very easy to prove and I’m sure it has been done. The Life Extension article I quoted earlier talked all about it like it was real.

Tricky business.

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#29

For peels I only buy organic citrus and carefully scrub with a lot of flowing water. And yes, I eat the whole peel, I don’t try to separate any layers. FWIW, I have a friend who has been eating peels from conventionally grown oranges for over twenty years, and two years ago got tested for some pesticide levels in her blood. The upshot was that she didn’t have elevated levels, though spoiler alert, pretty much everyone in the US (and likely Europ?) has some pesticide exposure evident in their blood. Anecdotal n=1, but it made me feel better, lol.