Mercury fillings


tjohnson

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Since I appear to be showing signs of chronic mercury poisoning these days I have been doing alot of research - you may be interested if you have silver (mercury) amalgam fillings and some 250 million Americans do! For a brief summary of how it all started;

http://www.wholisticresearch.com/info/artshow.php3?artid=20

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Since I appear to be showing signs of chronic mercury poisoning these days I have been doing alot of research - you may be interested if you have silver (mercury) amalgam fillings and some 250 million Americans do! For a brief summary of how it all started;

http://www.wholisticresearch.com/info/artshow.php3?artid=20

For a different viewpoint, for example, see

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelate...cs/mercury.html

I think this subject can be debated almost as much as global warming. And the opinions (reportedly scientific) subject to the prejudices of the advocaters.

I'm no expert, but I think other conditions can mimic signs of Hg poisoning. I wonder why you think this is happening to you.

I hope you are researching the other side of the fence, too.

Full disclosure: I have Hg amalgams in my mouth, and I have worked with elemental Hg as part of my job nearly every day for the last almost 30 years (no, I am not a dentist; I make the semiconductor HgCdTe). I also have had yearly blood analysis for Hg which has always been well below the permissible levels of toxicity. And I don't think I am suffering from Hg poisoning symptoms. And finally, I am a healthful guy who is very concerned about taking good care of myself (exercise, nutrition, etc.), so I don't take the issue of Hg toxicity lightly. My one "irrationality" is living too close to Los Angeles.

Dennis

Edited by Dennis Edwall
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Yes, I agree there is a great deal of disagreement among seemingly knowledgeable people on both sides. One thing that strikes me is that for such a long time dentists were told that the mercury in the amalgam is "locked in" because it is part of a mixture with other substances but this is blatantly not true. So then the debate becomes how much mercury is "safe" in our bodies and also how do we know how much we actually have in our tissues? My understanding is that it can accumulate over the years and so if you are carrying around a source you may only experience problems after a long time, which appears to be what is happening to me. I am glad you are not showing any symptoms but I suppose you take many precautions in your workplace? From my point of view it made sense to use these amalgams 100 years ago but not any more since we have modern composite materials that are far less toxic and for pretty well the same price. I plan on having my fillings changed gradually over the next year or so because it's a risk I'm not prepared to take.

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Removing the filings should probably only be done when dental work is necessitated for other reasons. Taking out such a filing is likely to release much more mercury than if simply left alone. I did have all mine removed over twenty years ago. I think that since some have been replaced with same, but I'll have to ask my dentist when I see him in March. The key question is why you think you have symptoms of mercury poisoning? The US or Canada has never had anything like that disaster in Japan, so symptoms have to be quite subtle, I would think. I'd worry more about lead in drinking water. Let the tap run for a minute to clear out your pipes.

--Brant

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Removing the filings should probably only be done when dental work is necessitated for other reasons. Taking out such a filing is likely to release much more mercury than if simply left alone. I did have all mine removed over twenty years ago. I think that since some have been replaced with same, but I'll have to ask my dentist when I see him in March. The key question is why you think you have symptoms of mercury poisoning? The US or Canada has never had anything like that disaster in Japan, so symptoms have to be quite subtle, I would think. I'd worry more about lead in drinking water. Let the tap run for a minute to clear out your pipes.

--Brant

There are methods to minimize exposure to both the health professionals and the patient but not all dentists utilize them. Here are the main symptoms I have been having for a couple years;

ringing in my ears (tinnitus)

pain at the top of my spine/base of my skull

weird headaches

burning/numbness in my tongue and mouth

bloated feeling in abdomen

chest and ribcage pain

flushing in the face

itching in specific spots over and over again, centre of back and just above the ankles

metallic taste in mouth

coated tongue

low body temperature

cold, clammy feet

loss of interest in my work

irritability, mood swings, depression

difficulty concentrating, memory loss

Last year I was convinced I had systemic effects from candida overgrowth and this week I discovered that it is related to mercury. The mercury acts as an antibiotic and kills bacteria in the gut, this opens the door for yeast multiplication which causes a multitude of problems like 'leaky gut', gas in the stomach, heartburn, GERD, etc. I have had a pretty good diet over the years and taken zero antibiotics for a long time so there is no reason I should be getting yeast overgrowth. Having mercury in your system puts a heavy load on your immune system so opens the door to many seemingly unrelated health problems. I have been taking 6-12 grams of vitamin C for over a year now this helps a great deal but why have something in my system that manufactures free radicals and have to take tons of stuff to neutralize them?

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I also have had yearly blood analysis for Hg which has always been well below the permissible levels of toxicity.

Dennis

The ADA maintains that mercury levels in the blood and urine of people with amalgams generally are not high, and therefore amalgam fillings do not cause harm. This common defense of amalgam demonstrates a lack of understanding of mercury.

The small amounts of mercury that leach from a filling stay in the bloodstream for only a short time before depositing in body tissues, according to Dr. Sandra Denton, a board member of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. “Instead of looking at the symptoms of mercury (poisoning), the doctors are looking for the mercury and therefore are missing the diagnosis,” she says.61

Urine tests measure the amount of mercury being expelled from the body; therefore, an elevated level means a person is getting rid of mercury. It does not reflect the amount of mercury present in body tissue.

Mercury toxicity is a retention toxicity, which means that a good percentage of what goes into our bodies does not come out. Mercury never leaves the system entirely because the amalgam is continuously leaching the substance into our systems.62 If mercury has damaged the kidneys, this will further prevent its release into the urine.

See http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2002...v17n02-p085.htm

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Removing the filings should probably only be done when dental work is necessitated for other reasons. Taking out such a filing is likely to release much more mercury than if simply left alone. I did have all mine removed over twenty years ago. I think that since some have been replaced with same, but I'll have to ask my dentist when I see him in March. The key question is why you think you have symptoms of mercury poisoning? The US or Canada has never had anything like that disaster in Japan, so symptoms have to be quite subtle, I would think. I'd worry more about lead in drinking water. Let the tap run for a minute to clear out your pipes.

--Brant

There are methods to minimize exposure to both the health professionals and the patient but not all dentists utilize them. Here are the main symptoms I have been having for a couple years;

ringing in my ears (tinnitus)

pain at the top of my spine/base of my skull

weird headaches

burning/numbness in my tongue and mouth

bloated feeling in abdomen

chest and ribcage pain

flushing in the face

itching in specific spots over and over again, centre of back and just above the ankles

metallic taste in mouth

coated tongue

low body temperature

cold, clammy feet

loss of interest in my work

irritability, mood swings, depression

difficulty concentrating, memory loss

Last year I was convinced I had systemic effects from candida overgrowth and this week I discovered that it is related to mercury. The mercury acts as an antibiotic and kills bacteria in the gut, this opens the door for yeast multiplication which causes a multitude of problems like 'leaky gut', gas in the stomach, heartburn, GERD, etc. I have had a pretty good diet over the years and taken zero antibiotics for a long time so there is no reason I should be getting yeast overgrowth. Having mercury in your system puts a heavy load on your immune system so opens the door to many seemingly unrelated health problems. I have been taking 6-12 grams of vitamin C for over a year now this helps a great deal but why have something in my system that manufactures free radicals and have to take tons of stuff to neutralize them?

While I'm not a doctor it could be if you have mercury poisoning you more than likely got it eating too much of the wrong kind of fish. Off hand, if I had your problems I'd stop taking all my supplements and medications--perhaps under a doctor's supervision--for a month just to see what happens to my symptoms. It might be rough at first and if you do this you should probably scale into it. According to a previous poster there is a blood test for mercury exposure. Of course, you need and probably have had a complete workup by an appropriate physician. If nothing good comes from this, then try another doctor.

--Brant

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While I'm not a doctor it could be if you have mercury poisoning you more than likely got it eating too much of the wrong kind of fish. Off hand, if I had your problems I'd stop taking all my supplements and medications--perhaps under a doctor's supervision--for a month just to see what happens to my symptoms. It might be rough at first and if you do this you should probably scale into it. According to a previous poster there is a blood test for mercury exposure. Of course, you need and probably have had a complete workup by an appropriate physician. If nothing good comes from this, then try another doctor.

--Brant

Thanks for your interest Brant, but I don't eat much fish. Anyway that idea has been investigated it seems;

The ADA has claimed that people are exposed to more mercury from fish than from dental amalgams, a statement challenged by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology because the scientific evidence proves otherwise. As the Academy states, “Autopsies of people with fillings confirm that the amount of exposure to dietary mercury is apparently much less than that from dental amalgam mercury. Authorities in the field of metal toxicology have concluded that this chronic exposure from dental fillings makes the predominant contribution of human expo-sure to mercury.”33

Numerous studies support the finding that amalgam fillings are the main source of mercury exposure in the general population. Perhaps the earliest of these is a 1991 report produced by the World Health Organization in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Labor Organization. This report states very explicitly that mercury dental fillings are the principal source of mercury and mercuric compound intake and retention among the general population not occupationally exposed to mer-cury.34

A 1995 review by Drs. Lorscheider and Vimy and Anne O. Summers, a biochemist, concludes that “Medical research has demonstrated that mercury from dental amalgams is continuously released as vapor into mouth air. Animal and human experiments demonstrate that the uptake, tissue distribution, and excretion of amalgam mercury is significant, and that dental amalgam is the major contributing source to mercury body burden in humans.”35

A 1994 study of patients undergoing total amalgam removal found that expo-sure from amalgam fillings exceeds expo-sure from food, air and beverages.36 A 1992 experiment involving volunteers with and without amalgam fillings concluded that two-thirds of the mercury excreted in the urine of those with dental amalgams is derived originally from the mercury vapor released from their amalgams.37

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GS,

I hope you feel better before too long. And I hope you can reverse some of these effects.

If the fillings were a pharmaceutical drug, your symptoms would be called side-effects. (I really don't like that term...)

Michael

Thanks Micheal,

There was a recent settlement of a lawsuit against the FDA about this.

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/news/2008...g-risk-possible

There is finally some acknowledgment in government that they may be dangerous, at least.

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There also could be a couple of things you could do to chelate out at least some of the mercury in your tissues. I have read that eating the herb cilantro can help with this. At some point you also might consider either IV or oral EDTA chelation therapy.

I haven't been to a dentist in many years, but eventually I want my mercury fillings taken out too. I've just got a lot of other bills which have to be taken care of first.

Edited by Pam Maltzman
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Post hoc, propter hoc?

I am sorry, but most of this is very easily explained:

ringing in my ears (tinnitus)

old age

pain at the top of my spine/base of my skull

old age

weird headaches

old age

burning/numbness in my tongue and mouth

crack pipe

bloated feeling in abdomen

ate too much

chest and ribcage pain

old age

flushing in the face

I'd be embarassed too...

itching in specific spots over and over again, centre of back and just above the ankles

scabies

metallic taste in mouth

crack pipe

coated tongue

normal excpet for newborns and virgins

low body temperature

Canada, eh?

cold, clammy feet

see above

loss of interest in my work

surprise, surprise!

irritability, mood swings, depression

years of irrational philosophy?

difficulty concentrating, memory loss

did I mention years of irrational philosophy?

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GS,

<<From my point of view it made sense to use these amalgams 100 years ago but not any more since we have modern composite materials that are far less toxic and for pretty well the same price.

In view of your skepticism (which can be a good thing, no criticism here), you might want to be somewhat skeptical about any toxicity of the composite materials, given how new they are. Remember the concerns about some plastics that have developed in recent years. Some people take care to not store cooked food in plastic containers. No doubt there are some people who are hypersensitive to the compounds in some plastics. We choose our poisons....

Think about all the years of lead pollution when cars were pumping it in the atmosphere, and from there, all through the biosphere. It wasn't even obvious that this was an unhealthy thing for many years! I'm sure that some people were significantly affected by it, those who are particularly sensitive. Perhaps you are one of the ones who is very sensitive to Hg. It's a fact that in the late 1800's Hg was used in medicinal products, particularly skin ointments. But even then it was not obvious that Hg was harming those who were using these products. Think of how much lower your exposure must be. But where might you pick it up besides your amalgams and fish, which you don't eat much of? I assume you are not close to any mining activities. How about power plants? I think a major source of Hg pollution is from burning coal in power plants.

If you are picking it up from the environment, can you make any correlation between what is happening to you now where you now live versus at the last place you used to live (i.e., far away)?

<<Last year I was convinced I had systemic effects from candida overgrowth and this week I discovered that it is related to mercury. The mercury acts as an antibiotic and kills bacteria in the gut, this opens the door for yeast multiplication which causes a multitude of problems like 'leaky gut', gas in the stomach, heartburn, GERD, etc.

If this was true, I would think you would be passing "lots" of Hg in your feces. Perhaps you could get an analysis to verify this. But certainly the microorganism environment in our digestive tracts is an important factor in our health. You could try eating some good plain yogurt daily and see if that helps. I do this with my own homemade yogurt which I have been doing for 35 years or so.

<<I have been taking 6-12 grams of vitamin C for over a year now this helps a great deal

Sounds excessive to me.

Good luck in figuring it all out, and hope you get better soon.

Dennis

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No, actual mercury poisoning is not funny. I know someone who suffered from it.

But mercury poisoning is properly diagnosed by a doctor using blood

tests, not by a laundry list of symptoms most of which are suffered by

the general public, and which resemble the list of symptoms attributed

to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Gulf War Syndrome. As it stands,

self-diagnosis or diagnosis by an "alternative" medical "practitioner"

is little different from adhering to a conspiracy theory. Mercury is

not a supernatural substance, and both it and its real effects

can be discovered by actual lab tests. The place for that is in a

medical lab, not on an internet forum.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

Dental amalgam

For

more details on this topic, see Dental amalgam controversy.

Dental amalgam, an alloy of about 50% elemental mercury, has been used to fill decayed

teeth since 1830 in the United States of America. Although this amalgam

is a source of low-level exposure to mercury, no scientific evidence

links it as a cause of clinically significant toxic effects, except for

the rare local hypersensitivity reaction. The National Institutes of

Health has stated that amalgam fillings pose no personal health risk,

and that replacement by non-amalgam fillings is not indicated.

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In view of your skepticism (which can be a good thing, no criticism here), you might want to be somewhat skeptical about any toxicity of the composite materials, given how new they are. Remember the concerns about some plastics that have developed in recent years. Some people take care to not store cooked food in plastic containers. No doubt there are some people who are hypersensitive to the compounds in some plastics. We choose our poisons....

Very true, in fact some people are allergic to some of the newer composite materials. I guess it's choosing an unknown risk rather than a known one. I do have both kinds so I guess that complicates issues :-(

Think about all the years of lead pollution when cars were pumping it in the atmosphere, and from there, all through the biosphere. It wasn't even obvious that this was an unhealthy thing for many years! I'm sure that some people were significantly affected by it, those who are particularly sensitive. Perhaps you are one of the ones who is very sensitive to Hg. It's a fact that in the late 1800's Hg was used in medicinal products, particularly skin ointments. But even then it was not obvious that Hg was harming those who were using these products. Think of how much lower your exposure must be. But where might you pick it up besides your amalgams and fish, which you don't eat much of? I assume you are not close to any mining activities. How about power plants? I think a major source of Hg pollution is from burning coal in power plants.

If you are picking it up from the environment, can you make any correlation between what is happening to you now where you now live versus at the last place you used to live (i.e., far away)?

Good points. I have been living in the same place for 15 years, however, I have started working out of my home so I am spending more time here now. The thing about mercury is that the body has no use for it whatsoever - even a small amount is basically poison. I believe this kind of thing happene when you have a small amount building up over a long period of time and then your system starts to show symptoms. There are cases of people who have severe toxic symptoms immediately after exposure to even small amounts but I am not one of them - I have had these fillings for 40 yrs or so.

If this was true, I would think you would be passing "lots" of Hg in your feces. Perhaps you could get an analysis to verify this. But certainly the microorganism environment in our digestive tracts is an important factor in our health. You could try eating some good plain yogurt daily and see if that helps. I do this with my own homemade yogurt which I have been doing for 35 years or so.

From what I understand everyone excretes mercury at their own rate and in different ways - feces, urine, hair, etc. Having it in your excretions only means you have it in your system and are excreting it but does not show levels in your organs like kidneys, brain, pituitary gland etc.

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No, actual mercury poisoning is not funny. I know someone who suffered from it.

But mercury poisoning is properly diagnosed by a doctor using blood

tests, not by a laundry list of symptoms most of which are suffered by

the general public, and which resemble the list of symptoms attributed

to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Gulf War Syndrome. As it stands,

self-diagnosis or diagnosis by an "alternative" medical "practitioner"

is little different from adhering to a conspiracy theory. Mercury is

not a supernatural substance, and both it and its real effects

can be discovered by actual lab tests. The place for that is in a

medical lab, not on an internet forum.

Well, since over 200 million Americans have mercury in them from fillings I guess maybe it wouldn't be surprising if the "general public" was suffering from similar symptoms. Who is to say that these are not the "real effects" of mercury? Is anyone investigating whether or not it is? Maybe it never occurred to them. Mostly what I am seeing (from the various bureaucrats) is that we've been doing it for 150 years and so it's not a problem. Sorry, that doesn't work for me.

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We really don't know GS's relationship with his doctors or what they told him. And there are cases of difficult diagnosis that had patients going to many doctors over many years before the actual problem was ID'd. I myself figured out what was ailing me over 25 years ago, not my very good doctor, who only had me for 15-30 minutes a visit. It's true I know much more about medicine than most people, but only a fraction of what a good doctor knows. It is also true that lab tests that reveal signs can make diagnosis much easier than when there are only symptoms and the doctor is needed to properly interpret those and I had no signs. GS did not share with us his signs because, I presume, aside from privacy, we here are not competent to comment on them, but symptoms are another matter entirely as long as we realize that suggestions from us could only be possibilities.

--Brant

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GS,

<<I have been living in the same place for 15 years, however, I have started working out of my home so I am spending more time here now.

Saying this, have you thought about radon poisoning? I find it hard to believe that it could be a problem, but evidently is sure can be. Does not seem to be the controversy over it like Hg and amalgams. And one can be hurt from radon and never know it without environmental testing. For all I know, both of us could be affected.

Dennis

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GS,

<<I have been living in the same place for 15 years, however, I have started working out of my home so I am spending more time here now.

Saying this, have you thought about radon poisoning? I find it hard to believe that it could be a problem, but evidently is sure can be. Does not seem to be the controversy over it like Hg and amalgams. And one can be hurt from radon and never know it without environmental testing. For all I know, both of us could be affected.

The safe level of radon daughters is probably 2 to 2 1/2 times the amount claimed by the EPA. This is because of hormesis, wherein the body responds positively to radiation stimulation to a point, then it goes negative. I'd have no problem living in any basement I can think of on account of radiation. The only people who need worry about natural radiation are uranium miners who smoke. The higher elevation you live at the statistically better chance you'll have for not getting cancer because the natural background radiation at the higher altitudes helps prevent cancer. We live in a sea of beneficial radiation including that generated by our own bodies internally.

--Brant

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GS,

Saying this, have you thought about radon poisoning? I find it hard to believe that it could be a problem, but evidently is sure can be. Does not seem to be the controversy over it like Hg and amalgams. And one can be hurt from radon and never know it without environmental testing. For all I know, both of us could be affected.

Dennis

I suspect that what is happening is that I have accumulated a considerable amount of mercury in my life and my body is just plain getting tired of trying to deal with it. The massive amounts of Vit C help but it's not a solution. I have just found out that my dental insurance stipulates that it only will cover composite fillings for front teeth so replacing all 11 or so amalgam fillings in my back teeth will be quite expensive -but nothing compared to having it done by a mercury-free dentist who charge $450 per tooth just for removal of the amalgam! I have a consultation with my dentist on Tuesday to see how many he can replace under my policy and then I'm not sure what I will do. I have ordered an oral chelating product to try out and see if it will help get rid of the mercury without making me feel even worse - which apparently can happen when you mobilize the mercury from your tissues.

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