I really went for it with iron chelation.
I started off by drinking a cup of green tea daily.
A month later and I started taking 'butcher's broom'. After a week I began to get the occasional palpitation. I have been prone to them for years and, ten years ago, cardiologists believed that it was potentially life threatening. I knew that caffeine and alcohol brought them on, the palpitations, so I cut out coffee, tea, beer and wine completely.
About the same time that as I began the butcher's broom I started drinking decaffeinated coffee (after ten years, my favourite drink tasted amazing!). And about a year ago I had started to drink the odd wine or beer now and again. Decaffeinated coffee still contains a little caffeine. This is what I put the palpitations following the Butcher's Broom down to.
Sorry this is such a long story
A week later I took a 'milk thistle' pill. Just forty minutes after I took it I got really bad tachycardia, a pulse of 220 I'd say, and I really should have called an ambulance because I felt dreadful and my girlfriend was really scared, but I'm too stubborn and I expected it to pass, which it did after an hour of lying on my bed and groaning. I put that down to a bad batch of milk thistle and/or the caffeine.
I cut out the butcher's broom, coffee and milk thistle and a few days later I tried an IP6 tablet in the morning. That evening I had another episode of tachycardia.
I drew a few conclusions.
I am middy anaemic (I am a vegetarian, after all.) I have a mild underlying cardiomyopathy worsened by anaemia resulting in palpitations and tachycardia. I have been told by a doctor that this is quite possible.
I discovered that alcohol in moderation chelates iron (although very large amounts deposit iron in the brain, and so does caffeine (studies show that a coffee drinker with MS had a slightly more favourable disease progression - interesting huh?) So perhaps, after ten years, I know why caffeine (which speeds a heart anyway) and alcohol cause me my problems.
I'd say that, in order of effectiveness, we have Milk Thistle as the best chelator of iron, then IP6, then the others except butcher's broom and lastly the daily cup of green tea (although I've no idea how six cups daily stand!)
Right now I can't find anything confirming for sure whether or not Butcher's Broom and Milk Thistle will cross the Blood Brain Barrier. IP6 (phytic acid), alcohol, caffeine and Green Tea cross it for sure.
I wouldn't be too surprised about my not checking whether or not Milk Thistle or Butcher's Broom cross the BBB before I started taking it (I've always been absent minded). If it does then I'd say that perhaps Milk Thistle is the most effective for our purposes. If not I'd say it was IP6. Then caffeine and then a moderate amount of alcohol.
Anyway, suffice to say that I am now trying to increase my intake of iron
Pistachios, despite the saturated fat content, are very popular with me now, broccoli and lentils.. Incidentally, with all the pistachios, I now seem to be able to drink to my heart's content (literally.) The next step is to try decaffeinated coffee, perhaps even caffeinated coffee and maybe, just maybe, IP6..
I might even cross post this to a discussion on iron chelation in the 'General Discussion' Forum. Is cross posting ok or will I be fired?