The good and bad of the arsenic

France, night

There is this old movie I like and that in Italian is "arsenico e vecchi merletti" (Arsenic and Old Lace in English). Every time that the word "arsenic" comes to my mind, I immediately think about this movie. However, in the last months the word arsenic came unfortunately to my mind very very often and not for good reasons.

The arsenic is a chemical compound of not necessarily very pleasant characteristics. If ingested or breathed, it can cause serious health problems, including death. Because of my work, during my stay in San Francisco, I came into contact with some undefined quantities of arsenic on a regular base, every year, for over a month. The result of this being different symptoms, more or less scary (and all together very scary to me): headache, stomach pain, nausea, nails that became much whiter (like the natural white of the top of the nail diluted into the nail....very impressive to see it), etc, etc. After months, I finally got the results of the test to check for a possible arsenic intoxication. I have arsenic in my body, but the quantity is not so high to require a treatment.

The thing is, since I knew that I may have had got arsenic in my body, I started to look on internet for possible harmless solutions to it and ask everyone. More than one person suggested me to start to take some pill containing cysteine (which is an amino acid) and in general increase my intake of sulfur, as sulfur seems to be able to capture the arsenic in the body and help the body to eliminate it. I got pills of sulfur and of cysteine. I started to take them during my stay in San Francisco and since I didn't finish the package yet, I still keep taking them. And you know what? my hair never looked more amazing than now! Cysteine is supposed to help hair and skin...and no kidding...it really does!!!

At least this light arsenic poisoning is not all that negative. I got some fabulous healthy looking hair now!!!