Scientists Connect Alzheimer's Disease To Mercury
International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
An Organization Dedicated to Evidence Based Health Care
P.O. Box 608531, Orlando, FL 32860-8531
T: 407-298-2450 * F: 407-298-3075 * Email: mziff@iaomt.org * Internet:
www.iaomt.org

NEW RESEARCH CONNECTS MERCURY TO ALZHEIMERíS DISEASE!

Research conducted at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine has
demonstrated that trace amounts of mercury can cause the type of damage
to nerves that is characteristic of the damage found in Alzheimerís
Disease. The level of mercury exposure is consistent with those levels
found in humans with mercury/silver amalgam dental fillings. The exposure
to mercury caused the formation of ìneurofibrillar tangles,î which are
one of the two diagnostic markers for Alzheimerís Disease. The scientists
found that other metals, including aluminum, did not cause the damage.
Previous research has shown that mercury can cause the formation of the
other Alzheimerís Disease diagnostic marker, ìamyloid plaques.î

The research, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, is
accompanied by a video visual presentation of the effect. Utilizing
digital time-lapse photography, this video shows rapid damage to the
nerve cells after introduction of minute amounts of mercury. Funding for
this video was provided by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and
Toxicology (IAOMT).

SPECIAL NOTE: The University of Calgary has placed a copy of the video on
their site at:
http://movies.commons.ucalgary.ca/mercury/
To view the video you will need "Quick Time" Player which can be
dowloaded from the site if you do not have it.

This video will be available to media contacts (only) through:

Miss Karen Thomas
Media Relations
University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine
T: 403-220-2945 F: 403-210-8141 Email: thomask@ucalgary.ca

Media Embargo Date: 26 March 2001
Title: ìRetrograde Degeneration of Neurite Membrane Structural Integrity
of Nerve Growth Cones Following In Vitro Exposure To mercury.î
Authors: Leong, CW; Syed, NI; Lorscheider, FL.
Journal: NeuroReport, 12(4):733-737, 2001.

BIOPROBE COMMENT: This study should remove all doubt regarding the role
that dental mercury from amalgam fillings plays in the development of
Alzheimerís Disease (AD). Although the American Dental Association would
like to have you believe otherwise, science has clearly demonstrated that
there is a positive correlation between brain mercury levels and the
number and surfaces of ìmercury/silverî amalgam dental fillings. The
mercury levels that caused the devastating damage to nerve cells in the
above referenced study were 100 to 1000 times below those found in the
brains of people with ìmercury/silverî amalgam dental fillings.

In 1997, researchers at the University of Calgary Medical School and the
College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky clearly demonstrated
that exposing rats to the same levels of mercury vapor that can be
released from ìmercury/silverî amalgam dental fillings caused the mercury
to interact with brain tubulin and disassemble microtubles that maintain
neurite structure. The identical neurochemical lesion of similar or
greater magnitude is evident in Alzheimer brain homogenates from
approximately 80% of patients, when compared to human age-matched
neurological controls. (Neurotoxicology 1997;18(2):315-324)

In 2000, researchers at the Neurobiology Laboratory, Psychiatric
University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland using neuroblastoma cells
exposed to mercury demonstrated an increase in production of amyloid
protein that makes up the amyloid plaques as well as significantly
increasing the phophorylation of Tau protein. (J Neurochem 2000
Jan;74(1):231- 236)

Studies demonstrating a correlation between amalgam dental fillings and
brain mercury levels:
Lakartidningen 1986 Feb 12;83(7):519-522
Swedish Dental Journal 1987;11(5):179-187
Sci Total Environ 1987 Oct;66:263-268
J Prosthet Dent 1987 Dec:58(6):704-707
FASEB J 1989 Dec;3(14):2651-2646
Sci Total Environ 1990 Dec 1;99(1-2):1-22
Sci Total Environ 1993 Sep 30;138(1-3):101-115
J Trace Elem Med Biol 1995 Jul;9(2):82-87
Zentralbl Hyg U:mweltmed 1996 Feb;198(3):275-291
FASEB J 1998 Aug;12(11):971-980
Biometals 1999 Sep;12(3):227-231