Reversing Alzheimer's Disease

Start Thinking for Yourself

The word Alzheimer’s is a catchall like the word schizophrenia. Both names imply multiple etiologies.3 That is the reason, if short term memory is beginning to fail, seeing a really good neurologist for a thorough examination before taking any other action is important. Dr. Abram Hoffer, irrefutably the most informed orthomolecular psychiatrist in North America told me, “If a person who has been exhibiting AD symptomatology can carry on a half way reasonable conversation for five minutes, short term memory loss is reversible.” If your neurologist says otherwise, better find someone else. Your physician might be a friend. Your doctor undoubtedly projects a professional image. But the bottom line is, he or she does not know enough to save your life.

The Role of Mercury in Alzheimer’s Disease

The most common cause of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is due to toxic metal that leaches from mercury-silver amalgam dental fillings and (in combination with chemical and petrochemical poisoning4) causes many other medical complications. Dr. Murray Vimy, a dental researcher from the University of Calgary, Canada, and member of the World Health Organization (WHO) states:

. . .”In a human autopsy study,5 brain tissues from people with AD at death were compared with an age-matched group of control brains from subjects without AD. The only significant difference in metal content between the two groups of brains was mercury, being considerably higher in the AD group. Mercury concentration was prominent in the hippocampus, the amygdala and particularly in the nucleus  basalis, all brain structures involved in memory function.    

. . .”Most recently, our laboratory has demonstrated that ioni mercury and elemental mercury vapor markedly diminished the binding of tubulin polymerization, which is essential for the formation of microtubule in the central nervous system. These studies are direct quantitative evidence for a connection between mercury exposure and neurodegeneration.”

On March 9, 1995, a friend faxed to me her mother’s autopsy report from Mayo Clinic. Her mother died of AD.  The poor woman had 53 times more mercury in her brain than people who die of other causes.    

Addy Defur had lost her short term memory. She was depressed. She had back pain and chronic fatigue. Luckily Addy was still able to read Beating Alzheimer’s and sought out a dental detoxicologist.6 Back pain ceased when her first root canal was extracted. She replaced all of her mercury-silver amalgam fillings, recovered from depression and regained most of her short term memory. She is full of energy. I would had expected that she would need to replace her gas furnace.7    

Doctors are unable to recognize Mercury Poisoning

After the mercury-silver amalgam (and other metals used in dentistry) have been inserted into the patient’s oral cavity, subtle changes in blood chemistry have been observed that point to specific chronic disease, e.g., cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), etc. The difficulty in recognizing the amalgam connection to chronic disease is that clinical symptoms are not present until the patient’s immune system collapses. Clinical symptoms might not be apparent for three days, three weeks, three months or 30 years. In addition, physicians are not trained to recognize the subclinical signs of chronic low level mercurial poisoning. Goodman and Gilman’s 1990 eighth edition of the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics says, “With very few exceptions, mercury poisoning is most often not diagnosed in patients because of the insidious onset of the affliction, vagueness of early clinical signs, and the medical profession’s unfamiliarity with the disease.”    

To confuse the issue, other medical conditions cause short term memory loss. To name a few, these include, diabetes, an electrolyte imbalance,9 malabsorption due to celiac disease, Pyroluria, low stomach acid, and in particular, cerebral allergic reactions to foods, food colorings, food additives (particularly MSG and NutraSweet), pharmaceutical medications, alcoholism and chemical contamination.  I have found that neurologists talk a lot about laboratory tests necessary to uncover the cause of the patient’s memory loss. So far, I have not found one geriatric Alzheimer’s sufferer who was given more than a cursory examination. It appears that many older patients exhibiting signs of short term memory loss are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, sent to a psychiatrist, and administered psychotropic medications to control their behavior.    

Mercury does not normally exist in the human body. It enters through ingestion from dental fillings, seafood and is absorbed as a byproduct of chemical processes and drug products. Patrick Störtebecker MD Ph.D., deceased, the world renowned neurologist and writer from Stockholm, Sweden, wrote in his book Mercury Poisoning from Dental Amalgam-a Hazard to Human Brain, “Dental amalgam is a highly unstable metal that easily gives off mercury vapor. The most dangerous route for transport of mercury vapor, being released from dental amalgams, is from the mucous membranes of the upper nasal cavity and directly upwards to the brain where mercury vapor easily penetrates the dura mater.10 Mercury (vapor) can act in a much stronger concentration straight on the brain cells.”11    

Dr. Dan Kangan and Dr. P.L. Fan of the ADA found blood samples of people who have one amalgam filling average .07 nanogram (one billionth of a gram) of mercury in each gram of blood. This equals the equivalent of 21 trillion atoms of mercury circulating in each gram of blood and is enough mercury to destroy 21 trillion molecules of the amino-acid cysteine. The destruction of each molecule of cysteine destroys one nerve cell of the brain. The destruction of 21 trillion nerve cells in the brain would be capable of producing some evidence of psychotic behavior.    

The brain succumbs to mercury’s ravages more readily than other tissues. Methylmercury penetrates brain membranes that bar most other poisons. First it damages the organ without appreciable loss of cells (insert) then erodes whole pockets of tissue. James Stanfield and Robert Madden,  National Geographic “Quicksilver and Slow Death,” October 1972

Dr. Boyd Hayley, professor of medical biochemistry at the University of Kentucky, says: “While I would not want to make the statement that mercury causes Alzheimer’s, there is no doubt in my mind that low levels of mercury present in the brain causes neuro cell death and could lead to dementia similar to AD. To the best that we can determine, mercury is a time bomb in the brain waiting to have an effect. If it is not bothering someone when they are young, especially when they age, it can turn into something quite bad.”    

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, Industrial Safety and Health Division (WISHA), will close down any dental office in the state when mercury vapor contamination exceeds 50 micrograms (mcgs) per liter of air. I had 28 mercury-silver amalgam fillings. A conservative estimate is that each amalgam filling out-gasses two to 10 mcgs (estimate six mcgs) of mercury vapor in 24 hours. The mercury vapor levels in my mouth exceeded WISHA regulations by three times for more than 35 years (six mcgs times 28 fillings =168 mcgs). In other words, the levels of mercury vapor in my mouth, two inches from my brain, would have closed any dental office or manufacturing plant in Washington State.    

The World Health Organization has determined that two-thirds of all the mercury to which humans are exposed comes from our mercury-silver amalgam fillings. A past president of the American Toxicology Society told me, “We have known about the toxicity of dental amalgam for years. We teach it to our students. The use of amalgam is an economic-political decision. Don’t blame the doctors.” The Toxicology Society has published dozens of research papers about mercury’s toxicity. Until now, the ADA has had the economic and political power to thwart their revelations.