Mercury
Toxicity: How Mercury and Methyl Mercury Could Be Affecting
Your Health
In
the past 10-20 years, you’ve probably heard various
reports about mercury toxicity. With more scientists discovering
high levels of mercury in the food chain, mercury toxicity
is becoming a big news story, perhaps leaving you concerned
about what mercury is, how mercury could be affecting your
health, and whether you should consider a therapy like EDTA
chelation to rid your body of heavy metals like mercury.
To
understand the basics of mercury and mercury toxicity, it’s
wise to remember your high school chemistry class. Mercury
is an element, listed as “Hg” on the periodic
table of elements. Pure elemental mercury is a liquid metal.
Other forms of mercury are found naturally in the air, water,
and soil.
As
you go about your everyday life, you’ll come across
mercury in many common products such as thermometers (mercury
is the liquid metal inside) and batteries. Metallic mercury
is also used in dentistry to fill cavities in teeth. Known
as dental amalgam, mercury-based fillings contain about
40-50 percent mercury.
Mercury,
therefore, is basically “everywhere.” Yet in
certain forms, mercury is also a heavy metal that’s
dangerous to your health. If you are exposed to too much
mercury, the symptoms of mercury toxicity would first be
evident in the nervous system, leading to problems with
memory, mood, tremors, hearing, and vision.
The
chain of mercury toxicity begins in the earth. Mercury is
found naturally in rocks and in coal. When coal is used
for fuel in coal-burning plants, large amounts of mercury
are released into the environment. This airborne mercury
eventually settles back to earth, both in the water and
on land. There, microorganisms turn mercury into methyl
mercury, a highly toxic form of mercury. Methyl mercury
builds up in fish, shellfish, and in animals that eat fish.
Humans are exposed to methyl mercury
in fish when they eat fish and shellfish, leading to
the symptoms of mercury toxicity.
Methyl
mercury is the organic form of mercury that has caused heightened
concern about mercury toxicity. Exposure to methyl mercury
in small amounts over time can build up and result in mercury
toxicity symptoms later. Long-term exposure to methyl mercury
is likely to cause mercury toxicity symptoms like numbness
or pain on the skin, shakes, tremors, difficulties walking,
vision problems, weak immune system, and loss of memory.
Large exposure to various forms of mercury can harm the
heart, lungs, and kidneys, sometimes leading to seizures
and death.
Due
to the various forms of mercury exposure (i.e., dental fillings,
food, thermostats, batteries, etc.), mercury toxicity is
a complex and troubling health issue. In any amount, mercury
is a poisonous heavy metal that should be removed from your
system before it’s able to damage sensitive tissues.
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