CHEMICAL DANGER Too much mercury can make you sick, but sometimes the symptoms are hard to distinguish from other illnesses.
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Actor Jeremy Piven, best known as loudmouth talent agent Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage, has made an early exit from the Broadway play Speed the Plow, blaming a mercury-rich sushi diet and possibly use of herbal medicine. His doctor says tests revealed Piven has mercury levels five to six times higher than normal, and has ordered a fish-free diet and rest.
“I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury,” playwright David Mamet told Variety. “So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.”
Piven's doctor, Carlon Colker, told the showbiz publication that “insensitive comments like that are not only unkind and unfair, they reflect a profound lack of understanding of a problem that can actually kill.”
“The etiology is unclear, but his level of mercury was uncharacteristically high, one of the highest we’ve seen,” Colker, an internist at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, told Variety. “We’re not sure if this is from his diet, which is high in fish, or Chinese herbs, which he’s been a fan of in the past, or a combination of both. He needs convalescence and rest and treatment, and this will clear his body and he will be back in action very soon."
Colker told the Wall Street Journal Health Blog that Piven's treatment would include dietary restrictions, nutritional supplements and antioxidants.
We asked Jay Schauben, director of the Florida/U.S. Virgin Islands Poison Information Center-Jacksonville, to explain mercury poisoning. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.
So, what's mercury?
There are three kinds of mercury. Depending on what the exposure is, you could have different symptoms and disease states.
Elemental, or metal mercury, is found in thermometers. The problem with that is the inhalation of fumes that come off that mercury. Playing with it and ingesting it is not as toxic. That kind of mercury causes significant amounts of neurological damage. As the exposure gets longer, there may be additional changes in the bone marrow that affect the ability to produce blood cells, infertility and problems with heart rhythm.
Mercury salts, which are basically industrial, if you breathe in or ingest them, gravitate more toward the kidney and not so much the nervous system.
The organic mercury is what gets into the food chain. It's put into the water by chemical plants that are manufacturing things and they get into shellfish and fish, or elemental mercury that gets into the water is changed into organic mercury by sea life; we eat fish or shellfish and we get mercury exposure. That organic mercury acts very similarly to the elemental form. It affects a lot of nervous system damage. If a woman is pregnant, this can also cause birth defects and loss of the fetus if the levels get high enough.
Is mercury something we need in our diets, or is no amount nutritionally safe or necessary?
No level is normal. Zero is normal. It doesn’t have a specific reason to be in our body. As long as we live on this Earth, because it's in Earth's crust and in the atmosphere, we're going to be exposed. But there is no specific function for that metal in our body.
The issue is one of looking at the total body burden: How much mercury is in the body and what's known to be a normal background? Theoretically, there's going to be a baseline level, a general population average, but depending on where you live, that level may be higher or lower. If you live near a coast, you're more up to eating seafood. Or you may be in an industrial area where mercury is put into the water or the air.
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20 Comments
Add CommentThat was incredibly thorough information from a conversation. I'm glad Jay Schauben is looking out for the residents of Florida/U.S. Virgin Islands (including myself) as the director of the Florida/U.S. Virgin Islands Poison Information Center-Jacksonville.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMercury poisoning is indeed a serious health issue. Let me thus recommend something I have just heard about: Swanson's humifulvate. This is some natural stuff that helps you to get rid off mercury in your system. It seems working fine...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo relax restrictions on recommendations on women eating sea fish (fresh water fish have little or no mercury) is idiotic. The brain is particularly adept at sucking up mercury and doing so while forming is asking for problems. Removing mercury isn't an easy affair and can take years, so whether or not the central nervous system can repair may not be as much of an issue as whether or not enough mercury has been removed to allow this to happen. Although most physicians measure mercury removal from the urine, it is actually excreted in the bile and liver and reabsorbed from the gut and eventually passed through the kidneys. This is the biggest problem with chelating agents is that removing mercury from the tissues just to have it bounce around in your body may allow it to land in a different site with greater consequences. It really amazes me that we make a big deal about eating sushi and then go to the dentist who puts mercury fillings in our mouths. How is it that mercury is safe in your mouth (an acidic environment exposed to pressure while chewing which will help to release mercury vapor) but when a dentist takes it out, it is a hazardous substance that must be disposed of in a hazardous waste land fill?Also given our reliance in the future on coal is creating most of the problems with oceans being filled with mercury and our fish as well. Burning the stuff results in large amounts of mercury being released so no matter what your position on global warming, the burning of coal must be limited before we kill our entire planet and next couple of generations of children.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJeff Baird DO
Man, people are so uptight. I thought the thermometer joke was hilarious. Humor is a great way to cope with difficult situations. Lighten up, people.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKudos to Baird for raising a soundly quantitative quantitative question , but more than a vast tonnage of dental mercury flies in the teeth of Jordan Lite's scientifically illiterate assertion that no level of mercury is normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA part per billion of every and any stable element present in the Earth's crust corresponds to trillions of atoms per cc, and in the state of nature even the least soluble of these will end up in even the purist spring water to the tune of millions of atoms per swallow.
Because human and geochemical emissions of mercury are of the same order of magnitude , nothing could be more un-natural or abnormal than a creature great or small that did not contain some few atoms of mercury- and all the rest of the periodic chart in every cell.
Unless Lite is prepared to run all air, food , water and mother's milk through a mass spectrometer , atom by atom , he'd better resign himself to the matter he, and we are made of.
They don't mention the mercury exposure people get from amalgams in their teeth (17mcg per day gassed off per amalgam) or some of the vaccinations preserved with Thimerosal. And contact lens solutions thru the 1980s also contained Thimerosal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a holistic health practitioner with many years of research and hands-on experience in heavy metal detoxification. There are many statements in this article that are simply not supported by science or reality. First, there is no test available for total body burden of mercury. Measuring mercury blood levels will only give an indication of recent exposure, say within the last month or so. Beyond that time, mercury is swept from the blood to tissues throughout the body, including the brain, where it has a half-life of 30 plus years. Measuring urine mercury level is also of little value, and urine tests using a bolus provoking agent such as a chelator may actually be dangerous since a large single dose of a chelator is well known to redistribute mercury throughout the body. Hair tests may be an indicator if the patient has the natural ability to excrete mercury-not always the case. The bottom line is that negative blood, urine and hair mineral tests have been recorded for patients that are in fact highly mercury toxic, usually from amalgam fillings, vaccinations, and fish consumption. Regarding the use of chelators, BAL, mentioned in the article, is rarely used today, having been replaced with DMSA, DMPS, and Lipoic Acid. These should be taken orally on a particular schedule, and never administered if one still has mercury amalgam fillings in place. Natural compounds, such as certain soil elements, are used in nature to detoxify soil, and may have safe application for humans. For more information on natural mercury detoxification, see the book “The Wellness Project – A Rocket Scientist’s Blueprint for Health.” I am the author. Finally, Mamet’s remark borders on cruel. Would you say to an MS patient relegated to a wheelchair (perhaps due to heavy metal toxicity) that they will now pursue a career as a bicycle?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt the age of ten - a loong time ago - I swallowed a teaspoon of mercury to see what would happen. I have a witness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNothing appears to have, so far.
This article was very poorly written since it did not mention one of the main sources for mercury poisoning : mercury amalgam tooth fillings, which are still being placed in peoples mouths.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo find out where mercury comes from, ask the mining companies. Their principal customers in terms of tonnage are alcaline and non-alkamine battery makers. This is why in Europe batteries should be recycled. Dispose of mercury in waste tips and it will find its way back into the sea, the food chain and back into Tuna etc. So there is no safe lower limit. Recycle! The same is true for all uses of mercury and many other pollutants...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI found some of this stuff when I was a kid and played with it. So, if I haven't died from it already, does that mean I am healed?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMmm... mercury
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMmm... mercury.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso makes great soap.
Is there any evidence that mercury poisoning can come from dental amalgams?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there any evidence that mercury poisoning can come from dental amalgams?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there any evidence that mercury poisoning can come from dental amalgams?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeing a Dane, I guess I'm used to sarcasm so David Mamets comment actually made me laugh out loud! After a series of vaccinations with Thimerosal back in 2000 (30 years old), I lost all strength and have never been able to get back to work. (Mouth full of amalgam fillings that have now been carefully removed). Only two years ago did a wise doctor make the connection with mercury. Meanwhile ignorant doctors suggested all sorts of psychiatric disorders that I always resisted and knew were untrue. Inform yourself, stay critical and keep searching for health improving solutions. Chlorella is supposed to be a natural chelator that can even be used for small children. My own 2.5-year old daughter has just started her detox :-/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the best way to measure my mercury load?What is the best & least harmful way to detoxify my body?How can i test my enviornment for mercury vapor?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the best way to measure my mercury load?What is the best & least harmful way to detoxify my body?How can i test my enviornment for mercury vapor?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is why I recommend cleansing programs to all of my health coaching clients. Especially a heavy metal cleanse, more now after reading this article! Thanks so much for the insight!
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