As almost everyone knows by now, the Mad Hatter's odd conception of
time (as well as his other idiosyncrasies) was a direct result of
his occupation. In the 19th century, hat makers used to treat felt
and fur hats with a mercury compound that killed bacteria, thus
keeping them from rotting. Hatters used mercury, because it was a
potent poison. Not only does it kill bacteria in hats, when inhaled
or taken in through the skin, it has a particular affinity for brain
tissue. The damage it does to brain cells can be devastating and
irreparable.
Symptoms of Mercury Toxicity
Attention/concentration deficits
Anxiety
Agitation
Emotional lability
Impaired motor function
Impaired memory and learning
Depression
Hallucinations
Tremors
Slurred speech
Mental retardation
Today we know that hatters became "mad" from breathing mercury fumes
and getting mercury on their hands. "Mad Hatter's disease," or
erythism, is now a recognized psychiatric syndrome consisting of a
wide range of neurologic and psychiatric disturbances.
Chemists classify mercury as a heavy metal. As a rule, heavy metals
have no place in the human body; even small amounts can be extremely
toxic and difficult to get rid of. Health problems caused by
low-level chronic exposure to heavy metals may take years to appear.
By the time symptoms occur, it may be too late to do anything about
them.
Get Chelation Treatments With EDTA
Another heavy metal that has caused - and continues to cause -
enormous human suffering all over the world is lead. Until fairly
recently, lead poisoning was endemic in the United States, affecting
nearly one child in 6, at least to some degree, according to US
Public Health Service estimates. Even though things have improved in
the last 20 years, thanks to the phasing out of leaded gasoline and
lead-based paints, lead poisoning continues to be a real threat,
especially to children living in cities and/or buildings with old
lead-based plumbing and old (pre-1978) paint jobs. Some of the
clinical effects of lead poisoning are shown in the box.
Symptoms of Lead Poisoning
Learning disabilities
Behavioral problems
Reduced IQ
Mental retardation
Academic failure
Brain damage
Neuropsychological deficits
Hyperactive behavior
Attention deficit disorder
Antisocial (criminal) behavior
Neurological problems
Seizures, coma, death, at very high levels
Mercury Poisoning: You Don't Have To Be A Hatter
It's rare that people get exposed to the kind of toxic doses of
mercury that occurred in the newly industrializing world of the 19th
century, but it still does happen, and usually with tragic
consequences. In the 1950s, in the most notorious case of mass
mercury poisoning ever, an industrial plant near Minamata, Japan
released large amounts of methyl mercury into Minamata Bay. Picked
up by the plankton, the mercury moved up the food chain from fish to
humans. Even the local cats were affected. When the residents of
Minamata unknowingly fed the contaminated fish to their children
(and their pets), the result was a devastating syndrome of severe
nervous system damage, stunted mental development, blindness,
paralysis, and death that nearly wiped out an entire generation.
Since then, instances of large-scale
mercury poisoning have also occurred in Japan, Iraq, Pakistan,
and Guatemala. As recently as 1993, the town of Surabaya in East
Java suffered hundreds of cases of "Minamata disease" due to
chemical waste dumped upstream into the Surabaya River.
While disasters on this scale are, fortunately, rare and isolated,
we still need to stay alert. Just a couple of years ago, a beauty
cream made in Mexico ("Crema de Belleza-Manning") was associated
with at least three cases of mercury poisoning in California, Texas,
and New Mexico. Among the cream's ingredients was calomel (aka,
mercurous chloride), containing 6 to 8% mercury by weight. The
victims, aged 15, 33, and 35 years, suffered symptoms such as
fatigue, weakness, insomnia, headache, numbness, irritability, and
memory loss.3 Similar mental and physical effects have been observed
in people exposed to low levels of mercury vapor.4,5
Because it's so easy to absorb mercury compounds through the skin,
their use in cosmetics has been restricted - but not completely
eliminated. Women who use eye makeup may not be able to avoid
low-level mercury exposure if they use common commercial products.
It seems that nothing else works quite as well as mercury as a
preservative in some cosmetics, so the FDA, in its wisdom, permits a
small, supposedly safe, amount of mercury - 65 parts per million (ppm)
- in eye makeup.3
Health problems caused by low-level chronic
exposure to heavy metals may take years to
appear. By the time symptoms occur, it may
be too late to do anything about them.
The Dental Dilemma
It may well be that virtually everyone who has ever had a tooth
filled may be continually exposing themselves to low levels of
mercury. The standard amalgam tooth filling that dentists have been
packing into people's teeth for decades weighs about 1.5 to 2 g and
consist of 50% elemental mercury, 35% silver, 13% tin, 2% copper,
and traces of zinc. Thus, every filled tooth is a little reservoir
from which mercury vaporizes and leaches out over the course of a
lifetime. It has been estimated that, depending on how many fillings
you have in your mouth, you may be exposed to 10 to 100 µg of
mercury every day of your life, just from your teeth.
Can even this minuscule level of exposure cause problems? The
answers are less than clear. Some studies indicate potentially
serious consequences, especially in children, while others suggest
little or no adverse effects.
An analysis of intra-oral mercury vapor found that those subjects
with dental amalgams had nine times greater basal levels of mercury
vapor than control subjects without amalgams. Chewing was found to
stimulate mercury concentration sixfold, which amounted to a 54-fold
increase compared with controls. Moreover, mercury levels remained
elevated after 30 minutes of continuous chewing and declined slowly
over 90 minutes after cessation of chewing. The authors calculated
that all subjects were receiving an average daily dose of about 20
µg, with the exposure increasing according to the number of
amalgams. In some participants, the mercury exposure from dental
amalgams was 18 times higher than the allowable daily limits set by
some countries for exposure to all sources.6,7
Women who use eye makeup may not be
able to avoid low-level mercury exposure
if they use common commercial products.
In a Canadian study, amalgam fillings containing a radioactive
tracer were placed in the teeth of laboratory monkeys. Within 4
weeks, traces of the radioactive mercury were found in high
concentrations in various organs and tissues, with the highest
levels in the kidney, GI tract, and jaw. Radioactive mercury amalgam
placed in the teeth of pregnant sheep quickly found its way into the
fetus. Mercury in the mother's milk could also be ingested by the
newborn lamb.8
A small European study using a standardized personality inventory
did find an effect, though. The researchers compared 29 15-year-olds
with no fillings to 41 15-year-olds with fillings, and found that
the kids with fillings were more prone to suffer from muscle tension
and anxiety.9
In a US study, 25 women with amalgam fillings and 23 with no
amalgams were given a standard personality test, the "Beck
Depression Inventory." The women with fillings were found to have an
increased risk of depression, as well as significantly greater
tendency to express anger without provocation and to experience more
intense angry feelings. The women with amalgam fillings also scored
poorly on other behavioral measures: compared to their counterparts,
they were more anxious, less pleasant, less happy, less secure, less
steady, and had a harder time making decisions.10
Women with fillings were found to have an
increased risk of depression as well as a
significantly greater tendency to express
anger without provocation and to
experience more intense angry feelings.
The patient in the dental chair is not the only one potentially at
risk from mercury poisoning. Dentists and their assistants may also
be in danger. A study compared behavioral test scores in dentists
exposed to elemental mercury and those not so exposed. The exposed
dentists, who had significantly higher urinary mercury levels, also
showed significant deficits in mental concentration, emotional
instability, somatosensory irritation, and mood. The authors
suggested that the accumulated test scores provided "evidence of
subtle preclinical changes in behavior associated with Hg [mercury]
exposure."11
While amalgam fillings are used less and less these days, the
problem still arises: what to do with existing fillings. Should you
have them drilled out and replaced with apparently safer composite
materials? The process of removal, aside from being costly and
unpleasant, may expose you to more mercury than if you just left
them alone. One option is to not disturb your fillings and capture
any mercury released by the process of chelation. We'll talk more
about this important option later on.
Lead Poisoning: No Level Is Safe
Lead can produce adverse effects, not only on mental function, but
on virtually every system of the body. Like mercury, lead holds the
greatest danger for fetuses and young children, who absorb it more
readily and whose developing nervous systems are exceptionally
vulnerable.
The harm that lead causes may be directly
related to the amount present in the body;
no level, no matter how low,
can be considered "safe."
The harm that lead causes may be directly related to the amount
present in the body; no level, no matter how low, can be considered
"safe." Blood levels of lead as low as 10 µg/dL have been associated
with harmful effects on children's learning and behavior. Higher
levels sustained over a period of months or years may have dire
consequences for a child's mental and physical health.
Lead Detoxification
As noted above, much has been done to reduce environmental lead
during the last two decades, but lead still remains a threat to
millions. In 1989, a report in the AMA publication American Medical
News12 stated that about 4 million children and 400,000 fetuses were
being exposed to levels of lead high enough to cause convulsions,
brain damage, coma, and death. Lesser exposure was associated with
low birth weight, impaired hearing and cognitive development, and
reduced IQ.
According to other estimates from the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the Department of Health and Human Services, as
many as 10% of preschoolers may be affected. A large 1991
epidemiologic survey (Third National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey, NHANES III) found that over the previous 20
years, the average child's blood-lead level decreased from 12.8 to
2.8 µg/dL. That's the good news. At the same time, though NHANES III
indicated that about 1.7 million US children under the age of 6
still had blood levels above the Center for Disease Control's "safe"
level, <10 µg/dL.13
NHANES III indicated that about 1.7 million
US children under the age of 6 still had lead
blood levels above the CDC's "safe" level.
According to the CDC's estimate, every 10-µg increase may cause an
irreversible drop of 1 to 3 IQ points.14 In fact, the AMA report
stated, "Exposure levels which were considered harmless are now
thought to cause numerous health problems."12
Children living in inner city poverty are certainly the most
vulnerable to lead poisoning, but better socioeconomic conditions
are no guarantee of protection. The CDC found that, while 22% of
black children and 16.4% of poor children living in older housing
had levels of lead 310 µg/dL in their blood, elevated levels were
found in 890,000 children, or 4.4% of all children.15
Any children living in homes built - or painted - prior to 1978 are
at greatest risk to lead exposure from lead-based paint chips and
dust. According to government estimates, 83% of privately owned
housing units built in the US prior to 1980 - about 64 million homes
- contain some lead-based paint. Lead is also found in drinking
water, especially in cities with old, lead pipe-based plumbing
systems or houses with pipes held together by lead solder. In
Roxbury, Massachusetts, near Boston, for example, it has been
estimated that 40% of the population is affected by lead poisoning.
The source is the 100-year-old water system combined with the area's
highly acidic water supply that easily dissolves the lead from the
plumbing into the drinking water.16
According to the CDC's estimate, every
10-µg increase in lead levels may cause
an irreversible drop of 1 to 3 IQ points.
A recently revealed source of lead contamination that appeared in
many unsuspecting middle-class homes was a type of inexpensive vinyl
window mini-blinds imported from Asia or Mexico. Lead was added to
the vinyl to help stabilize it, but unfortunately, over time the
plastic deteriorates from exposure to sunlight and heat, forming
lead dust on the surface of the blind that young children could
easily ingest.17 Public playground equipment, in which the old lead
paint is chipping or peeling off, represents another recently
discovered potential lead poisoning hazard for young children.18
Other potential sources of lead poisoning include old bathtubs
covered with lead-based glaze, lead crystal glasses, decanters, and
pitchers, antique furniture and toys painted with lead-based paint,
printed materials like newspapers and magazines containing
lead-based inks, and imported china and ceramics. Even though lead
has been gone from gasoline for many years, decades of lead fumes
may have seeped into soil near roads. Thus, it's best to avoid soil
and dust or dirt gathered near heavily traveled roads. Even fresh
fruits and vegetables should be suspect if they were grown in soil
near these roads or near lead-emitting industries.
Getting The Lead - And Mercury - Out
The best way to avoid the dangers of heavy metal poisoning, of
course, is to minimize exposure. Considerable public health efforts
are expended daily to encourage parents to remove this threat from
their children's lives. Recommended steps for reducing lead exposure
include:
Remove lead based paint from home - but only when the children are
out of the house, since the process of paint removal can release
large amounts of lead paint chips and dust into the environment.
Before drinking tap water, let it run at least 1 to 3 minutes in the
morning or anytime it has not been used for 6 hours or longer. Tap
water standing in pipes may dissolve unhealthy amounts of lead from
pipes or solder. Better yet, install a filter that removes lead and
other dangerous impurities.
Use only cold tap water for cooking and drinking. Hot water
dissolves more lead than cold water.
When installing or repairing plumbing, make sure the solder used is
lead free.
Avoid using imported ceramics and china that may contain lead.
If you have an old bathtub, replace it with a new one not covered
with a lead-based glaze.
For more than half a century, EDTA chelation
has been recognized - even by the FDA -
as a safe and extremely effective means of
removing heavy metal
contamination from the body.
The most important source of mercury poisoning for most people on a
daily basis is dental amalgam. You can reduce your exposure by
requesting that your dentist use only composite filling materials
that contain no mercury or other heavy metals. As for old fillings,
as discussed earlier, having them removed may be more problematic
than leaving them in, especially if you have a lot of them. In that
case, the best solution may be to protect yourself with regular
chelation.
The Chelation Solution
Chelation is a process by which a molecule binds with, or chelates,
certain minerals that are present in the bloodstream and then
removes them from the body, usually via the urinary system. For more
than half a century, chelation has been recognized - even by the FDA
- as a safe and extremely effective means of removing heavy metal
contamination from the body. The chelating substance used most often
is a synthetic amino acid, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA).
During the 1940s, EDTA chelation was routinely used to treat workers
in battery factories or those working with lead-based paints. While
the use of EDTA chelation for treating occlusive vascular disease
continues to be highly controversial in this country (See Dr. Ward
Dean Comments on Oral Chelation - Apr. 1997 and Exclusive Interview
with Garry Gordon, M.D., D.O.: Oral Chelation for Improved Heart
Function - Apr. 1997), intravenous (IV) EDTA remains the recommended
treatment of choice for individuals whose blood levels of lead,
mercury, or other toxic heavy metals are dangerously high.19 Used
properly, IV EDTA chelation has been shown to be extremely safe and
effective for removing high levels of heavy metals from the body.
It may be, in at least some instances, that heavy metal poisoning
and vascular disease are connected. A case was reported in the
medical literature in which a 51-year-old man, who had been
hypertensive since he was a teenager, was treated with IV EDTA
chelation. His physician noticed that a large amount of lead (a
five-fold increase) was appearing in the man's urine after each
treatment, suggesting he had very high levels of lead in his system.
This finding was of particular interest, because previously
published reports had linked high lead levels to hypertension. Thus,
it was gratifying that, once the lead was removed from his system,
his blood pressure returned to normal and, for the first time since
he was 18, he did not require antihypertensive medication.
Chelation Therapy Detox
But what if your levels of lead or mercury have not reached the
acutely dangerous range? What if you're still concerned about
chronic low-level exposure, such as from environmental pollution,
dental fillings, or other sources? Is a series of IV chelation
treatments your only option?
Garlic has been shown to increase the fecal
excretion of mercury by as much as 400%
and to completely protect blood
cells against high levels of lead.
Fortunately, there is a simple, convenient, and inexpensive
solution. Developed by Garry Gordon, MD, the "Father of Chelation
Therapy," chelation capsules combine two powerful chelating agents
in an oral form.
If you're concerned about how much heavy metal you may be absorbing
into your system, Dr. Gordon recommends oral chelation as the ideal
solution for dealing with low-level, chronic exposure to heavy metal
contamination. You can not only get the proven power of oral EDTA,
but garlic, too, which has been shown to increase the fecal
excretion of mercury by as much as 400% and to completely protect
blood cells against high levels of lead.18 If, for example, you were
constantly absorbing tiny amounts of mercury from your old dental
fillings, what could be easier than taking a few capsules each day
to soak them up like a sponge around a leaky faucet?
As a bonus, you may also be helping your heart and vascular system.
Although the American medical establishment is loathe to admit it,
chelation therapy has been shown to work wonders with arteries
clogged by atherosclerotic plaque. Even if you currently have no
symptoms of heart disease, taking oral chelation capsules to control
possible heavy metal poisoning may also help keep your arteries
clear.
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