Mercury Buildup and the Body’s Response

If you’ve read my previous posts, which can be found here, you are now aware of the research that’s been done on the substance of mercury being released from amalgam fillings and how it will be absorbed into your body at the cellular level. I want to explore further how your body deals with this mercury invasion and why you might not immediately know that mercury is in your system and is affecting your body’s ability to function as it should.

The first thing to know is that your body is designed to function in amazing ways to protect you! In fact, your body will do its best to remove the mercury toxin that you’re putting into it if you have amalgam fillings. Two important antioxidants are glutathione (GSH) and alpha-lipoid acid (ALA). Both of these help to remove the mercury in your cells and detoxify your system, as well as having other purposes for your health. If you have amalgam fillings, both of these antioxidants are working inside of you daily, removing mercury from your system and protecting you. This is great news, but the problem comes when we see that the body’s ability to remove this mercury is depleted by removing it. Both GSH and ALA are produced by your body, but research has shown that more GSH is required to remove mercury than your body can create. Because of this, as these antioxidants are daily fighting to keep your system mercury free, they are depleting and their ability to remove mercury grows weaker.

Advertisements

How Mercury is Able to Affect the Body

If you’ve been following along, I’ve been writing about the mercury in amalgam fillings for a few posts now, and how that mercury is released into your body. But once it’s in your body, what’s the problem?

Research has shown that the mercury vapor that’s released and consumed is able to get past the protection of fatty membrane surrounding the cells in your body because the mercury vapor itself is fat soluble, or lipophilic. What this means is that mercury is able to settle down in all of the cells of the body with no trouble. Mercury is also attracted to the amino acids that have a high sulfur component, and this means that it is able to alter the function of proteins in the body because it will easily attach itself to this group, keeping necessary minerals from being able to attach as they should. The same thing happens with the enzymes in the body. Because of this, the body creates more free radicals, which can be the cause of varying diseases if they’re not removed, and mercury deprives the body of the antioxidants that are needed to remove them.

If these terms confuse you, let me recap: mercury is able to easily enter the fatty tissues of the body on the cellular level. In proteins, it takes the place of minerals like iron, zinc, copper, iodine, magnesium, etc., which are things your body desperately needs and cannot function well without, and it does the same with enzymes. As a result, there are more free radicals in the body, and free radicals are harmful if they’re not taken care of.

If you’d like more info on the scientific research that’s been done you can read more about it here, and next up I’ll address some possible results of this mercury buildup in the body.

Dr. Sperbeck, West Los Angeles

http://www.dds4smiles.com

How Mercury is Released From Your Fillings

In the previous post I talked in general about what Mercury is, and now I want to address how Mercury is released from your amalgam/silver fillings and into your body. As a quick recap from my last post, studies show that mercury is a harmful substance, and studies also show that it is one of the main components of amalgam/silver fillings. If the mercury is in your mouth, how can it be harmful to other areas of your body? Let me explain how having mercury in your fillings can release mercury into the rest of your body.

First, it’s important to understand that as a chemical element, mercury releases vapors when it is heated, and it’s these vapors that are harmful to the body. The mercury in fillings can be heated from friction created in daily activities like eating, brushing your teeth, grinding your teeth, having your teeth polished, etc. Research shows that when you perform these tasks, these vapors are released and are then swallowed with what you’re consuming, or even just the air you’re taking in. From then on the mercury is in your body and can impact your health in many ways. The vapor is also released when you have the mercury removed from your mouth, and that’s why it’s important to make sure that the mercury is removed in a safe way not just for you, but for everyone in the vicinity. Consider how these daily activities release mercury vapor, and next up I’ll explain a little bit of how research has shown mercury in your body affects all of your health.

 

Dr. Sperbeck, West Los Angeles

http://www.dds4smiles.com

Some General Information on Mercury Fillings

There have already been a few articles written on this blog about mercury in fillings, which you can read here, but I wanted to go over it again in case you haven’t had a chance to read those. I’ll start with some general things you’ve maybe never heard about mercury in your silver/amalgam fillings. In future posts I’ll talk in more detail about how mercury affects your health.

What is mercury? Mercury is a substance that is poisonous to the human body in any quantity, not just in large amounts. Even the tiniest bit of exposure can be extremely harmful to your health, and for this reason, what I’m about to say next may sound odd: silver/ amalgam fillings contain mercury as their one of their main ingredients. They’re not called mercury fillings, and so many people don’t realize that it’s a large part of the filling.

I’ll be writing soon in more detail about the way mercury is released into your body and give you a few more things to consider about this topic. Stay tuned for more on mercury, and how you can help keep yourself and those around you safe and healthy!

Dr. Sperbeck, West Los Angeles

http://www.dds4smiles.com

Don’t Mess with Mercury While Pregnant or Breastfeeding

Installing or removing amalgam (a.k.a. “silver” or metal) cavity fillings is never, ever recommended while pregnant or breastfeeding. In my book, amalgam should never be installed in the first place, but should certainly be removed as soon as possible. When a developing infant is depending on its mother for nourishment, however, mercury removal is a bad idea.

When amalgam is installed or removed, a spike of mercury is ingested through the mouth, nose, or skin, released into the bloodstream and soft tissues of the body, and then stored in fatty tissue — fatty tissue not only meaning stored body fat, but mostly in the brain and various glands and organs that rely on fat/cholesterol to function properly. This is why you hear primarily about severe nervous or endocrine conditions caused by mercury poisoning, though other symptoms of mercury toxicity run the gamut from random minor complaints to chronic illness. Symptoms may seem completely unrelated, making it difficult to diagnose. But it is definitely there if you’ve been exposed to it, whether or not you “feel” poisoned by it.

With that knowledge, you can imagine how vulnerable a growing baby would be to the mother’s mercury exposure. Conventional dentistry and its literature may tell you otherwise. They say there is little to no significant risk or imminent danger. Many patients testify to having mouths just full of metal or having it installed/removed during pregnancy but deliver and raise kids who are perfectly normal. Let me put it flatly: they do not know what they are talking about. Again, mercury poisoning’s symptoms will not always be obvious. If that stuff is in your body, it will affect you or your offspring. It could be random headaches. It could be infertility or other hormonal discomforts. It could be sluggishness, foggy thinking, or the inability to lose weight. It could be autism or ADHD or another neurological disorder. These problems certainly aren’t getting better in our country, and the number of children developing these problems is steadily increasing, not decreasing! Is it possible this “harmless” amalgam has anything to do with it?

All this to say, causing further disruption to amalgam dental work would be very dangerous for both mom and baby. It is key to have all mercury safely removed from your teeth before conceiving. Don’t wait until pregnancy — planned or not — to care for your health in this important (but too often overlooked) way. Either take care of it now before conceiving, or wait until after weaning when you can have it removed and safely detox without worrying about passing on the poison to your child.

The only ways we’re going to keep having healthy babies and pregnancies is by thinking ahead, thinking critically, staying informed, and applying what we learn.

Dr. Sperbeck, West Los Angeles

http://www.dds4smiles.com