Ira Dreyfuss reported to HHS’ November 26, 2009 edition of HealthBeat that Marc Weisskopf of the Harvard School of Public Heath said, “Men with the highest levels of lead in their bone compared to those with the lowest had about a two-fold increased rate [of death from any cause, a] two and a half fold increased rate of death from [any type of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke] and about an eight-fold [rate of death from ischemic heart disease—heart attacks, etc.]
The study used a fluorescent x-ray method, looking at the patella (knee cap) or tibia.
This method has been shown to be accurate in detecting bone body lead levels. The blood lead levels were also measured and found to be normal and not related to mortality.
The study containing this information appeared in Circulation (a medical heart journal) September 8, 2009 after submission to the journal in October of 2008.
The study population was composed of 868 men in the Normative Aging Study. Twenty-seven percent (241) of the subjects died over 8.9 years of follow-up.
Bone lead level studies have been rare, looking usually for association with cancer. The current study showed no relationship between bone lead and cancer. The studied found bone lead, but no increase in blood lead.
One wonders how lead in the bone, in normative homeostasis with blood lead, could bring about systemic pathophysiology. Perhaps, due to proximity with the marrow, bone lead might achieve red blood cell aberrations, easily measurable.
No one doubts the importance of eliminating environmental exposure to lead at all ages. It is true that an epidemic exists in this country of cardiovascular and specifically ischemic heart disease. It is not surprising that bone lead findings might correlate with such common disorders.
How much influence does bone lead press on the overall picture of ischemic heart disease death, and how much energy should be devoted to lead dynamics, except that it probably serves as a marker of some distant prior lifestyle/exposure contributing to atherogenesis.
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