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| Health Benefits of Indium [Sciencebase Science Blog] Posted: 02 Jul 2008 03:10 AM CDT
The site explains, that “As the conductor of various studies on indium, Dr. Schroeder (the scientist best known for inventing the means to take lead out of gasoline) found that possibly the most important function of Indium is to normalize the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain.” Well, the late Henry A. Schroeder of Dartmouth Medical School, a leading toxicologist, spent years highlighting the problems of lead toxicity, but did not as far as I know despite the wording of the quote above, develop a method for removing lead from gasoline. Why would you need to do that? The petrochemical companies used to add tetraethyl lead as an antiknocking agent, so the simplest method for its “removal” is just not to add it in the first place. Tetraethyllead was first added to gasoline in 1923 and it quickly became obvious that workers at the three manufacturing plants were becoming psychotic and dying from its toxic effects. The issue was essentially hushed up and “research” between 1926 and 1965 claimed a consensus that lead was only a problem at high exposure levels and atmospheric lead from vehicle exhausts was not a problem at all. We now know different, thanks partly to the efforts of Schroeder. Meanwhile, back to indium. Elemental discoveries are a boon to any marketeer, especially if you can convince consumers to buy, buy, buy. A document entitled: “Patented Indium Trace Element in Marketing Form Available for License” suggests how this can be so There are 3 questions that a company should ask when considering the addition of a new product for its product line:
It then tells us how these pertain to indium (In, element 49) and how a clever marketer might exploit the patent on the health benefits of indium. So, where do the supposed health benefits of indium come from or is it just a marketing scam and what about those claims to affect the activity of glands in the brain. Well, indium is an element in the same group of the periodic table as boron, aluminium, and gallium, oh and thallium, so one would not expect it to be particularly beneficial or even essential to health. Indeed, aluminium is a neurotoxin. However, Schroeder, towards the end of his life, wheelchair bound with muscular dystrophy, included indium in some of his last few experiments. He apparently, demonstrated that lab animals, on lifetime indium, had fewer cancers than controls. Other than references to the use of indium in imaging agents, I can find nothing in the medical literature regarding the positive health benefits of daily supplementation with indium, not then, not now. Yet, the web is littered with so-called health food sites selling indium sulfate to unwitting consumers, presumably, exploiting that marketing guidance I found on at least one site. However, there is one site to which I shall refer you and that is the webelements site from Sheffield University’s Mark Winter. the entry for indium explains that depending on dose: All indium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic. Indium compounds damage the heart, kidney and liver, and may be teratogenic So, who do you trust most, a health website hoping to get repeat sales based on your fears of poor health as you get older, or a well-respected site from a leading research team at a top university? I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be ingesting an indium compound daily for the rest of my life in the vague hope that represents some undiscovered panacea, that would just be bad medicine This item originally published July 25, 2005, was overhauled and updated at the request of a Sciencebase reader on July 2, 2008. A post from David Bradley Science Writer |
| Posted: 01 Jul 2008 03:50 PM CDT This week on Skepticality, Derek and Swoopy return from the desert with highlights from "The Amazing Meeting 6" conference in Las Vegas (hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation). Joining them are two skeptics who are changing the face of popular science: astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and MythBuster Adam Savage.  The incomparable Neil deGrasse Tyson (Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, current host of Nova Science Now, and the only astrophysicist to be named one of PeopleÂmagazine's "Sexiest Men Alive") talks with Swoopy about getting the United States back on track as science innovators. (He also sets the record straight about Pluto.) and in his third appearance on Skepticality, Adam discusses his evolution from artist and model maker to skeptic and television scientistâas well as thoughts about his life after MythBusters. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Yet another health supplement hits the streets, this time in the form of indium sulfate. Never heard of it? Apparently, it “is a rare trace mineral that supports several hormonal systems in the body. Indium may strongly elevate immune activity and reduce the severity and duration of a myriad of human conditions.” That’s according to the NaturalHealthConsult.com website, which goes on to claim that the element will “normalize the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain.”| You are subscribed to email updates from The Science Network To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner |
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