DR. BOYD HALEY RESPONDS TO ADA'S CALL TO SUPPORT MILITARY FORCES WITH "AMALGAM" - March 2003
After Dr Boyd Haley saw an article from the ADA web page entitled 'Reserves groups call for amalgam availability to support military forces', he wrote the following:
BOYD HALEY'S RESPONSE TO ADA'S "Reserves's groups calls for amalgam availability to support military forces"
Dr. Gordon Austin of the Reserve Officer Association could not be more incorrect and his stand on mercury exposure from amalgams will likely cause a great deal of damage and injury to our military servicemen. I will explain below.
I and others (see Holmes, Blaxill & Haley, International J. of Toxicology, v22#4, in press) have been working on autism (now firmly proven to be caused by mercury in vaccines) where we have shown that the birth hair of autistic is exceedingly low compared to normal children. With normal children their birth hair increases with increased amalgams in the birth mother. With autistic children, there is no significant increase, even with birth mothers with 18 amalgams. Yet, on clinical analysis the autistic children carry a much higher toxic heavy metal burden.
The rationale for the above observation is that the autistic children cannot effectively excrete mercury from their cells into the blood stream, where it can also end up in the hair and nails. That is, autistic children retain mercury in their cells and neurons. Children not affected by vaccine mercury can excrete it.
Couple the above with the latest data from a collaboration I have with Dr. Mark Lovell that shows that testosterone (the male hormone) is a potent enhancer of thimerosal neurotoxicity and you have a credible explanation of the high boy/girl ratio in autism and the fact that boys represent the majority of the severe cases of autism. This explanation further supported by the observation (Dr. Baron Cohen, London, England) that the amniotic fluid of mothers who give birth to autistic children is unique in that this fluid contains high levels of testosterone compared to mothers who give birth to non-autistic children.
Proof of causal relationships in disease requires both the biological plausibility, as explained above, and supporting epidemiological studies. The latest epidemiological studies by Drs. M. Geier and D. Geier (J. American Physicians & Surgeons v8#1,p6,2003) clearly shows that exposure to vaccine based mercury is a major risk factor for AD, seizures and heart disease. Therefore, there is in the literature both explanations of the biological mechanism of the thimerosal (mercury) toxicity and the supporting epidemiological studies.
The autistic observations indicate that there is a sub-population of humans that cannot effectively excrete low levels of mercury. This sub-population does not disappear with aging and most likely reflects those individual adults who also develop neurological problems like Alzheimer's disease and Gulf War Syndrome. How does this reflect on other neurological diseases?
Consider Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is a plethora of scientific studies that show that mercury, and only mercury, can cause the aberrant biochemistry, and produce the widely accepted, diagnostic hallmarks of AD using the appropriate neurological study system. This is data ignored by the American Dental Association as it does not fit into their doctrine that a little mercury is not dangerous or toxic (I cannot identify what they mean by a "little mercury").
However, a review of older scientific literature (done by other labs) shows that the mercury levels in the hair and nails of Alzheimer's Diseased patients is lower than found in age-matched normal controls, even though the brain mercury levels in AD patient's brain was found elevated compared to normal brain by the same researchers. Further, as the severity of the dementia increases the level of mercury in the nails decreases. That is, as the individual becomes more and more demented, they further lose the ability to excrete mercury. Couple this observation with the fact that mercury, and only mercury, can cause AD like biochemistry and produce the diagnostic hallmarks of AD then one with a modicum of intelligence would surmise that mercury is most likely the central cause of AD, it would at least be a major exacerbating factor.
This above observations on AD subjects is very similar to the autistic child situation and implies that the AD subjects are also a sub-population incapable of excreting mercury. The only difference is that the autistic child gets exposed to injected organic mercury before the development of their nervous, renal and bilary transport systems and the AD subject is slowly made mercury toxic from chronic exposures to mercury from amalgams, vaccinations and possible environmental sources.
The publication used by the American Dental Association to claim amalgam safety is self-incriminating to anyone who reads it carefully (see Saxe et al.,JADA v130, p191,1999). I have lots of scientific objections to this publication which I will not go into here. But note, in the histogram in this paper they state that 6 of 101 total subjects (approximately 6%) had mercury levels above 1 micromolar (= 200ng/g tissue). These are levels that would definitely be lethal to neurons. Check this out with any neurotoxicologist or neurochemist--not your dentist. Researchers have observed neurotoxicity at one-hundreth the 1 micromolar level using neurons in culture. Therefore, one can consider the JADA article's entire data on mercury brain levels and reasonably assume that anything 10 times above the level that causes significant neuron death in cultures (10 nanomolar causes measurable neuron death in 24 hours) is obviously dangerous and should not be allowed. This computes to be any levels above 100 nanomolar which is equal to 0.1 micromolar. The level found in the 6 subjects mentioned above is 10 to 35 times greater than 0.1 micromolar. Look at the levels they report in this JADA article and it is obvious that a reasonably large percentage of the subjects in this JADA article died with what would be conservatively identified as having toxic levels (0.1 micromolar) of brain mercury. The major question is what effect does this have on the general health of our citizens? I am of the opinion that I know what the source of the mercury is since a NIH study has demonstrated that the bulk of mercury body burden in 1,127 American military men came from their dental amalgam fillings.
In spite of the overwhelming biological implications of mercury causing AD, there has not been any significant epidemiological evaluation of the contribution of amalgams (the major contributor to mercury body burden) to neurological diseases. It is my opinion that the lack of any major epidemiological study is primarily because of the political slickness of the American Dental Association (ADA) in getting non-scientifically trained associations such as the Reserve Officer Association of America to go along with the ADA propaganda. I am certain that Dr. Gordon Austin means well and is concerned for his fellow veterans. As a veteran (lowly PFC), I am also concerned. I think that mercury from amalgams and vaccines greatly affect our military personnel.
I am mostly concerned about the cavalier attitude that the American Dental Association pushes with regards to mercury exposure. Justifying the use of amalgams based on the fact that they are cheap is not the kind of consideration and treatment I would want to our veterans and our newly recruited military to receive. I think it is short-sighted, inconsiderate, and dangerous.
Consider, it is well known that the military personnel that had increased risk for Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) were those that received numerous vaccinations (mercury containing) required for service in that part of the world----these military personnel found to be at elevated risk did not have to go to the Gulf region, they only had to be vaccinated. (Note that the French did not take these vaccinations and they did not have significant GWS. The Americans, Brits and Aussies did and had significant GWS. Don't tell me that the French complain less than the latter group, I don't buy that.)
Mercury is a retention toxicity and it builds up as one is exposed to mercury from numerous sources---and the major source for American military are dental amalgams and vaccines!
I only wonder if we will have another GWS-II epidemic due to the fact that our federal agencies that are responsible for human health have sent a new group of military to war with a new batch of thimerosal (mercury) containing vaccines and a mouth filled with amalgams. If the Reserve Officers Association wants to really serve the military veterans well they should demand that the Food and Drug Administration set up a scientific panel (not like the previous one that was loaded with dentists) made up of neurochemists, toxicologists and medical doctors to evaluate all of the scientific literature, not just that approved by the American Dental Association bureaucrats. (Question? Is Dr. Austin an MD or a DDS?)
Please feel free to forward this to anyone concerned with the health and safety of our military personnel. I think it is imperative that the American Dental Association not be allowed to use patriotism to further their political goals and in the process damage and injure our American military personnel---or the soldiers of our allies.
Sincerely, Boyd Haley, Professor and Chair of Chemistry, University of Kentucky
Boyd E. Haley 859-257-7082
Professor and Chair
Dept. of Chemistry
University of Kentucky