Tuesday 3 January 2012

More tests today:

  • urine mercury (Hg) levels -see how much is being excreted and how well kidneys are handling it. Kidney damage is high on the list of Hg toxicity effects. 
  • Also homocysteine blood levels, an indicator of cardiovascular disease. Had chest and left arm pain a few days ago for the first time, signs of heart trouble. Aside from direct mercury effects, I've been diabetic, possibly due to Hg damage to pancreas, for about 10 years and blood sugars have been getting harder to manage this year, typical at the 10-yr point for diabetics (type 2). Cardiovascular disease is a main effect of diabetes, most diabetics die from it.
  • ECG - certain changes in heart electrical patterns are seen with Hg poisoning.
Unexpectedly, the homocysteine test is not covered by provincial health insurance, cost $65.
Using my charge card, forgot my P.I.N. number, which I use every week and am good with numbers, so that is unusual. Other mental symptoms:  mood swings. Expansive, joyous Sunday, depressed Monday, numb, shocked, overwhelmed today, this all seems surreal. Was at a party Saturday with friends who are very good at being scent-free, but there always is some degree of exposure, so this may just be the effects of that. Feel too scrambled to get on with work today that needs to be done:  organize finances, find consultants, document symptoms, research toxicity and detox issues.

At the lab this morning, the technician related she did her thesis in the '70's on the Northern Ontario mercury poisoning of aboriginal communities around Dryden when they ate fish from waters polluted by pulp and paper industry. Hopefully there will be some helpful info from that re treatment.

Cutler recommends eating low-thiol foods to prevent "mobilizing" mercury. My dental toxicologist gave a list of foods high in sulfur to eat to help eliminate it. Not all sulfur-containing foods have thiols. Confusing.

Here's an interesting tidbit (kidney damage link above):

Both inorganic and organic mercury compounds have an avid affinity for thiol (-SH) chemical groups and this is the property which renders them toxic. Most proteins, and all enzymes, contain these thiol groups; this explains both the binding of mercury to all body tissues and many of the biological effects. Most mercury compounds are potent but unspecific enzyme inhibitors, affecting membrane permeability and hence nerve conduction and tissue respiration. In this respect, the biochemical effects of mercury resemble those of black widow spider venom.
   !

I've been thinking about death, wondering if either toxicity or the detox process will kill me sooner rather than later. It has a good effect of focusing my attention on what I want to get done in this life and on relishing every aspect of this earth existence that I love. No time to waste on non-essentials. What would I not want to leave undone if I knew I only had a short time left to live? (I should clean up my apt.) What do I want to say to whom, to be sure before I die that I have said what I need to say. (Should I explain to my ex about the mercury poisoning that was going on when we were together?)  Nobody knows when they will die (rare zen monks and mystics excluded) but we mostly assume we will live 'til old. We really do not know.

I know there is life after the body dies, that we are consciousness not limited to corporality. I am excited about being born into the next life, believe it is much better. But things to do here first. For now, R & R.
Happy New Year!


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