Chronic fatigue and nickel allergy

[Baz493]

I have been looking at a ton of research connecting nickel allergy to a variety of health issues and happened to find this 2001 Swedish article, describing a connection between nickel allergy and chronic fatigue in women. https://melisa.org/wp-content/uploa...ty-of-Women-with-Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome.pdf The article describes these issues resulting from exposure to either cigarette smoke or dietary intake however I was previously looking at factors involved in coeliac disease as being a potential cause of raised levels of nickel in the body. Early symptoms of nickel allergy often develop in skin and hair, with conditions like dermatitis and eczema resulting but also things like hair loss. The nickel binds to filaggrin in the top layers of the skin, disrupting the integrity of the skins surface and permitting entrance of infections. The body responds with neutrophils which attempt to eliminate foreign substances and organisms with serine proteases. These enzymes lead to further breakdown of tissues and hair, particularly if you have specific sets of genes which either lead to failure of serine protease inhibition by the body, such as mutations in the SPINK genes, or which make tissues more vulnerable to serine protease enzymes.

 

[Creekside]

AFAIK, nickel allergy is a type IV reaction (involves t-cells). Nickel interfering with a metabolic pathway would be an intolerance, but not an allergy.

Since allergic reactions seem to aggravate ME symptoms, it would be logical for nickel allergy to worsen ME. My ME started as a type IV reaction to foods.

 

[Baz493]

It's probably not worth my trying to argue the point of whether it's nickel allergy or intolerance since I agree with you yet find all of the research into it in searches relating to allergy. I can't claim to have connected all of the dots with trying to understand the medical research into this but I can see part of the picture. Because I have a severe intolerance to gluten, which took me until I was 48 to identify, it somehow contributed to issues with nickel. I was only able to work this out when I was looking into the causes of my own alopecia. It turned out that sweat accelerates nickel binding to the filaggrin in our skin, inducing separation of the armor protecting the skin from infections. When I lost my hair I was in the army, sweating from exercise and effort and wearing plastic lined beret's, which fits the pattern for nickel binding to filaggrin. (Gapping) of the armor of our skin leads to raised serine protease activity, breaking down the hair. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cod.12228 Since alopecia is a fairly common occurrence in people with coeliac disease it makes sense that something about the condition must lead to raised nickels in certain tissues. Of course, people with nickel allergy commonly develop skin conditions so it's usually not too hard to work out if you have the problem, assuming that you're fortunate enough to have a half decent doctor. They say that women are most likely to experience nickel allergy, because of the amount of nickel used in cosmetics, but diet and everyday exposures also play major roles as well. https://tooallergic.com/list-of-foods-high-in-nickel/ Of course, nickel allergy is also implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease in general. https://www.verywellhealth.com/nickel-allergy-and-autoimmune-disease-5198646

 

[Aidan Walsh]

Tobacco is very high in nickel & nickel is not an intolerance, it is an allergy.

The Cleveland Clinic has a lot on nickel allergy, it also can be instead Cobalt allergy both above are in teeth fillings silver & white ones have Soya content, one of the highest items in nickel. I think I have the nickel allergy

 

[Baz493]

Aidan,

For myself, the question between allergy and intolerance isn't a factor. Nickel is a heavy metal and all heavy metals are hazardous to the health, even when we require at least some in our diet. I agree with you about the dental fillings. I have read some medical articles about the galvanic effects which they have on the body. http://www.cdchealth.com/oralgalvaniceffect.html The nickel appears to play a major role in this effect. According to this study of metal workers, nickel sensitivity tends to precede cobalt sensitivity. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6222874/

Regarding the difference between allergy and intolerance it's probably more important to regard in terms of legal issues than medical. To explain my position I will explain why I say I have gluten intolerance instead of coeliac disease. Firstly, my then GP explained the low rate of effectiveness of the coeliac tests, letting me know that I would need to eat gluten for six months before being tested. That wasn't an issue for me and I just didn't want to experience the migraines, lactose intolerance, and other issues anymore. Secondly, almost everything which doctors used to know about coeliac disease and its causes has been disproven by modern medical research. Gluten is usually digested by intestinal bacteria so disruption of our microbiome is opening factor in gluten allergy. It's likely that, without the necessary bacteria, most people would react to gluten proteins. You then have our bodies response to undigested gluten proteins, involving attempts to digest them with serine protease enzymes. People with coeliac disease lack sufficient genetic protection against the high levels of the enzymes which the body attempts to employ to accomplish this task. So we aren't really reacting to the gluten itself but to the enzymes which our own bodies are producing to try to digest it. My point is that you really need to understand every reaction involved in these conditions in order to be definitively certain how you define it.

 

[Aidan Walsh]

Gluten foods are also baked in metal trays or ovens as well so contamination with nickel, cobalt is high.

Another thing that can be going on is a condition called AFib Atrial Fibrillation which can cause countless symptoms that mimic ME/CFS Fibro even Coeliac symptoms.

I had a recent 12-point long ECG done it show numerous ectopic heartbeats my Doctor suspects I have AFib I am now waiting on a Cardiologist to confirm this. She first found this on my pulse with her fingers, she knew then something was wrong.

Many are told they have POTS or Syncope they have AFib instead & it can run in families in some. I have 3 cousins who are coeliac my tests always come up negative in blood.

I have never had a stomach biopsy test done on endoscopy, I hate gluten-free food I do not trust it at all. Hope you find solid answers soon

 

[Baz493]

You may, if you've required any, be aware of your own nickel allergy because of the relationship between various implanted devices used in atrial defects and the problem. I have had all sorts of cardiac testing, in relation to issues resulting from toxic exposures, but my heart still seems to be fine. It's everything else which keeps messing up, lol.

Even an intestinal biopsy requires you to be eating gluten at the time, because the intestines lose integrity of their lining and loss of villi with the excessive serine protease enzymes. When I first went gluten free I had massive trouble with finding foods to eat but that was a long time ago. These days they make decent white bread, etc, where I live; not the clumpy doughs which they used to use. The hard part, initially, is identifying which products don't contain any gluten. I learnt the hard way that gluten free products often contain small amounts of gluten, allowed by law in Australia. Luckily I love Asian food. Anyway, I stopped trying to fix the gluten problem ages ago, when the toxic exposures destroyed my health. Again, I had to learn the hard way that doctors often know absolutely nothing about all of the toxic exposures which workers experience. We pretty much have to do all of our own investigation because the doctors don't have a clue.

 

[Aidan Walsh]

You may, if you've required any, be aware of your own nickel allergy because of the relationship between various implanted devices used in atrial defects and the problem. I have had all sorts of cardiac testing, in relation to issues resulting from toxic exposures, but my heart still seems to be fine. It's everything else which keeps messing up, lol.

Even an intestinal biopsy requires you to be eating gluten at the time, because the intestines lose integrity of their lining and loss of villi with the excessive serine protease enzymes. When I first went gluten free I had massive trouble with finding foods to eat but that was a long time ago. These days they make decent white bread, etc, where I live; not the clumpy doughs which they used to use. The hard part, initially, is identifying which products don't contain any gluten. I learnt the hard way that gluten free products often contain small amounts of gluten, allowed by law in Australia. Luckily I love Asian food. Anyway, I stopped trying to fix the gluten problem ages ago, when the toxic exposures destroyed my health. Again, I had to learn the hard way that doctors often know absolutely nothing about all of the toxic exposures which workers experience. We pretty much have to do all of our own investigation because the doctors don't have a clue.

Yes, I know about the implants with nickel, especially the US Cure WatchMan device. Even some pacemakers have nickel

 

[Baz493]

I was able to work out, with the help of a bunch of medical research articles, that there is a complex pattern of responses which can be involved in nickel allergy. Much of it relates to nickel overactivation of calcineurin. This can be a result of a zinc deficiency because zinc actively competes with nickel to bind to calcineurin. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X03011227 I have been studying research connecting coeliac induced zinc deficiency, prostaglandin D2 and E2 signaling and mast cell activation, and calcineurin involvement. https://glutenfreeworks.com/blog/20...d-treating-zinc-deficiency-in-celiac-disease/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0009898194902011 There is a complex set of pathways involved with gluten induced nickel allergy though I get how toxic exposures/cosmetics can cause it too.

 

[Creekside]

It's probably not worth my trying to argue the point of whether it's nickel allergy or intolerance

It seems to be a bit of sloppiness in terminology. However, I do think it's important to be aware that the response to nickel involves t-cells, rather than immunoglobulin or other immune response. Thus common "anti-allergy" treatments which suppress histamine production probably won't help.

 

[Baz493]

There is such a fine line, between what is regarded as allergy and what is regarded as intolerance, that I often fail to understand the difference. Although we tend to think of immune response in relation to allergy this article describes T cell involvement in intolerance. https://med.umn.edu/news/research-brief-immune-intolerance-unlocked-food-specific-t-cells I suspect that it's all in the degree of reaction which someone experiences, rather than an actual difference in the factors themselves; the more severe the reaction the more obvious it becomes to the doctor who has the role of diagnosing it.

 

[Aidan Walsh]

There is such a fine line, between what is regarded as allergy and what is regarded as intolerance, that I often fail to understand the difference. Although we tend to think of immune response in relation to allergy this article describes T cell involvement in intolerance. https://med.umn.edu/news/research-brief-immune-intolerance-unlocked-food-specific-t-cells I suspect that it's all in the degree of reaction which someone experiences, rather than an actual difference in the factors themselves; the more severe the reaction the more obvious it becomes to the doctor who has the role of diagnosing it.

terminology? actually, it is called a nickel allergy

 

[Baz493]

Actually, most of the time the problem is diagnosed as some other kind of condition and no professionals even consider the possibility that nickel could be involved at all. Whether they call a condition dermatitis, alopecia, irritable bowel syndrome, coeliac, ME, etc, they often involve high tissue levels of nickel and no one bothers with taking the time to identify the minerals involvement. It's only nickel allergy if it's diagnosed by a doctor as that.

 

[Wayne]

I have no idea whether the way nickel once affected me was an allergy or intolerance, but I actually don't think it was either. FWIW, I tend to think of the nickel that used to be in my mouth as a constant source of toxicity.

When I had all my numerous amalgam fillings removed from my mouth many years ago, my sense of well being and cognition improved somewhat. When I had my nickel based crowns removed a year later, it was a major positive event for me. My wife repeatedly mentioned in the following weeks how much better my brain was functioning.

 

[Baz493]

I noticed something similar after removal of my amalgam fillings. There is usually a short period, after the removal of such fillings, during which our health deteriorates a bit but then things generally improve. That's mainly because of the mercury in the fillings, some of which usually escapes into our bodies when the fillings are removed. I never considered that any of my own health issues could possibly involve nickel until I became so deep into the research that I learnt a range of things about strange ways in which minerals interact within us. This included how mineral deficiencies can cause our tissues to go into overdrive to absorb as much as possible of the deficient minerals, until they reach potentially toxic levels. It also included how things like zinc deficiency, regardless of the cause, can result in increased nickel toxicity. Everyone's individual circumstance is going to differ so I can't say those things happen in everyone but it's interesting to know that they can happen.

 

[Baz493]

If you haven't spotted the research then it's worth knowing that TRPM3 calcium channel issues have been identified in natural killer cells of people with ME. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8848670/ This site has some articles about it. Calcineurin plays a role in shutting down these channels. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30552902/ I am presuming that nickel is able to induce this closure of the channels via overactivation of calcineurin and that zinc might be able to reverse this closure in cases involving nickel allergy by competing with calcineurin nickel binding.

 

[Baz493]

i was actually researching TRPM6 and TRPM7 when I accidentally stumbled across the information in my last post. The two channels I just mentioned are calcium activated magnesium channels which regulate magnesium homeostasis in the body. While I was looking at their overactivation by covid, and other causes, it only made sense to me that zinc, and therefore nickel, could also be binding factors which inhibit or trigger the channels, which they do. As magnesium is essential to almost every process throughout the body it also made sense to me that the channels could well play a role in ME and it seems as though I am not alone in considering this possibility. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535478/