Ending the Toxic Exposures to Mercury Amalgam
Charlie Brown from Consumers for Dental Choice* recently announced a huge win in the fight to stop the application of mercury amalgam fillings. This widespread practice has resulted in significant health disruptions which are not easily identified by conventional medicine. This practice, entrenched in dental education and organizations, has taken decades of campaigning to deter. This is the composition of mercury amalgam or “silver fillings”.
Charlie Brown reports:
“Our three-year FDA campaign culminated in a huge success. On Sept. 24, 2020 FDA issued a new safety communication recommending NO AMALGAM for broad categories of the American people, encompassing perhaps half of the entire U.S. population”.
The categories named in the FDA communication are:
- Pregnant women and their developing babies.
- Women who are planning to become pregnant.
- Nursing women and their newborns and infants.
- Children, especially (FDA’s words) younger than six – but note, it encompasses all children, presumably any person under age 18.
- People with pre-existing neurological disease.
- People with impaired kidney function.
- People with known heightened sensitivity (allergy) to mercury or other components of dental amalgam.
FDA adds that safety is far from certain for everyone else, noting that a high mercury burden (e.g., from eating fish or living in a toxic community) is also a reason not to get amalgam.
I was invited to provide testimony for the FDA hearing. The paper below was entered into the FDA record:
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Carol Petersen, I am a pharmacist and hold a certification in nutrition. I am the only pharmacist on the board of directors for a medical group which focuses on resolving metal toxicities. I am a member of the medical advisory board for The Center for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (Cemcor.ca). For over 25 years, I have been involved in learning, researching, coaching and writing about endocrine disorders as my primary focus.
We have been conducting a massive human experiment for over 150 years by placing mercury amalgam in the mouth. We have evidence that the mercury fillings do leach. We have further evidence that the elemental mercury can be converted to organic mercury compounds. (1) Mercury in the mouth can and does reach the delicate hormone signalers in the brain, the hypothalamus and the pituitary. (2) Disruptions of these signaling organs are devastating the to the entire genesis of sex hormones, adrenal hormones, bile and vitamin D. Damage can occur along the entire hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, spilling over into other endocrine systems. (3)(4)(5)
Mercury alone is enough to produce problems in fertility in both men and women. (6) Infertility has been skyrocketing. According to HHS, 6.1 million women of childbearing age are now unable to get or stay pregnant. (7)
Heavy metals including mercury are implicated in breast cancer risk. (8)
But that’s not all, people are experiencing chronic health issues not only directly caused by the presence of metals in the human body but also its interference in the delicate balance of the endocrine system.
Recognition of the seriousness of these issues has even sparked the creation of an interdisciplinary field now designated as “metalloendocrinology” creating an interface between endocrinology and inorganic chemistry to study the needs of minerals in human health and the devastation created by heavy metals. (9)
For lack of a better designation, we have been observing the notion of “estrogen dominance” in both men and women. Our bodies are trying to operate with an overwhelming burden of estrogen and estrogen like activity. The sources for this tendency are myriad:
Excessive use of exogenous estrogens in therapy.
Disruption of the gut flora leading to enterohepatic recirculation of endogenous hormones.
Loss of nutrients to provide for conjugation and elimination by the liver.
Deficits of hormones that intersect and balance estrogens.
Exposures to insecticides and pesticides that not only have estrogenic qualities but accumulate in the body.
Presence of heavy metals which not only disrupt the organs of origin for hormones but can actually block receptors making the proper response to hormone stimulation impossible.
As human beings and particularly in human health, we like to think in a linear fashion. We easily understand when a toxic response is immediate and deadly. We have trouble understanding the implications of slow and relentless toxicity. We have even more trouble understanding that one agent may not be the sole cause of the problems we encounter. We are confounded by the consequences of many intoxicants magnifying effects of each other. We like to look for solutions in a “magic pill” before we even understand the foundation for the problem. We are further hindered by the politics of profit which has now riddled our science. (10)
Human ingenuity has solved and continues to solve many problems. We can pool and magnify our endeavors to tackle problems that individuals cannot solve. Government exists as a structure needed to harness the power of the collective. We are looking to government today to recognize what was thought to be a good idea 150 years ago has significant and far reaching negative consequences. One individual acting alone cannot solve this. We have to have the courage of our collective energies to recognize a misstep in the cause of optimal human function and health and to adjust our actions accordingly.
(1) Parks, J.M., Johs, A., Podar, M., et al. (2013). The Genetic Basis for Bacterial Mercury Methylation. Science, 15, 339,1332-1335. DOI: 10.1126/science.1230667
(2) (2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392265/Methylmercury, Amalgams, and Children’s Health Environ Health Perspect. 2006 Mar; 114(3): A149. PMID: 16507443
(3) Dyer, Cheryl Heavy Metals as Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Chapter Book: Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: From Basic Research to Clinical Practice (pp.111-133)
(4) (4) Bogdan G et al Scientific Papers: Animal Science and Biotechnologies, Heavy Metals Acting as Endocrine Disrupters 2011, 44 (2)
(5) (6) Rana, SV Perspctive in endocrine toxicity of heavy metals – a review Biol Trace Elem Res. 2014 Jul;160(1):1-14. doi: 10.1007/s12011-014-0023-7. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
(6) Pollack, Anna et al Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury in Relation to Reproductive Hormones and Anovulation in Premenopausal Women Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Aug; 119(8): 1156–1161. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3237358/
(7) HHS on Infertility: https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/infertility
(8) Wallace, David Nanotoxicology and Metalloestrogens: Possible Involvement in Breast Cancer Toxics 2015, 3, 390-413; doi:10.3390/toxics3040390
(9) Stevenson, M et al The emerging interdisciplinary field of metalloendocrinology Metallomics 11(1) · September 2018
(10) (8) Angell, Marcia “The truth about the drug companies : how they deceive us and what to do about it” 2004 Random House, NY
*Charles G. Brown .
Executive Director, Consumers for Dental Choice; www.mercury-free.org
President, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry; mercuryfreedentistry.net
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210
Washington DC 20002 USA
Telephone [1] 202.246.7642; Skype: charlie_8622