Robert Lufkin MD: What To Do About Mercury Dental Fillings?

 What to do about Mercury Dental Fillings?   To be perfectly clear -Mercury is toxic-its a poison. One of the main symptoms is cognitive impairment, including memory loss. Mercury can also induce the characteristic amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. It also damages the antioxidant glutathione which limits our ability to handle free radicals.  So there are many reasons to stay away from this dangerous substance. And this isn’t really new.

The effects of mercury were known throughout history. Mercury toxicity resulted in the phrase "mad as a hatter" .   Mercury was used in the manufacturing of felt hats during the 19th century, causing a high rate of mercury poisoning among those working in the hat industry.   This was  later immortalized in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in wonderland. 

There are two forms of mercury that can harm us:
Organic or  methyl mercury which can be found in fish. This will be the topic of another video.
Inorganic or metal mercury can be acquired from handling old mercury thermometers but today the greatest risk is from the metal in certain fillings in our teeth. 

        Now how do we know if we have mercury exposure and possible early toxicity? There is a blood test but because Mercury tends to migrate to other tissues such as bone and brain the blood test may not be positive. It is thus possible to have mercury toxicity without increased blood levels.  If the blood mercury is equal to or greater than 5 mcg/L then there is mercury toxicity. If  blood levels are below that there still could be toxicity for the reasons mentioned. 
        The current most sensitive mercury test uses a combination of blood, urine and hair to make the determination. And it reports   inorganic and methyl mercury levels separately so the source can be determined. Its called the Mercury Tri-Test from Quicksilver Scientific

        People of a certain age may have amalgam dental fillings.
  Dental amalgam is an alloy of silver, copper, tin, and zinc combined with 50% mercury.
Look in your mouth and look for the characteristic dark appearance of the amalgam.
Note some amalgam may be hidden below a crown.
So just because you don’t see any amalgam doesn’t mean it's not there if you have crowns.
                  Each amalgam filling can leak up to 10 micrograms of mercury/day into circulation according to some reports.

Experts don’t agree about the toxicity of Mercury from amalgam. 
For example the Alzheimer's Association says that "according to the best available scientific evidence there is no relationship between silver dental fillings and Alzheimer's" . Others are not so sanguine. Some studies show a relationship and others do not. 
Since mercury is a known toxin, we are taking an aggressive position here if mercury is abnormally high or cognitive impairment is occurring.

       The relationship between the amount of mercury and the number of amalgam fillings is

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