Mercury levels and methylB12

[lolasana]

I'm new to this whole mercury thing. I'd never given it much thought because I've never had an amalgam filling, only composites (my mother was quite opposed to them even when I was a child!). My RBC mercury levels are pretty high according to my NutrEval results. My doctor says that RBC mercury usually reflects methylmercury in the body. This makes sense in my case since all of the mercury in my body comes from fish and the mercury in fish is in methylmercury form.

I've seen some people argue that MethylB12 should not be used if someone has a mercury issue because cobalamin is known to methylate mercury and methylmercury can cross the blood brain barrier. However, I have also seen some studies (from the early 80s, one was from Sweden) where MethylB12 was the only form of B12 that was able to protect nerve cells from damage by methylmercury. So it seems like there is no consensus on this issue.

Also, on a side note, I researched the mercury levels of citizens in high fish eating countries, such as Japan and Sweden. I tend to think of the citizens of these countries as being incredibly healthy. However, studies found that citizens of these countries had RBC mercury levels that averaged as high as 9 ug/g. For sake of comparison, the NutrEval puts the upper limit at 3.9 ug/g. Anyway, just food for thought.

In my case, the mercury in my system is already methylmercury. So should I not worry about taking MethylB12 since my mercury is already methylated? It can't cause any additional harm, as far as I can see...

My physician wants to concentrate on increasing my glutathione. She says that glutathione is what detoxifies mercury from the body naturally. If we can get my glutathione up, my body can excrete the mercury that has been building up from my fish intake. Though she did say that mercury interferes with raising glutathione levels, so it's a double-edged sword.

 

[Freddd]

I'm new to this whole mercury thing. I'd never given it much thought because I've never had an amalgam filling, only composites (my mother was quite opposed to them even when I was a child!). My RBC mercury levels are pretty high according to my NutrEval results. My doctor says that RBC mercury usually reflects methylmercury in the body. This makes sense in my case since all of the mercury in my body comes from fish and the mercury in fish is in methylmercury form.

I've seen some people argue that MethylB12 should not be used if someone has a mercury issue because cobalamin is known to methylate mercury and methylmercury can cross the blood brain barrier. However, I have also seen some studies (from the early 80s, one was from Sweden) where MethylB12 was the only form of B12 that was able to protect nerve cells from damage by methylmercury. So it seems like there is no consensus on this issue.

Also, on a side note, I researched the mercury levels of citizens in high fish eating countries, such as Japan and Sweden. I tend to think of the citizens of these countries as being incredibly healthy. However, studies found that citizens of these countries had RBC mercury levels that averaged as high as 9 ug/g. For sake of comparison, the NutrEval puts the upper limit at 3.9 ug/g. Anyway, just food for thought.

In my case, the mercury in my system is already methylmercury. So should I not worry about taking MethylB12 since my mercury is already methylated? It can't cause any additional harm, as far as I can see...

My physician wants to concentrate on increasing my glutathione. She says that glutathione is what detoxifies mercury from the body naturally. If we can get my glutathione up, my body can excrete the mercury that has been building up from my fish intake. Though she did say that mercury interferes with raising glutathione levels, so it's a double-edged sword.

Hi Lolasana,

Monomethylmercury has a 71 day ellimination serum halflife according to studies done with people who have accidently been dosed with said monomethylmercury. That means that each day 1% of the declining balance is elliminated by the liver. So each 71 days the level of monomethylmercury drops by 50%. In 710 days the level is down to 1/1024, about 1 tenth of 1% of what it started out at. It doesn't just sit there. Ater 2 years then without the fish you are down to /1000 of the beginning amount. At the end of 4 years about 1/1,000,000 remains.

As the mercury is already methylated, it isn't going to have any interaction with mb12, if it ever would have, as that is not guaranteed. Ifg it reacts at all it is in small amounts very slowly. The catch is that 1 mcg of mercury can disable 7mcg of mb12, completely destroying a full days worth of natural consumption of b12 from meat.

There is truely a lot of fear inspired conjecturing about mercury. How long ago did you finish your consumption of methylmercury containing fish?

 

[lolasana]

Hi Freddd,

In the week before the blood test, I think I ate sushi containing some raw tuna twice and cooked mahi mahi once, so that's a lot of potential mercury. Most weeks I eat 2 to 3 fish meals but usually I eat lower mercury fish like tilapia or salmon. Unfortunately, as recently as a year ago, there were long stretches when I would consume maybe 4 cans of tuna a week (although it was light chunk, not albacore). I feel best on high protein diets and I get tired of chicken.

Since having the mercury revelation I'm trying to be more conscious about my fish eating, but not give it up entirely.

I'm currently taking 5mg of mb12 a day. I hope that will be enough to negate the influence of the mercury.

I agree with you about the mercury fears. As I discovered, seemingly healthy people in Japan and Scandainavia have much higher average mercury levels and they seem to do just fine.