Dangerous Health Effects Of Mercury

Mercury is the only liquid metal on earth. It can look really attractive an interesting due to its unique nature. However, mercury is one of the heavy metals that are extremely dangerous to human health. Previously people didn’t realize the dangers of it and were found to be highly exposed to this dangerous element. It has terrible neurotoxic impacts which can cause several mental disorders. Some ancient people used to wrongly consider it a medicine. A Chinese emperor thought of it as a way to be immortal and used to take heavy doses of mercury. However, the dose did the opposite and killed him.

Image Source : By Bionerd [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

A popular incident took place in Minamata, Japan, where a company was disposing untreated mercury effluent in the river which was used as a drinkable water source. When the population consumed that water, hundreds and thousands of people became victims of acute mercury poisoning. This is today referred to as Minamata disease. Similarly, another incident is noted about the hat makers who used mercury for making hats to give it better strength and appearance. Many of those hat makers became mad before they died due to high exposure to mercury.

Now that we know how dangerous it is, it’s also important to understand how we can get exposed to mercury. Mostly, people can be exposed to mercury through inhaling the mercury vapors, ingesting it in food and water, or simply through absorption from the skin. One might think that it’s cool to hold mercury in your hand and watch it slide along like a beautiful liquid, and then wash your hands later. However, that’s a really bad idea, since mercury can be absorbed through your skin and enter your bloodstream.

Many industrial processes still use mercury, which is one reason it can get to us. When the wastewater is discharged into the sea, fish may get exposed to mercury and it can get accumulated in their tissues. When we eat those fish and seafood, we directly ingest mercury. That’s how it gets into our food chain as well, or even the water that many people drink. Therefore, it is recommended to always eat smaller sized fish, as bigger fish such as shark can have multiple times more mercury than smaller fish due to a phenomenon called “Bioaccumulation”.

Mercury can be exposed to humans in different forms, such as elemental mercury, or methylmercury, which is a more dangerous form. It’s toxicity also depends on what kind of mercury are we exposed to.

With all this being said, here are some of the most dangerous health impacts of mercury that we all should be aware of :

• Toxic for Children
  Mercury in different forms is extremely toxic for children specifically. It can have a strong impact on the neurological development of the children and cause several disorders related to nervous system.
• Damages Brain
  Mercury can damage our brain in several ways. It can decrease our memory significantly, damage our language and speaking skills, reduce our cognitive capabilities, decrease our concentration and focus, and impair our visual and spatial skills. Our voluntary movements and motor capabilities are also affected by mercury since it’s a neurotoxin.
• Sleeplessness
  Mercury in its different forms is known to cause sleeplessness and insomnia due to its impacts on our brain.
• Poor mental performance
  It can significantly reduce the mental performance of a person in day to day activities in case of chronic exposure. The feeling of being mentally tired at all times is a typical symptom.
• Headaches
  The symptom can also include headaches. Although headaches can occur due to various reasons, in case of mercury poisoning this symptom is normally present due to neurological damage.
• Ataxia
  Ataxia is a condition in which a person loses the full control over his body movements. In order words, we will either move involuntary or we will not be able to move when we want to move.
• Emotional Damage
  A person can significantly be impacted emotionally due to mercury. Our emotions don’t always have to do only with the happiness or problems that we may have in our lives. Sometimes our emotions are controlled due to chemical changes and toxicity in our body. Mercury can affect our emotions in a similar manner. In case of mercury poisoning, a person may feel excessively irritated, nervous and very shy.
• Neuromuscular Damage
  Our neuromuscular health is also deteriorated due to mercury poisoning. It can cause damage to our nerves related to our muscles, which can cause different conditions like excessive lethargy, muscle twitching, and muscle atrophy.
• Mood Swings
  Due to pressure on our nervous system, we can also experience mood swings on a quick and regular basis, as our brain would know that something is not right with our body.
• Skin rash
  Some people can also experience skin rash due to mercury poisoning in case of acute exposure of methylmercury.
• Tremors
  Tremors can be defined as irregular movement in a quivering manner in our body. Mercury poisoning can also cause tremors if the patient is exposed to an elementary form of mercury.
• Memory Loss
  Memory loss is a typical symptom in cases of mercury poisoning as it damages our brain.
• Mental Disturbance
  A person can feel mentally disturbed and depressed due to mercury poisoning. The feeling of anxiety due to no reason can be a typical symptom.
• Damage to Senses
  Mercury poisoning can cause damage to various senses of our body. For instance, due to mercury exposure, a person can face a degraded hearing and ability of speech. One can also experience narrowing of the field of vision.

Conclusion
Which all the damaging impacts of mercury, one can only classify it as a mere poison with no other use to human. However, it will be surprising to know that mercury can also be used in medicines for the treatment of several conditions, some of which are already mentioned above. It doesn’t mean that one should try to use mercury as a medicine, as those medicines are very carefully potentized to be effective. Just like many other poisons are used as medicines for several treatments, mercury is also used to some extent. Just make sure that you stay away from mercury as much as possible to keep yourself and especially your children protected from it.

Disclaimer
Please note that individual results will vary from person to person. All and any information and statements contained in this article are not intended to replace your doctor’s advice or treatment. We do not provide medical advice, prescription, or diagnose illness. Therefore, our views and nutritional statements are not intended to replace your doctor’s medical advice. If you have a health concern or condition, see your doctor before starting anything on your own.