![]() ![]() ![]() The symptoms of mercury poisoning can be innocuous at lower levels. In my case I had some mild balance issues and intermittent tremors in my hands. I also had “low energy” symptoms that mimicked hypoglycemia. The balance issues, which are not an inner ear problem, but a processing problem, are called ataxia. The ataxia caused me to alter my gait as I got older, walking slower with legs spread further apart. The tremors, when they were mild, were annoying, but did not impair any activities of life or work. The low energy came and went, but it was something I could always power through. I first noticed the tremors about ten years ago, though the ataxia goes back over fifteen years. Our adult bodies can process reasonable amounts of heavy metals and pass them through our waste systems. According to the WHO, a mercury exposure of under 45 mcg/day is considered safe. Seafood deemed safe for human consumption has less the 1 mcg of mercury per serving. Thus, even a food like tuna sushi which can be fairly high in mercury, doesn’t pose a threat unless consumed in vast quantities every single day over a prolonged period of time. The other way for mercury to threaten our health is to get large doses of it in a concentrated period of time, typically in the workplace. However, with modern worker safety protocols in most countries, the incidence is very low. Unfortunately, I am not like most of you. My body doesn’t produce the chemicals needed to self-remove heavy metals, and thus the vast majority of mercury and lead I have inhaled and/or ingested my entire life remains in my body. I have not been able to find a definitive answer for what percentage of the population is like me, but it is not zero. Unfortunately, because of my body chemistry, I had become a mercury bomb, and in early 2018 I set that bomb off, to disastrous effect. The disaster was compounded by a medical system that incorrectly diagnosed my symptoms several times before finally getting it right in the Fall of 2020. Here again, medicine failed me and put me in a precarious situation while I had a proper diagnosis, my initial doctor’s recommended course of treatment was largely ineffective. Had I not switched doctors in December, I probably wouldn’t be writing this now.įor most of us, mercury and other heavy metals are rarely life threatening, although fetuses and children are at a significantly high risk from heavy metal exposure. While there was evidence, modern medical practitioners don’t see a lot of mercury poisoning, and my symptoms were misapplied to non-mercury causalities. I’ll share just how wrong modern medicine can be in this post, but to be fair, mercury is tricky. The symptoms can be hard to correlate and link to what is a relatively rare medical condition. It turns out I have been unknowingly building mercury up in my body for decades. ![]() I hope that some of you reading this might recognize some of my experiences and symptoms and take steps to protect yourselves (or your loved ones) before you reach my level of damage. Also, I have provided links to resources at the bottom of this post. My understanding of mercury is certainly higher than most people, but nothing here should be considered medical advice or peer-reviewed science. This post reflects my understanding of the effects of mercury on the human body and mind, through the lens of my own experience and informed by medical professionals and scientific publications. Please note I am not going to expose the names of any of the people in my life who were party to this, whether personal relationships or medical practitioners. This post is meant to be about what mercury can do to you, how to recognize it, and how to self-advocate in the medical system. I feel very fortunate to be writing this post in early February. ![]() I have amassed a very high level of mercury in my body. My lead is also high, but it is the mercury that brought me to my knees, both physically and mentally. A month ago, I was at risk for both renal failure and mental failure. Indeed, I did suffer from a brief “break” in November that caused me to make some very bad life-altering decisions, hurting others in the process. Over the 2020 holidays and into the first couple of weeks of 2021, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get through it sane and/or alive. Mercury poisoning has irrevocably changed my life course in many negative ways. I had it in my power to be a better self-advocate for my own health, but I failed to do so, and now I am paying a steep price. My hope is others will read this and avoid similar mistakes, whether it is mercury poisoning, or some other medical condition that is similarly obscure and lacks mindshare with mainstream medical professionals. ![]()
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