I have been cautioning my patients for years now about the mercury contained in the sea food they eat. This is especially important for women about to become pregnant or who are pregnant. Health experts for years now have warned children and pregnant women to avoid fish with high mercury levels, such as shark and swordfish.
Now biologist Dr. Roger Payne has released new information about the toxicity that he found in almost 1000 whales from all over the world. Dr. Payne set out on his boat in March 2000 from San Diego to document the health of the ocean. He used a small harmless dart gun to collect specimens from almost 1000 whales over 87,000 miles of the ocean.
The samples were sent for analysis and the findings were astonishing. He originally set out to measure persistent organic pollutants (POP's). They found significant amounts of these in the whales.
However, he also looked at heavy metals and what he found was that the whales averaged 2.4 ppm (parts per million) of mercury. He noted that the whales' internal organs would probably have a much higher level than the skin samples they collected. They also found significant levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, and titanium in the tissue samples.
Dr. Payne said in an interview "The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings."
He noted that these contaminates can jeopardize seafood, which is a primary source of protein for over 1 billion people in the world.
Dr. Payne further said "You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species. I suspect this will shorten lives, if it turns out that this is what's going on".
Dr. Payne further noted that "When you're working with a synthetic chemical (POPs) which never existed in nature before and you find it in a whale which came from the Arctic or Antarctic, it tells you that it was made by people and it got into the whale."
Chromium which is an industrial pollutant known to cause cancer in humans was found in all but two of the 361 sperm whale samples. Chromium was the toxic chemical that was the focus of the movie "Erin Brockovich".
Dr. Payne pointed out that the consequences of metals could be "horrific for both whale and man".
In my opinion, this report is of major importance for all people. In my own practice of medicine, I routinely check my patients for mercury in their blood. I find many people with blood levels of mercury higher than the government says is safe. This comes from their eating fish. In addition, this mercury accumulates in the organs and tissues of the person and unfortunately it is released from a pregnant mother's tissues during pregnancy into the fetus. I always encourage my female patients to detoxify out the heavy metals in their body before they conceive.
Another thing Dr Payne said was " "I don't see any future for whale species except extinction.This is not on anybody's radar, no government's radar anywhere, and I think it should be."
I do too ! To say nothing of the effects on humans.
Have you had a blood mercury level measured lately? Do you eat fish that are high in mercury? Let me know what you think about all this information and how you will apply it to your life?
About Dr. Soram Khalsa
As an MD, Dr Soram specializes in Integrative Medicine combining diet, nutrition, acupuncture, herbs and nutrition. Visit Dr Soram’s Healthy Living Store where you’ll find high-quality nutritional supplements:
