Ingegerd Rosborg and her colleagues from the University Hospital in Goteburg, Sweden compared the levels of trace elements in the blood and urine of 38 females with fibromyalgia with 41 female controls to determine whether these elements have any role in the causation of the disease. They analyzed the levels of a total of 30 elements including cadmium, copper, zinc, selenium, mercury, cobalt, lead, calcium and magnesium.
Below are the median concentrations and ranges of mercury (Hg) that they measured in the blood and urine of patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and controls (C). The range is the variation between the lowest and the highest readings of the people in the group.
.........................FM patients..................................... Controls
.........................Median ...............Range......................Median..............Range
Blood Hg............0.5 .................<DL-18.2 .....................0.5 ....................<DL-4.4
Urine Hg............0.46 .................<DL-5.8.......................1.3 ...................<DL-20.7
The authors concluded that because both the patients with fibromyalgia and the controls had, on average, the same concentration of mercury in their blood, mercury was not involved in the causation of FM. However, even though both groups had the same blood levels, the FM group only had about one-third the level of mercury in the urine. The authors did not seem to think this was significant. This low urine level of mercury means the FM patients are excreting less of the mercury from their bodies, which in turn means it must be accumulating in their bodies. This decreased urinary excretion of mercury is very common in mercury poisoned individuals. Mercury actually decreases the levels of metallothionein and glutathione, two proteins involved in its excretion.
What can be done about this body burden of mercury?
Nikolas Hedberg, a chiropractor in Asheville, North Carolina, reported on one such case. He treated a woman who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia 35 years before she consulted him. She had originally been diagnosed by a rheumatologist and was told by many doctors over the intervening years that there was no treatment available for her condition.
He tested her urine after she had taken a chelator and found that she had elevated levels of mercury and lead.
Dr Hedberg prescribed a course of chelation, and after 12 weeks, the muscle pain that she had had for 35 years was completely resolved and she was able to sleep through the night. She no longer had “brain fog” and her blurry vision was much better. The metallic taste in her mouth had gone and she no longer had problems with her digestion. She had also lost 15 pound over the treatment period and said “this is the best I’ve felt in ten years”.
Mercury is known to cause mitochondrial function, and also affects the brain, thyroid and adrenals. A number of members of the yahoo frequent dose chelation group have cured their FM with chelation therapy.
Dental amalgams are not the only source of mercury - we are also exposed to mercury through fish, some vaccines and coal fired power stations.
David Hammond
Author of Mercury Poisoning: The Undiagnosed Epidemic
References:
Ingegerd Rosborg, E Hyllen, J Lidbeck, B Nihlgard, L Gerhardsson Trace element pattern in patients with fibromyalgia. Science of the total environment. 385 (2007) 20-27.
Nikolas R Hedberg Case study: a comprehensive approach to pseudo fibromyalgia. The original internist March, 2009.