Treat Mercury from vaccines with energy-medicine

NEW COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY CAN TREAT MERCURY POISONING REPOTS ULLA DANIELSON

Tuesday, 05 January 2010 11:43


The strain that mercury from vaccines and dental fillings put on our bodies can now be detected and alleviated by innovative computer-based energy devices, some of which have already been approved for use in the USA and Europe.



These devices can not only detect the mercury that other methods fail to find, but they can also help counter its toxic effects.



Ulla Danielson looks at the usefulness of energy medicine in treating mercury toxicity and finds out how the methods works in an interview with Dr Helge Volkmann.



ENERGYMEDICINE CAN DETECT IMBALANCES IN THE BODY

DANISH MEDICAL DOCTOR HELGE VOLKMANN EXPLORES THE WORLD OF MEDICINE BASED ON FREQUENCES



By Ulla Danielsen


From a young age, Danish medical doctor Helge Volkmann has explored alternative medicine to better understand its potential for patients. In the meantime, he is now occupied full-time with energy medicine.



This is a method of detecting and treating imbalances in the human body by connecting the patient with a computer and measuring the frequencies of a patient.



„When you work with frequencies, you measure the information that cells emit,“ explains Helge Volkmann, who is in his early fifties.



He works with three very different systems all based on computer technology. Though the equipment was quite expensive Helge Volkmann believes the money has been well spend.



„It is a very interesting approach and there are some very surprising results“, says Helge Volkmann, who has his clinic in the center of the Danish village Store Heddinge, an hour drive from Copenhagen.



Among other things the method has turned out to have advantages when it comes to motivating his patients to improve their livestyles.



„I can tell my patients what burdens there are on their body, and that turns out to be a very good way to convince them when something has to be changed,“ says Helge Volkmann.



THREE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS



The three maschines that he has learned to use are a French body scanning system, a Russian cell scanning system and an American treatment system.



„I detect imbalances with the French and Russian systems. This helps me to identify where treatment needs to be applied with the American system,“ explains Helge Volkmann when I meet him to talk about what energy medicine is.



When you meet Helge Volkmann face to face, the impression is of a friendly medical doctor with a calm and balanced temper. He is also curious in a positive way, driven as he is by an interest in what will benefit his patients. That is the impression he gives.



According to Helge Volkmann, energy medicine, like all other kinds of treatment, is a method with limitations.



You cannot repair something, which have broken down, for instance a joint which has been completely ruined by rheumatism, but apart from that, is it in principle possible to recreate the normal functioning of tissue with information treatment, says Helge Volkmann.



CELLS ARE EMITTING

INFORMATION



Simply put, energy medicine involves measuring the information that the cells of the body radiates. It focusses on the electromagnetic conditions in the cell membranes.



With energy medicine, a medical doctor can measure, whether the patient is fully supplied with the vitamins and minerals that particular person needs or whether the patient is lacking in nutritients.



The equipment can also measure ph-values, acids and alkalines in the body just as it can register to what degree the patient subjectively feels relaxed and comfortable.



Every change in a person’s psychological states brings with it a change in the energy load of cells.



This can be measured and afterwards and impulses can be sent into the body that correct the impulses and removes the unbalances, says Helge Volkmann.



He considers energy medicine to be an holistic from of treatment.



However certain strains are repeatedly observed in a majority of patients when the medical doctor uses his equipment to detect imbalances.



According to Helge Volkmann the most problematic strains are pollen, gluten and milk intolerance, mercury and other heavy metals and finally estrogenic active substances as for example plastic.



FACTS



Energy medicine is a method which can be used for diagnosing and in treating people with imbalances.



In simple terms, the system functions by sending electromagnetic frequencies into the body and receiving them back into the device, which is emitting the frequencies.



Passing through the body, the frequencies will change depending on what resistence they come across, and it is this principle which can be used to balance the body.



100 years ago energy medicine was an evolving research avenue inside medical science, but the method was suppressed by chemical research used for the development of pharmaceutical products and particularly in the western world energy medicine ended up on a sidetrack.



However when the computer emerged, ist technology enabled a true renaissance for energymedicine.



Computers make research easier to manage and the results became more precise.



Today there are about 40 different computer-based energy medicine apparatuses on the market. Some of them are approved for medical treatment.



In the former east european countries – as opposed to the West – there has been a tradition to treat of illnesses in this way, and east European medical doctors are very experienced in treating with energy medicine.



NAKED FEETS



When a patient is checked with this equipment, the person has to remove their shoes and socks etc. The naked feet are placed on a plate of metal on the floor. Hands, laid out flat, are also placed on a plate of metal.



The system, which is connected to a computer, sends an electric pulse into the body, which is then caught by electrodes. Those electrodes lead the electric pulses back into the system.



When an electric pulse is passed into the body, the energy medical equipment can find out about the status quo of organs and tissues.



The explanation is that the electric pulses change while running through the body dependent on the electromagnetic relationships in the cell membranes. The medical doctor also gets very precise information about how the patient feels at ease from a subjective point of view.



During an examination, a lot of different pulses are send into the body. The treatment consists in sending a reversed frequence into the body where an imbalance has been identified.



If patient is, for instance, under strain from a heavy metal then the medical doctor sends a reversed frequence into the body targeting the heavy metal in question. An infinite amount of frequencies have been programmed in advance into the computer.



Sidebar:



THE EQUIPMENT FINDS MERCURY IN SICK PATIENTS



It is common knowledge, that the mercury burden can be measured in saliva, hair, skin, urine and faeces. If you cannot detect mercury in these places, the patient will normally be informed that mercury plays no part in his or her pathological picture.

But according to Helge Volkmann that description of reality is incomplete.



„It is my conviction, that with information technology you also catch the mercury bound in the body, which will remain hidden, when tested in other ways,“ says Helge Volkmann.



The mercury may be hidden at the first measurement, but when the computer-based energy medical equipment has activated the cells, it will appear, and according to Helge Volkmann, you can particularly often measure mercury in the nervous system.



When Helge Volkmann finds, that a patient’s body is strained by mercury, he sends a reversed mercury frequence into the body.



Simultanously he uses the equipment to strenghten the patient’s detoxing organs.



Then you can measure how levels of mercury slowly level out, he explains.

According to Helge Volkmann, mercury is always playing a role in the pathological picture when the treatment of a patient is particularly recalcitrant.



Sidebar



APPROVED FOR MEDICAL USE



Some of the energy medical equipment on the market has been approved for medical use in line with, for instance, equipment for measuring blood pressure.



The so-called CE2A-approval is particularly important in the EU, but the American medical Board, FDA has also approved certain types of energymedical equipment.



The technology builds on well known physical and chemical processes in the body and is based on a broad field of research. Particularly at hospitals in the eastern part of Europe energy medical technology has been used extensively.



Dr Helge Volkmann hopes that one day comparative studies will be performed.



It would be interesting to find out, what actually happens when you treat a mercury burden. Why do the levels drop? Is it possible to see it together with other methods for measuring a patient’s improvement, says Helge Volkmann.



He estimates, that research in this area will lead to a better understanding of what mechanisms are activated when information technology is used to detoxicate the patient for mercury.

Thimersoral: a toxic legacy

Thimerosal: A vaccine ingredient’s toxic legacy

Written by Roman Bystrianyk
Wednesday, 30 December 2009 02:28
http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/index...ginal&Itemid=24


April, 1948 an article is published in the journal Pediatrics:

“Inspection of the records of the Children’s Hospital for the past ten years has disclosed 15 instances in which children developed acute cerebral symptoms within a period of hours after the administration of pertussis vaccine. The children varied between 5 and 18 months in age and, in so far as it is possible to judge children of this age range, were developing normally according to histories supplied by their parents. None had convulsions previously.”

“Twelve of the children were boys and three were girls, a sex difference also encountered in relation to other substances, such as lead, causing gross injury to the developing nervous system. At inoculation time, the children varied in age between 5 and 18 months. Developmental data were obtained in detail on all but two of the children, whose mothers simply stated that they had developed normally. Reference to the case histories showed that such objective activities such as sitting, walking, and talking had appeared in many of the children prior to the inoculations; and the regressions or failure of further development occurred after the encephalopathies [Any disease or symptoms of disease referable to disorders of the brain] in several instances. In so far as it was possible to judge none of the children were defective prior to their acute illness.”

“In common with many other biologic materials used parenterally [not by mouth], an important risk of encephalopathy attends the use of prophylactic pertussis vaccine. The mechanism whereby the encephalopathy is produced is not elucidated by the present study. The universal use of such vaccine is warranted only if it can be shown to be effective in preventing encephalopathy or death from pertussis itself in large groups of children. If avoidance of the inconvenience of the average attack of pertussis is all that is expected, the risk seems considerable. Efforts to diminish the hazard by modification of the vaccine or new methods of administration seem indicated.”
Fast forward 60 years to the present; parents state their children were developing normally until the time of a vaccine; boys are 3 to 4 times more likely to have autism than girls; often times sitting, walking, talking are all normal in a child until 12-30 months followed by a major regression. The parallels to the present day epidemic in childhood neurologic disorders to this 1948 article are striking and concerning. What is equally disturbing is the observation of the authors that the neurologic problem occurred near the administration of the pertussis vaccine and that the “sex difference” in the “gross injury to the developing nervous system” was similar to the heavy metal lead.

Coal-burning power plants, use of mercury in gold mining, industrial manufacturing, incineration of municipal and medical waste, are some of the sources of heavy metals found in our modern environment. These pollutants contaminate our environment and enter our food supply and eventually our bodies. In some cases heavy metals were added to products, such as in mercury amalgam fillings, and one substance in particular, Thimerosal, has been believed by many to be a major cause of neurologic problems that we encounter today.

Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound or organomercurial. In the 1930s, Eli Lily developed Thimerosal as a preservative and it has been used in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines. Until the removal of Thimerosal, which contains 49.9% ethyl mercury by weight, from most pediatric vaccines in 2001, the source of the largest human exposure to mercury in the US was in children under 18 months of age undergoing routine childhood immunization schedules. Before 2001, a child may have received a cumulative dose of over 200 μg/kg [micrograms per kilogram] in the first 18 months of life.

Although Thimerosal has been removed from most childhood vaccines, it is still present in the flu vaccine, which is given to pregnant women, the elderly, and children. Also, many vaccines given to children in developing countries still contain Thimerosal.

Many still believe that Thimerosal is safe and effective and that there is little to no evidence that there is any health problems associated with this substance. According to the FDA website:

“Thimerosal has been the subject of several studies and has a long record of safe and effective use preventing bacterial and fungal contamination of vaccines, with no ill effects established other than minor local reactions at the site of injection.”

The article references eight studies supporting their position. But is there evidence that shows Thimerosal isn’t safe?

A Material Safety Data Sheet or MSDS is a document that provides the proper procedures for handling or working with a particular substance. The information includes physical data (such as melting point, boiling point, etc.), toxicity, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill/leak procedures.

The hazard rating information that appears on the MSDS is summarized on a diamond-shaped diagram that can rapidly alert personnel to substances that require special caution. Hazards are rated from 0 indicating no unusual hazard to 4 a severe hazard. The blue area of the diamond relates to health and a rating of 2 in the case of Thimerosal indicates “Intense or continued exposure could cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury unless prompt medical attention is given.”

Here are some disturbing excerpts from the MSDS for thimerosal (trade name Merthiolate):

“Section 3: Hazards Identification – Potential Chronic Health Effects: The substance may be toxic to kidneys, liver, spleen, bone marrow, central nervous system (CNS). Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage. Repeated exposure to a highly toxic material may produce general deterioration of health by an accumulation in one or many human organs.”

“Section 6: Accidental Release Measures – Poisonous solid. Stop leak if without risk. Do not get water inside container. Do not touch spilled material. Use water spray to reduce vapors. Prevent entry into sewers, basements or confined areas; dike if needed.”

“Section 11: Toxicological Information – Chronic Effects on Humans: MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Mutagenic for mammalian somatic cells. May cause damage to the following organs: kidneys, liver, spleen, bone marrow, central nervous system (CNS). Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans: May cause cancer based on animal data. No human data found.”

“Inhalation and Ingestion: Repeated or prolonged exposure may cause kidney damage, and may affect the liver, and bone marrow. Chronic exposure to mercury vapors behavior/central nervous system and peripheral nervous system (depression, irritability, nervousness, weakness, ataxia, fatigue, tremor, jerky gait, limb spasms, personality changes), metabolism (anorexia, weight loss) and cause gastrointestinal disturbances which is collectively referred to as “aesthenic-vegetative syndrome.” Chronic ingestion may cause accumulation of mercury in body tissues and may result in salicylism which is characterized by nausea, vomiting, gastric ulcers, and hemorrhagic strokes.”

In addition Elli Lilly’s 1999 MSDS contains more disturbing information:

“Section 3: Hazards Identification – … Exposure to mercury in utero and in children may cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment.”

“Section 6: Accidental Release Measures – Wear protective equipment, including eye protection, to avoid exposure. This material is a mercury compound which are CERCL Hazardous Substances and SARA 313 Toxic Chemicals.”

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. SARA 313 requires the EPA and State Regulatory Agencies to annually collect data on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities, and make the data available to the public through a public database called the Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI.

These data safety sheets alone are certainly a cause for concern. One has to question why would anyone use such a dangerous substance in any medical product let alone one that is injected directly into the blood stream? But in addition to the MSDS there are numerous studies from the medical and scientific literature that clearly show thimerosal is not a safe substance. The following are a few excerpts from a number of scientific journals:

1977 – Archives of Disease in Childhood

“Although thiomersal [thimerosal] is an ethyl mercury compound, it has similar toxicological properties to methyl mercury and in long-term neurological sequelae [a pathological condition resulting from a disease, injury, or other trauma] produced by the ingestion of either methyl or ethyl mercury-based fungicides and indistinguishable … Since it is clear that treatment of exomphalos [an umbilical hernia at birth in which some abdominal organs push into the umbilical cord] by the application of alcoholic mercurial antiseptics can produce blood and tissue levels of mercury well above the threshold at which damage occurs in all other age groups, it is extremely unlikely that these infants escape neurological damage, which may be subtle. We therefore suggest that treated survivors should be examined neurologically and psychologically as a matter of urgency. Organic mercurial antiseptics should be heavily restricted or withdrawn from hospital use, as the fact that mercury readily permeates intact membranes and is highly toxic seems to have been forgotten. Equally effective and far less toxic broad-spectrum antifungal and antibacterial topical antiseptics are currently available.”

2003 – Toxicological Sciences

“In clinical cases of accidental or intentional usage in high concentrations, thimerosal was administered in doses from 3 mg/kg to several hundred mg/kg. Such doses resulted in local necrosis [The death of living cells or tissues] at the application site and severe central nervous system and kidney injury … In this paper we demonstrated that extending the time of incubation with thimerosal from 2 to 6 hours is associated with toxicity that was not seen after a shorter time of exposure. For this reason, further studies of lower concentrations and longer exposure times appear to be warranted. These results indicate that additional research is needed to fully delineate the dose- and time-dependent toxicity of thimerosal in sub-micro-molar concentrations and suggests that toxicity may occur at even lower doses than those utilized in these experiments, with longer times of exposure. Because mercury can be retained in body organs for months to years, the study of longer incubation times is warranted.”

2003 – Archives of toxicology

“In conclusion, thimerosal induced strong effects in the cytochalasin B in vitro [outside the living organism] micronucleus test in human lymphocytes … Since thimerosal was repeatedly shown to be genotoxic [damaging to DNA] in vitro and in vivo [inside the living organism], there is reason for concern about its widespread use.”

2004 – Toxicology

“Both thimerosal and methylmercury increased the [Ca2+]i and oxidative stress in cerebellar granule cells. In rat cerebellar granule neurons, the increase in [Ca2+]i induces an increase in oxidative stress while the oxidative stress increases the [Ca2+]i. It is a possibility that uncontrolled and sustained elevation of [Ca2+]I increases the formation of reactive oxygen species that induce a further increase in [Ca2+]i. If so, such insults induced by thimerosal and methylmercury would lead to cell injury or death in brain neurons … In can be concluded that the potency of thimerosal to induce cytotoxic [substances that are toxic to cells] action on brain neurons dissociated from 2-week-old rats under the in vitro conditions is similar to that of methylmercury.”

2005 – NeuroToxicology

“In both cell lines, a progressive increase in cytotoxicity [decrease in viability] was observed when Thimerosal dose was progressively doubled from 2.5 μmol/L [micromoles per liter] to 5, 10, and 20 μmol/L. Viability was reduced more than 50% in both cell lines with exposure to 10 μmol/L Thimerosal and less than 10% of cells survived a dose of 20 μmol/L. Thimerosal induces oxidative stress and apoptosis [programmed cell death] by activating mitochondrial cell death pathways. A subsequent study using cultured human neuron and fibroblast cell lines similarly showed that low micromolar concentrations of Thimerosal induced DNA strand breaks, caspase-3 activation, membrane damage and cell death.”

2007 – Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health

“The high order of toxicity from Thimerosal and its ethylmercury breakdown product has been known and published for decades. Nonetheless, Thimerosal remains in the drug supply, especially in various vaccines manufactured both for the United States and globally. The ubiquitous and largely unchecked place of Thimerosal in pharmaceutical products, therefore, represents a medical crisis in the modern day. Reforms in the manufacture and the licensing of vaccines and other drugs, which should have been accomplished proactively, had anyone properly assessed their mercury content, must now be conducted, reactively, under significant systemic stress. With no warning, recall, or ban of mercury in vaccines and other drugs as of yet, the victim of this mandated, unwarranted, and massive mercury exposure is still an unsuspecting public, and most especially its unborn and newborn children.”

2007 – Anales de la Facultad de Medicina

“Due to the vast gaps in knowledge of thimerosal’s pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, as its toxic properties over the immune system, it is required to make more studies of quantitative character in animal models as soon as possible. Nevertheless, while it is true, it is difficult to extrapolate these findings to other animal experimentation groups and over human beings, our results, as the multiple scientific evidence recently published about thimerosal, clearly indicates the toxic nature of this substance, at the same dose and the same chronology as human immunizations; therefore we suggest the employment of alternative preservatives in vaccines, especially those intended to pregnant women, neonates, and small children based in the prevention and precaution principles of all medical interventions.”

2008 – Neuroendocrinology Letters

“Thimerosal has been recognized by the California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a developmental toxin. This implies that Thimerosal may produce birth defects, low birth weight, biological dysfunctions, or psychological or behavior deficits that become manifest as the child grows. Maternal exposure during pregnancy may disrupt the development or even cause the death of the fetus. … It is clear from these data that additional ND research should be undertaken in the context of evaluating mercury-associated exposures, especially from Thimerosal containing Rho(D)-immune globulins administered during pregnancy. Further studies should also be undertaken in additional databases/registries to assess the compatibility of the present results with trends in NDs in other US populations, and to observe whether Thimerosal-containing Rho(D)-immune globulins were associated with other birth defects in children. … CONCLUSION: This study associates TCR [Thimerosal (49.55% mercury by weight) - containing Rho(D) immune globulins] exposure with some NDs [neurodevelopmental disorders] in children.”

2008 – International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine

“Biological findings in autism that are consistent with mercury poisoning include elevated oxidative stress, depleted levels of glutathione, neurochemical irregularities, gastro-intestinal distress, immune dysregulation and generalized and neural inflammation. All of these are also well documented effects of
mercury poisoning and, specifically, mercury poisoning in infants … Autism is a modern disease. It was first identified in the late 1930s and reported in 1943 by Kanner. It is important to place the arrival and subsequent epidemic growth of autism into the historical context of environmental exposure to mercury. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that the commencement of widely available vaccinations (containing mercury) commenced in the 1930s. Additionally, the early 1900s saw the increasing availability and popularity of dental care where mercury amalgam fillings were the dominant restorative material … The existing scientific literature provides grounds for strong suspicion that mercury plays a causal role in the development of autism. Given this suspicion, and the severe nature, devastating lifelong impact and extremely high prevalence of autism, it would be negligent to continue to expose pregnant and nursing mothers and infant children to any amount of avoidable mercury. Health authorities worldwide should move without hesitation to ban and remove all mercury in all medical products at the earliest possible date.”

2009 – Behavioral and Brain Functions

“A disruption of the GSH (glutathione) system by mercury leads to GSH depletion and cell destruction. An in vitro study of Jurkat T cells exposed to thimerosal demonstrated concentration-dependent apoptosis. It was found that the mercury moiety [part of the molecule], not the thiosalicylic acid moiety, of thimerosal was responsible for glutathione depletion. GSH depletion is linked to several neurodegenerative disorders.”

2009 – NeuroToxicology

Our study design does not enable us to determine whether it is the vaccine per se, the exposure to Th [thimerosal], or a combination of both that is causing the observed effects. None-the-less, the developing brain is considered the most vulnerable organ to mercury exposure, and experimental studies suggest that the brainstem – whose function is central to the reflexes described herein – may be one of the more sensitive targets … Since the acquisition of motor reflexes is controlled by the brainstem, it is possible that very early exposure to ethyl mercury may adversely affect the emerging brainstem function … this study provides preliminary evidence of abnormal early neurodevelopmental responses in male infant rhesus macaques [type of monkey] receiving a single dose of Th-containing [Thimerosal containing] HB [Hepatitis B] vaccine at birth and indicates that further investigation is merited.”

There are still more studies not included in this article simply because the volume of information would be overwhelming, but the Material Data Safety Sheets and these scientific excerpts speak for themselves – Thimerosal is clearly a dangerous substance.

What the authors of that 1948 study probably didn’t know when they said “If avoidance of the inconvenience of the average attack of pertussis is all that is expected” was that the historical data shows the death rate from pertussis had already fallen by 99% by the time they were writing their article and that their call to “diminish the hazard” of the vaccine would be apparently largely unheeded.

Sources:
Randolph K. Byers, M.D. and Frederic C. Moll, M.D., Encephalopathies Following Prophylactic Pertussis Vaccine, Pediatrics, April 1948, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 437-456

FDA website Thimerosal in Vaccines: http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/...y/ucm096228.htm

Thimerosal Material Safety Data Sheet – http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Thimerosal-9925236

Thimerosal Material Safety Data Sheet – Elli Lilly and Company, 22-Dec-1999

Fagan DG, Pritchard JS, Clarkson TW, Greenwood MR., Organ mercury levels in infants with omphaloceles treated with organic mercurial antiseptic. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1977 Dec;52(12):962-4.

David S. Bakin, Hop Ngo, and Vladimir V. Didenko, Thimerosal Induced DNA Breaks, Caspase-3 Activation, Membrane Damage, and Cell Death in Cultured Human Neurons and Fibroblasts, Toxicological Sciences, Aug 2003, pp. 361-8.

WESTPHAL Götz A.; ASGARI Soha; SCHULZ Thomas G.; BÜNGER Jürgen; MÜLLER Michael; HALLIER Ernst; Thimerosal induces micronuclei in the cytochalasin B block micronucleus test with human lymphocytes, Archives of toxicology, 2003, vol. 77, no1, pp. 50-55

Toshiko Ueha-Ishibashi, Yasuo Oyama, Hiromi Nakao, Chisato Umebayashi, Yasutaka Nishizaki, Tomoko Tatsuishi, Kyoko Iwase, Koji Murao and Hakaru Seo, Effect of thimerosal, a preservative in vaccines, on intracellular Ca2+ concentration of rat cerebellar neurons, Toxicology, Volume 195, Issue 1, 15 January 2004, Pages 77-84

S.J. James, William Slikker III, Stepan Melnyk, Elizabeth New, Marta Pogribna, Stefanie Jernigan, Thimerosal Neurotoxicity is Associated with Glutathione Depletion: Protection with Glutathione Precursors, NeuroToxicology, Vol. 26, 2005, pp. 1-8

David A. Geier, Lisa K. Sykes, Mark R. Geier, A REVIEW OF THIMEROSAL (MERTHIOLATE) AND ITS ETHYLMERCURY BREAKDOWN PRODUCT: SPECIFIC HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 10:575-596, 2007

Jonny Laurente, Fany Remuzgo, Betthina Ávalos, Johnnie Chiquinta, Bladimir Ponce, Ronald Avendaño, Luis Maya, Neurotoxic effects of thimerosal at vaccine doses on the encephalon and development in 7 day-old hamsters, Anales de la Facultad de Medicina, 2007; 68(3), pp. 222-237

David A. Geier, Elizabeth Mumper, Bambi Gladfelter, Lisa Coleman, and Mark R. Geier, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Maternal Rh-Negativity, and Rho(D) Immune Globulins: A Multi-Center Assessment, Neuroendocrinology Letters, Volume 29, No. 2 2008

David Austin, An epidemiological analysis of the ‘autism as mercury poisoning’ hypothesis, International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, 20 (2008) pp. 135-142

Renee Dufault, Roseanne Schnoll, Walter J Lukiw, Blaise LeBlanc, Charles Cornett, Lyn Patrick, David Wallinga, Steven G Gilbert and Raquel Crider, Mercury exposure, nutritional deficiencies and metabolic disruptions may affect learning in children, Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2009, 5:44

Laura Hewitson, Lisa A. Housera, Carol Stottc, Gene Sackett, Jaime L. Tomko, David Atwood, Lisa Blue, E. Railey Whited and Andrew J. Wakefield, Delayed acquisition of neonatal reflexes in newborn primates receiving a thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccine: Influence of gestational age and birth weight, NeuroToxicology, October 2009

Chlorella detoxifies against mercury

(NaturalNews) There's mercury everywhere around us, it seems. It's in the food (seafood), the medicines (vaccines) and even the lights (compact fluorescent lights). And that doesn't even cover mercury fillings still used by crazed dentists who insist mercury is "perfectly safe" to chew on!

All the sane people have already figured out that mercury is highly toxic to human health, but how do you get mercury out of your body once you've ingested it?

That's where chlorella enters the picture. This amazing microalgae superfood binds to mercury and helps remove it from your body, safely and naturally. It doesn't get 100% of the mercury out (chelation can help with that), but it does an amazingly good job for a natural, food-based dietary supplement.

I've taken chlorella for over a decade. It's one of the mainstays of my nutritional supplementation (which also includes spirulina and astaxanthin). Learn more about chlorella in this collection of supporting quotes we've compiled for you.


Chlorella is a single-cell, fresh water algae that is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, chlorella growth factor, and other beneficial substances. It is about the size of a human erythrocyte (red blood cell) or about 2-8 microns in diameter. Chlorella is high in chlorophyll, giving it a rich green color. For many years, chlorella has been accepted as a detoxifier, and it is commonly used in colon cleansing regimes. Chlorella appears to bind to heavy metals as well as other toxic substances in the bowel and help with the detoxification process.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by The Life Extension Editorial Staff

There are several species of chlorella. Those most commonly used in nutritional supplements are Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Chlorella is rich in protein. In addition, it is rich in chlorophyll, carotenoids, such as astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, flavoxanthin, loraxanthin, neoxanthin and violaxanthin. Chlorella also contains the xanthophyll, echinenone.
- PDR for Nutritional Supplements by Sheldon Saul Hendler and David Rorvik

In rats, chlorella was found to promote the excretion of dioxin in the feces. The mechanism of this action is unknown. The pharmacokinetics of chlorella in humans have not been studied. However, the proteins, lipids and carbohydrates in chlorella should be digested, absorbed and metabolized by normal physiological processes. A chlorella extract has demonstrated anti-tumor and anti-metastic effects in animal experiments. Chlorella has shown some experimental anti-atherogenic activity and some radioprotective and chemo-detoxifying effects.
- PDR for Nutritional Supplements by Sheldon Saul Hendler and David Rorvik

Once the mercury burden is lowered from the intestines, mercury from other body tissues will more readily migrate into the intestines where chlorella will effectively remove it. It is the fibrous material in chlorella that has been shown to bind with heavy metals and pesticides like PCBs that can accumulate in our bodies. Chlorella traps toxic metals in the GI tract and acts as an ion exchange resin. Chlorella is a species of unicellular fresh water algae that has been shown to possess detoxifying properties enabling it to assist or support the human detoxification system.

It is not obesity, it's inflammation...

(NaturalNews) There is a new game in town that is destroying the health of America and it is causing, simultaneously, rampant morbid obesity. That new game is a chemical cocktail attack on the bodies of Americans which results in extreme inflammation. In this article, we will explore what is known about modern chemical pollutants and warfare and their effect on humans in the developed world. We will also discuss what things can be done about it and how you can, to some degree, protect yourself.

Inflammation as a major cause of disease is not new. It is at least a reasonable consideration that inflammation is involved with, if not the cause of, every other ill from which we suffer as a race. If that has not been true in the past, it is true today. No other cause of disease has a chance to take a foothold. Inflammation troubles have become so dominant that no other process may need to be considered. The cause of this inflammation is chemical toxicity.(1)

Old school chemical damage might have caused either a reduction in function or inflammation and irritability. Mercury poisoning from amalgam fillings is a good example. If you were immuno-sensitized to the mercury when it started entering your body, you suddenly started filling up with inflammation as every endocrine organ got saturated with it.(2) If you were not immuno-sensitized to it, then you developed low grade infections in the tissue that was most saturated with it and that tissue simply got weaker and weaker and maybe developed abnormal growths or degenerative diseases.

Today, however, the cocktail of chemicals we are exposed to make the old days of chemical poisoning feel like your first kiss--a little stressful, but you would gladly do it again. Today we face chemicals from pesticides (which are poured out without measure on crops grown for biofuel), herbacides, non-food fillers in our food, off-gassing from synthetic...well...everything, plastic byproducts in the bottled water revolution, mercury in our teeth, contaminants in our water, etc...oh, and let`s not forget chemtrails and bio-terror experimentation on our home soil! This cocktail, however immediately toxic, culminates, inevitably, in inflammatory responses to it.

Inflammatory responses, we should mention, create various disease processes in the body. Under the stress of inflammation, minerals and vitamins are depleted, circulatory damage is caused, free radicals spike endlessly, immune response becomes excessive but ineffective, pH lowers, endocrine glands become exhausted, digestion diminishes, nerves become frayed and irritable, periodic illness (like a headache every Friday) rules life and brain function decreases.(3) During inflammatory responses, circulation stays near the organs of greatest saturation and other organs starve. It is a state of imbalance, weakness, irritability and chronic disease processes.

Because of the nature of today`s inflammatory chemicals, cancer and auto-immune disease are also sure to be on the rise. These diseases only exist when certain immune physiology fails. Specifically, cells, messengers and chemical solvents that are supposed to stop one phase of immune response and trigger the next are either destroyed, deceived or bound up so that they do not do their jobs. This can, and often does involve the last stage of immune response where clean-up is supposed to follow and break apart all the complex molecules put in place to fight germs, poisons or particles. These complex molecules, actually, are called complexes, complements or opsonins.(4) Normally, they do their job, destroy the invader or neutralize the poison and then they are broken down so that those tissues can return to business as usual. When this does not happen, ongoing cell damage and tissue weakness will occur. You may get cancer and auto-immune disease or chronic fatigue and neurological failure.

The "good" news is that your body also has a back-up mechanism for when it is overloaded with immune and inflammatory complexes that are "stuck on." It takes all the by-products and even some of the immune-complex particles themselves, and stuffs them into either fat or water. If it is fat, you get toxic fat, maybe loads of it, depending on your particular situation. If it is water, your body will not process it and you will build up fluid wherever your body thinks it is safe to put it. You might get both (showing a very watery fat somewhere or everywhere in the body).

Let us regress just a little to discuss obesity by itself. If we can observe a horse that has been kept in a small area and fed oats all winter, we shall see a horse with lots of extra fat. This fat is heavy and flabby and the horse pants when s/he is first worked in the spring again. Quickly, however, this horse burns off the fat and returns to normal. The farmer or cowboy does not expect that the horse will have any difficulty shedding that winter weight quickly. The farmer does not expect that the horse will have arthritis or other pain associated with the fat. The fat is just calories and it comes right off.

Humans are, or should be no different whatever. Nor is any other species any different. They all will put on weight if fed nutrient dense food and will burn it off when they have to work for a living again or have to be exercised for a couple of weeks after a long winter. Anyone who has been around horses knows that it only takes a couple weeks to shed that weight. It usually comes right off. That is natural obesity.

Absolutely ANYTHING ELSE is another kind of pathology. If pain accompanies the obesity, that is a pathology. If the weight will not come off, that is a pathology. If the person gets hugely obese, that is a pathology. Actually, the fat cells themselves are not the pathology, it is important to note. The fat cells are filling up as an adaptation, an effort to absorb what the body feels is an endless supply of toxicity and inflammation. They are providing for survival when death would have been otherwise imminent. For this we should be grateful to our bodies.

Now that we have introduced the problem, let us look at a little anecdotal evidence. The author started a few years ago to do primary research on the impact of chemical load and obesity. It began when a family of six, related to the author, returned from almost 2 years in Egypt. There, the family had made considerably more money. They ate plenty, they had luxuries and they had most of their stuff delivered from a nearby marketplace. To their knowledge, they ate as much or more food as they did in the United States. They did not feel that, beyond where it was unavoidable, their choices in food types had changed much. It is interesting to note that they lived in Cairo, theoretically one of the top 5 most polluted cities in the world. Cairo apparently has less of chemical-laden food, however. While there every one of them lost excess pounds, but when they returned to the U.S. they found that they put on all that weight and about 50% more.

After this observation, the author used his position at his work to investigate Eastern European seasonal workers, most of whom were more physically active by far than when at home, to see if when they were in the United States they consistently gained excess weight. Of those investigated, 100% of them said they had added weight and about half of those felt that it was unwanted weight. A couple in the group had made such seasonal trips to work multiple times. Both of those said that in 3 months after returning home (to Eastern Europe) they would drop down to "normal" again.

This led to an investigation into endocrinology, immunology and practical application with clients who worked with the author. The result was and has continued to bear out that chemical load is somehow interfering with shut down of normal immune response.

There appears to be four basic categories of problems with immune shut-down which result in inflammation and storage of poisons and inflammation in adipose cells.

1.Direct interference (poisoning) with immune shut-down molecules. This appears to be present with mercury poisoning and in about half of the chemtrails in the Atlanta, GA area.

2.In actual infection, low-grade, some microorganism (almost always a colony involving protozoa, yeast and bacteria) may feed on either the poison itself or tissue damaged by it. Fungal infections are detected 100% of the time in every case of mercury amalgam fillings, for example. This appears to be a symbiotic relationship where the microorganism is actually helping to remove the poison from the body, but it is, nevertheless, an infection and is doing some damage. The result is that the immune system attacks it and never shuts down.

3.Direct stimulation (poisoning) of the immune system to remove the poison from the body, but which is constantly coming in. Immune cells and complexes involved with this process are therefore not in any error when they continuously attack and create inflammation. That continuous attack, however, is indeed harmful to the body tissues.

4.Damage to the endocrine and neural systems and organs causes insufficient production of key immune components or inadequate communication within the body.

Any and all of these problems will, if left unchecked, cause some form of disease. They might, and often do result in use of adipose storage as a buffer. You can think of the adipose cells as a place where both parties agree to go to cease hostilities until a solution can be reached.

The other half of this is that if the solution is not reached, the adipose tissue will NEVER disappear for very long. It may reduce, but it will fill back up with fluid and fat very quickly to offer sufficient buffer to the poisons located there. What we need to do, then, is attack the problem at its roots. In the next few paragraphs, five steps are suggested as possible routes to freedom from chronic inflammation and the obesity and other disease associated with it.

1.Remove as many of the irritants as possible from your life. This certainly includes water purification of some kind, air purification of the best kind for your house, removal of all amalgam fillings, cessation of non-food consumption and avoidance of all body and household chemicals that can be avoided. You can choose non-toxic options where needed. In addition, some kind of buffer for electromagnetic pollution is recommended.

2.Learn to eat foods that are easily eliminated. In addition to the minimum standard, the more raw food from organic farms, the better. Green smoothies are something that seem to be a great tool, almost a must! Elimination makes the difference between whether the detox reaction from following step 1 kills you or saves you.

3.Fight the trend. This includes what you watch on television, what you think, what is in your heart about others and what you think about your food when you eat. Do not give in just because it is a strong trend. At the current rate of things, no conspiracy will have to be levied against humanity to reduce the population; we will angrily and fearfully do it to each other. We can do far better. Do not let your mind be saturated with inflammatory media, whether mainstream or alternative. Stick to matters of enlightenment. If something real and of real importance happens, someone will let you know.

4.Detox your liver. The new disease for toxic locations in the world, is called "Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity" and it is a disease of the liver where it can no longer process toxins.(1) The immune system reacts to them instead. This is a sad and sickly state to be in. Various liver cleanses exist, usually in conjunction with juice fasting and lots of wheatgrass juice. One of these should be used every 30-90 days for a 3-5 day span of time.

5.Follow the Cool, Calm and Strengthen plan every day. This plan is as follows:
a.Cool inflammation with liver herbs like dandelion or burdock root taken daily. Turmeric helps with this also by removing inflammatory marker proteins in the blood.
b.Calm the whole body by regulating the major inflammation control hormone: cortisol. This can be done with any good adrenal food; astragalus works well.
c.Strengthen the liver and the whole body using superfoods that heal and create vital energy.
d.Combine these three steps in the following formula for every day use. It helps with mood and overall health. It is as follows:
i. 4 parts Vitalerbs (from Dr. Christopher`s Original Formulas)
ii. 2 parts milk thistle seed powder
iii. 3 parts turmeric powder
iv. 2 parts astragalus root powder
v. 1 part rosemary
vi. 1 part licorice root (optional, for extreme adrenal fatigue cases)
vii. Mix powders together and stir into water, 1 Tablespoon night and morning.
viii. Consider 8-16 ounces of white grapefruit juice twice daily to facilitate calming and cleansing from the liver. Bottled or fresh work equally well. Rinse with water after to protect tooth enamel.

It is important to note that this is a daily maintenance, not a clinical treatment for any illness. If inflammatory processes are "stuck on" in a sinister way in your body, some specific work may be required. Discussions on specifics should be taken to a local naturopath. This program will cause most people to reduce weight and to feel better right away. It may help support a weak person through the process of finding specific problems and healing them.

Sources:
(1) Healing Poisoned Medicine, Medicine that Heals v.s. Medicine that Kills (2008), Reed T. Sainsbury N.D.
(2) Smoking Teeth Presentation by the IAOMT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yln...
(3) The False Fat Diet (2001), Elson Haas, M.D.
(4) Immunology for Medical Students 3th ed.(2004), Nain R, Helbert M, Mosby, Elsevier Science Limited 2002

Thanks for reading,

Kal Sellers, MH

Mercury toxicity- increased in blood samples

(NaturalNews) It's no secret mercury is a dangerous toxin that accumulates in the human body and can produce disastrous health problems involving multiple organ systems. It's known to be a risk to unborn babies, too. Unfortunately, as NaturalNews has reported, mercury contamination of our environment and food sources is rampant. For example, scientists have found that fish(http://www.naturalnews.com/025935_m...) and high fructose corn syrup (http://www.naturalnews.com/026528_m...) are often loaded with the dangerous heavy metal. Now comes this worrisome news: deposits of mercury in the bodies of Americans are increasing at an alarming rate and the health repercussions could be staggering.

Mercury especially targets the liver, the immune system and the pituitary gland. Numerous studies have associated chronic mercury exposure with elevated risks for autism, mental impairment and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Previous research by U.S. Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) researchers estimated that chronic mercury exposure caused between 300,000 and 600,000 American children to be born with elevated risks of neurodevelopmental disorders between 1999 and 2000.

A new University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) study of government data on more than 6,000 women in the US found not only that mercury loads in bodies are increasing but it also identified significant associations between chronic mercury exposure and immune and endocrine system functions. The research specifically revealed that levels of the pituitary hormone, lutropin (also called luteinizing hormone) are significantly associated with chronic mercury exposure. This could explain a mechanism for how mercury causes or contributes to degenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases.

"My study found compelling evidence that inorganic mercury deposition within the human body is a cumulative process, increasing with age and overall in the population over time," study author Dan R. Laks, a neuroscience researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said in a statement to the media."My findings also suggest a rise in risks for disease associated with mercury over time."

For his research, which was recently published online in the international biology, biochemistry and medicine journal Biometals, Laks studied computer analyses of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). He investigated inorganic mercury levels in the blood of 6,168 women between the ages of 18 and 49 in NHANES data sets from 1999 to 2000, 2001 to 2002, 2003 to 2004 and 2005 to 2006. In all, between 1,455 and 1,622 women were in each two-year matched group.

Mercury has elemental, organic and inorganic forms, depending on the sources of exposure. Mercury in contaminated fish, for instance, is organic. However, studies in animals have shown that with chronic exposure to organic mercury, the metal changes to its inorganic form -- so inorganic mercury is usually considered the best measure of chronic mercury exposure. And when Laks looked for inorganic mercury in the blood of women studied in 2005-2006, he found it in 30 percent of the blood samples. That's an increase in mercury of two percent over women in the 1999 to 2000 study.

What's more, the overall population average of blood inorganic mercury concentration increased significantly between 1999 and 2006, as well. Neuroscientist Laks also conducted a separate statistical analysis of older women and discovered they had more inorganic mercury in their blood than younger women.

"These results suggest that chronic mercury exposure has reached a critical level where inorganic mercury deposition within the human body is accumulating over time. It is logical to assume that the risks of associated neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases will rise as well," Laks stated.

For more information:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/hu...
http://www.naturalnews.com/mercury.html
http://orf.od.nih.gov/Environmental...

Seleniul helps mercury cleansing

(NaturalNews) While high levels of Mercury are often found in large species of fish, a more important factor to consider is the relative amount of Selenium the fish contains. Selenium, also abundant in seafood, actually helps remove Mercury from the body. Thus, consuming certain types of seafood (and other foods) that have a high Selenium to Mercury ratio can purify the body of heavy metals even when the fish contains those same elements. This article will explore the benefits of Selenium, those foods with the highest Selenium content, and the Mercury to Selenium ratio of several types of fish.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is an essential trace mineral that functions as an antioxidant and promotes a healthy immune system. Selenium is required in remarkably small amounts, with recommended daily amounts measured in the millionths of a gram (micrograms). Selenium is also toxic in larger amounts. Selenium has strong anti-cancer effects and is known to help detoxify the body and remove heavy metals including Mercury.

In the early 1970's it was discovered that Selenium is incorporated into proteins to produce selenoproteins, important enzymes that are antioxidants (they destroy free radicals and prevent cellular damage). Selenoproteins boost the immune system and help regulate thyroid function.

How Much Selenium is Required?

The average person gets about 65 micrograms of Selenium per day. 200 micrograms is considered the optimal amount while 400 micrograms is the maximum allowable daily dose. Note that too much Selenium is highly toxic to the body.

* Symptoms of too little Selenium: Cancer, heart disease, fatigue, stunted growth, high cholesterol, compromised immune system function, liver impairment, pancreatic insufficiency and sterility.

* Symptoms of too much Selenium: Arthritis, brittle nails, bad breath, hair loss, irritability, liver and kidney problems, tooth loss, jaundice.

Note that in most places including South America, most of North America, Africa, Russia and China there is little or no selenium in the soil. Northern Nebraska and the Dakotas have very high levels of Selenium however.

Seafood: Selenium Benefits

According to a recent study by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, a new standard (called the Selenium-Health Benefit Value or Se-HBV) is being proposed by leading researchers to measure seafood safety.

The following types of fish have very high Se-HBV, containing between 10 and 25 times as much Selenium than Mercury. High quality servings of the following fish can be expected to lower blood levels of Mercury along with providing a healthy amount of Selenium.

* Yellowfin Tuna
* Albacore Tuna
* Skipjack Tuna
* Mahi Mahi
* Wahoo

Only one fish in the Western Pacific study (Mako shark) showed higher levels of Mercury than Selenium, while one other (Swordfish) had an even, 50/50 ratio of Mercury and Selenium.

Another study by Dr. Nicholas Ralston at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that (southern) Flounder and (wild Pacific) Salmon (including Chinook, Sockeye and Coho) have much more Selenium than Mercury. It also shows that Pilot Whale, Tarpon and most types of Shark should be avoided, with Grouper being about even.

Foods high in Selenium

* Brazil Nuts (dried, unblanched) - Brazil nuts are the only truly concentrated, natural source of Selenium, and may contain so much Selenium that one shouldn't consume too many! However different sources can vary based on the soil they are grown on. Brazil nuts can contain as much as 550 micrograms per ounce, an amount large enough to be toxic.

* Tuna (light, canned in oil) - a 3 ounce serving of Tuna contains nearly 100% the RDA of Selenium (about 63 while 65 micrograms is the RDA). Note that most cans contain dangerous BPA (Bisphonol-A, a hormone disruptor) in the liners and only two companies are known to not use this in their canned tuna. Meanwhile, higher quality tuna has as little as .08 ppm of Mercury per serving versus .38 ppm in lower quality sources.

Other foods that may contain Selenium in lesser amounts include kelp, molasses, whole wheat, turkey, chicken and beef.
_______________________
References

Selenium Fact Sheet
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/se...

Prescription for Nutritional Healing
(Fourth Edition, pg 38)

Mercury to Selenium Ratio in Seafood Poster
http://www.wpcouncil.org/councilmtg...

Selenium: Mercury Magnet
http://www.mercuryfacts.org/fSeleni...

Mercury Calculator
http://www.gotmercury.org/article.p...

Selenium to Mercury Ratio Article - Craig Weatherby, July 2009
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod...

Mercury found in high-fructose corn syrup

(NaturalNews) High-fructose corn syrup has taken our food shelves by storm. It is present in many different types of bread, cereals, breakfast bars, yogurts, soups and sugary beverages. It is estimated that, on a typical day, an American consumes an average of 12 teaspoons of such syrup. Further, teenagers and others with high consumption may even be taking in up to 80% more than average. Recently, two separate studies, one published in the journal Environmental Health and the other conducted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), have revealed a further danger of high-fructose corn syrup, having found that it may contain mercury.

Environmental Health Study

In the report of the first study, it was noted that mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to make many food ingredients; these include citrus acid, sodium benzoate, as well as high-fructose corn syrup. The latter, referred to as HFCS for short, is used to sweeten and stabilize food products and lengthen their shelf lives.

In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency had reported that an average of about 7 tons of mercury from each of the then 8 mercury cell chlor-alkali plants located in the US were unaccounted for in 2000. All that mercury must have gone somewhere, and, with it being such a dangerous neurotoxin, that was a dangerous statistic implying additional exposure for humans and the environment. Of particular concern is exposure for children and other sensitive segments of the population.

An Environmental Health Officer (EHO) thus conducted an investigation in 2004, which revealed that both mercury grade and membrane grade caustic soda were used by the industry to manufacture HFCS. Another chemical used was hydrochloric acid. Since mercury grade chemicals were used in the manufacturing process of HFCS, it was likely that mercury could be found in the final product, too.

The EHO dug deeper, collecting HFCS samples from 3 manufacturers and then analyzing them for total mercury content. In almost half of the samples, or 9 out of 20, mercury levels above the detection limit of 0.005 micrograms of mercury per gram of HFCS was found. The maximum level detected was 0.570 ìg mercury/g HFCS in one sample. The samples were collected from 17 to 24 February, 2005.

IATP Study

For the IATP study, the researchers had tested 55 popular brand-name food products and detected mercury in 17 of them (see WebMD link below for a list of the affected products). The 55 products had been chosen based on the fact that HFCS was the number one or two labeled ingredient; such labeling indicates that HFCS was the highest or second highest ingredient in the product, according to weight. The worst hit products were dairy products, followed by dressings and condiments.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," said David Wallinga, MD, from the IATP, who was involved in both the said studies.

It should be noted that a "snap-shot" sample of the products was obtained, which would not conclusively prove that these products were always or often contaminated.

Reactions

In both studies, the form of mercury detected was not stated. According to Carl Winter, a toxicologist who also directs the FoodSafe Program at the University of California, Davis, there is little to worry about. "I would imagine that a good majority of the mercury that is detected would have been in the form of elemental mercury," he said. According to him, methylmercury is "by far the most toxic form of mercury", as the body absorbs it better than other forms of the metal.

"We have a principle in toxicology, which is the dose makes the poison. It's the amount of a chemical, not its presence or absence, that determines the potential for harm, and frankly, I don't see based on their findings that they've made much of a case that this is something that consumers need to worry about," he also said.

WebMD contacted the food manufacturers and, not surprisingly, they insisted their products are safe. Audrae Erickson, the president of the Corn Refiners Association, also criticized the Environmental Health study. "This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years" she stated.

The problem, though, according to Wallinga, is that while about 90% of HFCS production in the US now does not use mercury, it is possible that companies are obtaining their HFCS supplies from overseas. And much of European production may not be mercury-free. Further, the IATP study had found mercury in food products taken off the shelves in 2008. Erickson, however, did not comment on that study.

In any case, whether or not US manufacturers are using mercury-tainted substances is not the most important point. Either way, mercury poisoning via HFCS is still be taking place on a global level, which cannot be good news.

Conclusion

"For me, the take-home message is really that this is a totally avoidable, unnecessary exposure to mercury. We've got a safer, more efficient technology for making these chemicals that are part of the ingredients used to manufacture high-fructose corn syrup," said Wallinga. "The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury. The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients," he also said.

With mercury being such a dangerous toxin, in particular for children - the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that minimizing mercury exposure is essential for optimal child health because the metal can affect many aspects of development, in particular brain maturation - the information uncovered by the two studies is important for consumers to take note of.

In any case, notwithstanding the presence of mercury, high-fructose corn syrup is detrimental to health in other ways, and its consumption is best minimized or avoided altogether.

References

Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar (www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2)

Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds (www.iatp.org/iatp/press.cfm?refID=1...)

Mercury in High-Fructose Corn Syrup? (www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/200...)

Are we posoning ourselves with mercury from fish?

When the halibut on my hook breaks the surface, writhing in a splash of seawater off the coast of Bolinas, California, I am thinking less of this fish’s fate than of my own. Considering that I plan to kill and eat it, this might seem cruel. Yet inside the fat and muscle cells of this flat, odd-looking creature is a substance as poisonous to me as it is to him: methylmercury, the most common form of mercury that builds up inside people (and fish). At the right dose and duration of exposure, mercury can impair a person’s memory, ability to learn, and behavior; it can also damage the heart and immune system. Even in small quantities, this heavy metal can cause birth defects in fetuses exposed in the womb and in breast-fed newborns whose mothers’ milk is laced with it.

Scientists have assured me that one serving of halibut contains nowhere near a dosage that might cause harm. These are the same scientists, though, who admit that no one knows for sure what the threshold dose is that causes mercury to subtly poison cells in the brain and the liver, two organs where it tends to accumulate.

As frightening as that sounds, most of us were born with a defense against exposure to mercury, initiated by specific sequences of genetic code that cause most people to expel the metal in 30 to 40 days. Not everyone carries this natural resistance, however. A small minority of people carry a genetic mutation that apparently causes their cells to retain mercury for far longer—in rare cases up to 190 days—greatly increasing the chance for cellular damage.

Such genetic differences may explain why some people are more susceptible to mercury poisoning than others. This possibility is driving a nascent but growing effort among scientists to link the impact of mercury and other environmental factors (everything from pollutants and diet to the sun’s ultraviolet rays) to the individual genetic proclivities that each of us is born with. “Toxicologists say that ‘the dose makes the poison,’” says mercury expert Jane Hightower, who practices internal medicine in San Francisco, “but it’s clear that some people are more sensitive to even small exposures than others.”

For lack of a better term, I’ll call this new science human envirogenomics, the fusing of environmental toxicology and genetics, two fields that until recently didn’t interact much with each other. Yet researchers are finding that the interplay of the two makes us who we are and often determines whether we are healthy or sick. “Recent increases in chronic diseases like childhood asthma and autism cannot be due to major shifts in the human gene pool,” says physician and geneticist Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. While acknowledging that changes in diagnostic criteria and heightened awareness may play a role, Collins says that much of the increase “must be due to changes in the environment, which may produce disease in genetically predisposed persons.” One day, envirogenomics could provide clues to a person’s sensitivity to environmental toxins (such as mercury) and the potential for damage based on that person’s genes. Doctors might then better understand how to prevent such harm and how to treat patients exposed to deleterious chemicals.

Man versus mercury
The possible connection between mercury and my own DNA is why I’m now holding a quivering fishing rod on the bow of the Osprey, a weathered 24-foot trawler. I am conducting an investigation: testing my mercury levels before and after eating this fish—assuming I land him—and checking my personal genetic code to see if I am one of the lucky ones who seem to expel mercury quickly. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if this self-experiment is a sign that I am indeed sensitive to mercury and that it has already addled my brain. My hope is that these tests, plus discussions with experts around the world and a visit to an envirogeneticist in Maine, will help guide my decision when choosing between a large fish and, say, a bowl of pasta the next time I’m in a restaurant.

This exploration is the opening salvo in an extensive project in which I am treating myself as a human guinea pig, exploring four major new areas of personal testing: genes, environment, brain, and body. In essence I am aiming to answer two big, personal questions: How healthy am I at the very deepest level? And what can the seemingly endless profusion of new high-tech tests for various diseases and traits tell me about my health now and in the future?

My fish trial began a few days earlier when I gave up nine milliliters of blood and a cupful of pee to test my normal level of methylmercury—that is, the background level that I typically have in my body from living in 21st-century San Francisco. I’ll give up another round of bodily fluids after eating today’s catch for lunch and some store-bought swordfish for dinner.

In my “before” test for methylmercury, I registered a level of less than 4 µg/l (micrograms per liter), safely below the EPA threshold of 5.8 µg/l. This is a relief. But will my “after” level be higher?

Big fish are by far the most prevalent source of human mercury exposure, although researchers are exploring a number of other potential contributors. In 2008 a study at Boston University tested traditional herbal products manufactured in India and the United States and found lead, mercury, or arsenic in about one-fifth of them. Last year the FDA cited another potential source of harm for children and, through their mothers, fetuses: mercury contained in dental amalgams (those silvery fillings many of us have in our teeth). But the FDA has reserved judgment on health impacts for those of us who are not in early development and who do not have a medical condition making us more sensitive to mercury.

Methylmercury got into my fish from the coal-burning power plants that rim the northern Pacific Ocean, from the United States and Mexico to Japan and China. Expelled from tall stacks, mercury stays in the upper atmosphere until rain carries it down over the eastern Pacific, where it joins mercury from other sources as bacteria and other microorganisms transform it into methylmercury. After being absorbed by plankton, the mercury moves up the food chain: The plankton is eaten by small fish, which are then gobbled up by larger predators, each bigger animal accumulating more mercury with every meal. This process extends to the halibut that was now tiring and allowing me to reel it in as the Osprey’s captain, Josh Churchman—a man in his fifties with a stubbly beard, graying hair, and a faded baseball cap—leaned far over a gunwale with a net.

The Osprey experiment is a follow-up to tests I had run to check my internal levels of 321 common pollutants, a process called a chemical body burden test. Scientists were able to detect traces of 163 of those compounds, including mercury, flame retardants, DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and phthalates (a pervasive chemical that makes plastics soft and facilitates the addition of scents to shampoos, soaps, lotions, and deodorants). These pollutants have been detected everywhere from North Pole to South Pole and deep in every ocean. In animal tests and in accidental high-level exposures of humans, the chemicals have caused a range of damage and disease, including cancers, sterility, and birth defects. But the compounds normally show up in humans in amounts so small—parts per million, billion, even trillion—that scientists only recently developed the tools to detect them and are only now beginning to figure out how harmful they really are.

The tests showed that my levels are mostly average or slightly above average—another relief—with a few outliers such as DDT, a pesticide I was exposed to as a child growing up in eastern Kansas before its 1972 ban. Yet even my high level of DDT (and of DDE, a metabolite into which DDT breaks down in the environment) is still so minute that there has been no obvious harm to me.

This time, to check my genetic fortitude against such toxins I will use data from more than 1.5 million DNA markers I had tested for this project. The tests look for differences in the DNA nucleotides adenosine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine (A, T, G, and C—the letters of the genetic code) between one person and another, or between one group of people and another group. My results contain clues about what makes me genetically different from other people, such as blue versus brown eyes or a higher risk of getting diabetes or heart disease. Other DNA variations have been identified as conferring either protection from or susceptibility to chemical pollutants, though most of this work has been done with animals.

Mercury moves up the food chain as plankton is eaten by small fish that are then gobbled up by larger fish, accumulating with every meal.

Mutant variations of two genes may impact a critical system for flushing toxic metals, such as mercury, from the body.

Chemicals interact with each other in a toxic soup inside our bodies and have an impact on possibly thousands of genes.


Without additional funding and attention, the uncertainties are likely to persist, says Christopher Austin, director of the NIH Chemical Genomics Center in Maryland. He is working with the Environmental Protection Agency and other groups to test the impact of pollutants on human and rodent cells. A much larger effort is needed—perhaps a Human Envirogenomics Project?—to really understand the implications of toxins and how they work on genes. Austin and others believe that the only way to create meaningful envirogenomics data is through a large prospective cohort study, collecting DNA samples and information about exposure to a variety of environmental factors from half a million to a million participants and following them for a number of years. This study would require a huge investment of time and effort and could cost as much as $3 billion (close to the cost of the Human Genome Project), according to a report issued in 2007 by the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“A comprehensive study of this sort might tell us everything is OK,” Sherr says, “though I suspect that it will tell us that some of these chemicals are not safe even at trace amounts.”

How to Tell If You're Poisoning Yourself With Fish
Researchers are creating genetic tests to determine if mercury hiding in that "healthy" dinner could be messing with your brain.

by David Ewing Duncan; photograph by Kathrin Miller

Published on line March 19th 2009: Genes and health magazine

Alert ! Mercury found in fructose Corn syrup !

(NaturalNews) New research published in Environmental Health and conducted in part by a scientist at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has revealed that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is contaminated with the toxic heavy metal mercury.

That means that many of the products using HFCS may also be contaminated with mercury. Carbonated sodas are sweetened with HFCS, as are candy bars, bread, salad dressings, pizza sauce, fruit drinks and thousands of other grocery items.

Mercury is so highly toxic that it causes severe neurological disorders. It can also result in the loss of hair, teeth and nails as well as muscle weakness, loss of kidney function, emotional mood swings and memory impairment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercur...) (P.S. Somebody please update this Wikipedia page with this latest research about HFCS being a source for mercury exposure, too.)

The highest level of contamination found in the study (http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2) was 0.57 micrograms of mercury per gram of HFCS. The EPA says that an average-sized woman should consume no more than 5.5 micrograms per day of mercury, meaning that the average American consumer may be eating five times the upper safety limit of mercury every day due to high-fructose corn syrup consumption if they consume the foods tested in the study.

That's because the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of HFCS every day! So just by eating the standard American diet of processed foods, consumers are right now potentially exposing themselves to exceedingly high levels of mercury that far surpass the safety limits set by the EPA.

Buy groceries, get free mercury !

High-fructose corn syrup is used in almost everything, it seems. A second study conducted by David Wallinga, M.D., entitled "Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup" (http://healthobservatory.org/librar...) reveals that nearly one-third of all grocery items sweetened with HFCS were contaminated with mercury.

Eating some sweetened yogurt? Mercury!

How about some salad dressing with HFCS? Mercury!

Want some ketchup on that burger? Mercury!

In fact, mercury is found in thousands of grocery products sold across the world right now. And it's no exaggeration to say that mainstream consumers of popular food items are likely suffering from widespread mercury poisoning (especially if you add in the mercury exposure they're getting from dental fillings).

Where does mercury come from?

Most people don't know how high-fructose corn syrup is really made. One of those processes is a bizarre chemical brew involving the creation of caustic soda by exposing raw materials to pools of electrified mercury in a large vat. Through this process, the caustic soda gets contaminated with mercury, and when corn kernels are exposed to this caustic soda to break them down, that contamination is passed through to the HFCS.

Another toxic chemical, glutaraldehyde, is also used in the production of HFCS. It's so toxic that consuming even a small amount of it can burn a hole in your stomach.

But don't worry: The Corn Refiners Association insists that HFCS is a "natural" ingredient, and their Chicago-based PR firm Weber Shandwick is now also claiming that HFCS has been declared "natural" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It hasn't really, of course, but that doesn't stop the press releases from claiming it has. (If you think a liquid sugar processed with glutaraldehyde and contaminated with mercury is "natural," then you've been duped. There's nothing natural about a processed food ingredient made with toxic chemicals.)

A Weber Shandwick representative calls me every time I post an article about HFCS, by the way, usually with demands that I remove the entire article. I've invited the Corn Refiners Association to a phone interview to defend their position that HFCS doesn't cause diabetes or obesity, and to answer questions about whether HFCS is really "natural." So far, they have declined to be interviewed. It seems they don't want to face real questions from an honest journalist who refuses to be censored by powerful corporations.

One thing I've got to say about the Corn Refiners Association is that they have a well-funded PR machine running around the internet trying to make everybody remove stories that say anything negative about HFCS.

I've noticed that the Corn Refiners Association is a master at spinning the truth. For example, the president of the CRA, Audrae Erickson, said this in a statement responding to the mercury findings: "Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two reagents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years."

Well sure, that's true. But what is Erickson NOT saying? She's not saying that ALL the HFCS is made without mercury. She just says that somewhere in the industry, somebody is using a mercury-free version of the caustic soda. That doesn't mean all the HFCS is mercury free, yet if you don't read her statement carefully, you might be misled into thinking that. Her statement, in fact, leaves open the possibility that 99% of all HFCS might still be manufactured using mercury.

Note carefully that Erickson does not say all HFCS sold in the U.S. is free from mercury. Instead, she makes a clever statement that results in most readers assuming that's what she means. The CRA is well known for using this kind of language spin tactics.

NaturalNews challenges the CRA to state that all HFCS is free from mercury (see below).

The mercury fairy tale

The CRA isn't just in the business of pushing HFCS, by the way. It's also in the business of denial. For example: Virtually everyone who understands holistic nutrition agrees that HFCS promotes diabetes and obesity. But in much the same way that Big Tobacco executives once swore that "nicotine is not addictive," the Corn Refiners Association insists that high-fructose corn syrup does not promote diabetes or obesity.

So don't worry about the mercury in your HFCS. Or the other toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process. That's all natural, we're supposed to believe. And high-fructose corn syrup is a healthy, wholesome, all-American sweetener grown without pesticides by poor Midwestern farmers who have given their lives and souls to create a sweeter, happier America.

Or at least that's the fairy tale version of the story. In reality, HFCS is created by corporate agriculture giants using toxic pesticides and herbicides on the crops who subject their corn to numerous toxic chemicals in the creation of this potentially mercury-contaminated processed sweetener that promotes tooth decay, obesity, diabetes and possibly even neurological disorders thanks to the mercury.

Yum. I can't wait to gobble down another chocolate candy bar sweetened with this stuff...

Toxic dental amalgam mercury fillings!

US issues health warning over mercury fillings

They're in millions of mouths worldwide, but have been linked to heart disease and Alzheimer's. Now a report concedes they may have a toxic effect on the body

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 29 June 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/he...ngs-856582.html


Amalgam dental fillings – which contain the highly toxic metal mercury – pose a health risk, the world's top medical regulatory agency has conceded.

After years of insisting the fillings are safe, the US government's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health warning about them. It represents a landmark victory for campaigners, who say the fillings are responsible for a range of ailments, including heart conditions and Alzheimer's disease.

Earlier this month, in an unprecedented U-turn, the FDA dropped much of its reassuring language on the fillings from its website, substituting: "Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses." It adds that when amalgam fillings are "placed in teeth or removed they release mercury vapour", and that the same thing happens when chewing.

The FDA is now reviewing its rules and may end up restricting or banning the use of the metal.

Mercury is placed in tens of millions of teeth worldwide each year. About 125 tons of it is used annually in dental treatments in the EU alone. And it was used in eight million fillings (including one million in children and young people) in Britain in 2002-03, the last year for which the British Dental Association (BDA) can produce figures.

The association continues to insist that amalgam is "safe, durable and cost-effective" and "does not pose a risk of systemic disease", though it advises pregnant women to avoid "any dental intervention or medication". However, Norway and Denmark banned mercury from fillings earlier this year. Sweden has cut its use by more than 90 per cent over the past decade, and mercury use is also heavily restricted in Finland and Japan.

Mercury makes up about half of an amalgam filling, where it is mixed with silver and small amounts of copper and tin. The combination – which has now been used for some 150 years – is extremely durable, and its supporters used to stress that it locked in the mercury. They now accept, however, that mercury vapour escapes, is breathed in, and gets into the bloodstream and organs, but they also stress that levels are very low. Opponents argue that the metal accumulates in the body and no safe level is known.

Some research suggests that mercury from dental fillings may be linked to high blood pressure, infertility, fatigue, disorders of the central nervous system, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Dentists have been found to have high levels of mercury in their bodies as well being more susceptible to brain tumours and problems with concentration and manual dexterity.

However, a study that followed 507 Portuguese and American children for seven years after they received amalgam or mercury-free fillings found no differences in the rates of neurological symptoms between the two groups.

Nevertheless, more and more dentists – now some 500 in Britain – are setting up mercury-free practices, and more patients are demanding alternative fillings made of resin and glass.

The alternatives are more expensive and not as strong as amalgam, which leads the defenders of mercury to say that only mercury will do for molars, which carry most of the burden of chewing. And some have released another toxic material, the gender-bending chemical bisphenol A. But the alternatives are getting stronger, and the chemical is being used less in the newer products.

Even the BDA now says that the alternatives "have improved over time", adding: "Trends towards greater use of these materials imply that there is to be a sustained reduction in the use of dental amalgam."