Mercury in the body . . .

My naturopath wanted to test me for mercury. Mercury contamination, he said, is a major cause of rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid problems ("I cannot state 100%, but I am quite sure . . . almost with 100% assurance: Every patient of mine who has suffered a thyroid problem, whether hypo- or hyper-, autoimmune or otherwise, I have found to have elevated levels of mercury in the body.") . . . indeed, many of the issues I have faced or am facing right now.

He said there are two ways of testing for mercury. One is called unprovoked; the other, provoked. The unprovoked test simply measures how much mercury is excreted in a person's urine over a 24-hour period; the other uses a chelating agent (my naturopath prefers an infusion of DMPS (sodium salt of 2,3-dimercapto-1-propane sulfonic acid)) to "provoke" the release of mercury and then a collection of urine.

"The problem with an unprovoked test is that mercury and other heavy metals have very strong affinities for different organs within the body. Once there, they don't let go. They do their damage, but you won't necessarily find them floating around in the body for excretion. You have to use agents to get them to release from the tissues where they are hiding." [Understand that I'm not quoting him exactly. But I am attempting to give the gist of what he said.]

Based on his input, I agreed to have the test. But I thought I would ask my conventional doctor at Kaiser whether he would authorize a test. Maybe I could save some money if I could get the test through my insurance provider!

To my mild astonishment, my Kaiser doctor agreed and set me up for that test in addition to a few others--one of which, also, is urine-based.

One minor complicating factor: the other urine-based test requires a different collection bottle. So I would have to collect urine for two days.

I figured that would be fine. I would get the microalbumin collection done one day, turn it in to the Kaiser lab, get the chelating agent injection after that from my naturopath, then do the urine collection for the mercury.

So I finished my microalbumin collection and turned it in, went to my naturopath, and then found him discouraging me from using Kaiser for the mercury test: "If you have any elevated levels of mercury within you, you will shock your doctor. He is used to unprovoked, unchelated numbers." And, moreover, "chelated urine collection should proceed for only 6 hours."

"That's fine," I said. "So I will simply not do the collection for Kaiser."

Four days later, however, I got my test results from Kaiser and the lab had analyzed the one collection for both microalbumin and mercury.

Mercury was at less than 4 mcg/L, well within the "standard range."

Well, by that point I had long since turned in my 6-hour collection of chelated urine.

I just got those results. Mercury: 29 mcg/g creatinine. Reference range (based on unchelated/unprovoked tests): less than 3 mcg/g creatinine--so about 10 times higher than "acceptable." Cadmium and Lead, too, were high (though just--and I mean "just"--outside the reference range. Antimony was at the top edge of the reference range. Everything else was either undetectible (11 metals) or well within the acceptable reference range (6 metals).

I just had hair, blood and another small urine sample sent to a different lab to determine whether the mercury in my system is methylated (from organic sources--most likely fish) or inorganic (amalgam tooth fillings? broken mercury thermometers? playing with the stuff when I was a kid? a broken fluorescent bulb?). The tests are also supposed to determine whether my kidneys are up to handling a heavy release of mercury if we go forward with chelation therapy.

Meanwhile, I realize I have some research to do. (Is that surprising?) What I have discovered in just the last few hours has put me in a mood to look for some alternative to the therapy--DMPS infusions (one per week for four weeks, then one every-other-week for six weeks)--my naturopath is suggesting.

Of minimal concern, frankly, is the fact that DMPS is not approved by the FDA. The FDA is not necessarily the world leader in pharmaceutical evaluation. DMPS, I am given to understand, is (and has been, for quite some time) used rather commonly in Germany.

More disturbing to me are other claims against DMPS chelation. For example:

• There are numerous reports concerning the toxicity of DMPS (despite Dr. John Cline's remarks about its safety being so great that it is freely available, without a prescription, in Germany). (One alarming collection of anecdotes may be found here.)
   
• There are far fewer such adverse reports for DMSA by mouth, I am told.
  
  And while we're talking about DMSA, we ought to note that . . .
   
• DMSA is FDA-approved. Whereas, as already noted, DMPS is not.
   
• DMSA (according to some sources) is more effective than DMPS for removal of mercury, lead, and arsenic.
   
• DMSA passes the blood-brain barrier and removes mercury; DMPS does not. (Methylmercury is especially attracted to and toxic to neurons, so having a chelating agent that can cross the blood-brain barrier is extremely important!)
   
• DMSA is much more convenient to use. ("The usual adult dose for mercury removal is 500 mg DMSA (five 100 milligram capsules) on an empty stomach on first arising in the morning with a glass of water or juice, and no food for another 30 minutes. This dose is taken 3 days per week with at least one day between each dose. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is a convenient schedule. This is continued for 3 months. Then wait another month without DMSA before retesting mercury levels" (John A Cranton, ARNP). My naturopath, meanwhile, has told me that DMPS chelation will take 10 injection/infusions over the course of a minimum of 16 weeks (four months).)
   
• DMSA is much less expensive. Between the cost of the DMPS and the doctor's office charges, I understand, DMPS is at least 10 times more expensive.
   
• And then, of course, there is the fundamental charge that provoked testing is simply a bunch of poppycock to begin with. (A charge countered by others that "[t]he quantity of heavy metal returned [by the provocation test] has generally correlated well to the symptom severity of the patients [they] have seen. Furthermore, the changes in metal excretion with this provocation test have corresponded well to the changes in symptom severity of the patients [they] have seen" (Mercury Toxicity and the Use of DMPS Chelation, John C. Cline, MD, Medical Director, Oceanside Medical Clinic)

But when all is said and done, I am struck with the claim by Elmer M. Cranton, MD, that "Scientific research shows that once a source of excessive mercury exposure is eliminated, half of the remaining mercury in the body is excreted naturally in less than 3 months, with no treatment whatsoever. Even methyl mercury is naturally eliminated from the brain. Mercury is eliminated normally in urine, feces, hair, skin, sweat, bile, etc. One year after excessive exposure has been eliminated, 95 percent or more of the excess mercury is gone from the body with no specific treatment."

I sense Jana's summary of what should--or should not--be done with DMPS is level-headed and appropriate. If you're considering DMPS therapy, I strongly encourage you to read her brief article.

Heavy metal contamination . . .

While talking with my naturopath on Tuesday, as I already mentioned, we got onto the subject of heavy metals.

I told him that, considering how much heavy metal Jonelle has in her body, I figured I was probably loaded with the stuff, too. I don't know where or how I would have been contaminated, but I can't ignore the possibility.

He replied, "It's highly unlikely you would've gotten heavy metals from the same place Jonelle did. Most people who are loaded with heavy metals got them from their mothers."

"Their mothers!?!"

"Yes."

"And where would the mothers have gotten their heavy metals?"

"The most common source: tooth fillings. The mercury in tooth fillings."

He suggested I look up a video on YouTube: Smoking Teeth.

I've done that. And I looked up a bunch more. Pretty enlightening . . . and scary at the same time!

Here's Smoking Teeth:



Don't believe the graphical presentation? Check out Visualization of Mercury vapors in UV light:



. . . and It Really Is MERCURY!:



And then--for a really eye-opening perspective on how amalgam fillings ought to be removed, check out Safer Amalgam Removal:



How does your dentist remove fillings?

Finally, in case you wonder: How Mercury Causes Brain Neuron Damage from the University of Calgary:



. . . And after all that, perhaps you noticed--as I did--the warning that appears to be from an authoritative source . . . that one should never have amalgam fillings placed in the middle of gold crowns.

So what did the endodontist do the week after I had a gold crown put in this summer, and my tooth was killing me with pain? . . . Yep! Amalgam filling.

I think I have some more research to do.

--International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology -- http://iaomt.blogspot.com

"Super Cooper in a 22 Looper"

My son-in-law and I began watching When We Left Earth - The NASA Missions, a DVD set from Discovery Channel, last night.

We watched the better part of the first two episodes which cover the run-up to and experience of the Mercury (single-man) and Gemini (two-man) space flights. There is lots of footage similar to what I recall seeing on TV, but a whole lot more, including fascinating interviews with the men who were involved in the events of those days--from flight controllers to astronauts--as well as footage from inside the space capsules--things we never saw on TV at the time.

And Discover knows how to tell the story with emotion. When ground control loses radio contact with the space capsule--even though the event occurred 45 years ago or more--and even though I thought I knew the final outcome of the story, my heart was in my throat.

So there I was watching these historical archives and being astonished at what I was seeing: Major space flights going up every three months; astronauts' names I remember; even a couple of flights--like the one I referenced in the title of this post: As we watched the program, as soon as Gordon Cooper's name was mentioned in association with the Mercury 7 flight, I blurted out the headline I remembered from our local newspaper. Yep: "Super Cooper in a 22-Looper."

What shocked me: the mission's date--May 15 to 16, 1963. I was 7 years old!

I had thought the flight had come three or four years later, after I had become a paperboy.

That memory, then, inspired me to think of what other headlines or news events I remember from my early childhood.

Only two stand out in my mind.

1) The day Kennedy was shot (I had to look it up): November 22, 1963. I was in 3rd grade. In our school, all the kids in the class were brought to the bathroom at the same time to "do their business."

I remember filing back down the hall toward the classroom when one of the teachers came down the hall, crying: "The president has been shot!"

We were in Upstate New York at the time, so it would have had to have been about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. (I looked it up: Kennedy was shot at 12:30 p.m. Central Time; he was declared dead at 1:00 p.m.)

I remember just a bit about the funeral, though I wonder how much of that memory was actually shaped by newsreels since.

2) I remember watching Winston Churchill's funeral cortège. A very solemn, black affair. Again, I looked it up: it occurred in late January 1965.

3) One other very specific newscast I remember: the day they played taps on the hippie movement in San Francisco.

Our family was living in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time. And hippies would be a major social force for many years to come. But I remember the San Francisco news station declaring the death of the hippie culture. Very unnerving, because I was just getting used to the idea, and I was attracted to the general freewheeling, fun-loving, live-and-let-live approach to life that the hippies seemed to advocate.

I looked this one up, too. And there is the date: October 6, 1967--the tail end of the "Summer of Love," not even five months after Scott McKenzie's song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" was first released and, honestly, years before the movement would truly die.

--Strange. Why is it all the sad stories that most caught my attention?

One last story and then I'll quit. Actually two.

Story #4: I rode my bike through the middle of an anti-war protest in Palo Alto--the Stanford Industrial Park. It was a regular school day morning. (Maybe 7:30?) I was riding from our apartment in Escondido Village on the Stanford Campus, to Terman Junior High over on Arastradero Rd. I would ride down Hanover Street, through the Hewlett Packard parking lot, across the railroad tracks and through the neighborhood till I could cross Arastradero into the school parking lot.

Some demonstrators had turned over a school bus in the middle of the intersection at Hanover Street and Page Mill Road. As I rode down Hanover toward the intersection from the campus, I could see darkly-clad figures darting in and out among the buildings on either side of the road. Some were police in full riot gear, others were civilians (anti-war protesters). . . . --A very surreal experience.

And then, lastly: #5: Kent State. May 4, 1970. By this point my family was back in upstate New York. I was in ninth grade. The news of the students having been killed shocked, sickened, and disgusted me. I had seen too many protests "close up" while on the Stanford campus. I had seen the anger and hatred and seething violence just below the surface. After all, this was post Martin Luther King's assassination. This was post Bobby Kennedy's assassination. This was post the 1968 Democratic National Convention at which there was so much violence.

I wrote a poem to express my grief:

Where’s our reason?
People shout and incite
Riots while men with rifles
Stand by.

After order is asked
And warnings are given,
The riotous crowd
Throws hate.

Insults freely flow
From snarling lips. . . .
The rifles fire.
More hate comes back. . . .
Smoke of battle
Jerks around.
(Violence protests war.
Hate burns worse than Napalm.)

Around the States
Radios hurtle their message:
“Four Students Killed—
More Injured.”