Mercury and Cancer – Research and Dental Amalgams

Dr. Rashid Buttar testified before congress that “the association of mercury to chronic diseases is well documented in the didactic scientific literature. The search for the association between mercury and cardiovascular disease reveals 358 scientific papers exemplifying the relationship; between mercury and cancer we find 643 scientific papers. The association of mercury with neurodegenerative diseases is the most significant, with the references numbering 1,445.” The official position currently is that there is “some” evidence that methylmercury can cause cancer in humans.  The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified methylmercury as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.

Lead and aluminum are other common heavy metals that have been shown to dramatically increase the toxicity of mercury. Interestingly, lead is the final end product of the step by step radioactive decay of uranium, no wonder it’s so toxic. Medical researchers are still trying to understand the numerous processes by which various heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, etc.) contribute to carcinogenesis but everywhere in officialdom we find ridiculous doubts about their effects especially when it comes to mercury and its high state of toxicity.

It has been shown that mercury rapidly depletes the immune system. Mercury has also been shown to induce auto-immune diseases. Anything that depletes and disturbs the immune system will increase one’s chances of contracting cancer. Mercury binds with hemoglobin, which is responsible for oxygen transport to the tissues. This results in less oxygen reaching the tissues when the body is polluted with mercury. We don’t have to look far in understanding how a heavy metal like mercury can eventually lead one to cancer’s door.

“There is no safe level of mercury, and no one has actually shown that there is a safe level,” said Dr. Lars Friberg, Chief Adviser to the WHO on mercury safety. The Surviving Cancer Compendium (2,500 pages), has an extensive section on chemical and heavy metal poisoning because mercury toxicity needs to be factored into all notions of health and disease today. According to the observations made by the internationally recognized medical researcher, Yoshiaki Omura, MD, all cancer cells have mercury in them.

Dr. Hans Nolte wrote, “The wave spectrum of mercury contains more than thirteen wavelengths, whereas only one or two frequencies or wavelengths are usually observed for the other heavy or noble metals.”[1] It is Dr. Nolte’s belief that the many harmful effects of mercury could be explained to some degree on the basis of this great variety of wavelengths. Dr. Omura’s clinical observation concludes that one of the primary reasons cancer returns is because residual mercury reignites a pathological environment even after surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and alternative therapies report a positive effect.

Heavy metals clog up receptor sites, break and bend sulfur bonds in important enzymes like insulin, damage the DNA and in general muck up everything and anything to do with healthy biological life.

There is a growing body of scientific research that suggests heavy metals contribute to carcinogenesis by inducing/increasing oxidative stress.[2] Oxidative stress damages DNA and can lead to mutations which promote cancer.[3],[4],[5] Heavy metals also disrupt the process of Apoptosis (programmed cell death).[6] Apoptosis is vital for safe removal of sick/unhealthy cells, including cells that may become cancerous.

Heavy metals create contaminated environments both inside and outside the cells. These environments attract all kinds of pathogens – viruses, bacteria and fungi. Some say many cancers are caused by infections others say cancer is an infection and others will insist until they reach their graves that cancer is strictly human cells running amuck with their DNA gone crazy. That many doctors believe this it does not make it true.

Our definition of cancer is a little more broad minded than blaming malfunctioning human DNA as the sole cause of cancer. Cancer is a prime example of how heavy metal toxicity, free radical damage, pathogen infection, mineral and vitamin deficiencies, inflammation, mitochondria dysfunction, immune system depression, genetic mutation, cell wall damage and oxidative stress all come together into an end stage life threatening condition. Cancer treatment can be approached in many ways but the best way would be to address all these problems simultaneously.

Cancer and Mercury Laden Dental Amalgam

Most of our cancer patients have a lot of amalgam dental fillings.
– Professor W Kostler

Mercury vapors in the mouth which spreads mercury to all points in the body, increased use of antibiotics, periodontal disease, inappropriate oral care, yeast and fungal overgrowth, and decreasing immune strength are all colliding and reinforcing each other in a downward spiral that leads to chronic diseases and cancer. Each year in the U.S. an estimated 40 tons of mercury are used to prepare mercury-amalgam dental restorations. Scientific studies have concluded that the amalgam is the source for more than two thirds of the mercury in our human population. On a daily basis each amalgam releases on the order of 10 micrograms of mercury into the body. This mercury either accumulates in the body or is excreted via urine and feces into our wastewater systems.

Mercury from amalgam fillings has been shown to be neurotoxic, embryotoxic, mutagenic, teratogenic, immunotoxic and clastogenic. It is capable of causing immune dysfunction and auto-immune diseases.
– Dr. Robert Gammal

Dentists and their parent dental associations are loath to inform patients that the mercury they place in the mouth is a deadly poison that negatively influences not only their oral environments but total body physiology as well. This is a shame that the majority of dentists will take to their grave. “Mercury is one of the most potent chemical inhibitors of thiol-sensitive enzymes and mercury vapour easily penetrates into the central nervous system,” writes Dr. Boyd Haley who goes on to say, “Amalgams leak mercury, this is a fact that any chemistry department can confirm. We have made amalgam fillings outside of the mouth, placed these fillings in sterile water for 15 minutes to several hours. We then tested this water for toxicity to tubulin and creatine kinase. The result was that the solutions in which amalgams were soaked (even for fifteen minutes) were extremely toxic. This work is supported by reports doing similar experiments at the University of Michigan Dental School where they described solutions in which amalgams were soaked as being ‘extremely cytotoxic.’

It is estimated that an amalgam filling will release up to half of its mercury content over a ten year period (50% corrosion rate).
– Dr. Robert Gammal

Dr. Hal A. Huggins stated that amalgam fillings can devastate human health. The most common form of exposure to mercury is by inhalation of vapor and there is widespread general agreement that this leads to a slowly developing and insidious poisoning, which at first yields psychic and other general effects that are vague and difficult to diagnose. Yet dentists have continued to expose children to the toxic effects of mercury.

Periodontitis, Mercury and Candida

According to an article recently published in the Archives of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, chronic periodontitis is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer of the tongue among men. Researchers at the University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute have found the same thing. Another recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute linked periodontal disease to pancreatic cancer as well. “Our study provides the first strong evidence that periodontal disease may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer,” said Dr Dominique Michaud of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, who led the research. Men with a history of periodontal disease had a 64 per cent increased risk of pancreatic cancer than men with no such history.

And increased severity of periodontitis, for example with recent tooth loss, had the greatest risk. People with periodontal disease have an increased level of inflammatory markers such as C reactive protein (CRP) in their blood. These markers are part of an early immune system response to persistent inflammation and have been linked to the development of pancreatic cancer. It is the high levels of carcinogenic compounds (especially mercury) that are present in the mouths of people with periodontal disease that increases risk of pancreatic cancer.

Mercury is invisible in vapor form. The FDA says it’s everywhere. People with mercury fillings suffer VAPORS FROM HELL in their mouths, fumes from their mercury dental fillings that rise up from their teeth 24/7 with more powerful bursts when chewing or drinking hot fluids. Mercury vapors play havoc on the body through a host of means the least of which is to feed the bacteria, fungi and yeasts that thrive on mercury. Mercury will promote the growth of Candida, though as it adsorbs the mercury it thereby protects the system to a certain extent from its toxicity until they are saturated then they begin to re-release the mercury in organic form.

The list of organisms that have the highest affinity for toxic metals reads like a “who’s who” of our typical human infectious diseases: fungi of the Candida species, streptococci, staphylococci, amoebas, etc.
– Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt

Candida (yeast) overgrowth, which is very difficult to get rid of, is also associated with mercury in the mouth. Dr. Tullio Simoncini insists cancer is intimately linked to Candida overgrowth and that life threatening tumors are actually fungi colonies sucking up all available nutrients. The general line of thought though is the body produces yeast as a defense against excess metals. The yeast cell binds and absorbs its own weight in mercury and prevents it from entering the blood stream. Dr. J. Trowbridge has written in his book “The Yeast Syndrome,” that some doctors specializing in Candida treatment have reported to him that they have discovered clinically that 98% of their patients with chronic Candida also had mercury toxicity.

When we look at the fungal and yeast infections that are an integral aspect of cancer we should begin to understand the desperate need to include chelation of mercury in each and every cancer treatment. Mercury fed Candida become more and more virulent and eventually penetrates and roots into the intestinal walls and invades the cells. These fungal microorganisms become quite at home in the cell, and can easily be considered a principle characteristic of cancer. Sodium bicarbonate, which is proving to be effective against cancer, is lethal to yeasts and fungi growths because it increases the flow of Oxygen to all cells including the cancer cells that thrive on Oxygen’s absence.

Bone Cancer

Some 65% to 75% of advanced breast and prostate cancer patients eventually suffer bone metastases so there is an immense need for a medicinal that will reach into the bones. The resulting swelling and fractures can cause excruciating pain and may require radiation, chemotherapy, or amputation. To ease the agony and strengthen the bones, doctors prescribed $1.4 billion worth of a bone-boosting drug called Zometa, from Novartis in 2008. The only treatment that will reach down to the bones is sodium bicarbonate. Intravenous application is ineffective but one can throw oneself into bathtubs full of several pounds of baking soda and magnesium salts and take the bicarbonate also orally to radically change the pH in all the tissues including the bones. Sodium bicarbonate increases CO2 levels which also will have the effect of increasing Oxygen to the tissues.

Antibiotics as a Cause of Cancer?

When we consider mercury as one of the basic causes of cancer we can begin to review our estimates on iatrogenic death and disease. Mercury weakens the immune system and leaves people vulnerable to acute infection. Mercury is often at the heart of periodontitis and many other diseases yet the vast majority of dentists, the American Dental Association and the FDA are still in denial. It is bad enough that they plant the mercury in the mouth but then they add insult and injury by prescribing, as they do, antibiotics that make the entire situation worse with the yeasts and fungus. Fungal overgrowth occurs because its natural competitors have been removed, which easily becomes the case with antibiotic usage.

Iatrogenic dentistry is a new concept that has yet to be explored but already a great part of the civilized world understands the incredible stupidity and cruelty of fluoridated water, toothpaste and fluoride treatments at the dental clinic and the continued widespread use of mercury containing dental amalgam. Harvard University Medical Center is just one of many universities that recognize fluoride as a cause of cancer. If one wants to study the basic elements of terrorism one need look no further than the people and organizations that support the fluoridation of public water supplies and those who insist on putting mercury in peoples’ and children’s mouths. It is very difficult to accept the devastating reality about what dentists have done to humanity.

It’s impossible for the government to be honest about mercury pollution because they themselves sponsor injecting mercury directly into the blood stream with their flu vaccines and the government still supports its use in dentistry no matter how dangerous it is. Doctors and dentists have a hard time coming clean about their public betrayal. “I don’t feel comfortable using a substance designated by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a waste disposal hazard. I can’t throw it in the trash, bury it in the ground, or put it in a landfill, but they say it is OK to put it in people’s mouths. That doesn’t make sense.”—Richard. Fischer, D.D.S

Mercury Rising

A primary route for the toxicity of mercury, cadmium and nickel is depletion of glutathione and bonding to sulfhydryl groups of proteins. Arsenic (As) is thought to bind directly to critical thiols.

It is through mercury’s attack on these sulfide bonds (SH) that mercury is able to transform the biological properties of proteins and change important physiological functions. Mercury is attracted to ‘active sites’ on genetic code molecules called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The inter-relationships between cancer and mercury deserve much more attention as mercury is bioaccumulating in the environment becoming more prevalent globally.

“Thiol poisons, especially mercury and its compounds, reacting with SH groups of proteins lead to the lowered activity of various enzymes containing sulfhydryl groups. This produces a series of disruptions in the functional activity of many organs and tissues of the organism,” writes Professor I.M. Trakhtenberg from Russia.

“Mercury is like the 200 pound bully attacking a 7 pound baby; the small baby doesn’t have much of a chance. 200 and 7 are the molecular weights of mercury (the bully) and lithium (the baby) respectively,” says Dr. Thomas Nissen. Mercury is the most toxic non radioactive element but it does share toxic properties of uranium and thus lead.

Every physician knows that radiation can lead to cancer. What they don’t know is how heavy metals and radiation share similar toxic pathways on a chemical level. For example, “Depleted (DU) uranium is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiological as an alpha particle emitter, is very dangerous when taken internally,” writes Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Canadian Epidemiologist.[7] A new study, conducted by biochemist Dr. Diane Stearns at Northern Arizona University confirms that, separate from any radiation risks, cells exposed to uranium will bond with the metal chemically.[8] Uranium and phosphate have a strong chemical affinity for each other and the DNA and Mitochondria are loaded with phosphate so uranium is a DNA and Mitochondria deep penetration bomb. The uranium is attacking on fundamental cellular levels while mercury offers a knock out punch by attacking the sulfur bonds besides being highly toxic to nerve cells.

Both mercury and uranium oxide are floating in the
environment like invisible clouds that have spread out everywhere. They are raining down on us, damaging and damning our future.

Simultaneous exposure to mercury and uranium shows markedly increased damage to the kidneys than when exposure is to each metal singly. Insulin has three sulfur-containing cross-linkages and the insulin receptor has a tyrosine kinase-containing sulfur bond, which are the preferred targets for binding by both mercury and lead. Should mercury attach to one of these three sulfur bonds it will interfere with the normal biological function of the insulin molecule. Nephrotoxicity of the kidneys with necrosis of proximal tubules has been seen to increase significantly with dual exposure to both uranium and mercury.[9] In February, 2007 The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reported that the number of new cases of kidney failure jumped 114 per cent. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem.[10]

At Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, researcher Don York has used baking soda to clean soil contaminated with uranium. Sodium bicarbonate binds with uranium, separating it from the dirt; so far, York has removed as much as 92 percent of the uranium from contaminated soil samples.

Dr. Paul R. Epstein of Harvard Medical School released a report about the severe health impacts of coal on Kentuckians. Because of Kentucky’s 22 coal-burning power plants, every mile of Kentucky waterways flow with unsafe levels of mercury, the leading cause of birth defects in this country. The risk of death for people living within 30 miles of a power plant is three to four times greater than for those living further away. In Kentucky, 811,993 children live within that 30-mile radius. Of the chemicals known to be used while processing coal, 19 are cancer-causing and 24 are linked to lung and heart disease.