Hello, I am brand new to this site. I am here for two reasons. The first is that I am fairly certain that both my husband and I are somewhat mercury toxic. I had a quadrant of my mouths fillings removed about 6 years ago and prceeded to have what I thought was a nervous breakdown, with panic attacks, heart palpitations and a host of other strange symptoms. My husband and I both have a metallic taste in our mouths and dont sleep well, I have little trembles / tingles which i thought was a magnesium deficiency. I did not put all of this together with mercury until I started a project on mercury toxicity ( the second reason I am here). I am mainly a stay at home mom to my 23 month old daughter but, I also do research and design to improve people's experiences with product and services, mainly in health related areas. Currently I am helping a friend of mine ( biophysicist from UCLA) on a project that he and some collegues have been developing - a simple saliva genetic test that looks at a persons susceptibility to mercury and its toxicity. It turns out that some of us are much more susceptible to mercury than others, in fact about 25% of people are VERY sensitive. I was wondering if I might start a conversation thread here about this test and the research ( which will be a very profound impact related to the toxicity of amalgams, coming out at the end of 2011)? I beleive in this project and and would appreciate any thoughts, insights or feedback anyone would be willing to share. On a personal note, I am thankful I started this project and it brought me here, I have hope that my husband and I will be healthier after we get the last of our fillings removed properly and do some detox. The jouney to health!

Hi Janae
I am sure we would all be interested in a simple saliva test that would indicate our susceptibilty to mercury.
Genova Diagnostics does a blood test called a CardioGenomic Plus Profile. Amongst other genetic markers it provides the Apolipoprotein E which is on chromosone 19. This can range from 2/2 which makes one very good at clearing toxins to 4/4 which has almost no ability to clear out heavy metals. In my case I am 3/4 which indicates a very limited ability to clear HG as well as a tendency to high cholestrol.
There is also a new company called Quicksilver scientific in Colorado who do a combination of blood, urine and feces to provide a profile of susceptibilty. I have not yet done this one.
I live in La quinta CA in the winter.I would be quite interested in getting more details of what your biophysicist friend is doing.
Al

Hi Al! Thank you so much for your reply. Thank you also for sharing the information on the testing from Genova. I was not aware of that test and it does sound like that could help a person understand how difficult it would be to remove toxins if they have them. I will ask Dr. Stock (my friend)what genes they are testing to see if they are somehow related. Seems like the two tests could work well together. I will also look at Quicksilver its sound that they are doing more of an assessment of hg in the body already.? The test that Dr. Stock is working on is a saliva test (cost around $100) that determines an individuals sensitivity to hg. In particular hg's effects on things like attention, mood and memory.(neurobehavioral) This is especially important information to understand about children or women preparing to get pregnant as damage can be lasting in a developing fetus and children. And, from hearing the information you provided on the test Genova does, perhaps in others it can have lasting effects as well. What Dr. Stock has found is that even though mercury is toxic to everyone, some of us have much greater sensitivity to the toxin so would need to take extra care to avoid / detox slowly etc. The research that this is in collaboration with ( Big NIH study coming out at the end of the year) will be very impactful especially where children and amalgams are concerned ( the main focus of the research). I am trying to help Dr. Stock determine if a test like this is something people would actually want / need and if particular groups of people would be more interested than others. Any insight you may have would be so helpful, this is a tough topic because so much controversy surrounds it from so many areas. I think you are all experts here and am excited to hear from you. Just let me know if you have other questions I can answer.

Im just wondering if the quiet nature of this thread is because folks are just not intersted in a test like this or perhaps other concerns or thoughts? Any feedback would be so helpful.