Heavy Metals are the most toxic non-radioactive substances on earth.  They are naturally occurring elements.  However, many of the ways that we are exposed to them are anything but “natural”. 

The most toxic of the heavy metals is mercury.  Mercury greatly impairs the human brain and nervous system.  It can and does cause all sorts of neurological symptoms.  Many of these symptoms are identical to widespread neurological and psychological disorders.  Autism is only one of the disorders that the symptoms of heavy metals mimic.  They also produce symptoms of diseases and disorders like Attention Deficient (with or without Hyper Activity), Bipolar disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Parkinson’s, not to mention, all sorts of learning disabilities such as dyslexia.  

Where does the majority of this harmful stuff come from?  All we need to do to find it in abundance is look in the mirror and say “Ahhh”.  Amalgam fillings, otherwise known as “silver” fillings (although contain little to no sliver), are 50% + mercury.  The other metals that can be found in fillings are generally some combination possibly including aluminum, nickel and tin.

If you are saying to yourself…  But my 2 year old, or 6 year old, or 14 year old etc. doesn’t even have any fillings, let me just ask you – What about you?  It is a well-known fact that mercury has the ability to cross the placenta and will pass through breast milk.  This is why the USDA’s current recommendation is that pregnant women not eat tuna, albacore, and other fish high in mercury content, at all during pregnancy or while breast-feeding. 

The grinding of these metals from our fillings when we eat, especially when eating and drinking hot and acidic foods, causes these harmful heavy metals to vaporize and leach out.  This causes re-exposure that can harm mother’s and fetus’s cells and tissues again and again for years to come.  In addition to the re-exposure and resulting tissue and cellular damage, the mixture of more than one heavy metal raises the toxicity.  This mix of metals makes the amalgam fillings very harmful.  This can happen even with very small exposures.  In addition, amalgam mercury can combine with bacterial toxins to produce even more toxic species².

Other fetal exposure could come from mother’s who are Rh negative and received RhoGam injections during pregnancy or post partum.  It is my understanding that Johnson and Johnson has only recently made (or possibly claim) their RhoGam injection is mercury free.  When I found out the RhoGam injections that I have received contained mercury, it absolutely infuriated me!  No governmental agency has ever claimed that ANY amount is “tolerable” during pregnancy.  Then the FDA approves a drug that is only given to pregnant and postpartum women which contains mercury?

I personally received a total of 3 RhoGam shots during my pregnancy and directly following the birth of my daughters.  Within 2 weeks of the first one, I started having preterm labor and had to be placed on uterine monitoring.  Within hours of the second one, I had to be hospitalized for preterm labor.  I was placed on a terbutaline pump that was ineffective to keep my uterus at rest.  Terbutaline is a steroid that is used to stop pre-term contractions.  By 3 weeks following the 2^nd injection, I was full blown pre-eclamptic.  My liver was killing my babies and me.  I had gained 14 pounds of toxins and water weight within 4 days.  I had to deliver 9 ½ weeks early by C-section.  Within a week to 10 days following my post-partum injection, Hannah (our autistic twin) developed chronic, explosive, foul smelling; yellowy, yeasty smelling stools that lasted for years to come.  A week following the gut symptoms she actually developed a thrush diaper rash infection. 

Were all these events coincidental?  Possibly, but I have a hard time believing that!   Once I read that mothers with autistic children are more than 40% likely to be Rh negative as compared to (I believe it is) less than 6% in the regular population.  With statistics like that, these “coincidents” can’t be ignored!

Developing fetuses will be affected the most by heavy metals because their brains are growing much faster than an older child or adult.  In addition, it is the body’s survival instinct to store toxins it can’t rid in body fat.  The only real fat of a fetus or infant is in the brain.  In addition, the cells might actually try to use metals like they are essential minerals or “building materials” for the brain.  Therefore causing the body to hold on to those toxins.

The other major accumulation of mercury comes from vaccinations.  Mostly these are childhood vaccines but the flu vaccine also contains significant mercury loads.  Unfortunately the people who are at the biggest risk of getting seriously or fatally ill from the flu are the exact people who can’t handle the toxic load from the mercury they contain. 

According to the FDA and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the amount of mercury infants get from immunizations has exceeded safety levels on both an individual and cumulative vaccine basis³.  In addition to the mercury they get in vaccines, infants may be exposed to mercury before they are even born.  Their mothers may be carrying a toxic amount in their teeth, getting vaccinations themselves, getting RhoGam shots during pregnancy or directly after giving birth (it is my understanding Johnson & Johnson has recently stopped using a preservative containing mercury), eating mercury containing fish or using other cosmetics containing mercury. 

On May 31, 2000 the FDA asked vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate the mercury containing preservative Thimerosal (voluntarily) from their vaccines.  Thimerosal is a preservative that is 50% ethyl mercury that is used in vaccines and may be contained in other injectable medications like RhoGam.  The primary purpose of Thimerosal is to save a buck or 2.  The manufacturers use Thimerosal to reduce the risk of "contamination" from reinserting sterile needles in multi-vial bottles. - Is it me or is "contamination" in a vaccine an paradoxical?!  They can save a little money by packaging vaccines in multi-vial doses rather than single doses.

Some vaccinations now claim to be “preservative free” however they STILL CONTAIN MERCURY!  Some manufacturers have just relabeled their informational inserts to remove it from under preservative ingredient.  This may be true for other injectable medications as well.  However, the 3rd party lab that tested these “preservative free” / “mercury free” vaccines are finding they still contain mercury and aluminum.  For all the details you can view the entire press release declaring "Vaccines Are Not Mercury Free "  dated 8/12/04 by the Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI).

I am not entirely anti-vaccination (at least not yet).  At this point I have reason to believe there are safe alternatives using homeopathic means for immunization that are just as effective as vaccination without side effects⁴.  I plan on exploring all my options when I am faced with that decision in the future.  I will say that I have no intentions of giving either one of my girls "boosters" especially without getting a titers test first.  What I am very much against is being in the position to put my children at risk of contracting a life threatening illness OR poisoning them with toxic heavy metals!

In addition to the two biggest sources of mercury as discussed previously (amalgam fillings and injectable medications such as vaccinations), unfortunately, it can be found in many products some of which can’t be avoided.  It is in our air, water and fish and some fish oil supplements.  This is one of the reasons I personally believe it best not to get your omega fatty acids from fish oil supplements.  Especially from liver oils - there would be high concentrations of toxins (and not just mercury) contained in the liver.  Some supplement labs claim to filter out the mercury.  However, according to Dr. Boyd Haley, mercury (maybe certain types) can't be totally filtered out.  My personal opinion is...  Why risk it you can get omega's from other sources.  Not to mention many times parents have a much easier time getting kids to take flax oil and/or borage oils than cod liver oil!

Mercury can also be found in paint prior to 1992 some nasal sprays, eye ointments, and even some cheap cosmetics.  Make sure you check labels carefully. 

Furthermore, mercury tends to accumulate in our bodies and environment.  In other words, the more it’s used the more we will excrete and the more we will be exposed in the future from our air and water.   Therefore, we can’t do much about the damage we have already done to our environment.  We can only prevent future uses and exposures.  If we don't, we'll just add to our future exposure.

Still another extremely harmful effect of heavy metals on the body is that it increases free radicals in the body by a hundred or even thousand fold.  Every time you have a free radical hit a piece of metal in your body it splits that free radical hundreds or thousands of times.  This may be the biggest reason heavy metals cause cancer. 

These are just some of the reasons I highly suggest an alkalizing, ionizing water filter.  To balance the Ph level.  To raise the oxygen level to get rid of pathogenic organisms.  Many can't survive in oxygen.  The ionization of the water helps drive heavy metals, other toxins and filth (to use Dr. Young's term) out of the cells and tissues.

 ^5.  William Shaw, Ph.D., Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD, page 114