WELCOME! HIDDEN RIVER'S PATHS TO GOOD HEALTH, MAKING CHRONIC DISEASES HISTORY

What We Do To Help Others:

• engage people of all ages, stages, walks of life

• learn about genes and toxins, common causes of chronic diseases 

• understand our own health information

• share what we learn with others

• take actions to help ourselves and others

• reach out to health care stakeholders, patient advocacy and other device illness groups, and innovators in patient care, health apps, precision medicine, biotech, digital health, big data

What We Do to Help Ourselves:

• work with functional/integrative/environmental MDs, biologic/holistic/mercury-safe dentists

• get appropriate, helpful tests (biocompatibility, allergy, genetics, heavy metals, toxins)

• separate ourselves from exposures - in our bodies, homes, schools, workplaces, yards 

• get supportive treatment from knowledgeable professionals, monitor & curate our health

• build supportive communities so we share, give and receive support and help

• ask questions, advocate, communicate, innovate, thrive!

We Get Healthy, and We Change Policy Together

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION May 2015 - HELP THE TOXIC SUBSTANCE ABUSED FOR HEALTH, LOWER COSTS

1. Patient Labeling of All Installed Medical and Dental Devices

2. Funding Recovery Services for Device Related Illnesses

3. Develop Comprehensive Plan for Patient/Worker Protection, Reform

4. Urgent FDA Safety Reform of Installed  Devices, Surgeon General Report
OUTLINE OF COMPREHENSIVE PLAN for Patient Protection and Reform

a)      Patient Protection

i)   Follow the lead of four states and add consumer labels with warnings to the product to discourage its use by those for whom it may be harmful and written consent; the FDA has indicated state consumer laws do not violate preemption.[1]

ii)   Fund and require Medicaid to pay for alternate filling materials, as Pennsylvania does, so people can chose what is best for their children’s and their own health needs.

iii)   Require dental plans to be cost neutral on fillings, and accountable to medical necessity and patient protection laws, and require them to use of biocompatible dental materials.

iv)    Encourage integrated health and dental insurance plans to ensure oral care supports physical and cognitive health, and reduce costly externalities down the road.

v)   Require and expedite inclusion of dental materials and records in electronic medical records for review and analysis by physicians, ACOs, health insurers, HiWay, MA Health Policy Commission.

b)      Research

i)        Set up a surveillance system and reporting system as there is none functioning at the federal or state level, and include as a priority for the Health Prevention Trust Fund.

ii)       Hold hearings and survey the public as to prevalence of people who had health impacts, survey biologic dental practices and functional medicine practices to quantify numbers served with dental mercury toxicity and assess training and capacity building needs, and conduct a learning tour to get their input on steps to expand training and capacity.

iii)     Include dental insurance data in the all-claims database and analyze connections between oral health, dental materials, chronic diseases, and health and long-term care costs.

iv)     Require organ donor programs operating in Massachusetts, and all autopsies performed with state funds, to measure bioburden of mercury in the brain, heart, kidneys and liver of its donors and report to state and federal authorities, along with proximate cause of death.

c)       Systems Reform and Building Capacity

i)        Update dental and medical practice and insurance standards to confidentially screen people for genetic glitches, and for toxic burden; and/or require biocompatibility tests for dental materials.

ii)       Tax dental amalgam to equalize the costs with alternative filling materials, and neutralize the bias of dental insurance plans that base what they will pay on amalgam fillings cost.

iii)     Reboot community hospitals that have overcapacity for acute care needs as centers for the training and practice of biologic dentistry, train all dentists in mercury safe removal protocols and special safety equipment. Explore launch of a state university Biologic Dental School.

iv)     Design a new a Mass Save Health program, similar to Mass Save, helping screen people for toxins in their bodies and homes, and fund treatment and remediation, as win-win.

d)      Occupational and Environmental Risks

i)        Require dentists and staff who work chairside be tested periodically for mercury exposure. Because standard blood and urine tests only measure circulating mercury, more sensitive tests are required to rule out false negatives for non-excretors.

ii)       Require dentists and staff get special training and equipment to protect patients, staff and dentists from mercury vapor during installation, polishing and amalgam removal.

iii)     Test mercury levels in all dental offices and dental schools, and inspect all dental offices and dental schools for proper use and functioning of amalgam separators.

iv)     Require removal of amalgam from all bodies before cremation, and require installation of adequate scrubbers on crematoria, to protect people from exposure via air, water and fish.

4. Ask Delegation for Urgent FDA Safety Reform of Installed Dental and Medical Devices
5. Petition for Surgeon General Report on Dental Amalgam and Mercury Health Risks

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[1] http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DentalProducts/DentalAmalgam/UCM174024.pdf pp. 71-72.

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."

The Poison in Our Teeth - On Massachusetts' Limitations as a Medical Mecca - May 29, 2012

• Russell: The poison in our teeth

Posted May. 29, 2012 @ 12:01 am

• Updated May 29, 2012 at 1:01 AM 

  
  

  By Laura Henze Russell/GUEST COLUMNIST
  

  I learned the hard way over the past year that while Boston is a great place if you need a face transplant, if you have a vexing medical condition — even one widely known in past centuries — not so much.

  During the past year, I had a vexing medical problem. It led to a series of co-infections, also confounding and not properly diagnosed.

  I went on to develop a systemic fungal infection, skin crawling and nerve firing sensations that were especially bad at night, allergic skin reactions and sensitivity to yeasts, gluten, corn and soy, falling immune markers, anxiety and mood swings, balance issues, dulling of hearing and smell, fatigue, finger tremors, memory issues, mental fog and neuropathy in my legs. Nearly a dozen specialists concluded I was imagining things, and it was all in my head.

  Turns out, they were half right. The problem was all in my head — amalgam fillings over the years, which are 50 percent mercury. How we continue to let this poison enter and remain in people’s mouths is beyond me. We have stringent lead testing and lead paint remediation laws, a Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes, and instead of leading the charge to ban mercury, the ADA persecutes dentists who remove it — using strict safety protocols — from sick, suffering patients’ mouths. First, do harm?

  How did I get enough mercury in me to be toxic? Let me count the ways. All eight of my molars once had amalgam fillings. They had given way to three root canals and five crowns, which involved drilling amalgam without protections and spitting out what I didn’t swallow. Many if not all still have some amalgam under them. Additionally I had two amalgam fillings in the past 10 years in upper bicuspids. A biologic dentist said my bite was heavy on my bicuspids, and I was grinding my teeth at night, which explains the worse symptoms at night. To add to cumulative exposure, when I grew up chemistry sets had mercury — it was kind of fun. I also had a mercury thermometer break when young. Then there is fish, to top off the tank. I now carry a fish mercury level wallet card, no more swordfish and tuna.

  How did I get a diagnosis? I had to work the problem. It took a year, going way beyond the confines of my health plan, and the third opinion consults from numerous of the specialty disciplines in Boston’s Medical Mecca. It included an integrative doctor, a parasitologist from Arizona, a biologic dentist and my PCP’s support for not giving up hope. It was additionally confirmed by a blood test by a neurologist I saw at a teaching hospital after I developed finger tremors. Two months into a detox protocol, my blood mercury level is 40 percent above the top of normal range.

  The root cause was predominantly dental material toxicity — mercury poisoning. There are only a half-dozen biologic dental practices in Massachusetts who practice safe removal for people with mercury toxicity. I began a protocol of homeopathic detox, which was markedly effective within the first two weeks in reducing nerve and skin sensations. It also includes herbs, nutritional support, lymphatic massage and diet. The biologic dentist discovered an infection deep in a facial muscle over an old root canal, and prescribed a highly effective antibiotic and two more antibiotics for another hidden infection.

  • Now, I am on the mend. Amazingly, some chronic health challenges are cured, my body is strong and energetic, my memory is better, I am brimming with health, and I feel like the clock has been turned back 20 years.

    The AMA, ADA, Boston area doctors, dentists, medical and dental schools, teaching hospitals, and computer-aided diagnostic programs evidently consider mercury poisoning a quaint artifact of the past, as the score of doctors and specialists I saw were clueless about this as a potential cause. I ran into a woman at my church whose father, grandfather and great grandfather were physicians — she was immediately familiar with it. Because I lost much of the last year to this fiasco, I am resolved to prevent it for others.

    What if I hadn’t discovered people who have gotten to the root of the problem and its causes, learned of and followed unusual treatment protocols, and paid for much of this out of pocket? The costs of treating accelerating medical, neurological, physiological, psychological, and problems in every other dimension of my body, mind, psyche and spirit are off the charts. Mercury wreaks havoc on the neurological system and the immune system, opening the door to all sorts of costly and debilitating conditions and disease from movement disorders to neurological degeneration. Multiply this by the number of boomers and older adults with aging mouths, silver smiles, and grinding teeth.

    I was a very costly date in the health care system last year, both to my health plan, and to me and my family. There is no excuse for this. If we want to bring down health care costs, stop putting a poisonous element permanently in people’s mouths. It’s that simple.

    The FDA convened a scientific advisory panel twice in recent years, 2006 and 2010. Both concluded that dental amalgam should not be used in children, pregnant women and hypersensitive adults. I am a poster child for the fact that mercury can cause hypersensitivity, so nobody is safe from it. We all age. The FDA has not acted and there is no timetable for action. Whatever happened to, “First, do no harm?”

    It is high time to follow in the footsteps of other nations and strike up the BAND — Ban Amalgam Now in Dentistry. Pass Legislation, issue an executive order, launch a ballot initiative — whatever it takes.