Today’s Phenomenon of Preferred Ignorance

Ignorance is no longer just for the blissful, it’s also for the sane.

For those who haven’t read my introductory post, I’m a receptionist at a small family practice clinic. Recently, I seem to lead a double life: one as an under-spoken secretary who knows her place and makes the damn coffee with a smile, the other as a hungry student looking for knowledge and truth that even my most highest authorities have not yet grasped.

I encountered something strange today as I opened my big mouth (something I sometimes do when I foolishly, momentarily believe someone might listen to the girl who answers the phones). Despite my better judgment, I proceeded to tell a nurse about the statistics I have found on the W.H.O website while doing a simple search regarding silver dental fillings and mercury (see previous post). The response I got was less than favorable as she told me to “calm down, Katie. You don’t want to be like Suzy Johnson.” * She later continued the conversation by telling me I was acting “weird” and “obsessive” – all because I was concerned about one of the world’s leading health organizations admitting people were getting metal poisoning from one of the most common health practices: dental fillings.

Suzy is a patient who belongs in a psych ward much more so than at a family doctor, always insisting the air itself is made of nickel and poisons her body. She gets heir hair strands regularly tested. On top of that, she’s a witch.

Despite the nurse telling me she was “totally joking,” I know only half of her meant it. The office manager is another woman guilty of telling me I read too much and need to stop before I become obsessive. “You read some sad stuff,” she says. “Why don’t you read some Twilight?”

I don’t know when education and knowledge became something to be embarrassed of, but it desperately needs to stop. As a biology student who plans to go into medicine, I’m proud of my desire to know the truth. I’m proud of the amount of books I read, and I’m proud of the energy and time I spend trying to educate myself. I’ll be a better doctor for it. My future patients will be healthier because of it. It isn’t only that I’m not receiving words of encouragement from my co-workers; I’m being torn in the opposite direction and being blatantly told that I’m going overboard. And, of all people, by medical professionals. Medical professionals are telling me to stop reading so much about the medical profession. Isn’t there something wrong with that?

I’m sick of keeping my mouth shut, and the next time my co-worker tells me to put down the books, I won’t be so nice. Ignorance isn’t “cool,” and it should not be accepted by people as the norm, or interpreted as sanity. It’s time people realize that doctors are people just like the rest of us who only repeat what a higher authority deemed as fact. They only know that which they were exposed to, which isn’t always the truth. It’s time we stop putting some of the most toxic elements into our body – completely voluntarily – because our doctor insists it’s okay. You don’t have to have a medical degree to know that putting the most toxic metals into your system isn’t okay, and you don’t have to have passed medical school to be able to grasp that metal’s toxicity. Don’t feel intimidated by the information or the degrees on their walls. Be your own health advocate, because you are smart enough. You are capable of knowing something your doctor doesn’t. It is absolutely possible (as a matter of fact, common place) that your doctor may promote a practice that is hazardous to your health. Let’s keep in mind that although most doctors truly have every intention of supporting your health and overall well-being, they’re just as capable of being gullibly convinced of something that isn’t true as we are. It happens every day.

Don’t take my word for any of this, for Christ’s sake, read! Find information from both sides of the debate and go where your common sense leads you – not where “public opinion” leads you.

* name has been changed.

Dentistry: Part 1

Dentistry is quite a mystery to me.

Until about a year ago, I had no idea it was mercury that is so commonly used to fill our cavities. Mercury can be found in what is called an Amalgam Filling, which is composed of “elemental mercury, silver, tin, copper and possibly other metallic elements,” according to the American Dental Association. It is the most common filling used today, and according to the ADA, also one of the most researched and tested. What that means, I’m not sure. Did the ADA research and test its durability, its safety, or both? What were the conclusions of their studies? I can’t say, but I know the amalgam filling is neither durable nor safe.

Lets take a look at what the World Health Organization has to say about exposure to elemental mercury, the type of mercury being used in these fillings:

“Following exposure to mercury vapor the element is found in blood as physically dissolved elemental mercury. Within a few minutes, the mercury is oxidized to mercuric mercury in the erythrocytes, a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme catalase. Thus, following short term exposure to mercury vapor, the maximum concentration of mercury in erythrocytes is seen after less than one hour, whereas plasma levels peak after about ten hours. Before oxidation, [elemental mercury] readily crosses cell membranes, including the blood-brain and placental barriers. Following oxidation, [its] ions (or complexes) are distributed in the body via blood. The kidneys and the brain are the main targets for deposition of mercury following exposure to mercury vapor; absorbed inorganic mercury salts are mainly deposited in the kidneys.”

I suspect the only place to make the debate about mercury fillings worth having is whether or not the fillings do indeed make their way into our system. The ADA states that although concern has risen over the amalgam’s mercury content, ”the mercury in amalgam combines with other metals to render it stable and safe for use in filling teeth.” As someone who was very susceptible to cavities as a child and has had at least 8 of these fillings, I know this information to be inaccurate. Amalgam fillings are slowly (over the course of years) ground away into vapor as you chew, and thus consumed along with food or breathed into the lungs. According to this article, the FDA has already admitted this phenomenon. And yet, the FDA says that mercury fillings aren’t harmful (read: the FDA says that the most toxic metal on earth making its way into your body isn’t harmful.)

 

The World Health Organization has admitted the dental amalgam as a major source of mercury contamination in the human body. No matter what kind of silver amalgam filling you receive, they are all 50% Mercury.  According to a 1991 study by the W.H.O., they release 3-17 micrograms of Mercury into the bloodstream everyday. The safe level established by the EPA for Mercury exposure is 10 micrograms/day.  Many countries in Europe (as well as Canada)  have already banned the use of mercury in dental fillings. (The number of countries varies with the source, but the common countries include Germany, Austria, Norway and Sweden.)

Can we please just agree that putting one of the most toxic elements in our mouth isn’t safe?

My Introduction.

When I got my first job as a receptionist at a health clinic just a year ago, I was first surprised at how many of our meals consisted of donuts and pizza. Some time later, I was shocked to find no one in my office understood the truth about fluoride, then pleasantly surprised when the doctor and nurses opposed the H1N1 vaccine, and then shocked once more when I saw Equal packets for all of us to put in our coffee. Yum, aspartame.

This is not to discredit the health professionals I was working with, from whom I learned many things. They are intelligent individuals who not only taught me a countless amount of medical terms, but also showed me through example what true grace and character is.  It was through them that I learned when to listen more and talk less, to speak my opinions and not shout them, to smile at a difficult patient and offer them compassion.

However, I can’t help but apply some much needed harsh criticism to these wonderful people and wonder how educated professionals can remain so ignorant. Unlike some outspoken “conspiracy theorists,” I don’t believe it to be entirely their fault. After all, our performance in school is based off of how well we can repeat and memorize the things that a higher authority tells us…not how much we question, debate, and search for scientific truth (as a matter of fact, those things tend to get us into trouble!).  We’re rewarded for believing the public opinion and ostracized when we question it. It’s no wonder our brains have gone soft.

The idea for this blog came during a Sunday evening when I wondered how a society that has flown to the moon and photographed single molecules can still ignore their left-brained logic. We appear civilized to one another. We call ourselves modern society as if it implies something grand and illuminated. We appear to have cured many illnesses. Discarded silly superstitions with science. Explored our solar system, explained evolution. How is it, then, that when the FDA says rat poison is safe for human consumption, we believe it? Are you kidding me with this shit?

I’ll be the first to tell you: I am not (yet) a scientist. I am not (yet) very educated, and I am not (yet) a physician, a nurse, or even a medical assistant. Where I work, I answer the phones. Patients don’t often take me seriously because of my age. But I do have common sense, and I want to be part of the change.

Stay tuned.

- Kate