how long does it take mercury to leave the body, or not?

[donsu]

anybody know?

several reports are out today on how the govt. hid the fact that mercury was in seafood and should not be eaten.

[catmother]

1. it's also in older dental fillings. i don't know if it leaves -- perhaps

chelation therapy would remove it.

[patrice]

2. I don't think it does leave.

Fatty tissues store it.

[jeanarrett]

3. It does not leave. Google "mercury poisoning."

[Angry Girl]

4. Half life is several months

Therefore it depends on how much you had in your body to start. To have a half-life of 3 months, say, means that after 3 months, half of what was there will be gone. After another 3 months, half of THAT will be gone, etc.

However, some of the mercury in your body is very hard to eliminate because it's bound or something biochemical that I can't remember.

However, the cure is relatively cheap and simple: consume cilantro (yes, the herb in your salsa!). Also chlorella, selenium, and N-acetyl-cysteine will help eliminate it from your body.

[donsu]

5. so a woman who wants to get pregnant mercury free can take steps

to clean her body before pregnancy. good news.

thanks for the info

[Angry Girl]

10. one more thing & link to 33-day mercury detoxification protocol

I guess the mercury binds in your nervous system and the cilantro is able to move it from there to more superficial areas of your body, which the chlorella can then access. Also MSM (something to do with its sulfur content) is also used in detoxing from mercury/heavy metals.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2001/may2001_report_mercury_3.html

[Loonman]

6. Common knowledge, isn't it?

I've always heard that pregnant women should watch their fish intake and steer clear of tuna.

[firefox]

7. A link from today

From Chicago Tribune http://tinyurl.com/b78c7 Yesterday's Tribune mercury in seafood article is here- http://tinyurl.com/7ammg

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION: THE MERCURY MENACE
U.S. safety net in tatters
Seafood shoppers are at risk for mercury exposure as regulators ignore their own experts, issue flawed warnings and set policies aiding industry

By Michael Hawthorne and Sam Roe
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 12, 2005

Shipped from Singapore, the swordfish entered the U.S. this year without being tested for the toxic metal mercury.

When a fillet from that fish reached a display case at a supermarket in suburban Des Plaines, it carried no government warning labels, even though federal officials know swordfish often is so contaminated that young children and pregnant women should never eat it.

And when the Tribune bought and tested this particular piece of fish, the results showed not just high amounts of mercury, but levels three times the legal limit.

This repeated neglect by the U.S. government--the lack of mercury testing, the failure to adequately warn consumers, the unwillingness to enforce its own rules--has unnecessarily put Americans at risk for decades, a Tribune investigation shows.

[don954]

9. thats why when im on passage on my sailboat

and i drop a troll line, i only keep fish that are under 3' and never keep oily fish. The older fish get and the more oil they have the worse the mercury is. Young, small fish have much, much less mercury than old big fish.

[SnowGoose]

8. Here's something - not cut and dried.

This is probably your best resource for sound toxicology data (even though it is from the gub'ment).

From the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) (part if the CDC).
(note to mods - this is in the public domain, so pasting is ok).

You can read the entire report here (it's very long, but if you really want to know):
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp46.html



1.4 HOW CAN MERCURY ENTER AND LEAVE MY BODY?
A person can be exposed to mercury from breathing in contaminated air, from swallowing or
eating contaminated water or food, or from having skin contact with mercury. Not all forms of
mercury easily enter your body, even if they come in contact with it; so it is important to know
which form of mercury you have been exposed to, and by which route (air, food, or skin).
When you swallow small amounts of metallic mercury, for example, from a broken oral
thermometer, virtually none (less than 0.01%) of the mercury will enter your body through the
stomach or intestines, unless they are diseased. Even when a larger amount of metal mercury (a
half of a tablespoon, about 204 grams) was swallowed by one person, very little entered the body.
When you breathe in mercury vapors, however, most (about 80%) of the mercury enters your
bloodstream directly from your lungs, and then rapidly goes to other parts of your body, including
the brain and kidneys. Once in your body, metallic mercury can stay for weeks or months. When
metallic mercury enters the brain, it is readily converted to an inorganic form and is “trapped” in
the brain for a long time. Metallic mercury in the blood of a pregnant woman can enter her
developing child. Most of the metallic mercury will accumulate in your kidneys, but some
metallic mercury can also accumulate in the brain. Most of the metallic mercury absorbed into the
body eventually leaves in the urine and feces, while smaller amounts leave the body in the exhaled
breath.
Inorganic mercury compounds like mercurous chloride and mercuric chloride are white powders
and do not generally vaporize at room temperatures like elemental mercury will. If they are
inhaled, they are not expected to enter your body as easily as inhaled metallic mercury vapor.
When inorganic mercury compounds are swallowed, generally less than 10% is absorbed through
the intestinal tract; however, up to 40% may enter the body through the stomach and intestines in
some instances. Some inorganic mercury can enter your body through the skin, but only a small
amount will pass through your skin compared to the amount that gets into your body from
swallowing inorganic mercury.
MERCURY 12
1. PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT
Once inorganic mercury enters the body and gets into the bloodstream, it moves to many different
tissues. Inorganic mercury leaves your body in the urine or feces over a period of several weeks or
months. A small amount of the inorganic mercury can be changed in your body to metallic
mercury and leave in the breath as a mercury vapor. Inorganic mercury accumulates mostly in the
kidneys and does not enter the brain as easily as metallic mercury. Inorganic mercury compounds
also do not move as easily from the blood of a pregnant woman to her developing child. In a
nursing woman, some of the inorganic mercury in her body will pass into her breast milk.
Methylmercury is the form of mercury most easily absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract
(about 95% absorbed). After you eat fish or other foods that are contaminated with methylmercury,
the methylmercury enters your bloodstream easily and goes rapidly to other parts of your body.
Only small amounts of methylmercury enter the bloodstream directly through the skin, but other
forms of organic mercury (in particular dimethylmercury) can rapidly enter the body through the
skin. Organic mercury compounds may evaporate slowly at room temperature and may enter your
body easily if you breathe in the vapors. Once organic mercury is in the bloodstream, it moves
easily to most tissues and readily enters the brain. Methylmercury that is in the blood of a
pregnant woman will easily move into the blood of the developing child and then into the child’s
brain and other tissues. Like metallic mercury, methylmercury can be changed by your body to
inorganic mercury. When this happens in the brain, the mercury can remain there for a long time.
When methylmercury does leave your body after you have been exposed, it leaves slowly over a
period of several months, mostly as inorganic mercury in the feces. As with inorganic mercury,
some of the methylmercury in a nursing woman’s body will pass into her breast milk.
For more information on how mercury can enter and leave your body, please see Chapter 2.

[donsu]

11. thanks for posting this info

nt