Hi all,

I had written many times on different posts concerning my decades of suffering with many different types of pains that I had. Since I had my mercury-silver dental amalgams removed, these pains are nearly completely gone.

About 23 years ago when I was 27 years old, my "arthritic" pains were so bad, that a doctor told me that I was too old, I was too fat, take 10 aspirins a day, and not to run more than a hundred yards. Today, I run about 19.5 miles a week on a regular basis. I look young and fit, and feel great.

If you would like to hear more about my story, read what I posted under the dental section under dental problems and TMJ problems, under fillings and mercury-silver dental amalgams. It's quite sad really of the misery that I had to go through.

I first had these "arthritic" pains sometime about 1977. I was trying to get in shape so I decided to start jogging. I already was cycling quite a bit, and I just wanted to improve my exercise regimen. Right after jogging about three miles, I had this pain in my left foot. So a few day later, I decided to run again. So, I ran limping, but the pain got worse. I tried to run through the pain. The more that I exercised this, it would get to a point where the muscle would "freeze" up near the joint, where then I couldn't even move it unless I wanted excrutiating pain. It was strange. I had other strange symptoms which are classic of dental amalgam sufferers, but this was so hard for me to understand when I was so young. After visiting many doctors, none could help me. They would look at me like they had never heard of such a thing. I got to the point that I didn't even want to go to the doctors because they just gave me those dumb looks. Later I found a term in a book that seemed to be closely related to my "arthritic" symptoms. It was called fibrositis. I don't know if that is what I had, but I could at least could say I had something that maybe some doctor would know about. It's a long story and I suffered with this for years. Basically for me in those days, the only way to stop this "arthritic" pain was to stop exercising. Any new pain always migrated to a joint, after exercising. Then I would have to stop my activity, until the pain went away. And it was normally only one joint, although sometimes it could be more. The pain would shift from joint to joint, depending on which part of the body that I was exercising. Like when I started a little bowling when I was about 29 years old, then I developed that "arthritic" pain at the pelvic region where the leg bone connects to the pelvis. If I was lifting weights, instead of trying to run, the pain would eventually be in my arms. It was so frustruating for me for years as I struggled with this strange debilitation. I used to love exercising, but now I was a prisoner in my own body.

The good news is that after decades of experimenting, I'm free of all of that. I'm now 50 years old and I'm no longer "too old" like that doctor told me many years ago. Quite the contrary, I'm now racing around my neighborhood, trying to beat personal records. And I want everyone to know about it, just in case that there might be one other individual like me that is struggling with this and could be cured.

I cannot say that your arthritic conditions are caused by mercury-silver dental amalgams, or mercury poisoning. All I can tell you all, is what I experienced and what helped me.

Other symptoms that I had associated with this dental amalgam poisoning, were lower back pains, urinary problems, severe prostate cramps, chest pains (like possibly in the sternum or the front part of the spinal column - not the heart), headaches, loose teeth (so loose that I thought that I could pull them out with my hands), and gum disease. There were other symptoms, but I can't recall them at this time, but those were the significant ones. These symptoms were minor at first when I was a young man in my twenties, but over the years they got worse. They got so bad that at one low point in my life, I wanted to die. I struggled with my sickness by changing my diet and taking herbs. But the most significant cure for me was to remove the mercury-silver dental amalgams.

If you have a combination of those symptoms, I would strongly suggest that you try to find some medical professional to help you. If any of you have any further questions, please also let me know.

The frustrating thing about problems associated with mercury-silver dental amalgams is that there are few medical doctors (that I'm aware of) that understand this problem. But I think there are some, that understand. Hopefully also, I'm making some medical professionals out there aware that this problem does exist, and maybe they would try to understand and learn more to help their patients, if they saw a case similar to mine.

I wonder to this day, how many people really suffer of "arthritis" from mercury poisoning from their dental amalgams? How many people out there can't exercise because they are being poisoned everyday? I don't have answers for that. I wish I knew. I don't know if my case is rare, or is it a common occurrence that is not understood my our professional medical doctors?

Have any of you had symptoms similar to mine? I would like for you to tell me if you had. I'm still trying to get answers about an illness that for me is still not completely understood. I like to hear of other people's experiences, and to see if they had similar or different reactions to their dental amalgams. I only mostly know what happened to me. Books tell me that my symptoms are pretty much classic of dental amalgam sufferers, but I would like to hear real-life stories from any of you with such details. Some of the best research starts with anecdotal evidence.

If we open up a bit and listen to one another, maybe we can help ourselves and other people in the process. Take care.

My daughter(34) was told by a doctor that she has fibromylagia and alot of her pain comes from mercury fillings. He suggested she remove all her fillings and replace wirh mercury free materials. She has not because:it is expensive,she can't sit that long and other doctors radically disagree with this diagnosis.She continues to get worse and we're not sure what to do. I know this doesn't help you but I thought I would tell you anyway.

PattyAnn,

Thanks so much for replying. You have helped a lot.

I did some quick research on the internet about fibromyalgia and this is what I found. According to the American College of Rheumatology, fibromyalgia affects 3 to 6 millions Americans. It may affect the central nervous system (I may note that so does mercury). My key finding today was that fibromyalgia is sometimes called fibrositis. That's very interesting. For what I remember, a little over 20 years ago that these pains that I had, it fit the description of fibrositis. That means that my symptoms fit fibromyalgia too.

Now, the question comes up, how many of these 3 to 6 million Americans, not to mention millions of other people in the world, are affected by fibromyalgia that may have been caused by mercury-silver dental amalgams? That would be interesting research for someone.

For your daughter who was told by a doctor that she had fibromyalgia, he might be right to suggest that she have her mercury fillings removed, and replaced with mercury-free dental materials. But first let me explain further.

Since so much of this is still unknown, it could be just an experiment. I thought of that when I had my shooting pains, when my tooth broke exposing this dental amalgam. I had the link, where my pains got worse, at that time, but how could I know absolutely that I was right to have these poisons taken from my teeth? Where were the medical doctors that could help me? I could find none.

So, I rationalized at that point, that at the worse case, if I was not cured by replacing these ugly gray-black things in my mouth, at least for cosmetic purposes I would have a nice set of white teeth. For me it was another of my many experiments, in my twenty years or so of experimentation on myself. It was the best thing that I could have done, for now all these fibromyalgia type of symptoms are mostly gone.

For you and your daughter it sounds like that it may be a personal decision that only you both can make, after discussing this with your doctor. As long as you feel that changing the fillings to non-toxic ones will do no harm at the very worse, then it might be something to consider very seriously.

As far as the cost of replacing these mercury fillings with non-toxic ones, you might check around for the latest prices. If you have insurance, they may pay for some of the costs. You would have to check. You also have to weigh the costs of replacing these mercury fillings with all the doctor visits that you might continue to do. What would be more expensive? And what other choices do you have?

Before I chose what dental materials that I wanted, to replace the mercury fillings, I went to a naturopath. I'm not sure if his analysis of what I might be compatible to, was valid, but I went anyway and picked the materials for me that seemed best based on these tests. I believe also that mercury toxicity can be determined by a hair analysis. It has been some time since I read about it, so you'll have to research it some more.

If she can't sit very long with this procedure to get non-toxic fillings, is there a way that she could have it done in smaller time increments? I would check with your dentists to see what can be done to help your daughter with this. Also I recommend that if these heavy metal toxins are removed, that you should request a dental dam, to prevent her from accidentally swallowing the mercury.

Again, thanks for writing. You gave me some key information. I write these posts not to only help me better understand my pains that I had prior to removing these mercury-silver dental amalgams, but to help others out there that could be suffering. I hope that your daughter does well, and if a decision is made to have the mercury fillings replaced, and she gets better, please let us know.

Also, I might mention, that even though the source of the mercury poisoning is removed, it can take considerable time for the remaining mercury then to be removed from the body. If you want to know what I have done to help me, after I had the dental amalgams removed, please write back, and I'll tell you what I had done. It may or not work for other people. Also, what I had written on other message posts, is that I recommend that people do not experiment like I had done, without consulting their doctor.

If anyone else has more information to tell us, that might help us to better understand this "arthritis" that I and others have had, please let us know. Even the smallest bit of information, can be greatly helpful.

Hi rhody,
Enjoyed your stories. I had health problems that I know were related to my dental work. I also ahve been studying these problems since the 70's. Had my fillings replaced,now on to root canals. Very interesting work. Your story sounds like mine. It's nice to know someone who has been down the same road!!!

Hey Rhody,
How's your health coming along? I think no one is out there listening to us ! Just wondering if you are O.K.???

Roddy

Dr. Mercola's site has some information that might be of interest here regarding amalgams, root canals, and proper diet.
www.mercola.com (http://www.mercola.com)

Alan

Hi roddy,
I am listening. I asked my dentist about the fillings a while back when I first read the post. He dispelled the myth about the mercury-silver fillings causing arthritis or similar type problems. He cited studies (in the dental literature) that have been done that cannot find a connection although the news media or whoever can get people to believe anything if they present it in a certain way. You have to see through the biases. He said mercury alone can cause problems but not in an alloy form such as mercury combined with silver. Be very careful of the sources you believe - I don't know who first presented this filling problem. Was it an evening news magazine (or whatever they call them) that was desperate for a fresh new story? I will check out that website and make my own judgement based on what is presented. Meantime, I don't recommend spending mega bucks replacing fillings unless a person has a lot of faith in the sources of their information. I am happy for anyone who has obtained relief from replacing their fillings - I know firsthand how bad arthritis pain can be. I got relief from surgery, not replacing my fillings.

Hey Alan,
Great site! You made my day!! Just what I needed, Thanks so much!!!

Sue

Hi Roddy,

Sorry that I haven't answered sooner. I've been away from the healthboards for a while.

My health is now doing great. I hope that you are doing fine also. I had a little more arthritis type of problems that caught me off-guard a few weeks back. I believe that I first wrote about it on the fibromyalgia board.

I've been running close to 20 miles a week, now at 51 years of age. Recently, I had to stop because my neck, shoulder, right upper back, and left foot pains starting getting worse each day. I couldn't figure it out. I felt like I was getting slowly poisoned. This was different that the pains that I had when I had my mercury-silver amalgams. For example, one of my neck pains was on a muscle that had no relation to my exercising. It was quite different than before....

Finally, it was getting so bad, that I was thinking about seeing a doctor. But then I thought.... What have I been doing differently lately? I was experimenting with cilantro (to remove metal toxins) and have been eating a lot more meat. So, I decided to stop both of them. I still had some of my cilantro, but I cut out the meat completely. For about six months, I have had large portions of chicken almost every day (which was much different than my near-vegetarian diet before). Every day, starting about late April or early May, I felt weaker and weaker. These arthritic-type of pains got worse. Even when I stopped my exercising; that did not do any good either.

To make my long story shorter: For nine days, I have been meat-free, and I found the pains all have almost gone away completely. Last Thursday, I ran pain-free for four miles, Saturday about one mile, and today I ran 6.5 miles, all without pain. I feel new and refreshed again.

I must also let the readers know that anyone who says that mercury-silver dental amalgams are safe, are very sadly mistaken. They are not safe for everyone. I've written about the personal impact that these amalgams had on me, all over these healthboards.

One point that I must make that is very clear. The mercury in the typical dental amalgam "alloy" leaks out slowly and travels through your body. That is a fact. Anyone who says differently especially persons in the medical community, without doing research, is dangerously misinforming the public. I believe the ADA (American Dental Association) reversed its position on that from what I remember. It is now recognized conclusively, that mercury from these amalgams do enter your bodily tissues. Maybe someone can check on that for us and report back.

There is not enough understood yet, about the effect of mercury on one's body and everyone is different. But, I'm glad that I had them (the mercury-silver dental amalgams)removed. I would not want mercury in my body, no more than I would want asbestos or lead or any other toxin in my body. No thanks. Organic mercury that resides in your body is much more toxic than lead. And now it has been said that there is now no safe level of lead (recent story that I read in our local newspaper). Various US government agencies are now stepping up their efforts to stop or control mercury poisoning too. Eventually, we can only hope, that some key medical or goverment agencies or organizations will identify the poisons (mercury) that we put in our mouth as being unsafe too.

At one point, in my life, I was so crippled with arthritic pain, lower back pain, headaches etc. etc., that a doctor told me in 1978 to not run more than a hundred yards. Now, over 20 years later, I continue to break those health barriers by miles and miles.

Presently, by now eliminating or reducing my intake of meat, I hope to continue with my 19.5 miles of weekly running, in addition to extensive hiking, and other vigorous exercises. I find it fascinating to learn and understand the affect of foods and toxins that have an impact on our health. It's important that we continue to do research in this area. A lot of people out there could find that their "incurable" arthritic pains, could be relieved or cured by changing their lifestyles to more positive ones, by praticing preventative health care.

I hope to hear more success stories from all of you, who have made these changes in diet and/or have had your dental amalgams removed etc., and have dramatically improved your life.

Roddy, keep up the good work. Thanks for keeping this issue alive. I hope to hear more from you and others.

Thanks to everyone else for writing. I appreciate hearing from all of you. It's good to discuss these things, even if there are differences of understanding. By bringing these health issues out in the open, I hope that we all can learn more.

Thanks,

Rhody

Rhody, what is your bloodtype? The reason I ask is that it may not be meat in general that is contributing to your arthritic symptoms, but just chicken. This is discussed in the book "Eat Right for Your Type". According to the book, Type B is susceptible to autoimmune disorders from the proteins in chicken, but not beef or other types of meat.

Alan

Arkie6,

Yes, you got it. Bloodtype is B positive.

It's interesting how our bodies react differently to various foods and toxins. I'll have to do more research on the chicken. Thanks for the information.

"There's always something." Thanks.

Hey Rhody,
Glad you are doing alright! I thought you might visit these 2 sites. One is The Holistic Dental *** . Treatment Helpline and the other is www.mercola.com (http://www.mercola.com) which I found to be very interesting, found it on this board. It has a free newletter and alot about denistry. Good stuff!!

Roddy

I'm new to this message board. Your message intrigued me. I have been driving quite a distance to get a dentist who understands the need to get and keep amalgams/mercury out of my mouth. The problem is that it is very expensive to get it all done, so is taking a while for me to afford to have all the work completed. I have rheumatoid arthritis, and, so far, have not noticed any improvement. However, as I said, the dentist and I are not through "redoing" my mouth. I also have the disease(s) and meds working against healthy teeth. Good to hear your story. Thanks. P. J.

Alan,
Who is the author of the book you referred to? I think I'm B type & have several autoimmune disorders.

P.J.
Could you keep us posted as to any difference you notice once your dental stuff is done? I would imagine that it would still take awhile for the toxins to clear after the mercury is removed. I too am dx'd with Rheum. Arthritis.

Thanks to both of you, Ann

Originally posted by Ann S:
Alan,
Who is the author of the book you referred to? I think I'm B type & have several autoimmune disorders.

Hey, I'm blood type B also. Did you know that only about 8% of the population is type B?

The book is called "Eat Right For Your Type" and the author is Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo. I think he might have a website with info if you so a search for it. I think I got my book from Amazon.com. You can read online reviews of the book there. I have since switched to Books A Million for purchasing books since they have better prices and lower shipping charges.

Alan

Hi all,

I hadn't reported back to this site in a long while. To answer some of your questions, it does appear to take some time, after you have your dental amalgams removed before you can see significant health improvements as in my case. I experimented with anti-mercury components shortly after having these amalgams removed and got deathly sick. Consequently, I recommend that people not experiment like I had done.

I took notes for years after I had my eight mercury-silver dental amalgams removed, and noticed slow improvements. Mercury is one of those toxins that accumulate in your body, and it's very difficult to remove. I'm still experimenting with cilantro, which apparently is a natural anti-mercury agent, that for me appears to be relatively gentle. Even though my health is great, as today I completed seven miles running for example, I'm always trying to improve.

For those that have decided to have their mercury-silver dental amalgams removed, please let us know how you feel, whether or not you noticed improvements. It will most likely take some time, and I hope that you all feel better.

For me what had also helped was changing to a healthy natural diet, in addition to exercise. Lots of fresh vegetables and fruits are part of my eating regimen. Herbs helped me too.