Author Pratchett blames his Alzheimer's on mercury fillings

[Antaletriangle]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...ngs-alzheimers

Author Pratchett blames his Alzheimer's on mercury fillingsDenis Campbell, health correspondent The Observer, Sunday 15 February 2009 Article historyTerry Pratchett has reopened the controversy about the safety of mercury-based tooth fillings by blaming them for his Alzheimer's disease.

The author of the Discworld series describes the fillings - which millions of Britons have - as "toxic waste".

"Having something like mercury in your mouth seemed to me to be a really bad idea and I got rid of the stuff," said Pratchett.

Dental amalgam fillings, which contain 50% mercury, are under renewed scrutiny, although there is no hard evidence to support his beliefs. More than three million were inserted last year in the UK. Sweden last month banned all mercury products, including fillings, and Norway and Denmark have done the same.

Campaigners including Dr Jenny Goodman, a London doctor who practises nutritional and environmental medicine, have linked the fillings to MS, chronic fatigue syndrome and gut problems. But the Department of Health said fillings containing mercury are not harmful, except for the small number of people who are allergic. However, it still recommends pregnant women to avoid having any inserted or removed.

Peter Ward of the British Dental Association said the safety of mercury fillings had been subjected to numerous reviews and none had found evidence that they increase the risk of developing serious illnesses.

[alyscat]

One of my absolute favorite authors <sigh> - I have kept all his books for my "library" in the times to come.
alys

[Connecting with Sauce]

For those in the UK this is on the TV tonight on ITV....

http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/Tonig...8/default.html

Tonight

-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 16 February 2009, 8:00PM - 8:30PM
Episode:
12 Resources:
Tonight home page. "At the end of the day, it's a heavy metal and it's not something that I want to have in my mouth anymore. It's been there long enough and I don't know what it's been doing to me and I would quite like to get rid of it."

After feeling lethargic for some time, keen runner Ruth Goodwin began to wonder if the mercury amalgam fillings in her mouth could be contributing to her ill health. She was prepared to pay up to £3000 to have them removed along with a six-month detox. During the process, her dental team needed to wear gas masks to protect themselves from the increase in mercury vapours that could come from the drilling process.

Best-selling author Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease last year, has also paid a small fortune to have his mercury amalgam fillings out. Although there is no conclusive scientific proof, he tells Tonight that he believes they may have contributed to the onset of his disease. The Alzheimer’s disease trust says it would fund any serious research into a link.

He says: "For me it was a no brainer. Having something like mercury in your mouth, no matter what the small print said seemed to me to be a really bad idea, and since I could afford it, I got rid of the stuff."

Mercury fillings have been used for more than a hundred and fifty years. Two million of them were fitted in the UK last year alone. And the NHS and many dentists say that they are perfectly safe even though controlled studies show that these fillings give off minute amounts of mercury vapour into the mouth which is then retained in the body.

However, increasingly, a highly contentious scientific debate has arisen over whether long-term exposure to these minute vapours could be harming some people's health - an argument that has prompted both Sweden and Norway to this year take the precautionary measure of banning this kind of filling. According to the European Commission: "The largest source of mercury exposure for most people in developed countries is inhalation of mercury vapour from dental amalgam." And last summer, the US health regulator changed decades old advice describing mercury amalgam fillings as harmless to say that they may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses. Some experts believe there could be restrictions on their use in the United States by this summer.

But in the UK, because they believe mercury amalgam is perfectly safe, most dentists do not proactively tell a patient about this scientific debate. And a patient must independently approach their dentist and pay for it privately to have them removed.

In this programme, Morland Sanders meets some medical professionals who believe that amalgam fillings should be banned or that patients should at least be informed and given a choice as to what filling material is used. He questions the British Dental Association and the chief dental officer for England on why they have stuck by their position that mercury amalgam fillings are safe. And he meets the patients who believe their health has markedly improved since they've banned the metal from their mouth.

[alyscat]

Makes you wonder.... I wonder what my IQ would have been if I hadn't had my mouth crammed chock full of mercury as a child.

I have heard that after a period of time, they've pretty much discharged all the mercury they're going to - don't know how much of a consolation that can be LOL

My mercurys have almost all been replaced, too, as the time came to replace, and I've had the composite put in. My dentist was very much in favor of composite - the new formulas are much stronger than the older ones. They're even doing composite on the back (grinding) teeth.

alys

[Jacqui D]

Thanks for the link (Connectingwith sauce) i will watch that one.
Interesting how the Americans see into this probable mass poisoning i would call it and yet the British are still quite happy using this type of filling.
As allways the poor old brits are having to make cut backs lol!

Except of course if you can pay privately for your dental care you would be hard pressed to find a NHS one now if you tried.
Our country must be one of the worst for getting their dental problems sorted out, the Americans can't understand why we have such bad teeth!
Well for one it's so costly in the Uk and if you are entitled to free dental care you would have to travel miles to find one because most of the NHS dentists have practically vanished!
Sometimes a new practice may open up but they are so swamped with possible new patients you would have to queue for miles.

[burgundia]

[QUOTE=alyscat;113182]Makes you wonder.... I wonder what my IQ would have been if I hadn't had my mouth crammed chock full of mercury as a child.


So do I. i had it removed from my teeth only 6 years ago.

[dolphin]

Hi, Could anyone recommend a good holistic dentist to remove my MERCURY fillings. I have 8 of them, all from childhood, and 1 refilled last year. My finances are in the red. Any dentists out there willing to barter for artwork/paintings? (i'm an artist...a good one!).

[dolphin]

or send me a PM and i can send you a link to show you more artwork.