Mercury Toxicity, Common Sources and Health Effects: PhD and MD Researchers / IAOMT Conference Videos 'r' "GRATE"!

I'm glad you're interested in reading and viewing to learn more about mercury toxicity; it's a crucial topic for people to be more than 'familiar' with, in my opinion. I like to provide the YOUsers of Lumigrate leads to sources for learning that I find valid in the 'outside the box' choices that are increasingly available to chose from.

I understand how difficult it can be when you're not familiar with a field of information to pick out what's good and what's not when Searching the Internet or bookshelves at the library or bookstore (or virtual stores online). I recently searched on the YouTube's 'search' bar for certain keywords related to mercury and saw the familiar faces of providers that I have already covered on Lumigrate in other topics of the Forums, so you already know they're good. They were:

• Dr Mark Hyman, MD, functional medicine specialist and best-selling author and 'mainstream media' celebrity doctor and
• Dr Richard Blaylock (also an MD), neurosurgeon- turned- author and Internet / 'independent media' celebrity. I was lead to learn about Dr Blaylock in 2013 when I started studying geoengineering and bringing that into the folds of information at Lumigrate for our YOUsers.  I read, listened to, and watched a lot of information from him and learned a great deal and then searched differently one time and found that he has developed and is marketing and earning revenue from supplements designed to address the problems that he has researched and is an expert about.

So here we get into the 'ethical dilemma' aspect of things. Have we all taken courses in 'ethics'? If so, do we remember what we learned? Or did we learn about ethics other ways on 'the Earth school' as some would call it. I think we all have a background in ethics. Sometimes the laws that have been established or are in the works for the future to protect people from those who operate dishonorably we might not have as much experience and knowledge of. 

Dr. Blaylock's not being exactly "transparent" is what I have the problem with and ends up being a 'red flag' is all, that I want to just say to YOUsers -- 'red flag' -- but that doesn't mean 'don't listen to what he's researched and brings to teach others'. You might opt to take the supplements he has developed and offers to people. But you might not want to invite him to be an expert provider at your website, if you're, say -- me. And if you were me, you might still suggest people learn from him AND know about his supplements and his strategy for how he plays the game of business related to providing a product that is a possible solution to the problem that he professes. Which I've done. 

I find Dr Blaylock very "credible", but that is because I have now studied the work of so many experts on similar topics and I know that what I hear from him is consistent with what I have heard from others, AND he takes it steps further sometimes, and I found that 'dots were connecting' for me that had previously been disconnected. Keep in mind that any provider, myself included, who steps out of the box has taken risks in doing so, and in my opinion is deserving of respect based on that alone. There are, however, those 'bottom feeders' who were never really in the box and see the markets emerging for products and services outside the box and they try to appear to be credible and they're sometimes very credible appearing. Some were credible and one time, and then things went awry -- usually because of financial pressures combined with their choices of what they would compromise in order to maintain their existing lifestyle.

I am the first to admit that I have a good track record of only allowing the legitimate onto Lumigrate -- and I have gotten even more refined by learning the 'hard way'. Hence my not saying that there are any guarantees about our sorting and routing, but that it greatly raises your chances of more efficiency and effectiveness learning if you follow our suggestions for where to link to. 

That's what I can offer to you, one of our YOUsers as you are reading from our pages -- my experience, which is a unique perspective. This is a great place to insert the YOU model. 

As the model asks: Who Would You Add?

Dentist? What kind? General? Holistic Dentist? Biologic Dentist? I hope this topic lights up this important area of wellness. Many aren't aware of the 'outside the box' providers who have ventured from mainstream dentistry. 

Chiropactor? A new-to-me DC in my mid 40s on my first visit put a gloved (finger cot, actually) finter in my mouth and adusted something and said 'THAT's been needing to be done since birth.'

Osteopath? The D.O. that I started going to just before I was 50 specializes in the cranial vault.

Physical therapist or occupational therapist? An OT could work with the nutritionist shown here re: the occupations involved in lifestyle changes recommended by the nutritionist. PTs, generalists usually but some also really specialize with the head and neck; reasoning this throught, neurologic impairment from mercury is likely going to affect the body in ways that PTs can help assist patients to wellness....

YOU..... keep going on your own process, ask for help if you get stuck, talk to others -- brainstorm and bounce ideas with others perhaps .... ).                                                                                                                                                                  

I intentionally bring up the supplements revenue issue with it's conflict of interest issue here to shine light upon it, as that comes up ALL THE TIME when I talk with people, Lumigrate consumer YOUsers and expert/ provider YOUsers alike (as they are YOUsers too, they're all also medical consumers). It comes into play in one of the videos I am recommending here and I think the PhD presenter does a great job of talking about the issue. This is what he says: (and where it is said in the video if you go to watch it with your own eyes and ears)

This is the last piece I need to complete on this topic, so for now, go and watch if you wish, and I'll complete this soon (I hope!). 

NEW topic under construction, enjoy as it is, but please check back until you see this missing so you know you have the completed version -- thank YOU! Enjoy! 

An example that might help some see better how this can apply to overall wellness in one person, in 'taking a page from my book'/life, you will find, below, the case example from MY LIFE for YOU. If you want to put in the extra time for a little story, then it's there. If it's not helpful to you, skip it. Different strokes for different folks.

Overview in a handful of paragraphs:

The story, a herstory, is about how I once again found myself thrown into an area of health care with my personal health where I was needing to learn and had some struggle finding the answers I was looking for initially. It occurred at a time when I had gotten very comfortable and fairly knowledgeable about mercury as a toxin from amalgam fillings. I'd learned from an environmental medicine specialists, our local naturopathic doctor, and then passed the education along to my dentist of several years, who agreed to replace the four I had. I'd had a sudden onset one morning of tooth pain that I thought was from sinus inflammation, 'twas the season for allergens that seem to be very common for people in the Valley of western Colorado. I'd never had problems on the Front Range, but it's a whole different environment there.

It turns out that I'd broken a molar during the night (which was new, and was a 'phase' and symptoms that got worse and then better again), but I didn't know that's what had occurred. It just didn't occur to me because my dentist knew that I'd been clenching and hadn't said anything about selling me an expensive appliance they make, nor about the cheaper 'DIY' off the shelf ones available at your local pharmacies all over the place.  

Eventually it was my day to go in that is scheduled at the time you're finishing your cleaning and routine maintenance on the mouth, and a crown was recommended and scheduled to be provided by my general dentist.

However, by the time I'd gone for my semi-annual checkup, gotten their advise, then scheduled for the non-emergent procedure, the pain and stopped. I happened to have also started going to the holistic dentist whose office is located at the front doors to the general dentist's building, relative to realizing I had the signs of childhood sleep apnea when he presented at continuing education at our regional allopathic medical center. All 'total coincidence'; 'timing is everything', as they say.

Since I have complex, chronic, 'environmental illness' that is VERY common today, yet it's NOT very common that someone has done the various things I have uncovered or stumbled upon to reverse symptoms, let alone then taken it to the Internet with a website like Lumigrate, 'lighting the path to health and well-being' as our logo says, it is helpful to many of our YOUsers to have the 'stories' from the pages of 'my book'/life. Others don't prefer it. Different strokes for different folks and hopefully something for everyone 'r' us! 

Mercury Toxicity, Common Sources and Health Effects: Three Videos, Two Providers, PhD and MD

There are TWO videos below of Dr Boyd Haley presenting, and I'm going to put them in the order that I found and watched them, which turns out to be chronological, but that's not why I chose this order. I personally enjoyed MORE the earlier, more 'raw' presentation from 2004 when he spoke at a Doctors for Disaster Preparedness conference. It was taped long before it was put on YouTube, I 'noticed'.

I think it relevant to share that I had to really search hard to find this first one to retrieve it to add in here after reviewing it when I found it initially. And when I found it initially it was fairly far down in the list of options YouTube responded with. Same search words both times, different computerized devices/browsers.  

I'm thankful it turned up only a few pages down in my search last week when I found it the first time. It was just was a hunch I went off of to select it for viewing. I was immediately 'in' because he 'shoots from the hip', as you'll see if you chose to click and go watch. Personally, I have never in my careers (plural) or life seen anyone presenting to a group who basically introduces himself and then says 'I'm calling you out on this', then holds their industries' collective feet to the flames as he does. AND, by half an hour in, has hoots and applause, no less. (June 2004 is the date.)

The second one is much the same information, but years later, presented at the same professional association the third and last video on this topic provides -- IAOMT (by an MD, as you see).

I often provide two different provider types on the same topic or two providers from within the same discipline even, in order to underscore for our YOUsers that even within the same business sometimes, you have different opinions from different providers. It is encumbent upon YOU (and me when I'm the YOUser with my health care) to decide what seems right to me and then follow that. 

IAOMT - International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology: For your easy access and ease, streamlining your learning: IAOMT's website is: www.iaomt.org -- I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you click and go look around. They have a Finder that is interesting to see who is in your ZIP code area or State/Country, depending on how you wish to search, and their products they distribute, including banners, pamphlets, and what brands and types of respirators were just overall intersting when I took the trip! 

Other links for them are:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IAOMT‎ - The IAOMT is a network of dental, medical and research professionals who seek to raise the standards of scientific biocompatibility in the dental practice with ...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IAOMT‎ - The latest from IAOMT (@IAOMT). We review current scientific research, explore new information and find solutions to old problems. Orlando, FL.

Wikipedia:  International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology - Wikipedia ...

YouTube: iaomt - YouTube -- www.youtube.com/user/iaomt‎

Note: When you type in IAOMT into your browser, you might see in the list of shortcuts to pick from to search on that they offer in the list, fairly high up, "iaomt quack" (I was using Google as that is what most Americans use, though that is shifting). If you're not aware of how "debunking" works, please learn.

There ARE "quacks" out there, and I do my best and call upon my team of experts to help me sort out the quacks, so the links we provide her are with higher likelihood of being valid. Ideally, I'd like to see people turning to Lumigrate FIRST someday, to see who we have selected to route people to on various subjects. We're on our way as some people do that, and it's increasingly the case it seems. Thank you, YOUsers. And that's all I'll say on that here, aside to share a quick example of how I go about things.

Someone who is generally full of great links shared one that was about live blood droplet analysis and as I watched it, because of my background now of cyphering through and finding the valid providers from the invalid, my radar went off about the video. "Who paid for this video to be done". It wasn't initially clear who the focus was as it was a mix of Tony Robbins talking and this alleged MD, ND, PhD ... I don't even remember how many Ds he had after his name but it was a lot and he just didn't look that old nor seem to talk like a person who had those degrees. So I searched about him and it was clear he was an invalid (in my opinion).

Just to get the scoop, I went to an expert I know personally and inquired and got their opinion which substantiated mine (and HOW did it, wowsers). I still don't have that discipline covered on Lumigrate as it's rather obscure compared to other bigger topics that are timely and more pressing for our overall YOUsers, but it IS on the list to be developed when time, energy, money allows, and I do work on it here and there, it's just not ready to put on the website for YOUsers yet. 

So here are the videos: 

The Toxicology of Mercury and Current Sources of Exposure | Dr. Boyd Haley

Highlights of My Life Experience Regarding Mercury Exposure from the Dental Facet of Conventional Medicine:

A Page from My Book and Why I Use Myself As an Example (If it Helps YOUsers See the Application to YOU! - GRATE! 

At a time when I was fairly well-versed about mercury due to learning intensively out of necessity due to my personal health issues, and after having created and launched Lumigrate for YOUsers to learn from, I was diagnosed by my general dentist as having broken a molar and scheduled for a procedure to rectify it. Having a dental history since birth of: 

• many amalgam fillings in my 'baby'/first teeth. They were called 'silver fillings', and I remember it was more expensive to get gold fillings. I was born in 1960, so there were not the white plastic compositive fillings (which also have toxins, keep in mind, just not mercury toxin). 
• fluoride tablets being prescribed by our rural mountain dentist as my family of origin, like most in the area, had well water. I fortunately only took a few of them, I recall the bottle sat on the kitchen counter for years, with the date 1966 if I recall correctly, on the prescription bottle. I definitely recall my science-literate father talking about the periodic chart and fluoride and that it didn't make sense to take it. Thankfully my mother considered this in addition to what she had been advised by the dentist prescribing the fluoride tablets, as did I. [Yes, I was barely old enough to go to public school, but I was interested in my oral health. I was tormented by the 'drilling and filling', at least the drilling part, because the dentist didn't use novacaine. When I'd squirm in pain (and from the noise, nobody thought to put in ear plugs and kids have sensitive hearing, plus I had this 'amped up', injured/ damaged nervous sytem that was going undiagnosed and therefore untreated), I recall the dentist stopped, turned to a drawer, pulled it open revealing various sized needles sticking up out of some sort of holder and saying 'if you don't hold still, I'll use one of these on you'.] 
• "Cancar sores" which were not discussed with the medical doctor on the next road over in our mountain town, but only with the dentist. He suggested I drink buttermilk, so when I'd get them my mother would purchase buttermilk and I would drink it, despite that I didn't like it. This was purchased from a large grocery chain, it wasn't farm, raw, organic buttermilk, it was processed, commercial, typical buttermilk for the early/mid 1960s that the average consumer of that era would purchase. 
• my 'adult'/second teeth having been affected by a high fever when they were forming, leaving me with faults in the enamel surfaces but remarkably only two 'carries' (aka cavities) and two faults, which were 'drilled and filled' with mercury amalgam before or in early adulthood
• extraction of 'wisdom teeth' at age 15, and last but not least, and perhaps most importantly -- 
• replacement of the mercury amalgam fillings when I finally had my health well enough for the procedure, (but notice what is NOT on the list here: root canals, crowns, etc.). 

I was thrown into an aspect or 'facet' of health care I didn't have much personal experience with, and I've never worked in a dental clinic as I have in health centers, both conventional/allopathic and progressive / integrative (which I often call 'outside the box' due to negative connotations with the word 'progressive'). I got a second opinion, inadvertently, as I just happened to hear a holistic dentist speak to a group of conventional medical providers and had gotten an appointment for an assessment, which was relative to 'sleep apnea'. Yes, sometimes the timing IS everything, and amazing the 'coincidence', actually.

I had turned to the Internet as most do these days, and had the same experience I know happens to many -- not knowing what information on the Internet to trust or 'believe'. I'd gone to the general dentist since I moved to the area and the flaws that are cosmetically very visible (front lower teeth) were not brought up the first year, just 'wow, you have great teeth'. (I get that a lot, professionals and non ). 

Since I'd not gone to the dentist when I first had pain start, which was present one morning upon awakening and I presumed it a sinus infection as I used to have that in my history, and it never got worse (or much better), it only came up with the general dentist at my scheduled semi-annual cleaning and check up. And then due to their busy-ness in doing procedures that are scheduled and non emergent, the pain subsided by the time I went to my intake appointment with the holistic dentist. I want to be clear about that, as I didn't want to imply the general dentist was doing anything unethical, and there was no problem with cancelling the appointment when I did, I just said the pain had gone away and I'd been into the holistic dentist who had advised me that if the pain is gone there's no need anymore for the procedure.

Funny, when I go to those dentists I believe I'm sitting within 25 feet of the other chair as they're in the same building. Even with them being that close physically, there's no collaboration, except through YOU/me, the patient, which is the foundation of Lumigrate, our YOU! model. I have often remarked to myself and I'll share it with YOUsers here, that I didn't have dentistry at all in mind in 2006 when I started planning what came to be Lumigrate, and this one part of my health history that occurred AFTER it's launch is one of the coolest examples I have to share about the Lumigrate way of being a health consumer (or provider), and I very much appreciate it occurring in my life and consider it a 'blessing'. 

The holistic DDS' professional development veered long ago from conventional/inside the box to outside the box, and likely included subscribing to IAOMT and attending their conferences. I will check on that and perhaps get a comment from him to add here, he is one of Lumigrate's forum experts, Jim Kennedy, DDS.  I unscheduled the appointment with the general dentist and used the money I'd earmarked for the crown to pay for the oral appliance that is similar to an orthodontic retainer for the lower teeth and jaw that repositions it into a more beneficial alignment; it turns out I had a significant amount of TMJ dysfunction that has just never been run up the flagpole.  Once it was made and he fitted it/tweeked it to be just right, I immediately noticed my sinuses were draining -- I remember being in the first blocks after leaving his office sitting at a light by the hospital and thinking 'wow'!

The next days I woke up having slept better, it turns out I had sleep apnea and NEVER suspected it. Which was 'my bad', as soon as you wake up in the morning with a sore tooth you'd think a person would say 'was I clenching and broke a tooth?', but my general dentist was aware I clenched and didn't seem concerned since I wasn't grinding and I just presumed, WRONGLY, that if that was going to put me at risk for breaking a molar that they'd try to get me to pay for an appliance they'd make for me to wear at night.

I naturally brought this up with the dentist and hygeinist at the same time (two birds, one stone and they are the tag team, so to speak, after all), and the dentist's response was, paraphrasing,  'sometimes we just get so focused on other things we forget to look at the overall'. I understand that, I have many times thought about what I should have said to a patient after they were 'out the door' and I'm sure I didn't always have all the right answers bubble up even after they were gone from my presence.

Thankfully as an occupational therapist or health information/provider concerierge I have the ability to pick up the phone and call if something new comes to mind. But I'm not convinced, to be honest with you, that there isn't a pervasive attitude inside the box of general dentistry, similar to inside the box general medicine, to focus away from prevention in preference for treating the more lucrative symptoms that occur if the prevention is not done. If prevention is an ounce and cure a pound, that is a 1:16 ratio. Let's see, $1,000 for something to keep me from grinding (including time by the dentist) -- did that save me $16,000 in bills in my lifetime for damage from clenching? Sounds about right!  

My second chiropractor found that I had some TMJ issues in the early 90s. He was the first 'anti vaccination' professional I had encountered, and in 1992 he was leaving his successful practice, allegedly to lecture and publish about vaccines. He was going to another country, he said, to do so. Once I got into the World Wide Web and Searching, I checked to see what he had written and published and presented about. And to my surprise, despite having a very unique name, was nowhere to be found.  When preparing information for Lumigrate about vaccines in 2012 I again looked and did find information about him; obituary, and information about his clinic which was at the same address it had been when he 'closed it' and 'left for another country to publish and lecture'. I'll let your imagination mull over that same as I have allowed mine to, and not elaborate further.

But I wanted to include the facts for the benefit of our YOUsers learning about how things work outside the box. He was not available to me after early 1992, when I was actually at a BETTER functional wellness level than I had been my ENTIRE life before. (My 'first crash' was the worst, and it was in 1989 and was by today's terms, diagnosed as 'chronic fatigue syndrome'. I then crashed again in 1994/5 and that was diagnosed in 1997 as CFS again, and in 1999 as 'fibromyalgia' -- I was incorrectly saying I had 'tightness' in my neck and shoulders and not 'pain', and the MD in 1997 didn't touch the area the way the new one when I was working out of town did.

I learned a valuable lesson from that 1999 'temporary extra' MD on my medical team too: "These are labels that allow for medical billing and they can cause problems for you down the line if it's in your chart, so you don't want 'fibromyalgia' as a diagnosis, just stick to the terms that describe the symptoms, such as 'chronic fatigue', 'chronic pain'. Based on who the 1997/primary MD was and is today in the integrative medicine world, I realize now that he likely knew that too, and ultimately he didn't treat CFS and FMS differently as he didn't prescribe pain medications because he got to the source of the 'energy crisis' in the tissues.  

I had heard Dr Kennedy co-present about TMJ at a continuing education for local allopathic providers with the PT whose clinic I provided OT services to and he'd treated me when I was a MESS after my surgery, the intubation and perhaps medications and etc. just knocked a bunch of stuff 'out of whack'. That was early in 2007. Moral to this part of the story: You can have a lot of 'cooks in the kitchen' and still, in the future, stumble upon a new cook bringing a new ingredient or specialty expertise or 'flare' to it that lights things up and brings you to a NEW better level. Until you're satisfied with your health level -- really satisfied -- don't give up looking for solutons!  

And YES, I am calling out the general dentist here, but was discrete as to who that was -- and that is because not only do I believe they are staying in the sweet spot of the dental industry and have shifted a bit in the decade I observed, but this is the 'usual' 'norm' of the industry when you go to dentists who are in that 'sweet spot'. It's a very lucrative field if you're in the conventional and cosmetic field of dentistry.

I also brought up ethics, above, and would it be right for me to withhold part of my story that could benefit so many others / YOUsers related to how the way providers refer OR NOT to each other?  Perhaps due to oversight OR intentional. Perhaps ethical OR not ethical. In my case, I caused damage to a tooth and there was never an 'I'm sorry', it was just basically shrugged off as if saying 'Meh --  we sometimes just aren't thinkin' (paraphrasing).

Follow the money. Use your judgment and what your gut tells you. STOP and decide, consciously -- it's YOU running the show on your health care ultimately. INVEST in YOU; find the time and energy to search for another provider if things aren't adding up right for you, whether dental or otherwise. I remember the first accountant I went to in the same timeframe as this dentist when I was new to the area and she showed me someone else's books on her computer as an 'example' of how she then puts it on her flash drive that she wears around her neck and takes home to work at home. "Pretend if you know who these people are that you didn't see this" she said. The next one I went to had volumes of books lining the office shelves with HUGE lettering that said, hypothetically, PITT/JOLIE DIVORCE, YEAR. Truth is stranger than fiction, as they say, and I swear sometimes I couldn't have thought of this stuff if I were writing fiction! 

Vote with your money and your energy and time. Give feedback directly, in writing, by telephone, or in person. YOU can change health care one provider at a time! When you and I do it and it's the same provider that hears the same or similar thing, it's synergiestic. 1 + 1 = More than 2, in other words.  

In the case of the dentist I have referred to here, I also give credit where credit is due here. I initially saw what I believe was a forced and appropriate lack of rolling of eyes when I first inquired  about amalgam replacement, after I'd been a customer/patient for a couple of years. When I provided a paper copy of the smoking tooth information that I provided and put on the note that my naturopath had told me about the information and was recommending I consider doing it, since I had a naturopath on board and there was not a biologic dentist in less than a 90 minute commute for me, they read it over. With this type of education provided, printed and written on paper that could be put into my chart so they had that kind of support if anyone tried to accuse them of wrongdoing as has occurred in the dental industry in the past, likely in order to dissuade dentists from abiding by the wishes of the consumers, they agreed to do the replacement for me.

My thinking at the time, I realize, was somewhat flawed due to not having yet learned more, but that is what we are all doing -- we don't know what we haven't yet learned. I figured that I had so few and they were so small (an hour for all four), that it wasn't the same as if I had the average or higher number for an American of my era and age. I felt it was safe enough for me because their office was relative new and had lots of airflow taking the air out of the patient care area. But I didn't realize that the mercury gets out into the environment unless the water and air are captured and treated. Which is naturally an added expense which one wouldn't undertake and install and utilize unless they specialize in this as biologic dentists do.

I learned more from building a previously provided topic at Lumigrate that I will link to here. Essentially, there are a lot of environmental aspects that have to do with mercury in teeth when it comes to a body after death, particularly with cremation, as well. It's REALLY hard for the average consumer and even the average outside the box health provider or advisor to learn and apply all this! So we're in this together. Learning and going as we go and doing our best every day. "When you know better, you do better" as Maya Angelou famously says. 

Currently, they've not accommodated my request about treating me 'fluoride free' for my cleanings, but that is another subject for another topic on Lumigrate (but if you're interested look around, as it's here!)