The Battery in Your Mouth

There has been quite a lot written over the past 20 years about the toxic effect of mercury in amalgam fillings.  And while those toxic effects are truly great — resulting in all sorts of health issues — that is only part of the story.

For anyone suffering from a pain syndrome, such as Fibromyalgia, this is information that you really need to know.

Fibromyalgia and dental metals

I've suffered from Fibromyalgia since 1961, after taking the Sabin oral vaccine for polio.  (You can read about it at My Story.)  In the course of looking for answers, I tried almost everything alternative healthcare had to offer; and while most things did help a little, none gave me the answer I was looking for.

Zeroing in on 1994

1994 was an interesting year for me, in terms of my search for a restoration to health.

• I was taking a broad selection of nutritional supplements.  Each provided support for one problem or another, and I was definitely doing better with them than without them; but none would get me over the top and functional again.
• I was doing my best to get enough of the proper exercise.  I was on an excellent stretching routine, which I follow faithfully; but I never gained any flexibility.  I did mild aerobics; but I never seemed to get any conditioning effect.  My muscles were toned, and my weight was getting better; but, even after years of exercising, every workout was as hard as — or harder than — the first.  It was only when I started learning tai chi that things seemed to improve — a little.
• I was going to my chiropractor about two or three times a week; but after every adjustment, by the time I got back to my car, I felt like I needed to turn around and go back in.  My muscles were like a tight fist, and especially in my neck — right at the base of the skull — they would put me out of adjustment as quickly as I was we were finished.
• My chiropractor thought maybe part of my problem was a weakness of the small muscles along the spine.  He tested me on a spinal rehabilitation machine called the MedEx.  It showed significant spinal-muscle weakness; so I went through the rehab.  I worked very hard, but made almost no gain.  By the end of nearly nine months, there was no perceptible improvement.
• I tried seeing a massage therapist, thinking it would help with the spasmed muscles.  It didn't.  The massages were only somewhat pleasant — a lot of the time, they just hurt; and there was no discernable therapeutic benefit.

I was basically in pain all the time.  Sometimes worse, sometimes better; but always hurting.  It was a frustrating and often discouraging experience.

Then my wife and I went to the Huggins Center in Colorado Springs.

At the Huggins Center, one of the first things they did was to test us for pain tolerance.  A chiropractor used a pressure meter, pressing on pre-determined points along the neck and spine to measure how much pressure could be applied before the pain became intolerable.

For me, there wasn't much tolerance at all.

Over the next two weeks, Linda and I went through the protocol of having our amalgam fillings removed.  There were several supportive therapies, as well; but that's another story.  We both noticed almost immediate improvements in several areas, some of them fairly dramatic.  But one thing stood out the most:

When I was retested for pain tolerance at the end of the two weeks, the chiropractor was able to take me up to maximum pressure — and I never reached my tolerance level.

Back home and into the routine of life

Once we returned home, we resumed our normal routine.  I had a lot more energy, and was generally in less pain.  And, once I saw a chiropractor who stretched out the fascia of my neck, I had a lot less trouble holding an adjustment.

But, the thing that stood out for me the most was the MedEx.

I had worked on it for nearly a year on the MedEx, and saw almost no improvement.  On my first session after the Huggins Center, I was re-tested.  My score had improved by about 30% across the whole range of motion.  The improvement was most notable in the neck.

I continued working out on the MedEx for a few more weeks and, in that brief time, made more gain than in the previous year.

Why was that?

The Battery Effect

One of the things we learned at the Huggins Center is that the amalgam fillings in our teeth contained several different metals.  Now, if you remember your high school (or is that middle school?) science, you know that, if you put two different metals in a chemical solution, you create an electrical charge.  It's a battery.  The same thing happens in your mouth.

Even gold fillings, while not quite as toxic as mercury amalgam fillings, still produce this electrical charge — the battery effect.

What was happening with me was that this electrical charge was arching across the base of my skull, causing the muscles to spasm, and pulling my neck out of alignment.  The same electrical charge was weakening the muscles along my spine, and to some degree, contributing to their spasming.

Once the battery was removed, my system settled down to a more normal state, reducing my general level of pain, and effectively adding strength.

It really wasn't until I started using therapeutic-grade essential oils, about four years later, that I really started making significant progress toward recovery, but eliminating this on-going stress to my nervous and musculoskeletal systems was a giant step forward in finding an answer for my Fibromyalgia.

Eliminating toxins from the body

In any sort of health program (at least, the non-medical ones), eliminating toxins from the body is a critical part of getting well.  In that respect, having your amalgam fillings (and other dental metals) removed is very important.  (Just be sure they are removed properly, or its like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  You need to see a Huggins-trained dentist.)

However, the stress caused by this battery effect creates its own toxic load.  The body responds to stress with a variety of enzymes, hormones and what-not, creating a toxic mix that can be very detrimental to your health.  Worse still, this imbalance creates an inviting environment for all sorts of pathogens, which have a direct negative impact, as well as an indirect impact through the toxic off-castings of their metabolic activities.

Another issue is that everything moves into and out of the cells by means of an electrical charge.  If that charge is disrupted — or over-ridden — by the battery in your mouth, nutrients can't get into, and waste and debris can't get out of, the cells.  Depending on the strength of the charge, your cells both starve and are poisoned.

And, since this charge has a special affinity for the central nervous system, it's an even greater issue for anyone with a nervous system disorder — including Fibromyalgia, MS, Parkinson's Disease, and possibly Alzheimer's.

It's time to just say no to dental metals.  In the short term, they are cheap, durable and easy to place; but they have many long-term, detrimental effects that we can all do quite nicely without.