Young Texas woman paralyzed by PoliGrip denture cream
February 9th, 2010 joshua
A 26-year-old Texas woman has been permanently paralyzed due to her use of PoliGrip denture cream.
In a Time magazine report citing a Fort Worth, Tex., newspaper, Elizabeth Gilley was forced to wear dentures since her teen years due to a genetic condition that ruined her teeth.
Due to excessive zinc levels in products such as PoliGrip, Super PoliGrip and Fixodent, denture wearers face a serious risk of developing peripheral neuropathy, a slow degradation of the nervous system.
Tests conducted on those most popular denture creams show zinc levels would reach 30 times the recommended dosage and nearly 10 times the maximum allowed dosage.
At age 26, Gilley sensed numbness in her extremities and trouble breathing for about eight months until she eventually collapsed. In the hospital she was diagnosed with leukemia but blood tests did not confirm that. Not until a year later did a doctor tell Gilley her denture cream may have caused her paralysis.
Not even 30, Gilley is permanently bound to her wheelchair and can not walk.
