The King Of Poisons Is in Your Chicken and Rice by Jerry Brainum 5/23

 

Many people assume because something is "natural" that is must be safe and beneficial for you. But the truth is that countless natural substances are anything but safe and beneficial. A good example of this is arsenic, a well-known poison that has played a significant role in history. For example, when Napoleon was banished to the island of Elba, he suffered from an unknown illness in the final years of his life. Rumors abounded that the former emperor was being slowly poisoned by his enemies, chiefly the British who had banished him to the island. In fact, he was slowly poisoned, but it wasn't purposeful. The green wallpaper in the house where Napoleon lived was produced from a type of arsenic that slowly accumulated in his body and eventually killed him. That he was exposed to arsenic became evident when his hair samples were analyzed long after his death and showed high levels of arsenic. Some have disputed this arsenic-induced death, instead attributing it to gastric cancer. However, Napoleon did show constant signs of low-level arsenic poisoning that included gastrointestinal distress and nausea. Of course, that could also come from gastric cancer, but then again, arsenic is a recognized carcinogen and among the cancers it causes is gastric cancer. In France between 1835 and 1880, Arsenic was involved in 40% of all murders. Besides Napoleon, arsenic was long suspected as the cause of the premature death of the 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor, who died under mysterious circumstances. Later analysis, however, showed that his cause of death was likely caused by cholera. Arsenic was also the favored poison among European aristocrats during the middle-ages, which explains why it was known as the "King of Poisons."

Small amounts of arsenic occur in the human body, but not enough to cause symptoms of poisoning. Some scientists even speculate that tiny amounts of natural or organic arsenic may work like minerals to activate various enzymes in the body, although the evidence for this assertion is weak at best. Two basic types of arsenic exist, organic and inorganic. Organic arsenic when ingested doesn't usually cause a problem because it's rapidly excreted from the body and doesn't accumulate. The other form, inorganic arsenic, is always toxic and is the type associated with serious health problems and poisoning. Most people around the world who are affected by arsenic have consumed water that is tainted with inorganic arsenic. This is a major problem in countries such as India and Bangladesh, but less so in the United States, where levels of toxic substances including arsenic are constantly monitored. That, however, doesn't mean that municipal water systems are free of arsenic. For example, in the United States, an estimated 12% of public water systems, or 5,252 out of 43 . . .