The Hidden Dangers of Metal Piercings, Earrings, and Rings

A belly button piercing is a common cause of infertility and other health problems. This is the belief of several Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) experts, who told Nascer do SOL about several cases of women who only became pregnant after removing this adornment.

Today, practitioners of the medicine, founded over 2,500 years ago in the fertile Yellow River basin, insert therapeutic needles into at least 361 key points on the human body. However, they refrain as much as possible from stimulating the navel with needles due to the side effects, for both sexes.

The scar formed at birth by cutting the umbilical cord is considered the 'Gate of the Spirit.' Permanently pricked, it blocks one of the body's main energy meridians, called the 'Conception Vessel.' "When someone comes for infertility treatment, if they have a belly button piercing, we recommend removing it," says Pedro Choy, a pioneer of TCM in Portugal.

This son of a Chinese mother and a Ribatejo father, who earned his doctorate at Chengdu University, asserts that permanent piercing of the 'shenque,' as the Chinese call it, is dangerous for both sexes. For women, it increases the risk of infertility, irregular menstruation, hormonal complications, and endocrine system disruptions. For men, they can become more aggressive. Everyone is exposed to libido disorders: in most cases, a drastic decrease in sexual desire. And to digestive and emotional problems, such as anxious depression. "People with navel piercings should be aware of labile emotionality, rapid and intense changes in feelings throughout the day," explains Pedro Choy.

In Western medicine, gynecologists and obstetricians also frequently recommend that women remove piercings, but for different reasons: to avoid wounds and infections during pregnancy. Scientific literature has been drawing attention to these risks, especially in the case of genital piercings. Recommendations, as a rule, do not "prohibit" them; rather, they focus on the need for strict supervision and hygiene. Safety begins, of course, with choosing professionals with high asepsis standards for implantation. Conventional medicine considers that not even nipple piercings are incompatible with breastfeeding.

FREE METAL BODIES

At the Ana Moreira Integrative Medicine Center in Porto, an Argentine doctor famous for insisting that everyone remove piercings, earrings, necklaces, watches, and any other metal adornments from their bodies. When female patients resist, he points out the beauty of costume jewelry made from other materials, such as pearls or coral.

Gonzalo Andina specialized in Western medicine: Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery at the University of Buenos Aires; Pediatric Urology at the University of Montpellier; and High-Risk Pediatric and Burn Surgery at the University of Tours. He later became passionate about Neural Therapy, a discipline of Integrative Medicine that views the body as an 'electromade,' a bioelectrical network sensitive to interference.

"There's an electrical organ that works in our body. Now, if you insert any type of metal, wire, or screw into an outlet, you'll definitely get a shock," says Gonzalo Andina, who swapped the scalpel for injections of diluted anesthetics with the goal of restoring the balance of the human 'electrome.'

TVI filmed a shocking incident during her consultation with psychologist Patrícia Ferreira on June 20th. Wearing piercings, a necklace, and metal earrings, the patient had a five-centimeter gap between her feet, as if one leg were longer than the other. As soon as she removed them, the symptom disappeared. She performed this test three times.

The patient threw the piercing in the trash and packed the other metal artifacts in her suitcase. Almost four months later, she is satisfied. "I was driven mainly by curiosity, without imagining the impact it would have on my life. I immediately felt lighter, with more vitality and renewed energy. The most impressive thing is that this improvement wasn't fleeting: to this day, I feel more balanced, with more clarity and energy," reports Patrícia Ferreira, an active member of the Portuguese Psychologists Association. Now, she only wears gold earrings for a few hours, on festive occasions.

There are some studies favoring these therapies, but they lack the necessary robustness to establish scientific evidence or truths accepted in the Western world. This involves bringing together thousands of people and dozens or hundreds of researchers, in centers across different countries. These trials require rigorous protocols, ethics committees, and written informed consent from all participants. The experimentation must be blinded and randomized: the treated group is compared with another, which receives a placebo. All of this requires substantial funding, which is difficult to obtain unless it leads to profitable industrial patents, like successful drugs.