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Has anyone heard of the recent findings of HIGH toxic levels of Mercury in backwoods rivers and swamplands? I was looking back at the “Where you live” thread, and these thoughts came to mind.
My grandmother (Mattaponi/Pamunkey) in 87yo. and is recovering from a Stroke, brought on by Vertigo. It wasn’t a debilitating stroke as most are, she’s sharp and moving around great. She still has a bit of slurred speech. Amid the aunts and uncles conversating, we come to find out, my Aunt Betty, Dad, Aunt Gloria, my sister and myself ALL have some form of Vertigo which causes us to have symptoms causing passing out, joint pain, to non-epileptic seizures! Triggers can be paint fumes, cooking fumes or anything seemingly toxic. I seem to have gotten the worst of the toxins…I’m dad’s 1st child, and have many unexplainable disorders. Now I want to talk w/my doc about getting toxic testing to see if that’s truly what’s wrong w/me.
Now the river not far from our house (that Grams and her children have lived off the fish for their whole life) called Dragon Run River, has recently been found to have HIGH levels of Mercury toxins in it. We are now under regulations not to eat the fish in it. (or very little of it). Researchers have also found high levels of Mercury in the Dismal Swamp (Chesapeake VA area). It is said that these fresh water rivers produce the Mercury naturally, and not through big companies dumping chemicals in the larger rivers.
So, after all that has been said………do any of you guys live near fresh water rivers that are swamplike…..where you’ve lived off of the fish for years and it may unknowingly have caused genetic health problems similar to the ones I’ve described?
Wow Roni, I do think this is the most important post I’ve ever seen on here. You need to keep researching this and don’t take anyone’s word about it occurring naturally until that’s well proven to you to be true. I of course live far from you but I have looked into mercury poisoning through fish because I was very sick for a year and a half. I sent away to the CDC for a book on it… a report. I gave that to a friend in medical school. My son is a salmon fisherman in Alaska in the summer and I’d eat alot of those he’d send home and that was supposed to be a possible source of mercury poisoning. That report I’d gotten had charts and statistics from various locations. I do have some similar symptoms I deal with. When I was so sick it turned out to be severe chronic carbon-monixide poisoning from an antique gas cooking range in my apartment. I hope people here will help you research this too. I’m thinking maybe there is a way to remove the mercury from your body through some treatments. I’ll try to look into it too. I’m needing to finish some reports so might be awhile. Darn. I bet that fish really tasted good too. I just had fish tonight.
I’m so sorry about your Grandmother.
Personally, if you suspect mercury poisoning, I’d say go go the doc asap. I just heard on the news last week where a couple a little boy was playing with mercury and he was veryy very ill. I don’t remember if he died or not. And they found mercury in several houses and a dumpster. I’m sorry that I can’t find the information now. It was on one of the news channels. At any rate, it is very serious so I’d say, please go get checked. And if nothing else, you’ll have peace of mind when it comes up clean. Ok.. Barb taking off her ‘Mommy’ hat now. 🙂
Oh dovelady, I don’t think I ever take off my ‘Mommy’ hat. Your post made me recall I went through that too. I broke just a regular mouth thermometer in the house and the health department said I had to have this fancy team come and vacum it all up. After they left I found more on the top of the wood work so they had to come back. Anyway, I’m pretty sure getting into that amount like from an old fashioned thermometer, is alot higher dose than the traces that can build up in your body from fish. Not to minimize the fish situation, just to say it’s alot higher dose so maybe more of an immediately serious danger. But yah that’s right Roni, please find out what to do and be persistent if the first person doesn’t take you serioiusly and says it’s nothing.
Dianne
Hello, “Up here” in Canada we have lived with the concerns of mercury poisoning for a very long time.
Here is a link to some research etc on this topic., http://www.ec.gc.ca/MERCURY/EN/efca.cfm
Did you know that mercury is delivered to the dental labs in containers bearing warning signs of radio activity, mercury enclosed, or something similar to that!
If you have had lead or silver fillings ever chances are they were put in place with mercury, one of the only safe ways to help rid your body of mercury deposits is with … get this.. cilantro!
http://www.kitchendoctor.com/articles/cilantro.html
You may want to follow this up with NOT chewing gum! the wear on fillings from chewing gum helps release the mercury into your system.
I would also look for other forms of mineral chelation and in spring look for organic asparagus and have it in a meal for 3 days, just a usual serving, I would suggest only 3 days!
😮
You guys are really scaring me!
First of all, thanks BIG-TIME for each one of you giving me advice and info. (thanks for the links Tom….I was gonna google and research today!) I became sick all of a sudden in 2001 and slowly with meds have done pretty good. But I’m SICK of meds. Docs all say I don’t have “real” this or “real” that. They think I’m crazy….one of those people who fake seizures and stuff and make themselves sick…..OOOKKKAAAYYY. Mental illness does run in the family to an extent, but not me, not yet anywayz…LOL…..they are the ones driving me nuts! 😡 :p (Speaking about t-shirts, I’ve got one that says “People like you are the reason why people like me are on meds”, and “Don’t bother me, I forgot to take my meds”.)
I’ve been researching natural foods and herbs to help me replace the meds, so I’ve got some shopping to do……and asparagus is already on my list. I’ve never heard of “cilantro”. And yes, I have silver fillings. (I hate going to the dentist!)
Yea……this fish was good and I LOVE to go fishing….digging up earthworms and baiting my hooks (wiggly, wiggly, wiggly). Oh, I already miss those days. 🙁 I just hated scaling and cleaning them!! LOL. I love eating catfish, but hating pulling in those buggers! Eel, pikefish, “yella bellies” and even German carr/carp (sp?) were back there in that river.
Anywayz….as usual, yada, yada, yada. Thanks a bunch and another bunch guys.
I didn’t think much about this until I googled mercury poisoning yesterday (I don’t eat fish as often as I should), low and behold, I saw the symptoms and how they related to fillings…and I had a bunch of them when I was young. And one of the symptoms was peeling hands….and I have that from time to time…it will start on one section of my hands and continue until the whole palm has peeled. I had also thought that could be a form of shingles…but, may be not.
Cilantro is an herb that you will find in salsa at most Mexican restaurants. Many grocery stores here have started carrying it…kinda like a tasty parsley. I am growing some along with lavender, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives in containers. I have some seed for chamomile that I want to get in the ground soon. Thanks, Tom for the tip about cilantro and asparagus…maybe that’s why I crave it at certain times???? Wondering if avocados and artichokes are related…I crave them at times also. The more and more I read about the contaminations to the protein sources…the more I think about just eating what we are growing this year.
Roni, are you sure you didn’t fish out of our creek ? Same fish and I can add a few. Round fish and Nottie Heads (similar to the round fish but with little hard knot’s on head. These were caught in the bend of the creek and cleaned and fried crisp for breakfast. That way you didn’t have to worry about all the little bones, they just crunched up. My dad would set a fish pot made of sappling hoops and chicken wire in early spring and catch Red Horse which was a prized food for my family. Catching eel involved breaking a switch and whipping the eel so he wouldn’t tangle up your line and I actually saw folk draw a circle with a cross in the dirt and put the eel in the center. They actually stopped wiggling so you could get the hook out. If I had not seen it I suppose I wouldn’t have believed it. Several holes in the creek had leeches in them and those I approached very carefully. My father when a little boy used to go down to the ford and catch leeches in the hole beside the ford for the doctor to use to bleed patients. Carp was not a native fish for us but when Bugs Island dam and lake were established evidently someone introduced them into the lake and they progressed up the streams and our creek was one of those feeding into the lake. How sentimental to remember the old swimming hole at one bend in the creek with the water backed up by large bolders. This was also used as a baptizing hole. We could grab the large wild grape vines and swing over the creek. I have a large chipped stone axe I found in that creek. The actual name of it was Jonathan Creek but us locals always said Johnson Creek. We had three spring filled branches that feed into that creek on our property and along their banks were gathered many items used in natural ways including May Apple, Sassafras, poke salad and poke roots. From those branches we gathered crawdads and minnows and in its mud there were flags and clay used for various purposes. Just those spring-branches were veritable variety stores not including the creek and surrounding woods and forrest. So much is gone and almost lost forever now as we have “improved” our living status. ED
Ed, I can tell you that we have much in common, I really like that eel story!
I know what you mean we have “improved our living” but where’s the quality time gone?
I wish that I could stand on the bank of that old clear stream or river and see the fish at the bottom that I used to snbag so easily, but they are gone now along with the time that filled such great days!
We still pick about 4 kinds of berries etc, remembering the old times.
Anyway, thanx for this.
ps, my favorite movie is “Stand by me”!, really takes me back!
Flags are often called wild iris and quite a few other names and grow in the wet clay and soil along branches and wet bottom areas. there is a good discussion and explanation plus PRECAUTIONS in its use. Go to the following link: http://www.botanical.com/products/learn/blue_flag.html and you have a good introduction to flag and it’s uses.
Poke in addition to being cooked as when you take the early young tender shoots and cook “Poke Salet” by the way this needs plenty of spring onions chopped up in it to give it taste. This was also sort of a spring tonic in many country homes. There was a company from Arkansas that canned the product and at one time I found it in a Super KMart in Raleigh, NC. The Roots also have all sorts of uses and just go to Google and type in Poke Roots and enjoy yourself. We took the roots and boiled them in a pot of water. When the chickens came down with a malady known to us as Limber Neck in which they could not hold their heads up nor walk and eventually died we stopped them up in the hen house and put out pans of this water for all of them to drink. We took the worst ones and made chicken coops out of tobacco sticks log cabin style with whatever available for a roof cover. The chickens were put in the coop and repeatedly through the day one person would open their beaks and the other using an old teaspoon would force this water down their throats. We never lost a chicken using this method.
You can see when you search it there were many other uses for humans as well. Early colonist used the berries for a ready and cheap form of ink but you dare not cook and consume the green after it leaves the tender shoot stage. I was always told the berries were poison but the birds seem to have no difficulty eating them and depositing those wonderful purple splotches on your clothes line and your car. Just couldn’t resist educating all you city slickers who were never annointed ! By the way, every one should be compelled to eat at least one Persimmon before it is frosted on. You would have a new outlook on life and really appreciate the sweeter things you may have formerly ignored or taken for granted. Have a Blessed night and new day. ED
Mousini78 wrote: I didn’t think much about this until I googled mercury poisoning yesterday (I don’t eat fish as often as I should), low and behold, I saw the symptoms and how they related to fillings…and I had a bunch of them when I was young. And one of the symptoms was peeling hands….and I have that from time to time…it will start on one section of my hands and continue until the whole palm has peeled. I had also thought that could be a form of shingles…but, may be not.
Cilantro is an herb that you will find in salsa at most Mexican restaurants. Many grocery stores here have started carrying it…kinda like a tasty parsley. I am growing some along with lavender, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives in containers. I have some seed for chamomile that I want to get in the ground soon. Thanks, Tom for the tip about cilantro and asparagus…maybe that’s why I crave it at certain times???? Wondering if avocados and artichokes are related…I crave them at times also. The more and more I read about the contaminations to the protein sources…the more I think about just eating what we are growing this year.
Just a note on cilantro (one of my faves, in salsa, guac etc). Cilantro is best used fresh, but may be dried (just loses some of its awesome flavor). If the cilantro goes to seed (appears after the flowering stage); the seeds are coriander (spice and great in soups). For cilantro, just remember to pick the leaves early and enjoy!!:)
Shirley
I have heard of mercury in our Northern Minnesota lakes, but I just love fishing and better yet eating fish. I have seen no effects (that I know of anyway).
There could be many ecological reasons for the retention of mercury in waters. It is sad, but with the amount of housing, commercial development etc, we are losing our wetands and our natural filtration system.
On another note, mercury poisoning was common for those who made hats, felt hats, as mercury was used in the process. This is where the term “mad hatter” came from.
Shirley
Thanks you guys for all the sharing of info and stories….they’re interesting. Ed, I’ve never heard of those fish you’re talking about. When we caught the eels though, Dad would just slam them against this big giant tree a couple of times to stun him, and would cut the string and let them keep the hooks because they always swallowed them deep in their throats. It was always gave me the heebee jeebies seeing those eels coming up on a fishing pole!:eek: That’s also interesting about the cross……
We actually have A LOT of CEDAR stumps running along the river’s edge. That’s one of it’s best features other than being serene. When Dad was in college, he actually dug one up (very hard to do) and carved it for a project. I wonder what happened to it. 😮 My Dad and his parents used to make our fishing poles out of cedar. Then they would tie some string and knot it real good, then get those red and white bobble things about midway down the string and add a weight and hook…..and voila! I LOVED it when my bobble dipped below the water….my stomach always dropped with excitement!
Tom, those links were wonderful! I’ve got a lot more researching and talking w/my doc to do…..I need to have some real toxicity testing done. I’ve had done a simple online one before, because me and my doc had recently discussed toxicity, but it was inconclusive.
Who HAD to bring up the leeches? Gosh eww! Thank God, we didn’t see TOO many leeches back there. I’m already borderline anemic! I loved “Stand By Me” too, and I’m a country girl at heart……but when that boy came up w/them things all over him:eek: 😮 I hoped NEVER EVER to see that many sucky creatures ever again!!!!
I’m headed for the vitamin/herbal store this weekend for the Cilantro and other stuff. Thanks again everybody!:)
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