Mercury,
Toxic Womb State, and the Autism Spectrum
Majid Ali, M.D.
Immature lungs of a premature
baby is vulnerable, even to high concentration of
oxygen. I learned that in 1958 when I joined King
Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. The high
vulnerability of immature tissues is self-evident to
pathology resident even after the first five
autopsies done on newborns who die within hours or
days of birth from any cause. Imagine my surprise at
the following quote from a September 2013 post on
the Internet: "Only recently has it become clear
that the brain is extremely vulnerable, especially
during its development in the womb and during
infancy."
Toxic
Metals in Human Evolution and History
To provide a framework of
reference for presenting the womb-mercury-autism
link, below is some text from the preface of the 7th
volume of my textbook The Principles and practice of
Integrative Medicine:
Primordial spherules—the
forerunners of cellular life — organized themselves
around metals. Metals served as the sparks for
electron transfer events during that era of cellular
casting. Cells become energy-efficient when they
learned to use metals for enzymatic reactions.
Hemoglobin, myoglobin, cytochrome oxidative systems,
and other essential molecules owe their molecular
form and function to iron, zinc, molybdenum,
magnesium, and other metals.
Civilization began when humans
acquired an ability to mold metals into tools.
Hunting, and later agriculture became the method for
securing food supply. Heavy metal toxicity began
when humans turned some of those tools into killing
devices—first in fights for murdering men and women
individually, then in battles for decimating groups
of them.
Romans poisoned themselves by lead in water
cisterns and food containers containing the mineral.
This has been considered to have contributed to the
collapse of the Roman Empire. The mechanisms of such
toxicity are likely to have involved maternal womb
toxicity and brain damage to the unborn,
jeopardizing the future leaders. This has also been
considered to have been a contributing factor in the
decline of the Samurai regime in Japan. Analysis of
their childrens’ bones revealed high lead
concentrations. Compromised cerebral functions of
such Samurai would have also put their political and
military skills in jeopardy and have contributed to
the Shogunate collapse.
But — now it seems to m e— we are entering the
most destructive era of heavy metal toxicity.
This is an era when heavy metals do not produce
fields littered with dying bodies. Rather, it is a
period of heavy metal toxicity—mercury leading the
charge this time—in toxic metals eating humans from
within, like an indestructible monster from an alien
land, relentlessly infecting human tissues and
destroying the, The cells these monsters love most
are neurons and immune cells. The molecular
signalling pathways, which they are most adept at
disrupting, are those involved in redox equilibrium
and oxygen homeostasis. In this seventh volume of
The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine,
I write about those monstrous killer molecules—and
how we can banish them with chelation therapy.
Womb Mercury Toxicity in
the Faroe Islands
In recent years, the work of Philippe Grandjean
with children in the Faroe Islands, in the North
Atlantic is most noteworthy. He discovered
significant problems with mental functions and
learning abilities of children exposed to mercury in
the womb. His work lead to the U.S. health
guidelines for mercury in fish and United Nations
efforts to curb mercury pollution.
Cumulative Fetal Brain
Toxicity
In other articles in my Toxic Womb State series,
I emphasize the crucial importance of cumulative
toxic load on the developing fetal brain. In
addition to mercury, there are the issues lead,
aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, and chemicals, such as
food preservatives, "neuro-disruptive environmental
toxins," pesticides and long-lasting industrial
pollutants.
List of Related Tutorials
*
The Toxic Womb State
Tutorial A.1
Every Child Is
Born A Scientist
Tutorial A.2
Our Breathe
- The Best First-aid
Tutorial A.3
What Is Oxygen?
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