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Heavy Metals and Chronic Diseases
by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, M.D., PhD
In the late phase of the Roman Empire it was considered a privilege of the reigning aristocracy to drink out of lead cups, and many of the water lines in the city of Rome were made out of lead pipes. It took several hundred years before the physicians of their time established the link between mental illness - affecting mostly the aristocracy - and the contamination of the drinking water with lead. In the 1700s the use of mercury for the treatment of both acute and chronic infections gained favor, and again it took decades before the neurotoxic and immunosuppressive effects of mercury were well documented within the medical community.
In the time of Mozart, who himself died of mercury toxicity during a course of treatment for syphilis, any pathologist in Vienna was familiar with the severe grayish discoloration of organs in those who died from mercury toxicity and other organ related destructive changes caused by mercury.
In the case of mercury the therapeutic dilemma is most clear: mercury can be used to treat infections but - not unlike chemotherapy - also causes a different type of illness itself and may kill the patient. The same is true for most metals: small doses may have a therapeutic effect in a short term, life saving direction, but may also cause their own illness. Most metals have a very narrow therapeutic margin before their neurotoxic, in some cases carcinogenic effect, outweighs the benefits. Toxic metals may be fungicidal and bactericidal, maybe even virucidal, but many foreign invaders have the ability to adapt over time to a toxic metal environment in a way that stuns scientists and certainly outpaces the ability of the cells of a higher organism - like ours - to adapt in a similar way.
So in the long run, the situation looks different: the cells of the body are harmed by toxic metals whereas the invading microorganisms can often thrive in a heavy metal environment. Research by Ludwig, Voll and others in Germany, by Omura and myself here in the US, showed that microorganisms tend to set up their housekeeping in those body compartments that have the highest pollution with toxic metals. The body's own immune cells are incapacitated in those areas whereas the microorganisms multiply and thrive in an undisturbed way. The teeth, jawbone, Peyers patches in the gutwall, the groundsystem (connective tissue) and the autonomic ganglia are common sites of metal storage - where microorganisms thrive. Furthermore, those body areas also are vasoconstricted and hypoperfused (by blood, nutrients and oxygen), which fosters the growth of anaerobic germs, fungi and viruses.
The list of symptoms of mercury toxicity alone, published by DAMS (dental amalgam support group), includes virtually any illness known to humankind: chronic fatigue, depression and joint pains are the most common.
To keep it simple: mercury alone can mimic or cause any illness currently known - or contribute to it.
Modern medicine has taken a giant leap in the last few years through the discovery and use of the PCR test (polymerase chain reaction). Virtually any illness looked at seems to be caused or contributed to by a chronic infection. A study performed by the VA administration (and published in JADA, April 1998) on 10 000 US veterans showed that most coronary heart disease really started as an endothelial infection, in most cases caused by microorganisms from the mouth. Another study showed that close to 70 % of all TMJ syndromes in women are caused or contributed to by chlamydia trachomatis. Childhood diabetes is often caused by either a cytomegaly or influenza virus infection. And on and on.....
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