Susceptibility factors
in mercury toxicity: immune reactivity, detoxification system function,
enzymatic blockages, synergistic exposures. B. Windham(Ed.)
It
is well documented in the medical literature that the major factors in mercury
toxicity effects in addition to dose
are susceptibility factors like immune
reactivity(1,2), degree of other toxic exposures and synergisms(3,15), systemic detoxification ability based on
blood allele type(4,15) or metallothionein
function(5), sulfur detoxification deficiencies(6), or other inhibited
enzymatic processes related to detoxification(7-10) . It has been shown that such susceptibility
factors can play a larger role in effects than dose among a population with
significant exposure to mercury and at extremely low levels of exposure.
Those with the genetic allele ApoE4 protein
in the blood have been found to detox metals poorly
and to be much more genetically susceptible to chronic neurological conditions
than those with types ApoE2 or E3(4,11,15). Researchers have shown that genetic carriers of the brain protein APO
E2 are protected against Alzheimer's disease (AD) whereas genetic carriers of
the APO E4 genotype are at enhanced risk factor for developing AD. APO E
proteins are synthesized in the brain with the assigned physiological task of
carrying waste material from the brain to the cerebrospinal fluid, across the
blood brain barrier into the plasma where the material is cleared by the liver.
The biochemical difference between APO E2 and APO E4 is that APO E2 has two
additional thiol groups, capable of binding and
removing mercury (and ethyl mercury) that APO E4 does not have. The second
highest concentration of APO E proteins is in the cerebrospinal fluid.
Therefore, the protective effects of APO E2 is due to its ability to protect
the brain from exposure to oxidants like mercury and ethyl mercury by binding
these toxicants in the cerebrospinal fluid and keeping them from entering the
brain.
Recent studies found that prenatal mercury exposures
from mother’s amalgams and other sources along with susceptibility factors such
as ability to excrete mercury appear to be major factors in those with chronic
neurological conditions like autism(11,15,20). Infants whose mothers received prenatal Rho D immunoglobulin injections containing mercury
thimerosal for RH factor or whose mother’s had high levels of amalgam fillings
had a much higher incidence of autism.
While the hair test levels of mercury of infants without chronic health
conditions like autism were positively correlated with the number of the
mother’s amalgam fillings, vaccination thimerosal exposure, and mercury from
fish, the hair test levels of those with chronic neurological conditions such
as autism were much lower than the levels of controls and those with the most
severe effects had the lowest hair test levels, even though they had high body
mercury levels. This is consistent with
past experience of those treating children with autism and
other chronic neurological conditions(12).
Large studies of U.S. dentists and dental
assistants have found that mercury level in urine is significantly associated
with neurological dysfunction using several different measures, but that those with a polymorphism in blood heme (CPOX4) or to a polymorphism in neurofactor
(BDNF) were more susceptible to neurological effects(19).
Studies
have documented that prenatal mercury exposure causes lasting effects that
causes increased susceptibility to future toxic exposures. The effects of
chronic, low-dose fetal and lactational organic (MeHgCl) and inorganic (HgCl2) mercury intoxication on
epilepsy/seizures were investigated and compared in rats and were found to have
significant correlations between seizure susceptibility and cortical mercury level(16) Inorganic mercury exposure facilitated the
duration of seizure discharges in younger animals and appeared to be more
permanent than methyl mercury exposure.
Another researcher had similar findings for infants(17).
A
study of children of mothers consuming a marine diet which exposes them to
mercury, found that there are significant cardiovascular effects as birth
mercury blood level increases from 1 microgram per liter to 10 ug/L(a), as well as effects on
ability to respond to sensory stimuli in exposed children later in life(18). Children with lower
birth weights experienced blood pressure increases about 50% higher than normal
birth weight children having similar mercury levels. At seven years of age, clear dose-response
relationships were observed for deficits in attention, language, and memory(b). Thus a levels of
exposure below current Government health safety limits, mercury is documented
to have significant cardiovascular effects and the recommended limit for
mercury has been decreased from the former limit of 10 ug/L
in blood.
The mechanisms by which low level
chronic mercury exposure causes over 30 chronic health conditions such as those
looked at in this review are well documented in the literature; and the fact
that those treated for mercury toxicity usually recover after treatment is also
well documented by many dozens of medical studies in the literature and
thousands of clinical cases(13). Some of the
autoimmune conditions commonly caused by immune reactivity to mercury
include chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS), fibromyalgia, lupus, rheumatoid
arthritis, Parkinson’s,
multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotropic lateral
sclerosis(ALS), depression, autism, ADHD, eczema, asthma, etc.
(14,1,2,hyperlinks).
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