Health Topics 5 Habits of Health Practice Internal Cleanliness Avoid Free Radicals Avoid Carbohydrates Avoid Harmful Microorganisms Avoid Heavy Metals Avoid Harmful Chemicals

Avoid Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are potent free radicals and disrupters of human health.

Heavy metals include antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, cerium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tellurium, thallium, tin, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.

Is is extremely interestingly that small amounts of these elements are common in our environment and appear to actually be necessary for good health, but large amounts can be extremely deleterious to our health.

Why Heavy Metals Hurt Us?

The transorbital electron capabilities of these elements is what makes them beneficial in small amounts and dangerous in large amounts, i.e. the relative ease with which electrons may move up and down the orbital structure to pair with other elements. The particular problem with heavy metals is their ability to strip electrons from other molecules, i.e. they are dangerous free radicals. Also, they have the power to play king of the hill and take the place of other elements in a cellular structure. Beyond the small amount of heavy metals needed for certain tissues of our body, excess heavy metals can be very BAD.

For some heavy metals, this toxic level can be just above the background concentrations naturally found in nature. Therefore, it is important for us to be informed about our body’s levels of heavy metals and to take protective measures against excessive exposure to heavy metals. Too many heavy metals cause all of the following problems:

• Damaged or reduced mental and central nervous function
• Lower energy levels
• Damage to blood, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other vital organs.
• Physical, muscular, and neurological degenerative processes that mimic Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis.
• Allergies
• Cancer

Heavy metals can pass into a nursing mother’s milk or into a growing fetus and create problems for an infant even before birth.

The most common heavy metals that create problems for humans are:

Can pass to fetus Yes Can pass to mothers’ milk Yes

Mercury — Mercury is especially damaging to the nervous system and brain function (the term mad hatter came from the fact that the felt in hats used to contain a lot of mercury and hatters easily became overexposed). Early symptoms include fatigue, insomnia, headaches, forgetfulness, impaired judgment.

Sources of mercury include dental fillings, eating of large fish, contact with fungicides and pesticides, cosmetics and medicines (especially vaccines).
 

Can pass to fetus Yes Can pass to mothers’ milk Yes

Cadmium — Cadmium competes with zinc and leads to many enzyme deficiencies in the body, which leads to high free radical activity. Cadmium depresses immune system function and interferes with kidney function. High cadmium levels have been associated to to high blood pressure and cancer.

Sources of lead include cigarette smoking (30% of cadmium from cigarettes goes into the smoker and 70% into the air for others to breathe). Cadmium also leaches out of older water pipes, and comes from air pollution from factories, soil fertilization and eating of grains and root vegetables grown in such fertilized soil. Cadmium is concentrated in the inner core of wheat and rice, hence eating white bread and white rice tends to concentrate cadmium in the body.

Can pass to fetus Yes Can pass to mothers’ milk Yes

Lead — Lead is a powerful neurotoxin. It easily passes through the blood/brain barrier and into a fetus. Lead exposure and lead body levels are higher in North America than anywhere else in the world with 75% of American homes having excessive amounts of lead. (Lead paint was only banned in the U.S. in 1978. It was banned in France in 1920.)

Lead toxicity causes learning and developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, strokes and seizures. Early signs of lead toxicity include headaches, abdominal aches, lessened memory and intelligence, and depression.

Modern people have 500 to 1,000 times more lead in their bodies than did people of ancient times. That is because lead has been commonly used for hundreds of years now and is now contaminating the soil and even the air we breathe.

Sources of lead include leaded gasoline, paint, tin cans, earthenware pottery and food grown in soils that have been fertilized with fertilizers containing lead.

Can pass to fetus Yes Can pass to mothers’ milk Yes

Nickel — Lead is a neurotoxin. It easily passes through the blood/brain barrier and into a fetus. Lead exposure and lead body levels are higher in North America than anywhere else in the world.

Lead toxicity can cause cerebral palsy, strokes and seizures. Early signs of lead toxicity include headaches, abdominal aches, lessened memory and intelligence, and depression.

Modern people have 500 to 1,000 times more lead in their bodies than did people of ancient times. That is because lead has been commonly used for hundreds of years now and is now contaminating the soil and even the air we breathe.

Sources of lead include leaded gasoline, paint, tin cans, earthenware pottery and food grown in soils that have been fertilized with fertilizers containing lead.

Meet Dr. Hal Huggins

What is an amalgam?

Amalgam is the generic term applied to the silver-mercury filling commonly used in dentistry to restore teeth. Amalgam is also known as the "silver filling" (due to its shiny appearance) or the silver-mercury filling. Amalgam literally means mixed with mercury, and in the dental sense that is true. Powdered metals and metal compounds consisting of silver, copper, tin, and zinc are mixed with about an equal weight of liquid mercury. Three different types of chemical reactions take place within this mixture, and the resultant silver-mercury amalgam will set at room temperature, and, most importantly, within a few minutes.

Silver-mercury amalgam has been used as a filling material for 160 years and has enjoyed the reputation of being an inexpensive, long lasting filling. The materials alone only cost about one dollar.

Three times now, mercury from fillings has been accused of initiating diseases. The first time was in the 1830's, again in the 1920's, and the third time a movement started in 1973 in which more substantial information has been available to determine the toxicity of mercury. Up until recently, it was felt that the mercury stayed within the filling. Now it is known that mercury leaches out every minute of the day

See this video of mercury leaking from amalgams.

How fast does mercury come out of  amalgams and contaminate the body?

According to university studies done by Dr. Chew, over the first two years after placement, amalgams release bout 34 micrograms of mercury per filling (per square centimeter of filling exposed) per day.

There are many things that make mercury come out faster. Any other metals in the mouth, such as gold crowns, nickel crowns and removable bridges, will increase the speed of release of mercury. Chewing foods increases the emissions, dramatically. Hot liquids, like coffee, increase the release by thousands of percent, but only for 10 or 15 minutes. Abrasion from chewing gum increases the release of mercury by 1500%. Abrasion during the grinding of teeth during waking or sleeping hours, called "bruxism," also releases mercury vapor.

Where does mercury go?

Absorption of mercury from the area under your tongue and the insides of your cheeks are the fastest absorption. These areas, of course, are in close proximity to the mercury fillings, so efficiency of absorption is great. From these tissues, the mercury can destroy adjacent tissues, or travel to the lymphatic drainage system and directly into the blood stream. From the blood stream, mercury can travel to any cell in the body, where it can either disable or destroy the tissues. Mercury can also travel directly from the fillings into the lungs, into the blood stream and, as before described, every cell in the body becomes a valid target.

Mercury and its compounds are adept at traveling through the "lipid soluble" cells membranes. Cell membranes contain roughly 60% protein and 40% fat. Nerve cells are an exception, containing nearly 75% fat. These fat-rich membranes determine what enters the cell and what does not. Methyl mercury is oxidized into the "ionic" form of mercury. This is a very destructive form of mercury. (Its problem is that it cannot travel very far.) Methyl mercury is the most dangerous form due to its ability to travel great distances and enter all cells. After the trip, methyl mercury is converted into ionic form. The ionic form is what actually disrupts internal structures and metabolic pathways that keep a cell alive and producing proteins, enzymes, hormones, whatever, that are the purpose of the existence of the cell.

All of this travel and destruction is what defines mercury toxicity. It may favor nerve tissue for a destruction target, but the kidney is high up on its list of tissues to destroy. After these two areas, it can wreak havoc in any tissue that might get in its way. For this reason, it is difficult to devise a change in the normal chemistry of the body, called a test, which would "prove" mercury toxicity. It can alter almost anything in the body; therefore, mercury should not be allowed to enter for any reason.