Alternative Treatments for Neurological Diseases [updated June 2003] Be sure to read the testimony of Dr. Boyd Haley on the connection between mercury and Alzheimer's disease. He testified before a Congressional hearing on dental mercury May 8th 2003. Conventional medicine has little to offer for a cure of neurological diseases. Alternative medicine does offer some hope if the condition is caught early. In the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Phyllis A. Balch, certified nutritional counselor and James F. Balch, MD state: Alzheimer's disease may be caused by nutritional deficiencies. For example people with Alzheimer's tend to have low levels of vitamin B12 and zinc in their bodies. The B vitamins are important in cognitive functioning, and it is well known that the processed foods constituting so much of the modern diet have been stripped of these essential nutrients. The elderly also have malabsorption problems, also making them prone to nutritional deficiencies. Also levels of the antioxidant vitamins A and E and the carotenoids (including beta-carotene) are also low in people with Alzheimer's disease. These nutrients act as free radical scavengers; deficiencies may expose the brain cells to increased oxidative damage. In addition, deficiencies of boron, potassium, and selenium have been found in people with Alzheimer's disease. Brains of people with Alzheimer's disease have been found to contain higher than normal concentrations of the toxic metal mercury. For most people, the release of mercury from dental amalgams is the primary means of mercury exposure, and a direct correlation has been demonstrated between the amount of inorganic mercury in the brain and the number of amalgam surfaces in the mouth. Mercury from dental amalgam passes into body tissues, and it accumulates in the body over time. Mercury exposure, especially from dental amalgams, cannot be excluded as a major contributor to Alzheimer's disease. Many people who develop Alzheimer's disease have a family history of the disorder, suggesting that heredity may be involved. By age ninety, the risk is at least 50 percent for those with a first-degree relative (father, mother, brother, sister) who has (or had) Alzheimer's disease. The equivalent rate is about 50 percent for identical twins. Dr. Hal Huggins, who lost his license to practice dentistry in Colorado because he spoke out against the use of mercury in dentistry, states that if you have mercury in your mouth and you become poisoned by it that it will affect you wherever you have the genetic disposition marker for illness. If Alzheimer's runs in your family, your mercury toxicity will be expressed in the disease Alzheimer's. If your family has a history of arthritis, your mercury toxicity may show up in arthritis. Mercury goes to the weakest point in the body. I had a whiplash from a carwreck in 1990. When I became mercury poisoned, I started experiencing muscle pain right in the area where I had the whiplash. The other muscles were not sore, just the muscles involved with the whiplash. Other people become sore all over their bodies when they become toxic with mercury or other heavy metals and chemical toxins and are diagnosed with fibromyalgia. So what do you do if you have Alzheimer's? Quickly get the patient to an alternative doctor belonging to ACAM. These doctors know how to prescribe the appropriate supplements for nutritional deficiencies in the elderly or with those with Alzheimer's. An ACAM doctor will also probably suggest EDTA chelation to clean toxins out of the body, and to open up arteries leading to the brain. EDTA is not an effective chelator for mercury. I believe one reason my mother in law has some dementia and has to live with us is because she probably has iron in her brain. Dr. Mercola has an article on his site about increased dementia and the overload of iron in the body. We did not know that heavy metals in water could lead to dementia. My mother in law lived in the Jordantown area of Bedford County. Jordantown is loaded with iron in the water. When she came to live in our home, her underwear had turned yellow from washing her clothes in irony water. She started using a pitcher that had a filter on it for her drinking water, but was using tap water for cooking. And just think of all the years she and her husband used cloudy water! I never did like to drink their water because it had a bitter taste. Now that I understand the dangers of iron in the water, I only wish we could have placed a water filter on her water supply. We did place the filter just before we sold the house. My mother in law could take treatments to remove the iron. This is done with EDTA chelation at clinics of ACAM doctors. A patient is hooked up to an IV for 3 to 4 hours and a substance is dripped into the veins. This would remove iron from her brain and in the process would also unstop her carotid arteries in her neck that go to her brain. Clogged arteries going to the brain also lead to dementia. But my mother in law is 84 now, does not have a lot of money for alternative treatments, has already sold her home, and her veins that would be used by the IV are very small. At this point we will not pursue EDTA chelation therapy. However, if your elderly person does have some money to spend (approximately $4000 for a complete 30 sessions of EDTA chelation), and does have good veins in the arm, and doesn't want to loose his house to the nursing home, I would suggest they investigate EDTA chelation and vitamin supplementation with an ACAM doctor. It is cheaper to pay for alternative medicine than to loose your home when you have to pay for live-in help. It is also cheaper than having the nursing home force you to sell your home so you can live your golden years in an institution. I met an elderly couple at one alternative clinic who had been doing EDTA chelation for years. He was 85 years old and was still operating his furniture store in West Virginia. During one conversation he told me his store had been flooded out and he was going to have to redo the store. They were alert and very interesting to talk to. I thought of the quality of life they had as compared to other typical 85 year old people that I know. There is no comparison! The least you could do for you elderly parent is to take them to an ACAM doctor for high potency supplements. They could also suggest supplements for the brain. I already have my mother-in-law on high potency supplements. Don't go to Wal Mart expecting to find the best high potency supplements. The Sam's Club and my local pharmacy have Vitamin E, but it is not the one recommended by alternative doctors. (The most effective Vitamin E is natural vitamin E known as d-alpha tocopherol. Do not buy the synthetic Vitamin E which has a spelling very similar to the natural Vitamin E.) Don't waste your money on the wrong supplements. ACAM doctors know the best companies that have all the supplements including primrose oil, and fish oil in one packet of 7 or 8 pills. This packet is taken twice a day. The only reason I feel qualified to choose supplements for my mother-in-law now is because I have been studying supplements and alternative health now for almost two years. I also ask my alternative doctor lots of questions. If you haven't studied, don't try to be your own doctor and just go to a vitamin store and buy them yourself. You could end up with 20 different bottles and still now have what you need. Do you know why I say this? Because that is what I did. Once you get a high potency brand of vitamins/minerals from a good vitamin company, it would be okay to use Wal Mart/K-mart or your local pharmacy to pick up single bottles of Vitamin C or Vitamin D, or some supplement that you need a little extra in the dosage. But to find a well rounded vitamin/mineral that you would take every day that would have everything you need in it, you won't find it at Wal Mart/K-Mart or your pharmacy. You might find a One a Day with 60 mg of Vitamin C. That might be enough to keep you from developing scurvy, but it won't do anything to optimize your health. High potency vitamins would contain 1,000 mg of Vitamin C, and you would take it in a packet of 6 to 8 pills that you take twice a day. So a One a Day with 60 mg of Vitamin C won't compare with 2,000 mg of Vitamin C. If you are thinking that 2,000 mg of Vitamin C might be harmful to you, see this quote by Dr. Eduardo Castro in his article Much to Do About Cholesterol Linus Pauling, the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes, one in physics and one in chemistry, studied the inflammatory condition in arteries and found substantial evidence that much of the damage in arteries is due to a very mild form of scurvy from inadequate intake of Vitamin C. A marked decrease in arterial damage and inflammation is seen when 5,000-15,000 mg of Vitamin C are taken daily. I have read that Dr. Linus Pauling used to take 18,000 mg of Vitamin C a day. You will know that you have too much vitamin C when your bowels become too loose. If you are ill with a cold you will want to take extra vitamin C. So just back off the dosage when your bowels become too loose. You can't overdose on Vitamin C. While I was searching for a doctor to help me before I knew I was mercury poisoned, since I was having food allergies, I went to a store and bought loads of vitamins. Then I showed up at one internal doctor's office with a bagful of vitamins. He told me all those vitamins could be causing the headache I was having. Of course the vitamins did not cause my headache. It was the mercury in my brain! But this doctor told me to go off my vitamins for awhile and come back in a month and see if that would help my headache. He told me to just take one of those Centrum A to Z vitamins. I had more than a headache when I went to him. I had memory loss, swollen neck glands, headache, floaters in my eyes, confusion, anger, depressions, dizziness, burning brain, movement in brain, sore and swollen nose and other symptoms. That is the kind of advice you get from traditional medicine when you are mercury poisoned-just go off your vitamins! And oh yeah, he also told me to see a psychiatrist. (I am sitting here laughing about this now as I am writing this.) My eye doctor also thought I should see a psychiatrist. I did tell my eye doctor that I felt like something "invaded" my brain. As I said before I should never have used the word "invaded." I don't want to pick on traditional doctors. We need them because that is who we go to our whole lifetime. They see us when we are hospitalized. However, I do want them to see the connection between dental mercury and illnesses. If you are a traditional doctor, please don't get your information about mercury from pro-amalgam dentists and the American Dental Association. Please just use your medical journals. The ADA is just a trade organization. If you will check out the website of Bernard Windham at http://www.home.earthlink.net/~berniew1. You will see his research is supported by the medical journals. There were Congressional hearings on dental mercury held on November 14, 2002 that have been removed from the Government Reform website. But I do have the testimonies I am placing on my website now from the May 8, 2003 Congressional hearings on dental mercury. Look under the second section of this website. It is more expensive to go buy vitamins yourself if you don't know what you are doing. Take a one time trip to an alternative ACAM doctor and get the right regimen of supplements going, and then you will know what you need to buy from now on. The ACAM doctor may be able to reverse your relative's early stage Alzheimer with a combination of supplements, if the condition is caused by vitamin deficiencies, EDTA chelation, if his carotid arteries are closed up leading to the brain. EDTA also removes some heavy metals. DMSA if the person is mercury toxic. But if you relative has mercury in his mouths, forget it; you won't reverse anything unless he gets the mercury out of his mouth. Tom Warren reversed his Alzheimer's disease. He writes about it in his book Beating Alzheimer's. Mr. Warren has recently written another book that can be bought from DAMS called Beating Chronic Disease. He tells how one should avoid breathing petroleum products that causes the brain to swell thus contributing to memory loss and confusion if one has Alzheimer's. He tells what he learned from an environmental doctor to keep his living environment safe from toxins. He claims that his protocol will reverse Alzheimer's in some people, especially if their Alzheimer's is related to environmental toxicity. Others have also reversed Alzheimer's by following Mr. Warren's approach. I have heard of a man in VA who has reversed his Alzheimer's when he was diagnosed in his 40's. I am working on getting his testimony. His wife researched Alzheimer's when she found he had this disease and found the connection between Alzheimer's and dental mercury. The Virginia man started reversing his disease by safely removing mercury from his teeth. Don't think that a parent has no mercury problems since they now have false teeth. How much mercury and other toxins were stored in their brains when they did have mercury in their mouths? What other toxins or toxic metals did they have in their mouths in the form of root canals and crowns? False teeth also have the heavy metal cadmium. If you will take your parent to a biological dentist they won't use false teeth with toxic metals. What toxins did they work around? Did they weld? Did they use pesticides? Were their jobs around chemicals and toxins? Did they use paint that contained mercury, lead or cadmium, or use solvents that can be absorbed by the body and brain? Any heavy metal or chemical in the body will adversely affect the thinking in the brain! Once the blood brain barrier around the brain becomes damaged by toxins, then any exposure will allow the toxins to go directly into the brain. One family in Bedford County has been plagued with Alzheimer's. One family member has died with Alzheimer's and other siblings are now diagnosed with it. I think the family had around 12 children in this family. If you are from this family, I would like to help you reduce your possibility of contacting Alzheimer's. This is why I have written this article. Please have your water analyzed completely for all kinds of heavy metals. Have the most extensive water test available. Use filters throughout your house if you use city water. Don't shower with chlorine. Avoid all fluoride and chlorine in drinking water. Remove the mercury safely from your mouth. See an ACAM doctor to be put on supplements appropriate for helping the body and brain. Have a thorough physical at this clinic. Have a heavy metals test to see if you already have heavy metals in your body. Start EDTA chelation therapy if needed to unclog arteries and to remove some heavy metals. Live in the country away from busy interstates with exhaust fumes. Stay away from chemicals, gasoline fumes, oil and gas furnaces, wood smoke, and toxic household cleaning supplies as these may cause brain allergies. Read anything you can find from Tom Warren and do your own research about Alzheimer's. Don't get all your advice from organizations like the Alzheimer's Association that say mercury does not contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Especially pay attention to the research of Dr. Boyd Haley at www.altcorp.com who has seen mercury in the brains of Alzheimer's patients when he did research on autopsied brains. Learn how to eat healthy real food that still has vitamins in it. Avoid food additives such as MSG (monosodium glutamate) and aspartame. White bread/flour is completely worthless. Read what Dr. Elmer Cranton says about bread and nutrition on the Mount Rogers website at www.drcranton. com. Research healthy eating and diets. Avoid aluminum in cookware, foods and medicines, flu shots, and cosmetics including deodorant. Buy the book Toxic Metal Syndrome, How Metal Poisonings Can Affect Your Brain by Dr. H. Richard Casdorph. (Dr. Casdorph is an ACAM doctor in California.) This book is excellent for listing medical products that contain heavy metals and also the light metal aluminum. It also lists foods that contain aluminum. (Check out your baking powders and self-rising products. Rumford's baking powder is free of aluminum.) It lists chemical toxins and toxic metals one is exposed to in different areas of industry. It also tells how he treats patients for Alzheimer's. In the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Dr. Balch states: Avoid alcohol, cigarette smoke, processed foods, and environmental toxins, especially metals such as aluminum and mercury. Smoking more than doubles the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet. No one should accept a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease without first undergoing a trial of intensive nutritional therapy, particularly vitamin B12 injections. Vitamin B12 functions in numerous metabolic processes affecting nerve tissue, including the synthesis of neurotransmitters and the formation of the insulating sheath surrounding many nerves and it may play a role in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. Strange prickly or tingling sensations, loss of coordination, and dementia can be caused by B12 deficiency even if the person does not have pernicious anemia, the classic sign of that deficiency. If an individual responds to B12 treatments, Alzheimer's can be ruled out. Prescription for Nutritional Healing also refers to Tom Warren's book Beating Alzheimer's. In his book Beating Alzheimer's (1991), Tom Warren cites evidence that diet and chemical allergies may play an important role in Alzheimer's disease. Reactions to allergens can cause swelling in the brain. Recurring headaches are a common symptom of cerebral (brain-related) allergies. For a good medical reference book, you may want to buy the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing at Barnes and Nobel. But don't use this book to become you own doctor. See an alternative physician. I see so many Christians rush out and buy a bottle of this supplement and a bottle of that supplement. They may be harming their bodies. Dr. Reginald Cherry who appears on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) states that vitamins and minerals should be taken in balance. If a person takes calcium without the magnesium, it can pull the magnesium level down. To strengthen bones calcium alone is not enough. There are many nutrients needed to work with the calcium. All traditional doctors ever mention for bones is calcium and Vitamin D. A person needs more that for bones. All these nutrients would be included in a good supplement packet prescribed by an alternative doctor. Do you think you are qualified to write your own prescription medicines? NO. So don't think you are qualified to prescribe your own supplements either, especially if you have a neurological disease or are wanting to avoid a neurological disease. Alternative doctors have studied and ARE qualified to prescribe supplements. Let them get you started, then you will be better qualified, after doing your own research, to get additional supplements on your own after the alternative doctor has you on good super potency supplements. You are wasting your money with One a Day, Wal Mart, K Mart vitamins. Don't ask your traditional family doctor about vitamins. He doesn't know about them. They do not cover this subject in medical school. Board Certified neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter has written a book BrainRecovery.com. He has chapters on many neurological diseases including Alzheimer's. Dr. Perlmutter is an ACAM doctor. He talks about the role of homocysteine in the diseases of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. The correct supplements can stabilize the homocysteine level. Your traditional doctor will probably not check you for homocysteine levels and if he does he probably doesn't know the proper supplements that are needed to help homocysteine levels. Dr. Perlmutter discusses the ineffectiveness of prescription drugs for Alzheimer's. Dr. Perlmutter also warns that prescription drug L-dopa for Parkinson's actually makes Parkinson's worse in the long run since it causes an increase in free radical production and thus speeds up the progression of the illness, causing patients to worsen more quickly. Permutter states that glutathione is necessary for detoxing in the brains of Parkinson's patients and their levels are always low in glutathione. He has a special intravenous treatment of glutathione for Parkinson's. Dr. Castro at the Mount Rogers Clinic at Troutdale, VA also uses this treatment for Parkinson's patients. The glutathione treatments are started at the clinic and then the patient can administer it himself at home. Dr. Perlmutter also warns of the dangers of electromagnetic radiation from computers and cell phones on the brain. Dr. Perlmutter is well respected among both traditional and alternative physicians and has the Perlmutter Health Center in Naples, Florida. For more information on Dr. Perlmutter go to The Burning Brain, Its Cause and Its Cure. Another source of information for alternative treatments for neurological diseases is neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock. He has often appeared on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson warning of dangers of mercury, food additives MSG and aspartame. His book Excitoxins: The Taste That Kills tells how MSG and aspartame excite brain cells causing them to die. Dr. Blaylock's definition of excitotoxin: Excitotoxin: a substance added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (Nutrasweet0, cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid. If you have a neurological disease you need to avoid the sweetner aspartame and MSG (monosodium glutamate.) Packaged foods often have MSG in them hidden under different names. Dr. Blaylock's new book that was recently featured on the 700 Club is Health and Nutrition Secrets That Could Save Your Life. The website http://www.truthinlabeling.com has extensive information on MSG and its different names used in labeling. www.dams.cc toxicteeth.net amalgam.org www.iaomt.org Back to the top Back to Mercury Poisoned main page Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes only, and does not replace a personal consultation with the health care professional of your choice. © by Marie Flowers April 2003.