The body of many fatigue patients is burdened by heavy metals. Due to industrial pollution in the environment, chemicals and heavy metals enter our bodies through the air we breathe and the food we eat. The main sources of body poisoning are paints, woodworking products, insecticides, pesticides, oil burning, vaccinations, marine pollution (heavy metals and PCBs in fish!) and amalgam fillings in teeth.
Amalgam fillings mainly consist of: mercury, with a smaller amount of silver, copper, zinc and tin. Mercury from amalgam fillings is partly responsible for fibromyalgia, CFS, MS, depression and anxiety attacks. I always advise patients with severe fatigue problems (and also patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism and MS) to have amalgam fillings removed if they have more than three.
If you have amalgam fillings – or if you eat a lot of fish – and you want to know to what extent your body is poisoned by mercury, you can have it detected by a chelation test. The mercury is bound with a chelator (DMPS), which is administered intravenously (or orally, via tablets). Then you need to collect urine for six hours. The amount of mercury you have urinated is then measured in the urine. This gives you an idea of the amount of mercury in your body. However, keep in mind that many labs (and doctors too) misinterpret the so-called 'normal values' for heavy metals. In principle, there are no normal values: mercury does not belong in the body. However, chronic mercury poisoning always falls within the 'normal values'. High mercury concentrations can only be found in the blood during acute intoxications.