Overview
Changes in environmental mercury levels have been dramatic in recent decades; industrial exposure to mercury is significant and mostly comes from coal burning and chlor-alkali plants. The more mercury we are exposed to, the more we are likely we are to be toxic. The main ways that humans are exposed to mercury are from contaminated fish and dental amalgams or silver fillings. And while some of us are very good at detoxifying mercury and other toxins, some people have genetic variations (called polymorphisms) that make them more prone to metal toxicity. Mercury can affect nearly all your organs, especially the brain, heart, kidneys, and gut, and many chronic diseases may be caused or worsened by mercury, including neurologic disease, ADHD, autism, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and more.
In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss how they test for, diagnose, and treat mercury toxicity. Dr. Hyman also shares his own personal experience recovering from mercury poisoning.
Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.
In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss:
- Why mercury toxicity is often overlooked and ignored
- Dr. Hyman’s personal experience with mercury poisoning
- Mercury’s effects on the body
- How mercury can be passed through the placenta and breast milk
- Main sources of mercury, including coal burning facilities, fish consumption, mercury dental fillings
- Safely removing mercury fillings
- Effectively testing for mercury levels
- Patients with mercury toxicity that they have treated
- Boosting your body’s natural detoxification pathways
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