CHLORINE – A FEMALE, OXIDIZING AGENT ELEMENT
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
Chlorine is a light element and a very important one for fluid balance, production of HCl in the stomach, and the operation of the pituitary gland, as well. It has a valence of +1. However, chlorine in most forms is extremely toxic for the body. It can cause heart disease, cancer, and symptoms such as vaginal dryness in women. A complete nutritional balancing program is one of the few ways to remove a lot of toxic chlorine compounds from the body quickly.
Chlorine the messenger and purifier element
Chlorine is an acid-forming, female element that relays messages to the body from hydrogen, the primordial element of the universe. As such, one may call chlorine the messenger element. Chlorine is also a cleanser and a purifying element, and this is also part of its messenger mission, one could say.
Chlorine, a female element, and quite an advanced one, works closely with two important male elements, sodium and potassium. When combined, it forms sodium chloride and potassium chloride, two important chemicals in our blood without which we cannot live. These compounds help regulate the balance or amount of all the major fluids in the blood and, indeed, in the entire body.
FOOD SOURCES OF AVAILABLE CHLORINE
We obtain chlorine from most foods, and from water supplies. Foods very high in chlorine are the cabbage family of vegetables – cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Also, the radish family, nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers), although I do not recommend these as they contain an irritating toxin called solanin. Most leafy greens also contain a bioavailable form of chlorine.
Oddly, salt and even sea salt which is very high in chlorine, is not a good source of bioavailable chlorine compounds.
INDUSTRIAL USES
Chlorine compounds are used to purify drinking water around the world. It is most often used in the United States of America and parts of Asia and Europe. Chlorine is excellent to kill many pathogenic bacteria, parasite eggs and other creatures that get into drinking water. However, it is a very toxic way to purify water. The chlorine is quite reactive and can combine with other minerals and especially pollutants in the water to form chemicals such as chloramines, which are highly toxic.
Chlorine compounds are widely used in such products as bleaches, anesthetics such as chloroform, refrigerants, pesticides such as DDT, explosives, dyes, synthetic plastics, refining of gasoline, and in many other industries where it often forms quite toxic compounds, unfortunately. Some of these persist in the environment such as DDT, a now-famous pesticide that helped eliminate yellow fever in Panama during the construction of the Panama Canal.
Chlorine dioxide is sold as a germ-killer. MMS or Miracle Mineral Supplement, is a chlorine compound. It kills germs, but is also toxic and should not be used for more than a few days for this reason, as the toxicity builds up inside. Many ‘oxygen’ supplements utilize chlorine as a transporter of oxygen. These also tend to be a little toxic and are not as good for this reason as ozone or hydrogen peroxide as oxygen delivery systems. Recall that chlorine is a messenger or delivery element.
Electrolyte and fluid imbalances – DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS
These are rare, as chlorine compounds are widely distributed in foods. However, people who live on refined food diets might rarely experience symptoms including blue lips and nails, twitches in the face area and elsewhere, and bone pain. Other possible symptoms are ear, bladder, intestinal gas and irritability. These are probably due to electrolyte and fluid imbalances that could result from a rare chlorine deficiency. Since chlorine is in the drinking water, and is used to bleach wheat flour when it is refined into “white flour”, all of these are very rare.
EXCESS SYMPTOMS – Hypothyroidism and breathing issues
Chronic toxicity. This is far more common today in areas where chlorine is used to purify drinking water, and in industrial areas that are contaminated with chorine compounds. The result is a drastic increase in heart disease and hypothyroidism.
Hypothyroidism is caused by the replacement of iodine in the thyroid with chlorine, an element in the same family called the halogens. Chlorine is one of the major iodine antagonists.
This is an enormous and serious problem today in all nations that use chlorine compounds to purify the water. These compounds find their way into the drinking water supply, and contaminate the food as well. This is one reason for widespread obesity, hypothyroidism, fatigue, depression and other problems. Fortunately, nutritional balancing science can remove the chlorine (along with bromine and fluorine compounds that also cause the problem) from the thyroid gland and thus restore most people’s thyroid activity quite easily. This is discussed in an article entitled Thyroid Imbalances and in the article entitled Iodine.
Chlorine toxicity can also cause problems breathing, and affect all of the sensory organs – sight, hearing, and even touch. It can affect memory, often by affecting thyroid activity. The mind can also become disengaged or disconnected. This is different than schizophrenia, though it could be considered a type of schizoid ailment in which one can believe one might “lose control of one’s mind” or a fear of going insane. It is really a memory problem, not schizophrenia in the usual sense of the word, however.
Other acute symptoms are heart palpitations, and nausea and vomiting. An alkalizing agent may help, as the breathing problems caused by chlorine toxicity can make one too acidic. Too much chlorine could cause an excess of gastric or stomach hydrochloric acid. However, this is rare.
Acute toxicity. Other excess symptoms include chlorosis, a toxic poisoning with Chlorox and other chlorine compounds that can be fatal. It occurs due to swallowing irritating chlorine compounds. One can also be poisoned by chlorine gas, which is extremely irritating to the lungs. It is one of the problems with chloroform, an anesthetic gas.
Other problems due to chlorine are skin burns from bleaches, and the eyes are sensitive to chlorine poisoning as well by gases and liquids, especially, where they do a lot of damage.
CHLORINE SYNERGISTS
The following substances increase the effectiveness of chlorine: vitamins B2, B3, and vitamin C and minerals such as sodium (NaCl), potassium (KCl), hydrogen (HCl), and phosphorus.