Mercury: The Real Dangers

Often when I talk with someone for the first time about the dangers of mercury, specifically the mercury from "silver fillings" they are shocked. They honestly have never heard about this before. Usually, by the time I am done talking they are asking me, "How do I get these fillings out of my mouth."

Others ask me where they can find information from real scientists, since they know that I'm not a doctor or scientist. I point them to various places on the web, the best of which is a compilation done by Bernie Wyndam. Bernie is a chemical engineer who was effected by amalgams and has for years meticulously collected all the studies regarding the dangers of mercury.

Recently, another great piece was done by Dr. Boyd Haley, the Chair of the Chemistry Department of the University of Kentucky, published in The Medical Veritas Journal. It's a great overview of the science that we know to date about the real dangers of mercury, easy enough for the layperson to follow. He starts quite simply by stating:

Mercury toxicity and intoxication (poisoning) are realities that every American needs to face. This article discusses mercury intoxication and several normally appearing factors that increase the susceptibility to mercury toxicity. The sources considered are dentistry and mercury from drugs, mainly vaccines, that, in today’s world are not only unnecessary sources, but also sources that are being increasingly recognized as being significantly deleterious to the health of many who are so exposed.

After stating his case, Boyd Haley concludes with the following:

In summary, it appears as if autistics represent a subset of the population that are more susceptible to the toxic effects of mercury and thimerosal because they are not efficient excretors of these toxic materials. Further, it appears as if the sex hormones play a major role in susceptibility with the male hormones increasing susceptibility to the eurotoxicity of ethylmercury and the female hormones affording a good degree of protection. Common sense tells us that a lead toxic person would be more susceptible to mercury toxicity than a healthy, non-toxic person. Research confirms this and we routinely observe that many heavy metals increase the apparent toxicity of low levels of mercury. It is well known that a milk diet will cause the retention of mercury as does the exposure of mammals to certain antibiotics. This would make infants with ear infections prime candidates for mercury retention toxicity. Certainly, the findings of aberrant biochemistries in the autistic child that appear to correlate with mercury sensitive enzymes increases the possibility of mercury involvement in autism causation.

If certain infants are more susceptible to mercury toxicity due to their inability to excrete mercury then it seems plausible that, since this is a genetic susceptibility, older individuals may suffer from the inability to excrete mercury also. Based on the ability of mercury to mimic many of the biochemical aberrancies found in AD brain and to produce aspects of the pathological diagnostic hallmarks of AD it seems plausible that AD is a disease related to mercury toxicity. The published decrease of mercury in the nail tissue of AD versus normal age-matched individuals seems to support this possibility.

Finally, the synergistic effects of other heavy metals, diet, antibiotics, etc. on mercury toxicity make it impossible to define a “safe level of mercury exposure.” Therefore it is imperative that we try to eliminate all exposure to mercury; and removal from dentistry and medicines is most important and critical for human health.

Read the rest of the article.

More Pat Sullivan Blog posts about mercury.

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