In this message Ray comments further on one study he already cited, and comments on two new ones.

By international law Ray holds copright on his text, as of the date he sent the email. In an attempt to make it more readable, I've occasionally inserted comments [like this] or modified the format. When he quoted others' email messages, their text is >indicated like this. Otherwise I've tried to avoid editing, but there's plenty of possibility that I have miscopied or misrepresented his original messages. If you spot problems, please

Ray frequently quoted in full the abstracts of the research he cited, but he also indicated he'd built (and studied) a library full of complete papers. I have omitted the abstracts, relying on you to go read them at PubMed.

Message-ID: <001801bf874a$86bfa720$d63232d0@->
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 02:01:06 -0700
Subject: Insignificance of inorganic mercury in the brain mercury
poisoning ... Selenium, B12, C and lipoic poison the brain
brains and impairing liver meHg detox

Speciation of mercury in the primate blood and brain following long-term exposure to methyl mercury.
(Vahter M; Mottet NK; Friberg L; Lind B; Shen DD; Burbacher T)

They have a figure that shows this all very nicely. Once they stop putting methylmercury into the monkeys, methylmercury levels in the monkey brains fall precipitiously. I

The same study shows very nicely that that there is no brain-poisoning from inorganic mercury, as 4 times higher inorganic mercury exposure (HgCl2) resulted in ONLY 1/30th to 1/45th of the levels the organic mercury did, ie, inorganic mercury accumulates 120 - 190 times less to brains per same dose as methyl-mercury does.

This means that practically ALL brain mercury poisoning is from methyl-mercury entering the brains, converting there to inorganic, and locking into the brains.

Therefore, taking agents that impair methyl-mercury detox causing higher blood methyl-mercury levels will cause higher brain methyl-mercury intake, which will result in higher brain mercury levels ( for example Lipoic acid impairs methyl- mercury detox from liver, which will naturally lead to higher blood methyl-mercury levels, and therefore higher brain mercury intake from the methyl-mercury, as inorganic mercury is not taken to brains practically at all ....

• Effect of lipoic acid on biliary excretion of glutathione and metals.
  (Gregus Z; Stein AF; Varga F; Klaassen CD)
  • [Ray:]...suggests LA may be bad idea for brains, as it impairs liver methyl-mercury detox, and as Methyl-mercury is responsible for up over 99 % of all mercury intake to brains, LA can really cause increase intake to the brains ....
  • ...showed that those who are heavy-weight and with excess body fat, are going to absorb lot more mercury to their brains than those who are thinner, and not overly fatty, who do not have as much distribution of the methyl-mercury to their fats, and those that circulate their brains.

So, a great way to get brains mercury poisoned is to eat plenty fatty foods, taking excess doses of methylating nutrients such as TMG, B12, C, Selenium, and at the same time, taking nutrients that impair reduction of blood/liver methyl-mercury such as lipoic acid, and keeping oneself overweight.

Selenium is also a great way to pump mercury to the brains, in addition to B12+C combo, and blocking liver methyl-mercury detox with lipoate, or taking SAMe that also methylates mercury and can together therefore help methylate kidney, GI and oral deposits of inorganic to methyl-mercury, and then cause the raising of blood and brain methyl-mercury levels, and as the methyl-mercury is the main intake mode, this is non-desireable.

This reference summarizes some of the nutrients causing biomethylation :

• Recent studies on biomethylation and demethylation of toxic elements.
  (Ridley WP; Dizikes L; Cheh A; Wood JM)

[Ray then quotes a recent message from Andy Cutler:]
>This also again raises the point that mercury does not methlyate inside of you. In fact, it would be great if it did because if you could get the mercury in your brain to methlyate it would

[And with an ironic repetition of Andy's first phrase, Ray proceeds to violently contradict Andy:]
This also again raises the point that mostly all mercury to the brains and nerves is from methyl-mercury, that is formed in vivo, from B12+ C and selenium and methylating microbial contribution, and that taking excess selenium, B12 + C vitamins, and having flora that methylates mercury ( candida ) will all increase blood methyl-mercury, and that is the major form of mercury taken into the brains ( absorbing up to 190 times better to brains than inorganic ) and that the heavy-weighter one is, and the more one has fatty tissues, the more will one get mercury taken into the brains.

The references that demonstrate how mercury methylates in you = in vivo by C+B12 vitamin combo can be found from the list archives, posted there NUMEROUS times,

So, if one wants to avoid pumping mercury to brains, one wants to :

1. Avoid eating oneself heavy-weight, putting up plenty fat, and increasing brain methyl-mercury uptale

2. Avoid excess nutrients Lipoic acid, Selenium, S-adesnosylmethionine, Methylcobalamin and C vitamin

That is while one still has plenty extra-brain inorganic mercury in the tissues that can be converted to methyl-mercury and taken to brains.

Numerous people have experienced getting foggy in the brains, and developing the methyl-mercury twitches after eating fatty foods, after takign lipoate, SAMe, C+Methylcobalamin, or Selenium in excess ( and also felt the arrythmias the methyl-mercury in the heart may cause in addition to the foggyness and muscle twitches ... )

For more information

• Back to the Canary's-Eye Veiw Lipoic Acid page
• More by Ray Saarela:
  • LA as a chelator - Ray's first message on the subject (assuming I've searched correctly), 3 April 1998.
  • LA facts - 13 July 2000
• To join the AMALGAM list and read the archives for yourself, see directions for access).