Re:Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Heavy Metal Toxicity>Margaret

[Guest guest]

Here it is pasted in from the Word document. I've seen countless

people get much better or completely get rid of fibromyalgia when they

get rid of toxic metals:

Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Heavy Metal Toxicity

Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D.

Introduction:

Fibromyalgia has found its firm place in the spectrum of pain

disorders in the mid 1980s after Goldenberg1 established the major

criteria for diagnosis, which subsequently were further refined by the

American College of Rheumatology2. These include:

1. At least 11 of 18 specific tender points (in the absence of

tenderness of other randomly chosen points) in 3 out of 5 possible

body regions: 1. Left side of body 2. Right side 3. Above waist 4.

Below waist 5. Axial skeleton - often combined with morning stiffness

(78%)

2. Mild depression

3. Disturbed sleep (73%)

4. Fatigue (85%)

5. Increased inability to cope with life's normal chores

6. Absence of elevation of sedimentation rate

7. Absence of other demonstrable pathology

An estimated three to six million patients in the US are affected by FMS3

The goal of treatment has been to establish normal sleep cycles

through the use of low dose sleeping medication to boost the body's

level of serotonin, and reducing pain through either NSAIDS or

complimentary modalities such as exercise, physical therapy,

relaxation techniques, massage, and biofeedback3.

In recent years it has been more and more obvious that fibromyalgia is

a syndrome, not a disease, with many possible underlying and/or

contributing causes. Based on new concepts of the illness other names

were suggested such as " Dysregulation Spectrum Syndrome " (DSS). 4

Amongst the causal factors discussed currently are the following:

1. Hormonal abnormalities - most common5:

a) Subclinical adrenal failure

Subclinical hypothyroidism

2. Nutritional causes (magnesium deficiency, deficiency of

aminoacid-neuropeptide precursors etc.) 6

3. Systemic toxicity7 (petrochemicals, organophosphates and chlorines,

heavy metals)

4. Psycho-emotional problems8 (unresolved conflicts, post-traumatic

stress)

5. Structural problems (whiplash injury, craniosacral dysfunction,

" osteopathic lesions " )

6. Environmental stress9 (underground water lines, electro-smog)

7. Idiopathic/genetic10

Heavy Metal Toxicity:

In most of today's toxicological literature the term " heavy metal " is

used interchangeably with the term " toxic metal " . In this paper we

will discuss heavy metal toxicity as a common co-factor in FMS. The

experience shared here was gained in running a multidisciplinary pain

clinic from 1984 - 1996 (author D.K.). In addition to the standard

intake interview and exam, careful attention was given to historical

data suggesting toxic exposure in the past. Since the major source of

mercury body burden (in patients that did not have professional

exposure or extreme exposure from eating contaminated fish such as in

Minamata, Japan) is from dental amalgam fillings11, 12, we also used a

dental questionnaire and dental evaluation in the standard work-up of

our chronic pain population. The average amalgam filling contains 50%

metallic mercury, which gradually is released from the filling over

many years16. We also utilized dental panorama x-rays in every

patient, assessing the number of root filled teeth, the number and

size of radiolucent jawbone areas (infections or NICO lesions13 and

the number and quality of dental fillings, onlays, crowns and bridges.

It soon became clear, that there was a direct relationship between

chronic pain syndromes and poor dental status. Recently a high

correlation has been found between poor dental status and coronary

heart disease in a study of 9760 US veterans14. Research at the

University of Kentucky showed clearly that jaw bone infections and

devitalized teeth contain toxins that are more noxious then hydrogen

sulfide (H2S) and lead to the destruction of at least 5 essential

enzymes in the CNS15. Silver amalgam fillings give off substantial

amounts of mercury vapor from the moment they are placed, which is

absorbed to over 80 % by the mucous membranes of the oral cavity and

lungs15. Mercury is lipophilic and has long been recognized as a

potent neurotoxin17. It has been suggested as a possible cofactor in

chronic pain syndromes for many years. From these reports it appeared

reasonable to suspect, that some cases of FMS are caused by either

infections in the oral cavity and/or by mercury toxicity. Other metals

are also known as neurotoxins, amongst them lead, cadmium and aluminum.

Diagnosis:

Lead toxicity can be diagnosed with a simple inexpensive test (hair

analysis). Therefore it has been given more attention by researchers

worldwide then the equally important toxicity from other metals.

Aluminum, cadmium and mercury toxicity is clinically diagnosed today

by using a " challenge test " : an appropriate complexing or chelating

agent is given orally or injected intravenously followed by a 6 or 24

hour urine collection. The specimen is then examined in the laboratory

for the presence of the metal in question18.

In the years 1990-1991 we examined 10 consecutive FMS patients. The

diagnosis of FMS was made prior to referral to our clinic by

physicians in the orthopedic/rheumatology community and confirmed by

us using the criteria outlined above. We excluded hypothyroidism by

using the following lab tests: free T3, free T4 and TSH. Hypoadrenia

was ruled out by obtaining a 24-hour urine hormone panel or saliva

panel. Patients with a significant motor vehicle accident or trauma

history were excluded. 7 patients were women, 3 were men (average age

of 44.2 years).

Method:

Initially each patient received an injection with DMPS

(Di-Methyl-Sulfonyl-Methane), 3 mg/kg slow iv., followed by a 24-hour

urine collection and analysis for toxic metals. DMPS is currently the

safest complexing agent available with the widest range of

applications. It is most effective for copper, zinc, arsenic, mercury,

lead and cadmium. If the test showed high levels of a toxic metal,

the same injection was given once a month and the progress monitored

with a simple pain drawing and self rating of the patients condition:

no improvement - moderate improvement - good improvement and

resolution of pain condition.

DMPS was first introduced in Russia in the late 1960s as a further

chemical development from BAL (British Anti ite) and is used

today in all Western countries (except the US, where no agent is

listed in the PDR for this purpose) as the preferred agent to

stimulate the excretion of mercury and lead. It is quite ineffective

for aluminum toxicity. DMPS is FDA approved as a compounding agent to

be used by custom compounding pharmacists for the use of individual

patients in need for it.

We discontinued the injections, when

1. The patient had complete resolution of their FMS symptoms

2. With consecutive injections there was no further clinical improvement

3. All metals in the urinalysis dropped to normal levels.

Since normal levels for mercury were not known at the time, we

established our limit at 4 micrograms of mercury per gram of urinary

creatinine based on our clinical experience (we would often see

clinical improvement, when levels dropped from above to below 4

micrograms of Hg/gram of creatinine. We rarely saw a clinical

improvement when treating a patient who on consecutive injections had

a level of 4 or less micrograms of mercury/gram of creatinine).

By comparing the results of the urine test with the information from

the intake exam we tried to establish the possible source(s) of

exposure to the metal(s) found.

To trace the exposure to toxic metals was not always easy: a zirconium

toxic patient was working as a sales clerk in a suede-clothing store.

Suede leather is made by exposing the leather to zirconium (in the old

days mercury was used for this purpose) which starts to evaporate when

the clothes are hung in a store or at home in the closet. The patient

had to stop working in the store before her urine-levels began started

to drop. The cadmium exposures we discovered were clearly linked to

smoking and automobile exhaust. The aluminum toxicity was from the tap

water the affected patient was drinking.

Following the basic rule of toxicology " remove the source of exposure "

each patient was asked to act on the findings and avoid further toxic

exposure, no matter how difficult, expensive and inconvenient this may

be.

If the patient had amalgam fillings a dentist skilled in the removal

procedure removed them. The fillings were replaced by biocompatible

metal free fillings and/or metal-free crown and bridgework.

Findings:

• Average number of root canal filled teeth/per patient: 2.4 (0-8)

• Average number of suspected jaw bone lesions (infections, NICO

lesions, sclerosis): 4.3 (2-10)

• Average number of " silver fillings " : 7.6 (0-16). 2 patients had no

silver fillings at the time of our intake exam, but had them for many

years before they were removed. However, both showed extremely high

levels of mercury in the initial test.

• Elevated urine levels for one (or more) toxic metal after initial

challenge injection: 9 of 10 patients ( some patients showed more then

one toxic metal)

• Mercury: 7 of 10 (15-2900 micrograms of Hg/ gram of creatinine)

• Lead: 3 of 10

• Cadmium: 1 of 10

• Aluminum: 1 of 10

• Zirconium: 1 of 10

The one patient that did not have elevated metal levels decided to

continue on the once/month DMPS regime, since she felt better after

the first injection. On her 3rd treatment, she started to show

significantly elevated mercury levels, which did not drop until after

the 6th treatment.

Clinical results:

• All but one of the patients with FMS improved.

• Within 6 months 5 patients experienced complete disappearance of

their symptoms.

• Three patients had " good " improvement. Two of these patients had

complete disappearance of their symptoms after removal of the root

filled teeth, which was done between four and nine months after begin

of treatment.

• One patient stayed completely unchanged during the initial

observation period of six months but improved dramatically with

continuation of the injections. Another patient felt quite ill after

each DMPS injection (nausea, G.I. upset) and was switched to another

complexing agent (DMSA, 10 mg /kg body weight in three divided doses,

three days on, 11 days off). With this regime the patient had no

significant side effects and improved to " good improvement " within

seven months.

• One patient showed initially only elevated aluminum levels. He was

treated with Desferal (500 mg, given once/month s.c.) for 4 months,

before urinary mercury levels became elevated. At that time we

switched to DMPS, which resolved the FMS symptoms within 5 months

• Average number of treatments to " good improvement " : seven.

• Average number of treatments for entire course: 11 (4-23).

Conclusion:

This small subgroup of FMS patients had a dramatic response to

minimizing their exposure to toxic metals and reducing their toxic

metal body burden. Since there is no healthy control group the results

could not be compared statistically. This pilot study suggests

however, that heavy metal toxicity should be considered as a possible

cause or co-factor in fibromyalgia syndrome.

Outlook:

We suspected, that FMS in these patients is a reflection of heavy

metal contamination of the limbic system and that FMS is a limbic

system disorder, as suggested by other researchers 19. However, when

we performed trigger point injections in selected patients in an

unpublished follow-up study using a mix of DMPS and procaine, we found

clearly elevated levels of urinary metal excretion in the triggerpoint

injected group as compared to the group only injected intravenously.

This suggests that in FMS not only the limbic system but also the

muscle and connective tissue itself is toxic, and further research

should be directed to this issue.

Many years have gone by since these early observations; hundreds of

FMS patients have been treated with our approach. The results and

conclusions presented in this paper have held up over time. Our

approach has been modified however. Today we use autonomic response

testing (ART) as a diagnostic procedure developed by one of the

authors (D.K), which helps to predict non-invasively where in the body

which metals are stored and which detoxifying agent would be most

suitable for a particular patient or problem20. We found that

physical21 and/or emotional scars22 can be a significant handicap to

detoxification. We also found that any degree of heavy metal

contamination of connective tissue and the intracellular environment

fosters the growth of microorganisms - viruses, bacteria, mycoplasms

and fungi. Simultaneous treatment of the infection results in faster

and more complete metal detoxification and more rapid and complete

resolution of symptoms 23,24.

References:

1. DL Goldenberg: " Fibromyalgia Syndrome a Decade Later: What have we

Learned? " Archives of Internal Medicine: (1960), 1999, 159 (8) 777-785

2. Wolk: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Fibromyalgia (May 1999)

[internet URL: http://ohr2.systoc.com/CMEcourses/wolk/index.htm]

3. " Fibromyalgia syndrome " . The Nursing Clinics of North-America J ,

1998, 33 (4) vii, 653-669

4. FMS Monograph: " An Overview of the Fundamental Features of

Fibromyalgia Syndrome " (1999 Edition). Fibromyalgia Association of

Greater Washington, Inc., 13203 Valley Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22191.

Website: www.fmagw.org. [web URL:

http://www.abcjb.com/fm/features_of_fibromyalgia_syndrom.htm]

5. ph Teitelbaum: " The Treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome " Lecture

at American College for Advancement in Medicine, Reno, NV, October 1999.

6. RM : " Emerging Concepts in the Neurobiology of Chronic Pain:

Evidence of Abnormal Sensory Processing in Fibromyalgia " Journal: Mayo

Clinic Proceedings, 1999, 74 (4) 385-398

7. D. Klinghardt: " Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia & Environmental

Illness " . Pp. 200-205. Future Medicine Publishing, Inc., Tiburon, CA.

1998.

8. D. Klinghardt: " Lehrbuch der Psychokinesiologie " Verlag Hermann

Bauer, Freiburg, Germany, 1996.

9. D. Aschoff, MD, Ph.D.: " Biophysical and Geopathic Stress and

Chronic Pain Syndromes " Lecture at Medicine Week, Baden-Baden, Nov.1992.

10. LM Breau et al: " Review of Juvenile Primary Fibromyalgia and

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ Pediatric Pain: New Directions from a

Developmental Perspective " Canadian Journal of Developmental and

Behavioral Pediatrics, 1999, 20 (4)

11.U.S.Department of Health and Human Services: " Toxicological Profile

for Mercury " , Aug.1997, Atlanta

12. F. Lorscheider, M. Vimy, A. Summers: " Mercury Exposure from

" Silver " Tooth Fillings: Emerging Evidence Questions a Traditional

Dental Paradigm " FASEB J.9, 504-508 (1995)

13. JE Bouquot, A , P Person, J Christian: " NICO

(Neuralgia-Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis): Osteomyelitis in 224

Jawbone Samples from Patients with Facial Neuralgias " . Oral Surg Oral

Med Oral Pathol 1992, 73:307-319

14. W Loesche, A Schork, M Terpenning et al: " Assessing the

Relationship Between Dental Disease and Coronary Heart Disease in

Elderly U.S. Veterans " JADA, Vol.129, March 1998

15. B Haley: " Jaw Infections, Root Filled Teeth and Tubulin

Destruction " Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Australiasian

Society of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Sydney, Australia, Sept.

1998. Contact ALT, Univ. of Kentucky tel.: 606-257 2300 ext.291

16. Vimy, J.M, and F.E. Lorscheider: " Intra-Oral Air Mercury Released

From Dental Amalgam " . J. Dent. Research 64,8, 1069-1071 (1985)

17. Pendergass and Haley: " Mercury and its Effects on Effects on

Environment and Biology " In: Metal Ions in Biological Systems V, 34,

pp. 661-478, 1997. Marcel Dekker, Inc, NY, NY

18. Aposhian, HV et al: " Human Studies with the Chelating Agents DMPS

and DMSA " . J Toxicol Clin Toxicol (1992) 30 (4): 503-28

19. J Goldstein " Chronic Fatigue Syndromes: The Limbic Hypothesis "

Haworth Medical Press, N.Y.(1993)

20. D. Klinghardt: " Using the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test to Detect

Dysfunction in the Autonomic Nervous System " Lecture at Columbia

University at the 14th International Symposium on Acupuncture and

Electro-Therapeutics Oct 22, 1998

21 D Klinghardt: " Neural Therapy " J Neurol Orthop Surg (1993) 14: 109-114

22 D. Klinghardt: " Psychological Factors in Chronic Pain: An

Introduction to Psychosomatic Pain Management " : Lecture Syllabus/

Annual Meeting of the Am Acad of Orthop Med, Feb.1997, Orlando, Fl

(reprints available at 206-721 3231)

23 D Klinghardt: " Amalgam/Mercury Detox as a Treatment for Chronic

Viral, Bacterial and Fungal Illnesses " J Explore! Vol 8, Number 3,

1997, Mt Vernon, WA (reprints: 206-721 3231)

24 D Klinghardt: " Heavy Metals and Chronic Diseases " J Explore!

Article accepted for publication 1/00, to be published spring 00

(reprints: 206-721 3231)

>

> I can not open this web site as it is in Word. Can anyone copy it and

> either send it to me or make another type of file?

> Thanks

> Margaret

>

> Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Heavy Metal Toxicity

> (_http://www.neuralthhttp://wwwhttp://www.neurahttp://www_

> (http://www.neuraltherapy.com/FibromyalgiaHeavyMetal.doc) )

> Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D.

>