Preventing and Reversing
  Heavy Metal Toxicity

 

 

 Mercury has a particular affinity for brain tissue. The damage it do

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es to brain cells can be devastating and irreparable.

Symptoms of Mercury Toxicity Attention/concentration deficits Anxiety Agitation Emotional lability Impaired motor function Impaired memory and learning Depression Hallucinations Tremors Slurred speech Mental retardation

 

Today we know that hatters became "mad" from breathing mercury fumes and getting mercury on their hands. "Mad Hatter's disease," or erythism, is now a recognized psychiatric syndrome consisting of a wide range of neurologic and psychiatric disturbances (see box).¹

Chemists classify mercury as a heavy metal. As a rule, heavy metals have no place in the human body; even small amounts can be extremely toxic and difficult to get rid of. Health problems caused by low-level chronic exposure to heavy metals may take years to appear. By the time symptoms occur, it may be too late to do anything about them.

Another heavy metal that has caused - and continues to cause - enormous human suffering all over the world is lead. Until fairly recently, lead poisoning was endemic in the United States, affecting nearly one child in 6, at least to some degree, according to US Public Health Service estimates. Even though things have improved in the last 20 years, thanks to the phasing out of leaded gasoline and lead-based paints, lead poisoning continues to be a real threat, especially to children living in cities and/or buildings with old lead-based plumbing and old (pre-1978) paint jobs. Some of the clinical effects of lead poisoning are shown in the box.

 

Symptoms of Lead Poisoning Learning disabilities Behavioral problems Reduced IQ Mental retardation Academic failure Brain damage Neuropsychological deficits Hyperactive behavior Attention deficit disorder Antisocial (criminal) behavior Neurological problems Seizures, coma, death, at very high levels

 

 

 

MERCURY POISONING: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A HATTER
It's rare that people get exposed to the kind of toxic doses of mercury that occurred in the newly industrializing world of the 19th century, but it still does happen, and usually with tragic consequences. In the 1950s, in the most notorious case of mass mercury poisoning ever, an industrial plant near Minamata, Japan released large amounts of methyl mercury into Minamata Bay. Picked up by the plankton, the mercury moved up the food chain from fish to humans. Even the local cats were affected. When the residents of Minamata unknowingly fed the contaminated fish to their children (and their pets), the result was a devastating syndrome of severe nervous system damage, stunted mental development, blindness, paralysis, and death that nearly wiped out an entire generation.²

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