Thimerosal neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion

NIH.gov ^ | January, 2005

[Coleus]

Thimerosol, a preservative developed by Eli Lily, was once widely used in vaccines. That was until it was identified as the source of the largest exposure to mercury in the United States in children under 18 months of age and mandated to be removed from vaccines. However, amazingly, despite its well-documented potential toxic effects, this harmful preservative remains present in the flu vaccine, which is given to pregnant women, the elderly and children.

A team of researchers examined the toxicity of thimerosal within the body including neurons. They explored:

• Neurotoxic mechanisms
• How the body detoxifies mercury
• The use of N-Acetylcysteine (or NAC) in aiding the detoxification pathway within the body

Ordinarily, the brain and liver can manufacture enough glutathione (an essential antioxidant and naturally occurring tripeptide made of cysteine, glutamate, and glycine) to protect your body from exposure to various heavy metals, including mercury. When this critical compound is depleted in your body, however, the mercury that is left can bind with cellular proteins, can lead to toxic damage.

Studies have indicated low incredibly tiny concentrations of thimerosal induced:

• DNA strand breaks
• Caspase-3 activation
• Membrane damage
• Cell death

Researchers also found that higher concentrations of thimerosal lead to a greater number of cells that were killed, and the nerve cell response occurred with only a three-hour exposure.

Neurotoxicology January 2005;26(1):1-8

 

1: Neurotoxicology. 2005 Jan;26(1):1-8.

Related Articles,

 
Thimerosal neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion: protection with glutathione precursors.

James SJ, Slikker W 3rd, Melnyk S, New E, Pogribna M, Jernigan S.

Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA. jamesjill@uams.edu

Thimerosol is an antiseptic containing 49.5% ethyl mercury that has been used for years as a preservative in many infant vaccines and in flu vaccines. Environmental methyl mercury has been shown to be highly neurotoxic, especially to the developing brain.

Because mercury has a high affinity for thiol (sulfhydryl (-SH)) groups, the thiol-containing antioxidant, glutathione (GSH), provides the major intracellular defense against mercury-induced neurotoxicity. Cultured neuroblastoma cells were found to have lower levels of GSH and increased sensitivity to thimerosol toxicity compared to glioblastoma cells that have higher basal levels of intracellular GSH. Thimerosal-induced cytotoxicity was associated with depletion of intracellular GSH in both cell lines.

Pretreatment with 100 microM glutathione ethyl ester or N-acetylcysteine (NAC), but not methionine, resulted in a significant increase in intracellular GSH in both cell types. Further, pretreatment of the cells with glutathione ethyl ester or NAC prevented cytotoxicity with exposure to 15 microM Thimerosal. Although Thimerosal has been recently removed from most children's vaccines, it is still present in flu vaccines given to pregnant women, the elderly, and to children in developing countries. The potential protective effect of GSH or NAC against mercury toxicity warrants further research as possible adjunct therapy to individuals still receiving Thimerosal-containing vaccinations.

PMID: 15527868 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[BifBimble]

It's amazing how they put poison into vaccines that they inject into little babies. Someone just had to know that this wasn't the smartest thing to do.

[BifBimble]

Stephen Barrett, M.D.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mercury.html

You mean this Steven Barret?

[bd476]

"Sunkenciv wrote: Stephen Barrett, M.D. Stephen Barrett, M.D.

and BifBimble responded:

You mean this Stephen Barrett, M.D.?"

BifBimble your link goes to a blog in which Tim Bolen lashes out at Stephen Barrett, M.D. and Quackwatchers.

Here are some facts and rather intriguing information about Tim Bolen and his business associates.

A Response to Tim Bolen

Stephen Barrett, M.D/

"When false ideas are attacked, their promoters often spread lies about the critics. That's happening to me and several others who have justifiably criticized Hulda Clark, PhD, ND, an unlicensed naturopath who claims she can cure cancer, AIDS, and many other serious diseases, sometimes within a few hours [1].

Clark's network includes:

• Century Nutrition, a Mexican clinic where she has administered her treatment.
  
  
• New Century Press, of Chula Vista, California, which publishes Clark's books and a few by other other authors. Clark is registered as its sole owner.
  
  
• The Dr. Clark Research Association, a group that promotes and sells Clark's books and recommended products.
  
  
• Scientologist David P. Amrein, who founded and operates the Dr. Clark Research Association and a Swiss company that sells the products and devices that Clark recommends.
  
  In January 2003, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charged him, his Swiss company, and the Dr. Clark Research Association with making unsubstantiated claims that the products and devices could cure cancer [2]..."

Who Is "Tim" Bolen?

""Tim Bolen," whose real name is Patrick Timothy Bolen, represents himself as Hulda Clark's "publicist." Bolen and his wife Jan do business as JuriMed, an entity whose stated purpose is to assist "alternative" health practitioners faced with regulatory action, criminal prosecution, or other matters that threaten their financial well-being and/or license to practice. Bolen refers to JuriMed as a "public relations and research group."

Its Web site lists no physical address, and I can find no indication of fictitious name registration with the State of California.

Bolen sometimes gives his address as 31103 Rancho Viejo #2131, San Juan Capistrano, California, which is a storefront where people rent boxes to receive mail.

As far as I can tell, JuriMed does not have a telephone directory listing or published street address, although its telephone number is posted on several Web sites.

Bolen, who is about 58 years old, apparently has not been diligent about paying his debts. According to certified records from the Orange County Clerk-Recorder's Office, between 1991 and 2000, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the California State Franchise Board, and the County of Orange placed a total of seven tax liens against him, one against him and his wife jointly, and two against the Bolen Publishing Company.

The amounts totaled more about $43,500, of which at least $25,000 was still owed in May 2001.

The records also show that a residence owned by the Bolens underwent a Trustee's sale in 1994 and that, in 1996, a contractor recorded a mechanic's lien against Tim for $22,898.52 for unpaid charges related to flood damage to another residence.

In September 1999, Hulda Clark was arrested in San Diego, California, based on a fugitive warrant from Indiana, where she faced charges of practicing medicine without a license. The case originated in 1993 when Clark lived and practiced in Indiana.

Shortly after Clark's apprehension, her son Geoffrey hired Tim Bolen and/or JuriMed to assist her. Since then, Bolen has distributed messages supporting Clark's work and attacking her "enemies." His principal target has been me.

Geoffrey Clark also set up a defense fund to pay for expenses associated with defending Hulda against "legal attacks." A description of the fund stated that the covered expenses would include attorney fees, publicists, expert witnesses, court costs, and appeals.

The report also stated that by May 31, 2000, the fund had raised $113,943.76, earned interest of $665.96, and spent $27,900.51 for legal expense, $327.65 for "Acct/Copies," $56,408.43 for public relations, and $714.30 for Hulda Clark's travel..."

"...In February 2001, Mexican authorities inspected Century Nutrition and ordered it to shut down. According to a report in the San Diego Union Tribune, the clinic had never registered and was operating without a license [4]..."

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks, bd476!

[bd476]

Thank you for the link to QuackWatch. :)

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure, nice to meet you.

[Coleus]

To raise gultathione levels in the blood.

Take the following:

NAC, Zinc, Selenium, Whey protein

[SunkenCiv]

Vaccination-Autism Link Unproven (Junk Science)
Fox News | 4/1/2005 | Steven Milloy
Posted on 04/01/2005 8:37:16 AM PST by Born Conservative
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1375487/posts

[mnkygrl]

...The mercury component made up just .01 percent of the volume of thimerosal-containing vaccines. Yet in some vaccines that amount proved to be 25 micrograms of mercury per injection, which in turn is 50 times the Environmental Protection Agency safety limit for exposure to mercury for an 11-pound infant...

Shortly after the panel's report, the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA responded to activists' allegations and began considering the following charges: that vaccine manufacturers had misrepresented the safety of thimerosal; that initial results from a 2000 CDC study, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a statistical correlation between mercury exposure through pediatric vaccines and neurological disorders in children, although the association disappeared in the published analyses; and that the data may have since been destroyed...

http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/nyc-botleft4236167may01,0,6295116.story?coll=nyc-bookreview-headlines

[SunkenCiv]

Welcome (or welcome back) to FreeRepublic.

"...Kirby's story is by no means anti-vaccine, nor are the parent activists whom he profiles. Their furious energy is unleashed by learning that the worries about thimerosal's toxicity prompted the Soviet Union to ban it from pediatric vaccines in the 1980s... the mercury-accumulation hypothesis relies primarily on a small study of humans and laboratory studies of thimerosal's effects on cells and lab animals. The independent Institute of Medicine panel charged with exploring the thimerosal-autism link dismissed the evidence as theoretical. Its 2004 report concluded 'that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.' ...Kirby acknowledges that thimerosal's role in neurobehavioral disorders remains unknown, and he doesn't mention the evidence that children with severe autism have abnormally fast brain development that may begin in the womb... Keep your eye on California, where autism cases are closely tracked. If autism-related diagnoses decline over the next year or two following the introduction of thimerosal-free vaccines, the finding will further fuel this simmering controversy."

http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/nyc-botleft4236167may01,0,6295116.story?coll=nyc-bookreview-headlines

Mercury Rising
BY SARAH RICHARDSON
Sarah Richardson is a senior editor of Discover.
May 1, 2005
EVIDENCE OF HARM: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic - A Medical Controversy, by David Kirby. St. Martin's, 460 pp., $26.95.

[SunkenCiv]

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Evidence of Harm Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy by David Kirby

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