Mercury: (Part 3)

When was the last time you visit your dentist? My next appointment coming up probably next couple months time, and I always had a good chat with my dentist, usually end up in awkward brief conversation before the real 'oral screening' session starts. Not a good idea to piss off your dentist prior to treating your teeth and gums I would say. It used to be a nightmare for me, when comes to scheduling a dental appointment. Not anymore, when I start to learn more and more about oral health, which closely tied to overall health including bacteria growth within gums, mercury fillings, etc.

Today's post, will most likely makes you anger at your dentist, or any other dentist in general. What I would say, is have an open mind, and keep reading, do some research, and connect the dots. What if I tell you that your dentist have been lied to, just as we have? Their union, the ADA, has done all they can to cover up information, not only about mercury toxicity but also about the dangers of fluoride and to give false assurances to their members that rumors of toxicity are nothing more than baseess scare tactics by health fanatics.

Dentists should be out in the forefront fighting this battle. This is opportunity not only to redeem themselves, but also to help in battle to prevent others from being harmed by the dangerous practice of using amalgam fillings. In all actuality, the dentist and his or her assistants are at highest risk of mercury toxicity. The female asisstant can forget about conceiving babies, and the likelyhood of sucidal thought are much higher then ever.

The first lie perpetuated by the ADA leadership, as well as professors in dental schools, and among practicing dentists was that mercury vapor does not escape from amalgams because it is bound to other metals in the amalgam that render it. As you have seen in the video demonstrated by Dr. Kennedy (last post), this is not true, and they knew it. Big bunch of lies! Knowing that they had no defense scientifically, then then resorted to making removal of dental amalgams a violation of ethical standards, and finally they influenced licensing boards to pull the licenses of dentists who refused to maintain the lie. 

Now, while a patient will be exposed to dangerously high levels of mercury vapor only while undergoing treatment, the dentist will suffer the effects of prolonged and cumulative exposure. One study conducted in Singapore compared dentists who use amalgams with those who did not, and found that dentists exposed to dental mercury restoratives had higher aggresive mood scores when tested with a battery of psychological tests. Similiar results were found among American dentists who use dental amalgams in their practices. 

It is interesting to note that in several European countries, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden, the use of dental amalgams had either banned or is in process of a scheduled phase out. The largest producer of demtal amalgams in Germany announced that it would no longer provide the substance to dentists because of pending and future lawsuits.

Does any of you realize or know how mercury could harm you? Mercury harms biological systems in many ways. Like its cousins, cadmium and lead, mercury greatly increases free radical production within the cell and lipid perodixation in the cell membrane. In fact, much of the damage done by mercury results from free radical injury, which involves all of a cell's components.

Once absorbed, mercury is distributed to all parts of a cell with a set distribution, which almost half of the amount resides in the mitochindria, almost 40% in the nucleus and remaining in the cytoplasm and microsomes. In the cell's nucleus, mercury binds tightly to all of the mucleic bases of DNA and as a result, causing the cell to mutate. Mercury has also been shown to damage the membrane lining the mitochondria, thereby impairing its ability to regulate calcium levels in the cell, which can trigger cell death. Once mercury triggers lipid peroxidation within the cell membrane, additional destructive chemicals such as peroxyl ions are produced, greatly magnifying the original damage. 

Mercury inhibits the fucntions of several antioxidant enzymes, which puts cells at great risk and, as we have already seen, many diseases are associated with impaired antioxidant protection, including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, strokes and neurodegenerative diseases as well. Mercury also inhibits two other enzymes, called glutathione reductase and glutathione sunthase, which are responsible for free radical protection. Another way mercury can damage cells is by interering with protein synthesis, the building of proteins for the cell. In addition, mercury also poses special risks to brain. In the nervous system, a loss of energy production, which accompanies mercury toxicity, increases the brain's release of glutamate, leading to even further damage. Brain cells deprived of energy are up to one hundred times more sensitive to glutamate excitotoxicity injury and death than cells with normal energy supplies. This damage by glutamate further increases free radical production, leading to a vicious cycle that ends in the death of the surrounding brain cells in large numbers, a mechanism that may be responsible for many neurodegenerative diseases.

In its metallic form, mercury is poorly absorbed from the GI tract but constantly releases highly absorbable mercury vapor, especially through the mucous membrane lining the mouth, nasal passages and lungs too. Once absorbed, it can exist as the mercury ions, which has difficulty entering most of the brain due to poor penetration through the protective blood brain barrier, but can enter certain parts of the brain, such as the hypothalamus, that do not have a barrier system.

The organic form of mercury, called methylmercury, on the other hand, easily penetrates the brain, yet at a slower rate than other tissues of the body. Dental amalgam releases mercury that can exist in all three forms, as a vapor, as the ion and methylmercury. Yes i know, you must be asking, "Seafoods also contains mercury right?". Well, major source of seafoods in fact contain methylmercury.

We know that certain forms of mercury, such as methylmercury are highly lipid soluble, which makes the brain especially susceptible to mercury accumulation. These forms of mercury are found in vaccines as the preservative thimerosal. Once in the brain, it tends to attach itself to protein structures, especially the cell membrane, mercury changes the membrane's fluid like quality, making it stiffer and causing the cell to age faster. 

By now, you must be asking, there are tons of damage mercury can cause to our body and brain. Are there more destructions? The answer is YES. Bear in mind, mercury can also affect neurotransmitters in the brain. For example, mercury has been shown to inhibit the uptake of the neurotransmitters dopamine, seratonin and norepinephrine into their synaptic storage depots. When a neuron secretes a neurotransmitter to convey a message to its neighboring neurons, the chemical messenger must be quickly remove or the message will become scrambled, and in some cases, the nuerotransmitter itself acts like a toxin. If levels get too high, similiar to glutamate, neuron death can occur very quickly. For future mums and dads, this is especially important in newborns and people with neurological diseases, since they are much more vulnerable than mature or healthier individuals. 

Also important is the fact that the brain tends to retain more mercury than other organs, such as the kidney. It is also very important for children who suffer from seizures. Mercury exposure during development, damaged the brain system that normally suppresses the spread of seizures, in addition to causing widespread neuron loss.

This could help to explain why some children develop difficulty to control seizures early in life. If the mother has amalgams, consumes large amounts of mercury containing seafoods, is occupationally exposed to mercury, or is exposed to any combination of these conditions during pregnancy, her baby's brain could be damaged in such a way as to encourage seizures.

Vigorous cleaning or scalling of the amalgam surfaces generates a large amount of mercury vapor that quickly enters the baby's system. 

Meanwhile, does any of you suffer chronic fatigue or muscle weakness? Chronic exposure to mercury may explain chronic fatigue syndrome. It may not be the root cause, but it contributes to the problem. Chronic fatigue and weakness would certainly be compatible with mercury selectively damaging muscle cells energy enzymes.

In summary, we have seen that mercury, even in concentrations too low to cause cell death, can affect multiple neuron cell functions, such as membrane transport, calcium regulation, energy production, neurotransmitter control, free radical production, excitotoxicity, enzyme fucntion, DNA stability and repair and antioxidant defenses as well. Nutrition can protect the nervous system on many levels by strengtening cell membranes, protecting DNA, chelating mercury, enhancing mercury removal, improving cellualr energy production, reducing inflammation and others. 

In my next post, I will discuss about the effects of mercury on soon- to-be-mums and babies. Stay tuned.