Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only,
and does not replace individualized diagnosis and care.
Copper: What aneurysms, white hair, and wrinkles have in common
[Posted 27 May 2004]
My father died of a brain aneurysm in 2001, a great loss for our family. Dad was one of the kindest people anyone knew -- a throwback to an earlier era, the type of man who'd stop to help strangers broken down at the side of the road. Of course I wanted to know what caused his aneurysm, and was quickly guided to Joel Wallach's work. Wallach was the famous veterinarian and research scientist who discovered cystic fibrosis in NASA test monkeys, finding that cystic fibrosis in both monkeys and humans was caused by a simple prenatal selenium deficiency rather than "genetics." Wallach later went on to treat deficiency diseases with vitamin and mineral supplements, particularly liquid colloidal supplements, and promoted supplementation in popular lectures and books.
According to Wallach, aneurysms are caused by a copper deficiency. Copper deficiency can also cause white hair, wrinkles, and sagging in old age. Wallach recommends trying colloidal copper supplementation before opting for a face lift or any other type of lift, as the copper supplements usually work better. His most famous story about copper deficiency was the government turkey pellet disaster of 1957:
"Here's a good one. Dr S.C., 38 years old. Dead of a ruptured aneurysm. Even a turkey wouldn't die of a ruptured aneurysm! It's easy to prevent. We learned this in 1957. The government came out with its 'wonder food pellet' for turkeys. Guaranteed to grow them bigger, fatter, faster, and deader than a door nail. The farmers had to pick them up in bushel baskets, worst year ever for turkeys, they took them to the labs by the truck load, opened them up, and guess what they found? They all died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, every last one, 50% of the entire nation's flock of turkeys... So they knew something was missing in the food. They analyzed the liver, blood, and muscles. Copper deficiency! Your arteries' elastic fibers need copper for tensile strength. The next year the copper content in the feed was doubled, and the mortality rate from ruptured aortic aneurysms dropped to 0%!"
- Joel Wallach from his "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" speech, as quoted on american-longevity.com
and deaddoctors.com
According to Gary Null, another famous author/researcher and host of WBAI-New York's "Natural Living" show, coffee chelates the copper and calcium out of the blood. This is of especial concern in a nation of coffee-drinkers. Wallach recommends supplementation with colloidal copper, as with most minerals, to reverse some of the symptoms of copper deficiency. Some people try to obtain copper by wearing copper bracelets, a popular item with older people suffering from arthritis. Although some copper does pass though the skin, relieving some symptoms, Hulda Clark warns against the pure mineral version of copper, finding that it's often involved in cancer tumors. Wallach also cautions against the metallic form. Supplementation with copper is instead obtained through colloidal copper, or copper compounds more acceptable to the body.
My personal experience seems to support Wallach's findings. In the case of my father, dad's hair had been white since his 30s, and his skin started to wrinkle more than usual in his last few years. Dad was a heavy coffee drinker and he didn't believe in taking vitamin supplements, thinking instead that he could obtain needed vitamins and minerals through the food he ate. I also happen to be a heavy coffee drinker, and have a small amount of white hair already appearing. However, when I take regular copper supplements, a lot of my hair grows back with its original color. Some of my friends have also tried copper supplementation, and notice a partial reversal of white hair within a few weeks. This makes me optimistic that problems associated with copper deficiency can be prevented, and sometimes reversed, by supplementation.
Wallach published three excellent books on vitamin/mineral deficiencies and their related diseases and disorders. They are Dead Doctors Don't Lie (he made a very famous audiotape lecture by the same name), Rare Earths, Forbidden Cures, and Let's Play Doctor!. These are excellent reference books. I hope readers will add them to their home libraries, and request that their local libraries carry them for public health information purposes.