Starting in 1999, for any of my patients who weren’t achieving relief of their symptoms using my dietary program, I would recommend a DMPS Challenge Test—in which DMPS was injected into the patient, followed by a urine test. DMPS is a sulfur compound that binds metals into very stable and non-toxic molecules that can be excreted primarily by the kidneys within 12 hours. While a regular urine test would seldom show any metals, the urine test taken after the DMPS injection often showed large quantities of metal, invariably mercury.
Mercury: The Malevolent Metal
Occasionally, mercury wouldn’t show after the first DMPS Challenge, but if it was repeated several times, mercury would begin to be excreted into the urine. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that virtually the whole population was carrying an excess load of mercury hidden away in their bodies, as outlined in my book, Eating Alive II, published in 2002.
Since 2002, hundreds more of my patients have reversed their supposedly “irreversible” diseases by removing metals from their systems, usually after failure of conventional treatment. Recently there has been a spate of articles in the media about mercury in fish as a potential source of mercury in the human system. Has science finally found the source of this mercury that my patients have struggled to remove from their bodies in order to become healthy? I don’t think so.
Filling in the blanks
In 1984, Danish dentist Henrik Lichtenberg had 220 patients fill out a questionnaire that listed 32 symptoms and complaints. One hundred and twenty of these patients then had their mercury-amalgam fillings (and sometimes other metals) replaced with white composite fillings. The 120 patients consisted of 97 women and 23 men, aged 25 to 72, with an average age of 48. The number of complaints per patient ranged from one to twenty eight, with an average of ten symptoms.
One year later, the questionnaire was revisited with all of the patients in the study; the 120 who had the dental work done, as well as the 100 controls. Since the removal of metal fillings, of the original ten complaints, an average of four symptoms was eliminated, five were reduced and one remained. No symptoms got worse.
The breakdown of improved symptoms is as follows:
• 100% reversal of metallic taste; tender teeth; and loss of appetite.
• 90% reversal of depression; diarrhea and constipation; face and jaw tension; mouth sores; bleeding gums; stomach cramps; muscle tremor; chest pains; fear; irritability; and bad breath.
• 80% reversal of allergies; watery eyes; sore throat; diverticulosis; headache; fatigue; lack of concentration; insomnia; dizziness; sciatica; joint pains; and cold extremities.
• 70% reversal of skin problems; bloating; intestinal cramps; muscles tire easily; leg cramps; and rapid heart beat.
The reversal of symptoms reported by Dr Lichtenberg matches what I see in my practice, though improvement typically occurs after a period of oral chelation of metals, rather than just removal of fillings. Dr Lichtenberg’s study does show conclusively that after removing dental mercury and other metals, patients exhibit remarkable improvements in symptoms that conventional medicine still considers “mysterious” or “irreversible.” While the dental profession maintains that there is insufficient evidence that mercury-amalgams contribute to health problems, Dr Lichtenberg’s results have been duplicated in other studies listed at the end of his article, and it is only politics that keeps mercury and other metals used in dentistry today.
More dangers
A further note is that these same symptom improvements are seen with oral chelation of children who never had mercury fillings, though their faster results indicate that their quantity of mercury is likely much lower. Swedish and German autopsy studies have shown that by several weeks after conception, fetuses are accumulating mercury from their mothers’ amalgam fillings.
Children who have been vaccinated have also been exposed to mercury. Thimerosal is a mercury compound that has been used as a preservative in vaccines and other medications since 1930. While Thimerosal use has been reduced in children’s vaccines in some areas since 2001, it continues to be used in children’s vaccines in Great Britain and in many products such as nasal mist, as well as immunoglobulin and some adult’s vaccines. The mercury in vaccines is often replaced with aluminum or titanium dioxide, which are also heavy metals of questionable safety.
So the next time you hear that fish is being blamed as the source of dangerous heavy metals, ask yourself if this is based on solid clinical evidence or if it’s a smokescreen that covers the real source. While some fish does indeed carry high levels of mercury, wild salmon and albacore tuna are relatively short-lived fish that don’t typically contain high levels. More likely sources of mercury are dental work and the hepatitis B and flu shots.
