Can Mercury Toxicity from Silver Fillings Be the Root Cause of Sleep, Fatigue and Gut Problems?

This week I’m ripping out my last silver (amalgam) fillings. I want this toxic garbage out of my body for good. This is the most expensive experiment yet but knowing what I know now I just couldn’t ignore this potential hazard any more.

If you have any amalgam silver fillings (they are 40-50% mercury) in your mouth or suspect you’ve been exposed to excess mercury from your environment or food then read on, perhaps this will stir up enough curiosity in you to investigate this issue further.  Perhaps your mouth too, might have been slowly poisoning you for years!

Why Mercury?

Why am I suspecting mercury toxicity?  Because as I observe my body, test supplements and educate myself about heavy metals it always leads me to this advice: multiple health issues that nobody can figure out suggests mercury as the root cause.

The key indicator that heavy metals could be at play is when your symptoms either closely resemble or perfectly fit a host of various health issues like insomnia, chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivities, fibromyalgia, thyroid issues, gut issues like Lyme disease, candida, dysbiosis,  autoimmune diseases, allergies, food intolerances, gut dysbiosis, hormone imbalances, tinnitus, psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative conditions.

I’ve honestly considered almost all of the above but the problem is my symptoms closely match those conditions but not quite. This is what is driving me crazy- no exact diagnosis and doctors are chasing me out of their offices as by now I know some things better than they do.

I had already tinkered with the idea of mercury toxicity before and even got myself some chelators like cilantro/chlorella combo. Thank God, I didn’t start on it yet as I always thought that one has to have proper adrenal function restored before burdening the body with detox.

Clues Have Been Staring at Me for Years

After a month of researching mercury as potential cause of all my issues I’m now almost convinced. These were my clues that have been haunting me for years:

1. Mercury is Often Behind “Unexplained” Health Conditions

   Mercury toxicity explains many of my experiences with what seem to be perfectly “innocent” supplements like chlorella and alpha lipoic acid. I once downed 10 pills of chlorella and felt so wired I could hardly sleep at all for ten days. That left me puzzled up till now. It appears chlorella is a mercury chelator but not a very effective one as it only stirs mercury by dislodging it from the tissues but does not fully transport it out of the body. End result – you only get more intoxicated.

2. Mercury Affects Thyroid

   Mercury binds to thyroid receptors and either mimics or causes thyroid issues. All my thyroid tests came back fine yet I was experiencing hyperthyroid (wired but tired) and later hypothyroid symptoms: fatigue, low sex drive, fluctuations in body temperature and sensitivity to various cold or hot herbs. One study concludes that patients with mercury hypersensitivity who underwent amalgam replacement showed a significant improvement in thyroid function.

3. Mercury Can Cause Chronic Fatigue and Drain Adrenals

   Mercury taxes kidneys causing adrenal fatigue. I’ve chased this “adrenal fatigue issue” to the ground and always hit a brick wall. My diet and life-style could not have caused adrenal burnout. In fact, I was doing everything to the opposite: low stress, healthy meals, meditation. I knew there was something else taxing my endocrine system but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  It is said that heavy metals can steal the electrons from the mitochondria – the cell’s battery. Our body cells start functioning like a leaky battery. Doesn’t matter how much you try to charge it with organic veggies or best quality supplements, all the benefits go down the drain.

4. Mercury Can Impact Methylation

   I knew I had methylation problems, mainly because of very negative reaction to methylation supplements and protocols. But after my recent genetic test confirmed that I have various gene variations which are known to slow down detox pathways and cause heavy metal storage I was floored. As study on prenatal and postnatal epigenetic programming showed: “Oxidative stress brought on by mercury exposure prevents proper methylation, and thus epigenetic regulation, which can lead to improper development in an organism.”

5. Dirty Genes Can be a Magnet for Heavy Metals
   A genetic test showed I have a few gene mutations like MTHFR, CBS, COMT, GSTP1, CYP1A2. Epigenetics is a relatively new science and one has to thread carefully but there are interesting indicators that can steer one in a direction towards better self-care. For example, a study called Genetic Aspects of Susceptibility to Mercury Toxicity states: “Mutations in BDNF (rs6265), COMT (rs4680, rs4633, rs4618, rs6269) and SLC6A4/5-HTTLPR (44 bp Ins/Del) genes could show various degrees of involvement during neurodevelopment, based on their biological function, and thus genetically predispose susceptible subjects to different levels of neurocognitive impairment.”  The study clearly concludes: gene variations can govern one’s sensitivity to mercury. Did your dentist suggest to do a genetic test before he offered those “safe” mercury fillings?

6. Mercury Can Cause Toxic Liver

   Mercury causes toxic liver. All my TCM practitioners always said: “It’s your liver, stupid!”  It’s slow, it’s hot and it is congested. Hence all this heat and wakefulness from 1AM-3AM. I’m sure my liver is fine, it’s just overburdened and can not keep up.

7. Mercury Can Causes Tinnitus

   Now, mercury is not the only culprit as people without silver fillings experience tinnitus too but because it is related to kidney function (runs along the same meridian), many report relief from tinnitus after a successful heavy metal chelation.

8. Mercury Weakens Immune System

   Mercury exhausts glutathione, lowers one’s immunity and makes one susceptible to every passing cold and virus. This study found that T lymphocytes (a type of lymphocyte, related to white blood cell, that plays a central role in immunity against viruses and yeast infections such as Candida albicans) decreased as amalgams were put in patients and increased after the amalgams were removed.

9. Mercury Can Destroy Gastrointestinal Health

   Via its impact on the immune system mentioned above, mercury invites gut issues like H Pylori, candida, fungus, pathogens and dysbiosis. Some studies say that almost 68% of candida sufferers also have mercury toxicity. There’s an intricate relationship between the two.

10. Mercury Can Cause Brain Fog and Depression

    Mercury causes brain fog, depression, irritability and wreaks havoc on one’s mental health.

11. Mercury Can Cause Insomnia

    Mercury will greatly disturb sleep patterns, especially in conjunction with massive inflammation from leaky gut and impaired methylation pathways. This will spike cortisol, adrenaline, histamine and send your sympathetic nervous system into overdrive. All of this is a perfect recipe for persistent insomnia.

The above is only a short list of potential manifestations of mercury toxicity. When I read what others are going through I consider myself lucky as things could have been much worse.

Study Mercury Exposure Before It Impacts Your Health

I’ve read Amalgam Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment by Andy Cutler, It’s All in Your Head: The Link Between Mercury Amalgams and Illness by Hal A. Huggins.  There are also a couple of documentaries that are worth watching: Evidence of Harm and Mercury Undercover. I’ve also joined the Chelation Support Group on FB and so far remain very hopeful that this could be the beginning of the end to my mystery condition.

If you have any amalgam silver fillings start reading. As you’ll learn from the interviews in those mentioned documentaries, American Dental Association (ADA) admits that amalgam fillings emit mercury vapor.  WHO admits that amalgam fillings are the biggest source of mercury to human body. Experiments show that once the amalgam filling is heated (by drinking tea), stimulated by chewing gum or brushed with a toothbrush it emits considerably more mercury vapor than ADA states in their amalgam booklets.

Don’t allow your dentist to educate you about the safety of your dental fillings. Most of them are either totally ignorant or too petrified to learn something that would have them realized how much harm they could have caused to their patients all these years. According to the Australasian Society Of Medicine And Toxicology (ASOMAT) fact sheet: “mercury is not locked into a set filling but escapes continuously during the entire life of the filling in the form of vapor, ions and abraded particles.” Whether you fall into the “sensitive” type individual or not, your body still has to detox this heavy metal.

Besides amalgam fillings, you’re likely to have been exposed to mercury from vaccines, seafood and fish, paint, various consumer products, supplements, your work or living environment.

Sure, there’s a lot of unsubstantiated hype out there and people tend to get neurotic but there are also plenty of studies to substantiate our suspicions. Take for example a rather recent one called: “Toxic Effects of Mercury on the Cardiovascular and Central Nervous Systems“:

Environmental contamination has exposed humans to various metal agents, including mercury. This exposure is more common than expected, and the health consequences of such exposure remain unclear. For many years, mercury was used in a wide variety of human activities, and now, exposure to this metal from both natural and artificial sources is significantly increasing. Many studies show that high exposure to mercury induces changes in the central nervous system, potentially resulting in irritability, fatigue, behavioral changes, tremors, headaches, hearing and cognitive loss, dysarthria, incoordination, hallucinations, and death. In the cardiovascular system, mercury induces hypertension in humans and animals that has wide-ranging consequences, including alterations in endothelial function. The results described in this paper indicate that mercury exposure, even at low doses, affects endothelial and cardiovascular function.

Having known what I know now I wouldn’t even visit a dentist’s office  who still offers amalgam fillings to his/her patients. I invite you to look at the general picture and decide for yourself. Don’t be stupid like me who waited for years to properly research this potentially devastating source of harm.

My seven mercury fillings are almost out. Next month I’m also starting a GU Syndrome protocol to address my gut issues. If I progress alright I’ll start mercury chelation process according to Andy Cutler protocol. Fingers crossed.