Mercury and autism

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gprobertson@... wrote:

> i think that if there are more neurones, messages to the brain will

> be passed faster. that would account for sensory sensitivities.

> people with the most accelerated neurone growth would be the ones

> most overwhelmed by sensory issues.

Indeed, that is what seems to be indicated in the study.

> i think mercury toxicity can cause behaviours that could be mistaken

> for autism, and those are the children who are " cured " by chelation.

>

Now, there is a caveat here that I have yet to see explained in some of

the studies I have read regarding chelation of autistic kids. The most

common chelating agents, DMSA and DPMS, if I got the names right (that

second one does not look right), do not cross the blood-brain baffier.

If they are given by themselves, as they often are, no affect will be

seen on the brain. Adding alpha-lipoic (I suspect that is spelled

wrong, but I am too lazy to look it up) acid to the mix may correct some

of that, but the studies I have read used one or the other of D???

chelators, and claimed improvement. Obviously, if that really is the

case, the cause for the improvement was not the clearing of mercury from

the brain (where autism takes place). It may be that chelating agents

are strong antioxidants, similar to a vitamin. It may also be that the

improvement seen is the placebo effect in the people rating the subject,

or it is possible that the improvement was going to happen anyway. Or,

it is possible that something totally different, something we cannot

imagine, is taking place. But we do know that what is NOT taking place

is clearing mercury from the brain. That does not happen with the D???

chelators.

> i also think that there are autistic people who are also mercury

> toxic. they can have sensory issues alleviated, but autistic they

> stay. in addition, there are probably autistic people who are not

> mercury toxic. chelation is not going to help them at all. actually,

> there is a possibility that it could make them sick.

Mercuty is a weird substance. Some of it gets passed out of the body,

but a lot of it ends up locked in the cells in the body of the person,

to remain there permanently (which in this case means for the life of

the cell). Some of those cells will be neurons, which will be

demyelinized, as you say. I saw a film of a neuron that was exposed to

organic mercury in a petri dish, and in time lapse, you can see it

shrivel. The toxic effect upon neurons is real and demonstrable.

In most cases, neurons do not regenerate, meaning that the damage to the

neuron is permanent, whether or not the mercury is there. So while

there will be some benefit to clearing the mercury, it will not undo

everything by chelating it out of there. There will be a lot of cells

that remain damaged even if all the mercury is removed (which will never

be the case). In fact, there is a risk also of freeing up the mercury

from already-damaged cells and having some of it redeposit into healthy

cells. In chelation, there is some mercury that will be freed from

cells and will deposit randomly into other cells before it can be

excreted. This can cause a number of previously-undamaged cells to

become damaged as a result of the chelation.

This is also a problem with the whole body. Mercury that is safely

bound in muscle cells and other non-neuronal cells may, upon being freed

up, redeposit into neuronal cells, in the brain or otherwise. Just

because the chelating agent cannot get into the brain does not mean that

the mercury it frees from the body cannot. If anyone has any more info

about this, please let me know; this is something I have wondered about.

This is not to say that chelation is never a good idea... just that it

is not the panacea that a lot of the CAN folks seem to think it is. It

is an inherently risky operation that should not be entered into

lightly. It scares me that quacks like Dr. Bradstreet are out there

chelating kids like he was giving them candy.

> i am mercury toxic. very. i played with mercury from a broken

> thermometer as a child. i have been very close to a fluorescent tube

> when it shattered. I did not know that there was a problem with

> mercury at the time. i worked in a seed testing laboratory where

> seeds were dusted with mercury powder. we did not wear masks and

> handled the seeds without gloves. probably the least of my worries

> is thimersol.

I am sure you absorbed hundreds of times more mercury from those other

sources than from your vaccines.