The Aha! Moment: Why Houston (Boston, Washington, Congress) We Have a Huge Problem...

Medical and Dental Associations: Professional, Commercial and Trade, or Both?

 Ethical and Legal Questions

1. Is it appropriate for professional medical and dental associations to hold patents on products?

2. Should the licensing, teaching and practice of medicine and dentistry be separate from their trade and commercial interests?

3. What is the appropriate regulatory stance? What happens when conflicts of interest arise?

AMA

The American Medical Association (AMA) is concerned with the licensing, teaching, and practice of medicine. It does not hold patents on specific products.

ADA

The American Dental Association (ADA) is concerned with the licensing, teaching and practice of dentistry, and also with the trade and commercial aspects of dentistry. It was founded in 1859 to promote the use of an inexpensive restorative material at the time, dental amalgam, first introduced in the United States in the early 1830s. There have been improvements in its formulation over the years.

The ADA has been assigned 83 patents during the period of online records at the US Patent Office, 1976 to the present. Patents from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by Issue Date, Patent Number, and Current US Classification.

The ADA’s most recent patent on dental amalgam, “Method for eliminating gamma.sub.2 phase from dental amalgam and improved dental amalgam composition” was granted in 1977, amended in 1978, and expired in the mid-1990s.  The ADA’s latest patent, granted February 25, 2014, is, “A method and apparatus for measuring the polishability of a solid material such as a dental restorative material.”

Trends in Patents on Dental Amalgam

There have been 42 patents filed with dental amalgam in the title during the period of online records at the US Patent Office, 1976 to the present. Patents from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by Issue Date, Patent Number, and Current US Classification. Recent patents note a record of an early one filed, “Improvement in Dental Amalgams,” in 1874 by Stephen Southworth of Niagara Falls, NY.

In addition to the ADA 1977 and 1978 patents noted above, there have been additional ones granted. Of note, Japanese researchers were granted a patent in 1987, “Dental amalgam alloys containing selenium,” to counteract, “the cytotoxicity resulting from mercury eluting from the amalgam filler.”

Since 2003, the only patents that have been granted have been related to the mitigation of harm from dental amalgam to water, air, crops, fish, etc.: “Dental amalgam separator,” “Low-cost magnetically aided apparatus for separating dental amalgam from waste water,” and “System and method for reducing environmental crematorial release of mercury from mercury-containing dental amalgam, in which teeth are encapsulated to reduce mercury vapor as crematoria have weak emissions controls.

 This work by Laura Henze Russell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Why Dental Tourism is Booming - Journalist Resource

There are several major reasons for the growth of dental tourism within and outside the U.S.

1) We do not have integrated health and dental insurance in the U.S.  Dental insurance is strictly a business contract that has no provisions for medical necessity or patient protection.  When patients need to do thing outside the scope of the contract, even when medically necessary, it is expensive, and there is no coverage.

2) The costs of dental materials in the U.S. are much higher than the cost of those same materials overseas.  Talk with people from other countries, and you may learn they get their dental work done when visiting home, saving thousands of dollars.

3) The U.S. lags much of the advanced and some of the developing world in recognizing the health impacts and risks of dental amalgam, which off-gases mercury, for genetically susceptible children and adults.  The FDA ruled in 2009 it is only Class II with Special Controls, requiring warnings from manufacturers to dentists, but not from dentists to patients. There are no consumer labels, no patient information, and no written informed consent for installation of a medical device that contains a neurotoxin. Five advanced nations ban amalgam use, and many including Canada and much of Europe now require health warnings and informed written consent.

4) This gives dental amalgam protected status as "standard of care" even if you are in a high risk group.  This is why dental insurers can ignore, and deny, appeals based on medical necessity despite doctors letters and proof of harm such as elevated mercury levels and chronic diseases and symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning. 

5) Depending on the number of molars and bicuspids involved, patients are forced to pay five figures and cannot access the premiums they paid for decades for the additional cost of alternative filling materials, so they go overseas. It can cost as much as one or two cars, and often hits at or after the time of retirement, making it an extra unexpected whammy.

6) The ADA fights tooth and nail to defend amalgam use at all costs, and the FDA is happy to oblige.  Former Commissioner Hamburg held stock options from Henry Schein as FDA Commissioner and sat on their board for six years before taking office.  She only recused herself from the flawed 2009 ruling within the last few weeks, and Schein wrote that it was deeply indebted to her work on the FDA ruling.

7) There are three U.S.-based dental associations that train dentists in biologic, biocompatible dentistry, and attract dentists internationally: the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, the International Association of Biological Dentistry and Medicine, and the Holistic Dental Association.

8) There is also a considerable amount of dental tourism within the United States.  People drive good distances, even out of state, to find knowledgeable, expertly trained biologic dentists.  There are nearly 760 IAOMT members, about 640 in the US, 50 in Canada, and 70 from other nations. IABDM has about 210 members, and Holistic Dental Association 260. There is some overlap; so there are 1,000 biologic dentists in the U.S. or 20 per state, on average, 50 in Canada and 70 in other nations. In the nations that have banned amalgam there is less need to join such associations; Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Japan.

9) Journalists need to take a fresh look.  Resources such as the Shorenstein Center’s Journalist Resource admit that their algorithms are inadequate to give accurate, current guidance on medical topics, but they do not post a disclaimer.  The APHA rescinded its support in 2013 for an interim policy statement that declared dental amalgam a safe and effective restorative material.  I ask other journalists why they do not cover the issue and I am told that there is a long history of controversy.  There is controversy for a reason.  The job of independent media and journalists is to dive deeply into these kinds of issues, not avoid or sidestep them.

10) The IAOMT is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed March 5^th against the FDA and HHS for failure to respond to a petition for reconsideration of its flawed 2009 Class II rule, which detailed numerous errors in the FDA’s risk assessment, and ignored the recommendations of its Scientific Advisory Panel.  The APA requires a response within one year, it has been 54 months.  The FDA’s response has been to archive all of the materials related to its 2010 Hearing on the Petition for Reconsideration and Regional Public Hearings, which had strong testimony on this, so they are hard to locate through a search.  I have the links for interested reporters.

If you want sources for in-depth reporting on this issue, additionally google and contact me.  I am working on a major piece on this and am happy to share as this topic needs the broadest national, regional and local coverage.  I'd also recommend the IAOMT website and searchable library, and the DrBicuspid website, for which it is free to register, the DAMS International Facebook page, and the website of the 2015 Documentary, You Put What In My Mouth?  Learn about the inside debates within in the industry, and listen to injured and recovered patients and dental staff, including biologic dentists themselves, not just what the ADA and FDA want you to hear.  

Where to Find a Biologic Dentist:
International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Find a Dentist US 637, Canada 51, International 71. International Association of Biologic Dentistry and Medicine, Find a Dentist  US 212, International 1. Holistic Dental Association, Find a Dentist US 259.

Add More Protection to the Protect Bill! - March 12, 2014

My Comment on Venture Beat's blog, March 12, 2014: We Need to Return to Delivering Health Information, Anne Wojcicki

"The Protect Bill also needs... respect for biocompatibility and impact of toxins like mercury off-gassing from dental amalgam.  

Dental amalgam is scientifically and clinically proven to harm genetically susceptible children and adults who have gene types that do not clear mercury well. At least a half dozen gene glitches have been identified impair methylation (important to nerves) and detoxification (important to toxins) pathways. 

There are impacts for many of us as we age with these glitches, as our protective hormones and immune systems weaken.  The largest of these affects 20%+ of the population, 63M people.  In addition, 67M people have enough amalgams to exceed the FDA's "safe" reference dose, which doesn't take into account gene type. 

There are impacts for boys with CPOX4 from amalgam immediately - changes in kidney markers and neurobehavioral deficits.  James S. Woods, lead researcher of the initial CAT study of dental amalgam in children, retracted his findings of amalgam safety from the Children's Amalgam Trial in Portugal twice, in 2012 and 2013. Google to find the articles which the media ignored.

Animal studies show immediate distribution of mercury from installation of dental amalgam to the brains, kidneys and livers of sheep and monkeys.

The Net, Google, social media, courageous doctors, biologic dentists, scientists, Health IT, new tests, engaged people and parents and patients, and 23andMe helped save my health, my life, my family, my finances and my future after 20 years of chronic disease, and a year of serious, escalating health problems.

The FDA protects dated, dangerous products and industries over people and health. Protectionism is bad in the economy.  It is even worse in health, where the consequences are deadly, and incredibly costly to families, employers, health plans, and governments.   

The IAOMT sued the FDA March 5th for not responding to a petition for reconsideration of its flawed 2009 Class II ruling for amalgam after 54 months.  The Administration has not yet agreed to a request for a Surgeon General Report on Dental Amalgam and Mercury Health Risks.  Congress has not yet shown interest or leadership on this issue since its shining lights retired.

23andMe'ers, this is our time. Promote use and understanding of genetic information, and end genetic discrimination in medical and dental care.  Many of us require labels and protection from synergistic toxins like dental mercury which are ubiquitous and federally sanctioned, not labeled nor disclosed to us as patients or parents, and for which we do not get the basic human and medical right of written informed consent."

Sound an Alarm on Dental Amalgam: House Call for the Surgeon General

Sound an alarm on dental amalgam

2014 January 10

by Rick Holmes
A guest post from Laura Henze Russell:

Fifty years after the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking, it is high time for President Obama to ask the U.S. Surgeon General to prepare a Report on Dental Amalgam.

The great United States of America, through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, lags behind other advanced, emerging and developing nations in recognizing and protecting its citizens from dental amalgam’s scientifically proven health risks to genetically susceptible children and adults.

The FDA refuses to follow the recommendations of its own Scientific Advisory Panels on amalgam in 2006 and 2010 which called for clear health warnings, patient restrictions, and specific prior informed written consent before its use. Instead, the FDA requires clear health warnings and contraindications to be provided to dentists, but not patients.

Why? The American Dental Association and FDA fight tooth and nail to preserve its use as a “safe, effective restorative material.”  The ADA was founded as a pro-amalgam trade association, has filed patents on it.  Whistleblowers at the FDA went to Congress, but nothing happened.  There was a 36-year delay in classifying amalgam as a medical device, then in 2010 the FDA shocked everyone by only making it Class II, with special controls for dentists and none for patients, instead of Class III, which requires proof of safety. The International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (IAOMT) and injured patients petitioned for reconsideration, nothing happened.

They have not convinced the IAOMT, IABDM, Holistic Dental Association, or a growing number of doctors treating the growing number of patients recovering from the raft of chronic autoimmune, neurological and other diseases that plague us as we age.

They have not convinced the over 100,000 people who finally figured out why they were ill, and contacted the volunteer patient counseling, information and referral, and support group Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS), which is run by a volunteer executive director, board members, and volunteer coordinators in all 50 states, many of whom are on disability due to mercury poisoning from amalgam.

They have not convinced the American Public Health Association, a majority of whose members declined in 2013 to ratify a policy somewhat hastily pushed through by ADA allies in late 2012, so APHA no longer endorses dental amalgam as safe and effective for use.

The U.S. signed the Minamata Treaty in Japan this year to phase out use of mercury worldwide, in all products, to reduce the burden of this potent neurotoxin on human health.  But when it comes to dental amalgam mercury, the U.S. takes baby steps, backward steps, bumbling steps.

Industrial and medicinal mercury gave us Mad Hatter’s Disease, Pink’s Disease for toddlers and children, Minamata Disease in Japan, and took down a number of venerated nurses and healers, including Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale.

We need a house call, and a wake up call, from the Surgeon General. May he come soon to save us from ourselves and our dentists, so we can all get and stay healthier and make the need for health care fall for the first time in the U.S.

Laura Henze Russell is the Founder of Hidden River Health Challenge: A Social Innovation Enterprise Promoting Health.

Audio: Rob Moir's Environmental Dialogues with Laura Henze Russell

Audio: Moir's Environmental Dialogues

Listen to Dr. Rob Moir and Laura Henze Russell discuss mercury poisoning and safer alternatives in dentistry.

March 20,2014 Episode  - Dental Assistant Karen Palmer of Bethlehem, PA talks about her occupational mercury poisoning.

March 6, 2014 Episode - Laura Henze Russell talks about the Campaign for Good Health, Call for a Surgeon General's Report, and IAOMT Lawsuit Against the FDA and HHS.

November 29, 2012 Episode - Laura Henze Russell talks about the upcoming Sharon, MA Town Warrant Articles.

Hidden River Health Challenge on YouTube - Watch Us!

Hidden River Health Challenge on YouTube - Watch Us!

March 2014 Resolution for Surgeon General Report to Sharon Finance Committee for May Town Meeting, and IAOMT Lawsuit vs. FDA in a Nutshell (14 min)


December 2012 Articles at Sharon Town Meeting to Learn About, Share and Act on Health Risks of Mercury Dental Amalgam for Genetically Susceptible Children and Adults (14 min)

November 2012 Cable TV Show FYI with Colleen Tuck

October 2012 Presentation to Board of Selectmen on Articles for Town Meeting Dec 2012

Oct. 2012 Presentation to Sharon Finance Committee on Articles for Town Meeting Dec. 2012

July 2012 Presentation to Sharon Board of Health on Health Risks for Dental Mercury Amalgam for Genetically Susceptible Children and Adults

Resources for Patients and Policy Makers: Lawsuit v FDA, Call for Surgeon General Report, FDA Guidance Document, State Dental Code, IAOMT Questions for Dentist

Lawsuit Against FDA For Failure on Health Risks of Mercury Dental Amalgam

Good Health Coalition Calls for Surgeon General Report on Dental Mercury

20+ Questions on Amalgam: Did You Know?

Save Health Health Care Costs and Protect Our Health Across Generations

FDA Guidance Document on Amalgam and MA State Dental Code Flyer

IAOMT Questions for Your Dentist, and How to Find a Dentist

Additional Volunteers Welcomed to Help Improve This Blog!

Testimony to MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services - December 10, 2012

Laura Henze Russell, Principal, 

Hidden River Health Challenge

December 10, 2012

I am Laura Henze Russell, founder of Hidden River Health Challenge, a mercury poisoned survivor working to improve our health and reduce chronic diseases by promoting mercury free dentistry and supportive health care. We work for health education, better dental insurance plans, and rebooting health and dental systems through education, advocacy, and moving people and markets.  We are reaching out to develop a collaborative agenda for change and to organize innovative research challenges and demonstrations to reduce health disparities.

For 20 years I had chronic pain, fatigue, sleep, memory and balance problems that were diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Between March 2011 and March 2012, I had a year of acute escalating health problems that a dozen specialists could not diagnose. I gave up hope. Then, by the grace of God, one of my doctors heard a presentation at a conference that symptoms like mine could be caused by a toxicity reaction to dental materials. Small amounts of mercury vapor escape from fillings with heat and abrasion. People with certain gene types do not clear mercury well, so develop health problems over time. I was able to get treated and get healthy again by removing the amalgam and following a detoxification protocol.

There are two new breaking studies released in September and October 2012:

1.   James Woods and team at U of Washington retracted earlier findings of amalgam safety in children and found that boys of a certain gene type have significant neurobehavioral deficits and kidney damage.

2.  Thomas Duplinsky of Yale Medical School found that dentists compared to matched controls have significantly higher prescription use in neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

This is new information and I would like to help other people in Massachusetts who have chronic illnesses, health problems, premature aging, memory deficits, mood swings or other health problems due to the hidden river of mercury in our bodies learn about this risk and regain health.

I have been working as a volunteer for 9 months to research mercury dental amalgam toxicity in the U.S.  I attended the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology Conference in MN, the U.S. CDC Health Statistics Conference in DC, and a symposium in CT, and am in contact with biologic dentists, scientific researchers, injured patients and advocates across the U.S. 

I am working with legislators and committee chairs at the State House to develop bills and budget items for the upcoming session, and have begun discussions with national funders on demonstration projects, and ask DPH and EOHHS to be a leader and partner in these efforts.

Action Agenda on Mercury Amalgam Illness

1.      Determine the Scope of the Problem of Dental Mercury Poisoning and Public Awareness

•       Hold public hearings around the state to get input from injured patients and their family members, and health and dental professionals.
•       Set up a patient registry and reporting mechanism at the Betsy Lehman Center and DPH Center for Health Information and Analysis.
•       Call for FDA Adverse Events Form 3500 Reporting to be mandatory by dentists and doctors for adverse reactions to dental materials and oral medical devices.
•       Develop pamphlets for patients, doctors, dentists, nurses and other health professionals, and targeting high risk groups which include older adults, military and veterans, Native Americans, and low-income people. Why the military? High usage, and greater at risk of heat and abrasion. For example, soldiers face greater risk of mercury off gassing through abrasion of teeth from traveling on dirt roads and combat related injuries, as well as desert heat.
•       Utilize the MA Prevention and Wellness Trust to investigate and educate to mitigate health disparities from amalgam toxicity, with a special focus on higher risk populations who have a higher incidence and cumulative body burden of mercury amalgam.

2.      Specific Informed Consent and Health Warnings

• Reform MA Dental Code sections 515 and 517 to provide for specific informed consent for dental fillings, and reporting for morbidity, not just mortality, for dental procedures.
• Include warnings to patients similar that dentists get from manufacturers under FDA’s Class II Special Controls Guidance Document for Mercury and Dental Amalgam.
• Develop an informational brochure for patients as Connecticut did by executive action.
• Include information on materials and potential side effects, similar to prescription drugs.
• Include recommendations for patch testing, as required by FDA for hair color products.
• Include recommendations for biocompatibility blood tests for dental materials.

3.      Dental Insurance Reform

• Require dental plans be cost-neutral for alternatives to amalgam outside of the "smile area".
• Require dental plans to cover remediation when medically necessary.
• Flexible spending account for dental work as a pre-tax alternative to dental insurance.

4.      Structural Solutions

       A Blue Ribbon Commission can sink its teeth into these issues and consider how health care and dental insurance systems and medical and dental records can be better integrated to promote health and reduce chronic diseases.

·     Examine ways to update screening standards, such as periodic heavy metals and toxics screens, covering provoked urine testing to determine body burden, screenings before pregnancy and behavioral health referrals, and for concussion patients and returning soldiers.

·     Promote biologic dentistry, which integrates dentistry and health based on evidence-based research, similar to ways to promote clean and green energy and energy conservation industries.

·     End the FDA logjam on dental amalgam by calling on the President and Congress to direct FDA to follow the recommendations of its Scientific Advisory Panels in 2006 and 2010 to restrict its use in young children, pregnant women, and people with a known “allergy” to mercury.

We can save money and bend the cost curve down by stopping poisoning people who lose the gene lottery, and pay a heavy price as they age. This will have spinoff effects that can also help reduce costs of long term care, unemployment, lost tax revenues, and special education. Thank you.

The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow: Mercury Does Not Belong in Your Mouth - May 2012

Laura: Mercury does not belong in your mouth

   

Laura Henze Russell is a member of the Massachusetts delegation to the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families' Stroller Brigade for Safe Chemicals in Washington DC.

Laura grew up on Long Island, New York. The horror of cancer hit home early for Laura when one of her friends lost her mother to the disease in high school. Unfortunately it didn't stop there.  Over time, the the majority of her friends from the neighborhood, and their mothers, have contracted breast cancer.

Cancer hit her family too. Laura's mother got non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in her 60s, her father--who was not a smoker--was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 80s, and Laura herself had breast cancer in her 40s and got fibromyalgia 20 years ago. 

She says of her childhood neighborhood, "We lived down the street from a mansion that was converted to a dairy, which sounded pretty wholesome. However, we later wondered what the dairy released into the water supply as they packed their products."  When that many people have cancer, questions start to get asked.

Today, Laura lives in Sharon, Massachusetts with her husband and 20 year old son, and health problems with links to toxic chemicals have not left her alone. Last year she experienced escalating and aggravating health problems including finger tremors, unexplained skin problems and infections, allergies and sensitivities to foods she'd eaten her whole life, and continued challenges with her fibromyalgia. After a year of inconclusive doctors appointments and a battery of expensive tests, the culprit was finally found: mercury.

Like so many of us, Laura had a mouth full of mercury. A common dental filling material known as "amalgam," also referred to as "silver" is made of 43 to 54 percent mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Laura had many such fillings and the mercury level in her body was elevated to more than 40 percent over the normal range even two months after starting detox.

Laura is on a mission to prevent others from having to go through what she did. "Physicians, labs and hospitals are not equipped to recognize and diagnose mercury poisoning," she said. "I got third opinions from numerous specialists who said that it was all in my head. It was not even raised as a consideration."

She sees friends and colleagues experiencing similar health problems and wonders if they too have been impacted by mercury or other toxic chemicals.

Her mission is an economic one too.  "Mercury and other toxic chemicals wreak havoc on the immune and central nervous systems and and open the door to many heath problems and diseases that are extremely debilitating and raise health care costs," she said. "If we want to keep health care costs down we need to stop poisoning people."

Thankfully, this saga turned into a success story; within a week or two of starting mercury detox, she had a dramatic reduction of some of her symptoms. Now, two months later she says, "I am stronger and healthier than I've been in 20 years!"

Alzheimer's and the Fillings in Our Teeth - October 6, 2012

By Boyd Haley and Laura Henze Russell/Guest columnists 

MetroWest Daily News
Posted Oct. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM Updated Oct 6, 2012 at 6:13 AM 

People, families and communities across the state and the nation are holding Walks to End Alzheimer's. As a result of rapidly advancing scientific research within the U.S. and a host of other nations, we now know enough to Run to End Alzheimer's.

Not someday, but soon. Not never, but starting right now.

The human body and brain evolved over centuries and eons in a natural environment. Gradually. Then industrialization hit, and better living through chemistry, biochemistry, metallurgy, electronics, radiology, technology, and nanotechnology took flight.

Unfortunately, our cells, membranes, nerves, and genes cannot keep up. They recognize new things as invaders, and try to fight them off. Autoimmune reactions, inflammation, and chronic diseases are the result. We read about big words like beta amyloid, demyelination, and oxidative stress, which are different ways of saying that the ways things work inside us go awry.

The germ theory of disease works for germs, but it does not explain the root of many of today’s health problems. It turns out the keys to the castle lie in understanding that today’s big chronic, devastating, costly diseases – like Alzheimer’s – are the result of nature, nurture, and exposures, both toxic and pathogenic. Pathogens are micro-organisms that can cause disease. Toxins are harmful chemicals, substances and metals that affect the body, brain, cells, and organs. They do so by messing up basic biochemistry, cell membranes, enzymes, and the like.The disease processes in the brain resulting from heavy metals poisoning and from chemical exposures are fairly similar. How our bodies, brains, cells and organs react to toxic substances varies by the substance, varies by our genes, and varies by their interactions over time (epigenetics). It is as if the instruments in a symphony are run over by a fleet of trucks, then they don’t work and sound so good anymore. Some stop playing altogether. Having multiple types of exposures makes it synergistically worse.

One of the biggest hidden health issues of our time is mercury toxicity from mercury amalgam dental fillings. These fillings have long been proven to off-gas mercury vapors in the presence of heat and abrasion. Not only when fillings are placed, but when they are removed, and also when you chew, grind teeth, drink hot liquids, shower, sauna, and jar your jaw in accidents, sports, and falls. The levels at which off-gassing happens is greater than previously thought.Research at multiple universities has demonstrated that exposure of normal brain tissue to mercury causes the same “footprint” of biochemical abnormalities as found in Alzheimer’s disease brain tissue. It shows that at very low concentrations, mercury and only mercury among the heavy metals, induces the disintegration of the “natural structure” that holds a neuron in place, leading to neurofibrillary tangles - a well-known diagnostic hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Since mercury vapors escape from amalgam fillings over time, and 80 percent on average enters the body, exposure would exacerbate the symptoms of anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Is the problem increasing? Yes, markedly. The U.S. National Health and Nutritional Evaluation Surveys of 2000 and 2006 have shown that 2 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of American women have detectable levels of inorganic mercury in their blood. This 15-fold increase in women with inorganic mercury (not from fish) indicates that the overall exposure to mercury is increasing in mothers and putting our infants at risk for neurological diseases.

There is also hard medical, scientific and toxicological evidence that mercury is especially toxic to those with the ApoE4 gene, who do not clear mercury well. Sadly, but not surprisingly, ApoE4 is associated with higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease, and lots of other diseases as well. Researchers in the U.S. and other nations have found elevated mercury levels in the brains and cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s victims. Many Alzheimer’s victims show classic signs of mercury poisoning, but these signs are no longer recognized by most doctors.

As we unlock the fundamental causes of Alzheimer’s disease, we can unlock the keys to health and recovery. The body and brain is amazingly resilient when it is not under toxic assault. We can develop ways for those with the gene type that doesn't clear mercury well to better clear it. This is important, because mercury poisoning is the thief that keeps on taking. With the wrong gene type, mercury will stay in your body, cells and brains long after your fillings have been removed, replaced or fallen out.

We will be far better off, as people, as families, and as a nation, if we focus on health, reduce the impact of toxins, and let our bodies, brains and cells get healthy again.

We need regular, periodic testing for heavy metals and toxins as part of regular check-ups. We all experience lifelong, repeated, multiple, and multipoint exposures, so this just makes sense. We need mandatory reporting of adverse health impacts, to learn the scope of the problem.Where there are safer alternatives, such as for mercury dental amalgam, we should use them, and stop the nonsense of pretending amalgam is hard, safe and inert for all time – as long as it is in the mouth. We know it is a hazardous substance before it goes into the mouth, and after it comes out. Does the tooth fairy keep it safe and harmless in our teeth?

The FDA should immediately follow the recommendations of its own Scientific Advisory Panel in 2010 to restrict use of amalgam in young children, pregnant women, and people with a known “sensitivity” or “allergy” to mercury. Better yet, based on the growing medical, scientific and toxicological studies in the U.S. and a host of other countries, ban it, as Norway, Denmark and Sweden did in 2008-2009, with the EEC now on a track to follow suit.

This disease is devastating our citizens, our families, our nation. Let’s run, not walk, to end Alzheimer’s.  

Boyd Haley is President of CTI Science, board member of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology, and professor emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky. Laura Henze Russell is the founder and principal of Hidden River Health Challenge.