Mercury is especially damaging to fetuses and infants as their nervous systems are only just developing.  A very common cause of mercury exposure in infants is from vaccines that contain thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that is 50% mercury, and with the aggressive immunization schedule suggested for infants, the cumulative dose of thimerosal becomes quite high (the flu vaccine alone that is given to infants has more mercury in it than is allowable under the EPA standards!)   The mercury in these vaccines has been linked to autism.  Thankfully, because of the outcry, thimerosal is slowly being taken out of vaccines, but it is by no means gone, so be careful of what is being injected into your baby.   Mercury is not the only problem with the infant vaccination schedule - more on this in a future tip, but for the sake of your baby under the age of two, please see the user-friendly vaccination schedule published on Dr. Mercola's website for more information about this extremely important topic.

Lately we have been hearing news about how much of the fish we eat is now toxic due to high levels of mercury from the polluted waterways in which they swim.   Many sushi restaurants in California were recently tested, and the fish in many instances were found to have dangerously high levels of mercury - especially the tuna.  If you eat a lot of fish, use this mercury calculator to check your dosage, and perhaps switch to less toxic fish.  This is especially important for pregnant women and infants.  Remember that cooking the fish does not get rid of the mercury.  It is sad that fish are now so polluted that they border on dangerous to eat, as most of us get far too few of the omega 3 fatty acids that fish can provide.   For this reason, it is a good idea to get your omega 3s from fish oil supplements, as they generally have been cleaned of mercury.

In the grand scheme of things, the mercury poisoning from fish is minor compared to the mercury that gets into our systems from metal fillings in the mouth.  The average amalgam filling has 750,000 micrograms of mercury and releases about 10 micrograms a day.  Mercury vapor constantly leaks from silver or gold amalgams and crowns, and even more so when the person chews, or puts something hot in their mouth, like tea, coffee or hot food.  The mercury is inhaled, goes up the olfactory nerve to the hippocampus in the brain where it effects memory.  It is believed by some that amalgam fillings are heavily implicated in Alzheimer's disease.   Mercury also spreads throughout the body, causing degenerative problems in the nervous system and causing organs, particularly the kidneys, to function less optimally.  Please see the video The smoking teeth, and see the mercury vapor coming off a 25 year old amalgam, as well as the studies done on sheep and monkeys that examined where and how quickly mercury from their fillings infiltrated their systems.  Notice how the mercury got into the fetus, and into the mother's milk.  If you have metal amalgams or crowns in your mouth, particularly if Alzheimer's disease exists in your family, a precautionary measure may be to see a biological dentist that has been trained to remove these fillings without exposing you, the dental assistants or him/herself to the vapors, and get them out of your mouth as soon as possible.  If you have metal amalgams in your mouth, or you work in a dental office and are exposed to metal amalgams on a regular basis, take chlorella daily, a seaweed that is known to be very good at removing heavy metals from the body.

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Pichichero, ME et al. Blood mercury levels in infants receiving thimerosal-containing vaccines Abstract 1385 Pediatric Res 49(4):243A, 2001.
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Burton, Dan, Congressman, Congressional Record, May 21, 2003, Pages E1012-E1030
online: The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
online: Autism declines when mercury vaccines banned at www.autismcoach.com
online: Mercury, vaccines and medicine at www.mercola.com
online: Mercury on the mind at www.mercola.com