Mercury Poisoning

[Trindall]

My brother had nausea, stomach pains and a rash in his mouth. He started noticing difficulty remembering things, saw a doctor and had his blood tested and was determined to have elevated levels of mercury. From there he has spoken to doctors and "therapists" about treatment and has reached out to other people he can find that are suffering from heavy metal poisoning. Though he is a state employee and has decent insurance, he has not gotten much help identifying a treatment that does not require a lot of out-of-pocket expense. From what I understand, the treatment is relatively straight forward - take a chelating agent either orally, intramuscularly, or intravenously, and do that over time until enough of the toxic metals pass out of your body through your urine. Where it gets complicated it the many different methods and inconsistencies regarding what he hears about effectiveness, side effects, and the method and frequency of sampling, testing and monitoring. He says that many of the alternatives carry an out-of-pocket expense of thousands of dollars before he would really know whether or not it's working.

I think there might be others out there that may have also found it difficult and frustrating getting good information about the proper course of action, and even how best to approach this with the insurance companies. He said that the insurance problem is complicated because there is a market for chelation type treatments for people who are taking it for preventative measures or that it is being marketed to people as a way to prolong life. To me, this seems like an ailment that is ripe for abuse by unscrupulous people, so I am worried about him either not getting better and getting ripped off.

My questions are, if this were you, how would you approach getting treatment? What treatments should he avoid? Why would some treatments or testing/monitoring be so expensive and not be covered by insurance? What should he do to limit his out-of-pocket expense?

[Dr Steve]

My brother had nausea, stomach pains and a rash in his mouth. He started noticing difficulty remembering things, saw a doctor and had his blood tested and was determined to have elevated levels of mercury. From there he has spoken to doctors and "therapists" about treatment and has reached out to other people he can find that are suffering from heavy metal poisoning. Though he is a state employee and has decent insurance, he has not gotten much help identifying a treatment that does not require a lot of out-of-pocket expense. From what I understand, the treatment is relatively straight forward - take a chelating agent either orally, intramuscularly, or intravenously, and do that over time until enough of the toxic metals pass out of your body through your urine. Where it gets complicated it the many different methods and inconsistencies regarding what he hears about effectiveness, side effects, and the method and frequency of sampling, testing and monitoring. He says that many of the alternatives carry an out-of-pocket expense of thousands of dollars before he would really know whether or not it's working.

I think there might be others out there that may have also found it difficult and frustrating getting good information about the proper course of action, and even how best to approach this with the insurance companies. He said that the insurance problem is complicated because there is a market for chelation type treatments for people who are taking it for preventative measures or that it is being marketed to people as a way to prolong life. To me, this seems like an ailment that is ripe for abuse by unscrupulous people, so I am worried about him either not getting better and getting ripped off.

My questions are, if this were you, how would you approach getting treatment? What treatments should he avoid? Why would some treatments or testing/monitoring be so expensive and not be covered by insurance? What should he do to limit his out-of-pocket expense?

First, I'd want to know where he got the mercury exposure from; fish is the most common source of dietary mercury. There's not much sense in going through chelation therapy if you're just going to keep exposing yourself to mercury salts.

Elemental mercury (quicksilver) is pretty nontoxic, actually. They used to use it in weights that gastroenterologists used when swallowing devices designed to descend into the GI tract. The thinking was that if the weight broke, all you'd have is a blob of elemental mercury in your colon and you'd be ok. It's the organic salts of mercury that are the really poisonous ones. Dimethyl Mercury is one such molecule. A few drops on the skin can kill you. The mercury in fish is methyl mercury...it works itself up the food chain, finally ending up in our gullets, causing sweating, numbness of the extremities, pink cheek skin, peeling skin, and high blood pressure.

There's this stuff called DMSA that is taken orally and is used for chelation therapy. The theory of chelation is that a molecule "mops up" another atom or molecule that it's attracted to, and presents it to the kidney or liver for elimination.

Mercury poisoning is generally reversible, though prolonged and constant exposure can lead to permanent damage.

If you have a toxicologist in your area, give them a shout and see what's available nearby. or you can check here: http://www.acmt.net/findtoxicologist.html

I hope this helps.


your pal,



steve

[Trindall]

I had never heard of them, the American College of Medical Toxicology. I think finding a good toxicologist is a great idea. Also, your facts on mercury made for good reading. I emailed the info to my brother and asked him to follow up on the thread if he wanted (I hope he does.)

Anyway, I am a big fan of your show. Drop Uncle Dave! Thump his ass good!
Thanks again!

PS Good call not applying Nair to your butt. For the waxing, use a product called Nads (its Austrailian, so I don't think that is a reference to balls, but who knows) or a generic substitiute by Sally Jensen. It's a cold wax that I've used successfully to keep away the dingle berries. If you can endure the pain, which is milder than I expected, it is much better than shaving. It lasts a while and you don't end up with butt stubble.

[Photoshop Mike]

Its such a coincidence that you posted this.. I had Mercury Issues a few weeks ago, My Bottom Lip swelled up so did my lower cheeks. I was working with different chemicals, Mercury was the problem, Cleaned it out of my house, Swelling went away, took some Benadryll.. Im ok now, Googled my symptoms.. got my answer. I was freaked out.. I looked like Don Corleone for 1.5 days, weird stuff.

[Dr Steve]

I had never heard of them, the American College of Medical Toxicology. I think finding a good toxicologist is a great idea. Also, your facts on mercury made for good reading. I emailed the info to my brother and asked him to follow up on the thread if he wanted (I hope he does.)

cool, let me know if I can help in any way.



Anyway, I am a big fan of your show. Drop Uncle Dave! Thump his ass good!
Thanks again!

stay tuned! although tomorrow's show doesn't advance the plot at all, the one on the 18th will; the war is getting ready to heat up and there WILL be collateral damage!



PS Good call not applying Nair to your butt. For the waxing, use a product called Nads (its Austrailian, so I don't think that is a reference to balls, but who knows) or a generic substitiute by Sally Jensen. It's a cold wax that I've used successfully to keep away the dingle berries. If you can endure the pain, which is milder than I expected, it is much better than shaving. It lasts a while and you don't end up with butt stubble

THANK YOU. I will check this stuff out. I'm just afraid if I have my wife do it, she'll never look at me the same way again (only imagining a giant hairy asscrack whenever she looks at me), and I'm horribly embarassed to go to some salon and ask them to wax my disgusting ass hair. I'm in a bind and I promised to do this by next show! aieeeee!



Its such a coincidence that you posted this.. I had Mercury Issues a few weeks ago, My Bottom Lip swelled up so did my lower cheeks. I was working with different chemicals, Mercury was the problem, Cleaned it out of my house, Swelling went away, took some Benadryll.. Im ok now, Googled my symptoms.. got my answer. I was freaked out.. I looked like Don Corleone for 1.5 days, weird stuff.

Mike: f-ing a, bro, go get a mercury level done, willya? just to be safe!

your pal,


steve