| One particularly dangerous form of mercury is methylated mercury, which is produced by the chelating systems of certain bacteria. If inorganic mercury is found in your amalgams and these bacteria are found in your digestive tract, the inorganic mercury will eventually make its way to the bacteria where it will be converted to methylated mercury and from there make its way to your brain. Methylated mercury is hundreds of times more toxic than inorganic mercury and has a particular affinity for the brain where the symptom complex can include mild to severe intellectual impairment and/or emotional impairment. Only chelation or detoxification therapy (through DMPS and/or Infrared Thermal Systems) can fully and reliably remove this toxin from your body.
Methylated mercury emitted from coal burning power plant stacks and other sources is carried by winds through the air and eventually is deposited to water and land. Mercury can be deposited locally, or it can travel great distances ? depending on the form in which it is emitted, the height at which it is released and atmospheric conditions.
Methylated mercury concentrations in the air are usually low and of little direct concern. However, once mercury enters water ? either directly or through deposition from the air ? biological processes transform it into methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury that bioaccumulates in fish and other animals that eat fish. When a substance bioaccumulates, its concentration increases as it moves through the food chain.
Human exposure to mercury occurs primarily through consumption of contaminated saltwater or freshwater fish. Methylated mercury contamination in large, predatory fish can be thousands of times higher than concentrations in the water.
At high doses, mercury exposure can cause tremors, inability to walk, convulsions ? and even death. At levels more commonly seen in the United States, documented mercury exposure effects include more subtle ? yet still serious ? damage to the senses and brain.
Women of childbearing age and people who regularly and frequently eat highly contaminated fish (or large amounts of moderately contaminated fish) are the most likely to be at risk from mercury exposure. Those groups include subsistence fishermen and some Native American populations.
The developing fetus is the most sensitive to the effects of methylated mercury, because its brain is developing rapidly; therefore women of childbearing age are at the greatest risk. Children of women exposed to relatively high levels of methylmercury during pregnancy have exhibited a variety of abnormalities, including delayed onset of walking and talking, cerebral palsy and reduced neurological test scores.
Children exposed to far lower levels of methylmercury in the womb have exhibited delays and deficits in learning ability. In addition, children exposed after birth potentially are more sensitive to the toxic effects of methylmercury than adults, because their nervous systems are still developing.
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