Hidden Health Science

Posts Tagged ‘mercury’

from Environmental Health News via IAOMT

A study raises concern about children’s exposure to mercury through fish eating, tying it for the first time to hormone changes that increase chronic stress and associated immune system dysfunction.

The mercury levels measured in the children were well below the levels considered a health risk by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This new study from Oswego County, New York, finds that higher mercury levels measured in the children’s blood are significantly associated with lower cortisol levels. The hormone cortisol is released in response to stress and is important for metabolism, immune responses and blood pressure. Its levels naturally fluctuate during the day – levels are higher in the morning and lower in the afternoon.

Even lower cortisol levels and responses can result in chronic stress even though stress increases the hormone’s level. The study’s results suggest that mercury exposure at levels commonly seen in fish eating populations may do this. It may act as a chronic stressor and disrupt the stress response. Chronic stress means the body doesn’t relax – cells continually function in high gear and do not return to a normal state. Long-term stress can have many negative health effects such as increased heart disease, more metabolic disorders and lowered immunity.

The findings are in line with prior studies in people and fish. The toxic metal increased inflammation in miners exposed to mercury. Animal studies find reduced cortisol levels in mercury-contaminated fish after capture stress.

Fish consumption is a major source both of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and toxic mercury. Omega-3s benefit health by protecting against heart disease. Mercury is potentially harmful because it affects the brain and nervous system in children. Although there are fish advisories in many states, it is still uncertain whether the benefit of eating fish outweighs the potential harm in children.

To address the pros and cons of fish eating in children, the researchers examined 100 children from 9 to 11 years old in New York State. Parents reported children’s fish consumption, which was categorized as eating or not in the analysis. Blood mercury levels, blood lipids, cortisol in saliva and inflammation markers were measured. Blood lipids indicate future heart disease risk; cortisol reflects changes of stress response; and inflammation markers indicate immune response differences.

Fish eaters had higher HDL – or so called good cholesterol – related to lower heart disease risk, than non-fish eaters. However, the fish eaters also had much higher – almost three times higher – mercury levels than non-fish eaters (1.1 and 0.4 microgram per liter, respectively).

Mercury levels were related to lower cortisol levels at all time points in the study. The highest mercury levels had about 20-25 percent lower cortisol in saliva samples compared with lowest mercury levels. At the same time, children with higher mercury also had higher inflammatory markers in their blood.

The study is limited by its design as a one-time survey, not a follow-up study. More work is still needed to examine whether the association is robust in larger studies with a follow-up design.

from Change.org (petition)

I’m working very hard to make sure that another child does not have to get mercury poisoning from their dental amalgams (aka silver fillings) like my son.  They almost killed him.  At one time he was paralyzed.

If you didn’t know that amalgams were 50% mercury, don’t be shocked. The ADA has disguised this fact for many years by calling them silver fillings.

Together we can make a change. If you think it’s wrong to put leaking mercury in the mouths of children and everyone else in America, then please sign and share this petition. “15 y.o. Paralyzed Due to Mercury Poisoning from Amalgams/ Silver Fillings.” Together we can tell the ADA and the FDA that the use of mercury fillings is an unnecessary and unacceptable practice.

Our goal is to reach more than 100,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/15-yo-paralyzed-due-to-mercury-poisoning-from-amalgams-silver-fillings

You can read KJ’s story on page 30 of http://www.MusicalGeniusMagazine.com Contact me for questions or to get involved!

Thanks!
Taajah
866-91-MUSIC ext. 806

P.S.  When you sign, ask 5 people to sign too.  When they ask 5 people and so on…we can make a difference quickly.

by Ethan A. Huff, NaturalNews

The toxic effects of the mercury, also known in vaccines as Thimerosal, have once again been confirmed, this time by researchers from the University of Brazil. Marking the sixth major study in recent months to condemn the use of mercury in medicine, the new study reveals that mercury causes serious brain damage, and is linked to autism and other developmental diseases in children and Alzheimer’s disease in adults.

Dr. Jose Dorea and his colleagues conducted an extensive, peer-reviewed analysis of various studies and available information in major databases that address the effects of low-dose Thimerosal, or ethylmercury, on neural tissue and behavior. They found conclusively that Thimerosal accumulates in brain tissue, negatively affects brain development, and harms brain cells.

“Mercury is known to cause serious harm, especially to fetuses and children because of their smaller size,” said Lisa Sykes, president of the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD), a non-profit group dedicated to removing mercury from medicine. “Why remove Thimerosal from pediatric vaccines only to inject it into pregnant women and children with recommended flu shots? They removed Thimerosal from other vaccines, so it should also be removed from flu shots.”

Several other recent studies confirm the numerous dangers posed by mercury, including one recently published in theFolia Neuropathologicathat links the toxin directly to autism (http://www.naturalnews.com/031678_m…). Mercury is also known to disrupt proper immune function, damage DNA, inhibit healthy embryonic development, and cause cancer.

The vast majority of the flu shots administered in the US still contain Thimerosal, as they come from multi-dose vials that require a preservative in order to prevent contamination. However, CoMeD says there is no reason to continue using Thimerosal since safer alternative preservatives already exist and are currently in use in many pediatric vaccines that used to contain Thimerosal.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele…

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/031870_flu_shots_brain_damage.html#ixzz1HuaWrG8o

A new risk assessment, prepared for the Parker-Hannifin Foundation by SNC-Lavalin Environment, warns that mercury from dental fillings (called amalgams or “silver” fillings) is exposing 67.2 million Americans to toxic levels exceeding EPA standards.¹ The report was submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) as part of testimony for the upcoming hearings regarding amalgam fillings.²

The assessment shows that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules for mercury exposure (called the Reference Exposure Level, or REL), established in 1995, are far exceeded by a huge population of Americans due to mercury fillings. Amalgam fillings are 50% mercury and are a danger to both dental care providers³ and their patients. They are also a danger, it has been shown, to patients with the fillings, even long after they’ve been installed in the mouth.⁴

The upcoming hearings by the FDA (December 14-15) will consider the science related to mercury exposure health risks from dental amalgam fillings. Mercury-based dental fillings have already been banned in Norway and Sweden. The assessment from Parker-Hannifin states that mercury exposures from dental fillings are the primary means of non-occupational exposures in the public – more so than through seafood.

Currently, in the U.S., 181.1 million Americans of all ages carry 1.46 billion restored teeth. Using past data and available information on dental practice, the report concludes that the vast majority of these are mercury-based amalgams. Because exact data is unavailable, the assessment used four scenarios to calculate total risks.

The first scenario is for all restored tooth surfaces and assumed no materials other than 50% mercury amalgams were used. This acted as the base measurement for the other three scenarios. The second scenario took the totals from Scenario 1 and subtracted five surfaces as being non-amalgam. The third assumed only 50% of restorations were with amalgams and the fourth assumed 30% of people from Scenario 1 had no amalgams and that five of each of the remaining people’s tooth surfaces were non-amalgam and that 50% of the remaining restored tooth surfaces were amalgams. The scenarios thus create a worst-case to best-case series of assumptions.

The best-case option, Scenario 4, still shows 67.2 million Americans are over-exposed to mercury by EPA standards (REL of 0.3ug/m³). This would also mean that 122.3 million Americans would exceed the California Environmental Protection Agency’s standard (REL of 0.03ug/m³). The RELs for the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Canadian Federal Department of Health fall in between the EPA and CEPA standards.

The breakdown of data from the Parker-Hannifin report shows that, again in Scenario 4, toddlers in the U.S. have 379,004 fillings, 45.2% of which exceed EPA standards for mercury exposure. Children and teens make up another 19 million (roughly) with about 30% of them exceeding exposure standards. Children are less likely to have cavities and more likely to have non-mercury fillings. In adults and seniors, the total number of mercury-based fillings are in about 103 million people with roughly 60% of them exceeding mercury toxicity standards.

After the hearings this month, the FDA will give a final ruling on mercury fillings sometime in 2011.

Resources:
1 – Amalgam Risk Assessments 2010, IAOMT website with links to both assessments by G. Mark Richarson, PhD, et al, SNC-Lavalin Environment.

2 – FDA to Review Safety of Mercury Fillings, The Weston Price Foundation, The Epoch Times (Sept. 28, 2010)

3 – Mercury: The Silent Epidemic is Killing American Dental Professionals, Part I, Part II, Part III by Aaron Turpen, NaturalNews (Aug., 2010)

4 – Mercury Dental Fillings: What the FDA and the ADA are not Telling You by Aaron Turpen, Natural News (June 16, 2010)

Special thanks to Dr. Richardson for forwarding his assessments to the author.