Mercury poisoning can occur in several ways, including eating certain foods, exposure to mercury vapor, or direct contact with products containing this heavy metal.
Fish is one of the foods that often contain mercury. PHOTO Archive
The foods most commonly associated with the risk of mercury poisoning are certain types of fish, especially large and predatory fish such as shark, swordfish and tuna, as they can accumulate significant amounts of mercury from the aquatic environment
Mercury is a contaminant present in the environment and can enter the food chain, accumulating in aquatic organisms. Humans can be exposed to organic mercury, especially in the form of methylmercury, by eating contaminated fish meat. This form of mercury is particularly dangerous because it can cause neurological impairment and, if exposed during pregnancy, can affect the neurological development of the fetus.
Mercury is a neurotoxic substance that deposits in the brain, it deposits in the structure of the central nervous system and from here it exerts its toxicity, especially neurological and neurocognitive symptoms, decreased ability to pay attention, memory, thinking, tingling on the skin, cold skin sensations, warm skin, said Dr. Mihail Pautov, on social networks.
Young patients, aged 35-40 years may have an “unexplained mental fog”, which sends them to the doctor.
So how can you tell if you have mercury poisoning?
According to specialists, there is a specific analysis.
“We can do a tissue sample, i.e. a hair sample. Some of these heavy metals are stored in the hair. We can take a blood sample to see what the circulating amount is at that moment and a urine sample to see if we already have heavy metals in our excretion. However, they must always be correlated because there is a possibility, for example, mercury stays in the blood somewhere for 60 days after which it is stored. And you can have a normal blood sample, but actually in the stores, in the brain, the amount of mercury be high. And then a correlation needs to be made between the tissue sample, the blood sample and the urine sample“, stated a specialist doctor in the program of Dr. Mihail Pautov.
