Heavy Metal Toxicity ^Updated!

New! 2007 AHMA Confrence Audio CDs available Disk one: Overview     Download here >> Disk two: Focus on CaEDTA     Download here >> Disk three: Focus on focus on DMSA/DMPS     Download here >>

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms of Mercury poisoning are frequently varied and non-specific. The following list will help you to understand the signs and symptoms of mercury toxicity. It is important to understand that many times, there is no correlation between the degree of mercury toxicity and the symptoms you are experience.

Dry mouth or increased salivation, tongue tremor or stomatitis, speech defect, nasal irritation, nose bleeds, disturbances of taste or smell, loss of appetite, facial pallor (white), anemia, tremor in fingers, arms and legs, nerve pain (neuralgia), numbness in extremities (parasthesias), poor gait (ataxia), excessive perspiration, uncontrolled blushing, tremor of eyelids and poor digestion.

Personality changes include – irritability, criticalness, excitability, fearfulness, restlessness, insomnia, inability to concentrate, melancholy, depression, shyness, timidity, moroseness, fatigue, weakness and drowsiness, indecisive and poor memory.

Source: Zenz, C., Occupational Medicine, 3 rd ed. , Mosby, 1994, p 549-557.

The following list will help to identify where you may have come in contact with mercury in your environment:

Dental fillings, exhaust fumes, insecticide sprays, mercury polluted water, fish, floor waxes, polishes, air conditioner filters, felt, skin lightening creams, sewage disposal, tattooing, hemorrhoid suppositories, coal burning stoves or mining, certain cosmetics, adhesives, organo-mercurial pesticides, antiseptics, camera film, canvas, plastics, water based paint, fabric softeners, chemical fertilizers, the preservative thimerasol.

• Eliminate caffeine.
• Eliminate sugar and alcohol.
• Eliminate fish and shellfish from diet, especially those that historically contain the highest levels of mercury.

• Avoid external sources of mercury including petroleum products, Bounce fabric softeners, fungicides, cosmetics, and hair dyes. Read labels: phenalmercuricacetate and thimerosal are other names for mercury.
• Eliminate milk.
• Eliminate pork.
• Eliminate cigarette smoking.

• Increase fiber consumption, which is important to bind toxins in the digestive tract.
• Drink 8 eight oz. Glasses of water/day.
• Eat plenty of eggs and butter. The emphasis on animal protein is because of its concentration of sulfur bearing amino acids and lipids (fat). Mercury has an affinity to both of these chemical groups. You may use MSM 1000mg 3x/day if you are allergic to eggs.
• Supplement your diet with probiotics like lactobacillus acidophilus capsules.
• Steam in a sauna or steam bath for 20 minutes 1 to 3 times per week as directed by your healthcare provider. Your skin is the largest excretory organ in your body and one of the safest routes of detoxification.