Can’t get enough of your tuna sandwiches, or baked salmon? Or do you
not go a day without using a lot of skincare products? Before you take your next bite or apply that brightening cream, you might want to pause and read on about how you may be exposing yourself to mercury toxicity.
A shiny, silver-white metal, mercury naturally occurs in the earth’s crust, just like lead. It’s used widely in pressure measuring instruments, fluorescent lamps, and electrical switches. Mercury is used in dental fillings as an amalgam with silver. In some countries, skin brightening or lightening products often contain some inorganic form of this heavy metal in their ingredients list.
In general, mercury is considered a common environmental contaminant that poses risk to wildlife as well as people. There are many sources through which we can be exposed to mercury and its detrimental effects on our health. These include vapors in the ambient air, drinking water, ocean fish, dental fillings, occupational hazards, and more.
Ranked the third most toxic element on the planet by the US Government Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, mercury is detrimental to human health. However, it continues to be dumped into global waters and soil, released into the atmosphere, and eventually finds itself on our plates and in our glasses. Once ingested through any of these sources ,mercury can cause lasting damage to our metabolic processes:
– Mercury exposure can cause changes in the membrane permeability of our cells .
– It induces oxidative stress, triggers mitochondrial dysfunction, disruption of calcium homeostasis, and increased lipid peroxidation.
– Mercury interferes in the energy production in the nervous system, impairing cellular detoxification processes. It forces cells in the nervous tissue to either die or remain chronically malnourished.
– The blood brain barrier is compromised by mercury’s action, rendering it susceptible to penetration by other heavy toxins as well.
Most commonly, mercury is introduced in our bodies through seafood and dental amalgams. When you consume ocean fish that has been contaminated with mercury, the intestines begin to break it down further. Due to a process called molecular mimicry, our body is unable to flag organic mercury as a harmful agent. Instead, it confuses it as being a beneficial nutrient and it is sent into blood circulation. How your health is affected by mercury exposure depends on some factors such as
4. Effects on Skin: Mercury toxicity causes allergic dermatitis, cheilitis (cracked corners of the mouth), gingivitis (gum disease), stomatitis (sores in the mucous membranes of the mouth), and excessive salivation.
Prolonged exposure to mercury can begin to manifest in a number of ways. However, diagnosing the condition can be a tricky process. Our functional medicine experts at MyPureMD, Houston are qualified to get to the root cause of your symptoms using a 360-degree approach. Some signs to look out for mercury toxicity include:
1. The most common way in which mercury is ingested by people is by consuming large ocean fish like tuna, swordfish, shark, and tilefish. Instead, choose to eat only small wild fish that’s been fished from local rivers.
Book a discovery call with us and get started on your path to a mercury-free life.
