The Danger of Heavy Metals

A NOTE ABOUT HEAVY METALS
Mercury
• Does not enter the blood or body tissues via the skin or the intestine but through vapors breathed in by the lungs.
• Tends to be deposited more widely throughout the body and interferes with a greater variety of chemical functions
• Because of the long-standing medical tolerance for the use of mercury it has been used in many medications and vaccines as well as dental fillings over the years
• Used in Mercuhydrin, an injectable diuretic widely used to treat the water retention associated with congestive heart failure in the 1960s.
• Drug companies and the FDA have permitted the use of mercury-containing preservatives in eyedrops and immunizations for babies
• Mercury containing fillings have been used widely for decades
• Mercury is also found in fish, especially larger fish as it is passed up the food change (such as tuna)
• Oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, shark and tuna as well as seaweed tend to be high in mercury
• Mercury in very low doses may be harmful to some people and not others so there is no way of knowing how much mercury it takes to be poisonous
• It’s always important to consider mercury when dealing with a wide variety of symptoms that do not respond to treatment
• While there are no completely decisive tests to find out how much mercury is stored in the body, mercury levels in hair can be somewhat reliable
• DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid) is a chelating drug that can be used to remove mercury from the body
• Protocols for mercury detoxification can be found through sources from DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!)
Lead
• Low levels of lead can lead to problems of attention, learning, and behavior in children
• Lead and mercury are sticky (and heavy) substances and their atoms glom on to molecules in your body and steal their electrons (called oxidation) which can greatly impair function.
• Because of their heaviness they have a stronger pull on these electrons. This extra pull makes them much harder to get rid of by detoxification processes.
• Lead tends to be deposited in bone because it resembles calcium
• Lead is absorbed more readily in children with low calcium intake because it is taken in as a calcium substitute
• Other symptoms of lead poisoning include seizures, headache, abdominal pain, irritability, learning & behavior problems
• Supplementation of vitamin C, B6 and calcium can effectively lower levels of lead
• DMSA is also approved for the detoxification of lead
Aluminum
• Lighter than lead or mercury and found in baking soda, antacids, antiperspirants, pots, pans, foil, and is an ingredient in immunizations
• Especially sticky and biochemically attracted to stick to the phosphates that form an active part of our DNA binding VERY tightly
• While mercury and lead are sticky, they go through a process of turnover allowing chelators such as DMSA to grab them in midair and send them off for detoxification. This is not so with aluminum. As far as we know once Aluminum sticks to DNA it is there until the death of the cell carrying the DNA
• Alpha ketoglutarate levels may be low as a reflection of aluminum’s toxicity
• There is no proven method for detoxifying aluminum so it’s best to avoid it as much as possible
• Hair analysis and blood and urine levels can give an idea of your body’s burden of aluminum