Last week, I pointed out to you the dangers of mercury, one of the harmful heavy metals along with lead, aluminum, arsenic, and cadmium. Just as a reminder, methylmercury chlorine is found in pesticides and fungicides sprays, vaccines (preservatives), drugs, and cosmetics. It is also added to bleach grains (rice, wheat), reaching our water systems, seas, soil, and plants as well as our food chain. Environmental microorganisms turn inorganic mercury into methylmercury, the organic form, which prospers in the environment and reaches fresh water and seawater, affecting marine life. Methylmercury is also very harmful to human health.

Because of the polluted rivers, seas and water bodies, fish have become mercury contaminated. Mercury is daily poisoning your body and mine, and our environment through the use of fabric softeners, cosmetics, printers’ ink, tattoo pigments, latex, some paints, plastics, polishes, solvents, wood preservatives, and industrial instruments and waste.

Through mothers’ high consumption of contaminated large fish (tuna, shark) and other contaminants, fetuses can be harmed. Mercury can easily compromise fetal brain development, resulting in behavioral disorders, low intelligence, and neurological damage. The undeveloped fetal brain is the most susceptible organ to mercury and other heavy metals and chemicals, as the embryo and fetus are ten times more sensitive than adults. Inhalation of mercury vapors by pregnant mothers can also be dangerous to their fetuses. Mothers-to-be should be extremely cautious about the kind of fish they eat as well as exposure to other kinds of environmental toxins.

Mercury in trace amounts of 1 to 3 micrograms a day is not dangerous. But, the daily bombardment from amalgam fillings, fish, vaccines, and environment can slowly poison our body, brain, cells, and system. Amounts higher than 30 micrograms detected in urine samples are considered toxic.

The symptoms of mercury toxicity range from blurred vision, headaches, joint pain, hair loss, insomnia, gum disease, nausea, and diarrhea, to muscle weakness, slurred speech, memory decline, and excessive salivation. Mercury does not only attack the immune system, but also damages the nervous system, mimicking neurological disorders. You need to have a hair or urine analysis or apply patches on the skin to test for mercury poisoning.

Dental amalgam fillings silently plague our health. Most dentists deny their adverse effects and advise you to live with them happily ever after.

A couple of days ago, I received several e-mails from readers in the US in response to Part 1. They were kind enough to openly speak about their experiences with mercury poisoning. Their conditions had been misdiagnosed and they had been suspected of having multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus, and other autoimmune disorders, as they experienced symptoms similar to those of these disorders. Here are some stories of suffering, caused by mercury poisoning.

The below-e-mail came from Freya Koss. She is the founder and currently the president of the PA Coalition for Mercury-Free Dentistry and the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT). She is an authority in the field of mercury toxicity. Should anyone get contaminated, please contact the IAOMT for advice and help through the websites below. The following paragraph is extracted from Koss’s e-mail with her permission.

“I have spent the past 16 and a half years bringing awareness concerning the harmful health effects of mercury in amalgam dental fillings. In March 1998 I was suddenly struck with double vision, drooping eyelids and loss of equilibrium. Neurologists diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), lupus and myasthenia gravis, three autoimmune diseases. I discovered through research that I had been acutely poisoned seven days prior to the symptoms during the drilling out of an old amalgam filling and replacement with a new one. I hadn’t known at the time that silver fillings contain 50 percent mercury. I also have a genetic predisposition, which prevents me from eliminating mercury.”

This genetic predisposition makes patients more susceptible to mercury than others, making them unable to easily detoxify from the toxic metal. The good news is that there is a new inexpensive test that detects the gene risk of the person.

Koss continued writing in her e-mail “the World Health Organization in 1991 concluded that mercury in dental amalgam fillings was the greatest human exposure to mercury, rather than environmental exposure.” I think this is self-explanatory, though most dentists deny evidence.

Here is another painful experience from Karen Palmer.

“My name is Karen Palmer and I was a dental assistant for over 25 years. I was poisoned [and had] neurological damage due to my occupational chronic exposure to mercury vapor and particulate matter. I want to say [that] the IAOMT saved me, along with my doctor, of course, who gave me information about this great organization.”

Palmer is an activist against mercury poisoning and her activism is noted in American organizations such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

I stand to be corrected about amalgam dental fillings’ release of mercury in the mouth. Here is a passage from another reader who does not want to be identified and who is also an activist: “It is more that they [amalgam fillings] off gas in the presence of heat and abrasion than that they leak [as I mistakenly wrote earlier]. It is especially damaging to people with certain gene types who do not clear mercury well.”

I am grateful to Freya Koss, Karen Palmer and the others who have taken the initiative to respond to Part 1 of my article on the Internet. I would like to also thank those who did not want their names to be mentioned. Their unfortunate and personal experiences as well as the invaluable information have enriched my research and understanding of mercury poisoning. We need to increase our awareness and focus on the subject.

To remove amalgam fillings, you need to find a dentist who specializes in removing them without spilling the dangerous metal, which releases dangerous mercury vapors from the broken and discarded amalgam. Some of the bigger dental clinics in Jeddah and Riyadh may offer such expertise. Do your research prior to removing amalgam dental fillings. It is a delicate job that should be performed by an expert dentist.

I did not discuss the natural methods of cleansing from mercury toxicity as I promised last week. The enlightening e-mails from the above readers took all the space in today’s article. Next week I shall go through the natural plants (greens, herbs, spices, juices, fiber) and supplements that help detoxify the body and systems from mercury.

References and websites:

• www.iaomt.org

• www.mercuryexpoure.info

• https://iaomt.org/iaomt-position-paper-dental-mercury-amalgam/

• Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis Bach

• Natural Health magazine, July/August 2005

Individuals with medical conditions or on medication should consult their physicians when they decide to introduce anything new in their diet even if it is natural.

The previous Health Solutions articles are located at www.arabnews.com

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