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by kragen 220 days ago
You could probably add enough phosphate to all your food to prevent you from absorbing any manganese, then inject iron, calcium, and magnesium? Just guessing here.

How long would it take you to die on a zero-manganese diet? If it's longer than it takes Borrelia, you still win!
2 comments
btilly 220 days ago
As noted in my sibling comment, the standard of care for eliminating manganese is para-Aminosalicylic acid (PAS).

Plenty of other treatments can remove manganese. But they all are biologically active in other unwanted ways.

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butvacuum 220 days ago
You would die. Immediately, and screaming in agony.
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btilly 220 days ago
That's stupidly wrong.

I regularly find myself on a zero manganese diet for hours at a time, and I've yet to experience immediate death, screaming in agony.

Furthermore we have lots of data on how well humans can tolerate extended low manganese regimens. The standard treatment course for TB in the 1950s resulted in humans having low manganese for 1-2 years. This was unpleasant, but not lethal.

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Aloisius 220 days ago
Source? I can't find anything about the standard treatment course for TB in the 1950s resulting in low manganese.
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btilly 220 days ago
See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4407437/ to verify that PAS was used.

Any google search on PAS and manganese will show that it eliminates manganese from the body by chelating it, and is therefore used for treating manganese toxicity.

I don't have a specific reference for manganese levels in people undergoing the old TB treatment. But I'm sure that it should exist somewhere.

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Aurornis 220 days ago
> I don't have a specific reference for manganese levels in people undergoing the old TB treatment. But I'm sure that it should exist somewhere.

You've spread this claim throughout the comment section and called others "dead wrong", yet even you can't find a reference to support it?

The mechanism of PAS in TB is not manganese reduction: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5395024/

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Aurornis 220 days ago
I wrote more above, but I cannot find anything to support this claim about PAS being used because it reduces manganese either.

The mechanism of action of PAS against TB is in the Dihydrofolate Reductase pathway: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5395024/

I can only guess that this commenter saw that PAS can also be used for manganese chelation and jumped to conclusions?

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