Seafood, “silver” fillings, vaccinations and other medical products, and even the contraceptive pill! These are proven ways that mercury can be ingested by humans. And all four methods are part of my case history – isn’t that interesting!? My family ate lots of fish when I was a child. Dad was a keen recreational fisherman and spent time each weekend fishing. I remember one time we calculated that the fish had only been out of the water for 2 hours before it arrived on our plates – talk about fresh! Dad mainly caught small fish when I was a teenager, but when we were little, he caught snapper that were as long as I was tall.
Could it be that all that fish, as well as being a healthy, high protein food with omega 3 fatty acids that we now know are crucial for brain development was also slowly poisoning me at the same time? And if that’s so, has it affected the health of my dad, mum and two sisters in other ways that we’re not aware of?
It is worth remembering that mercury is a naturally occurring substance on our planet, Earth. In its elemental form, it is harmless as living things can eliminate it rapidly. The problem for humans comes when mercury has changed into the totally poisonous form, methyl mercury, and has accumulated in the body’s cells to the point where it, either directly or indirectly, causes symptoms related to mercury poisoning – listed here. Experts are still trying to work out how so much methyl mercury has formed to cause toxic amounts in fish. It is hypothesised that this dangerous chemical process is occurring in the ocean itself…
But the trace amounts of mercury that exist naturally in fish and other seafood are only one way that mercury can be ingested by human beings. Even now, some childhood vaccinations still contain thimersol, which is an ethylmercury compound used as a preservative for vaccines. Thimersol was determined as unsafe in 1980 eventually leading to a ruling by the FDA in the USA in 1998 that it should be removed from products due to it being dangerous to health.
Science has shown that mercury crosses the placenta and the blood-brain-barrier and this means that if a mother has mercury in her body, it will pass into her fetus (the damage level is unknown but evidence exists of mercury being contributory to several conditions, including autism). There’s much to find out, so visit Detox My Child! and DMSA Chelation if you want to read more.
Interestingly enough, the year before I was diagnosed with MS, I had a flu shot, only my second one ever. I will always wonder whether there was thimersol or some other ethylmercury compound in that flu shot (and many websites will tell there is) and whether it was one of the things that tipped my poor overworked liver and immune system over the edge and manifest a disease.
Back to mercury memories of my childhood; when I was about 8 years old, I fell and badly scratched my face. My everloving mum painted me for days with Mercurochrome (the yellow one, not the red one which would have looked really bad…) to help the sores get better. I wonder how much mercury I ingested through my skin in this way?
Since I was a teenager, I’ve had four amalgam fillings, what I now call mercury fillings, in my back molars and two them were huge. Over time as I can afford it, I’m having them removed. It is best to remove them gradually and to have nutritional support while you’re doing this. But I’ll you about that story another time…
partofthepuzzle 