HOW MERCURY FILLINGS WRECK YOUR HEALTH
Would you let someone put the world’s most poisonous non- radioactive substance into your mouth? And leave it there for decades, just a few centimetres away from your brain? Well, that’s what dentists do when they place a mercury filling in someone’s mouth. Surprisingly, many people have no idea that they have mercury in their mouth or what this could be doing to their health. As a major toxin for the central nervous system, why wouldn’t mercury make you sick?
The World Health Organisation has stated that there is no safe level of mercury in the body. Many countries have long since mercury in dentistry. Alarmingly, many dentists in the UK still use mercury despite the well-established mountain of scientific research linking it to numerous degenerative diseases. If you have mercury fillings, it is not too late to do something about them. But you do need to find the right dentist who can replace your mercury fillings safely.
Here is some information about mercury to help you make better dental choices:
The world’s most poisonous non-radioactive substance is also the world’s most controversial poison. No one would disagree that it is not a good idea to put arsenic, the poison of choice of the Borgias, in your mouth. Not so mercury. Yet your dentist is obliged to treat the mercury filling he extracts from your mouth as toxic hazardous waste but somehow it is alright while it remains in your mouth. Incredibly, mercury amalgam is still categorised as a Class 2 device - the same as a pair of spectacles or a walking stick!
The introduction of mercury fillings by two brothers (not trained dentists) in France in the 1830’s has been described by a number of doctors as a 'crime against humanity’ and a ‘great evil.’ back in the 1800’s, the American Society of Dental Surgeons decried its use as unethical and banned dentists who used mercury from joining their organisation. And so began what has been called the ‘amalgam wars.’ The root of this controversy is the same as in all medical ethical controversies - money!
You may have heard your dentist refer to mercury amalgams as ‘silver fillings.’ That is because they are made from approximately 50% mercury, some silver and other metals. This sounds a lot safer and more friendly than ‘mercury fillings’ just in case people remember from their school chemistry lessons that mercury is a potent neurotoxin that damages the brain and central nervous system.
Despite decades of research showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that mercury leaks from fillings, there are still some dentists who assert that mercury remains intact in the tooth. Or so they tell their patients! This is not true. The problem is not bits breaking off the filling and you swallowing a chunk of mercury (though this can happen) but the mercury vapour coming off the tooth.
In the 1980’s, dentists Vimy and Lorsheider at the University of Calgary, conducted the experiment that should have sounded the death knell for mercury fillings worldwide. Firstly, they placed several mercury fillings into the mouth of a sheep. The fillings were radio-labelled to make them show up black on X-ray. The purpose of the experiment was to see if mercury stayed in the tooth (as the Dental Boards maintained) or spread to distant tissues and organs. The mercury fillings were removed by a safe procedure a few days later and the sheep X-rayed 29 days later. The X-ray showed that mercury from the fillings had spread into multiple organs and tissues - gums and jawbone, kidneys, digestive tract, liver, spleen, lungs, heart and brain. The enteric nervous system was completely destroyed by the leaked mercury. Subsequent experiments with different animals showed the same spread of mercury into distant organs and tissues.
In what has become known as the Black Sheep experiment, mercury was only present in fillings for several days. We know that the longer mercury fillings are present, the more mercury is leaked. This means that any of us who have had amalgams in our mouths for a few days or longer are Black Sheep!
Mercury is different to most metals as it is in liquid form most of the time. In this form, it evaporates at a fast rate. When combined with other metals like silver and copper and zinc, mercury evaporates at a slower rate - but it still evaporates. This means that if you have mercury amalgam fillings, you are continuously exposed to the mercury vapour coming off them i.e. when you eat, drink, brush your teeth or go to the dental hygienist. Every time you chew, a small amount of mercury vapour (about 2-20 micrograms a day) is released into your body. Chewing gum is especially problematic as it releases an even greater amount of mercury into your system. An increase in temperature, hot coffee or tea, will encourage a bigger release of vapours.
The absorption rate of inhaled mercury is extremely high. Mercury doesn’t need any transport systems like blood or lymphatic pathways to get around your body. It can go straight through the roof of your mouth or down into your lungs. About 80% of the mercury you inhale reaches the tissues of your brain within one circulation cycle of blood round your body. Unfortunately, once in the brain, it can’t get out unless special measures are used that cross the Blood Brain Barrier.
Tubulin is the most abundant protein in the brain. It is a protein that lives inside nerves. It works like a fibre optic system that conducts information at the speed of light through the body. Mercury is the one toxin that has been shown to block the GTP enzyme that makes tubulin. This profoundly alters the communication within cells. According to toxicologist Dr Dietrich Klinghardt, mercury blocks us spiritually as well as physically as tubulin is a light conductive system.
Mercury poisoning is slow and cumulative and changes the personality. The phrase “mad as a hatter” from Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland derives from the use of mercury in the hat making industry in the 1800’s which caused hatters to suffer from delirium and insanity. Dr Alfred Stock, a German biochemist details his own slow mercury poisoning and the effect it had on his career in his article The Dangerousness of Mercury Vapour (1926). He eventually recovered his health by having his mercury fillings removed and cleaning up his working environment.
The first Chinese Emperor Qin She Huang drank mercury every day in the belief that this would give him eternal life. It made him violent, forgetful, angry and insane and he is reputed to have died of mercury poisoning aged 49 in 210 BC.
There is a safe method of removing mercury fillings known as the Smart protocol which can be seen on the website of IAOMT (International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology). Dentists who have been trained in this protocol are generally Biological Dentists (who realise that what they do in the mouth affects the rest of the body) instead of those who work by “drill, fill and bill” alone.
You can’t drill out mercury fillings without using the Smart Protocol and not put the patient at risk. Dentists who tell their patients it is too dangerous to remove mercury are admitting they have never trained in safe mercury removal, and revealing their intellectual laziness.
Don’t attempt to detoxify from mercury while you still have mercury fillings! Get them safely out first. According to toxicologist Dr Dietrich Klinghardt, chlorella is one of the few things that can be given safely to mitigate the presence of mercury fillings; other metal detox agents are not allowed if mercury fillings are still present.
Mould and viruses flourish in the presence of mercury toxicity. If you have chronic yeast and mould infections, you may be mercury toxic!
Never remove mercury fillings during pregnancy.
The average filling releases half a gram of mercury over 7 years. 80% of this ends up in the brain. If you injected that amount into an elephant, it would drop dead.
Mercury has a high affinity for the nerve cells in the heart. A number of athletes who have collapsed and died have had high levels of mercury in the heart on autopsy.
Clinical signs to look out for with mercury toxicity:
Loss of self-confidence, shyness, timidity, indecision, easily embarrassed.
Inability to concentrate, lethargy, drowsiness, insomnia.
Forgetfulness - when I was at school and had a mouthful of mercury fillings (largely because my dentist got paid per filling), I had difficulty remembering the names of close friends I passed in the corridor). Naturally, this caused great stress at exam times! Due to the UK having signed the Minnemata Convention on Mercury to reduce the level of global toxic mercury, UK dentists are no longer supposed to place mercury fillings in children under 18.
Over-activation of the central nervous system resulting in loss of energy/enjoyment of life.
Thyroid dysfunction.
Suboptimal body temperature - cold, clammy skin especially hands and feet.
Heart problems - abnormal blood pressure, conductivity problems etc.
Adrenal dysfunction.
Low blood sugar.
Reduced kidney function.
Head, neck, oral symptoms, bleeding gums.
Metallic taste.
Receding gums, bone loss in jaw, loose teeth.
8th cranial nerve problems - ringing in ears, tinnitus, hearing loss, eye problems.
Gastrointestinal effects - chronic constipation/diarrhoea, upper fermenting gut, inflammatory bowel disease, therapy resistant parasites.
Chronic illness - especially fatigue and neurological illnesses like MS, Parkinson’s, autism, ALS etc.
Chronic intractable depression.
Lack of self-control, violent, irrational behaviour, addictions.
Malignancies/cancers.
Autoimmune conditions i.e. arthritis, lupus, MS, scleroderma, ALS.
Sexual disorders, infertility.
Chronic infections, recurring infections. A high load of mercury predisposes towards Long Covid via the mechanisms of immune suppression and affinity of bugs for metal toxic tissues.
Inability to handle yeasts and mould.
Lab tests for mercury toxicity
In the traditional lab challenge tests for mercury and heavy metals, a chelating agent is given orally or intravenously and the patient’s urine collected for the next 6-12 hours. This measures the mercury that the patient has successfully managed to mobilise, but does not show the mercury still bound to proteins in the body. For that reason, I no longer use provocation-challenge tests.
There are two tests for mercury toxicity that I recommend if someone feels they need them:
Urinary Porphyrins Test: The body is always trying to make metals less harmful to its tissues. This leads to metal sensitive changes in urinary porphyrin markers. Looking at the level of the porphyrin markers gives a six month window of how metals are recirculating in the system.
Oligoscan: This is a photo optic scan that measures the concentration of toxic metals in the palm of the hand. This is a good representation of the tissue burden of toxic metals in the connective tissues of the rest of the body i.e. thyroid, liver, brain etc. The results are available within minutes.
What to do if you have mercury fillings
The first step is to educate yourself about the implications of continuing to have mercury in your mouth. If you are healthy with no chronic symptoms, safe amalgam replacement is an excellent insurance policy for a healthy future. If you are suffering, getting mercury out of your mouth at the appropriate time is a very wise move. Education tools: Dr Blanche Grube’s online Patient Video Education Series.
You need a Biological dentist to replace mercury fillings safely with the Smart protocol as outlined on the IAOMT website. If a dentist doesn’t use this, find another dentist who does. The more patients who choose the safe option, the more dentists might decide they cannot afford not to implement these safest options in their practices.
You need to be well prepared nutritionally and put special precautions in place before having your mercury fillings safely replaced. These precautions include antioxidant and liver support, the right diet so you are not giving additional inflammation to your body, and using the correct binder to ensure that any stray mercury is safely escorted out of the body and does not end up in general circulation.
Once all your mercury fillings have been safely replacement with a non-metal material that is biocompatible to your body (Biological dentists will check which is the best material for you), you will have stopped the toxic tap leaking. However, you should now think about gently reducing the mercury load from your tissues. This is a gentle chelating action, spread over a lifetime (a marathon rather than a sprint), best done with judicious herbal preparations that cross the Blood Brain Barrier. I had my mercury amalgams removed over 30 years ago but I can still get more mercury out of the tissues with the intermittent gentle chelation protocols that I use. It is also worth mentioning the use of an ionic foot bath with platinum coils to accelerate the excretion of metal toxins. The latter should be done under medical guidance, and never while mercury fillings are still in place.
If you would like to know more about how to improve your health from mercury toxicity, please contact the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment.