Hi Dan,

Here is an excerpt from my book Candida Crusher with regards to mercury and Candida.

Mercury, Candida and Heavy Metal Detoxification

An area of concern to many is the possibility of heavy metals in the body, particularly mercury, being an underlying cause of a chronic yeast infection. There is no doubt about it, there is a connection between mercury in a person’s body and candida, but there is a whole lot of ridiculous information online about it as well, my advice is to be cautious about any information you act on, and if you are going to make any decisions on what I write below then do consult your holistic doctor and mercury-free dentist. Don’t make any quick decisions, take your time and do your homework first.

Do A Hair Analysis First

Dr. Trowbridge (“The Yeast Syndrome”) wrote that some doctors who specialize in yeast infections have reported that over 90% of chronic candida patients have mercury toxicity. I would certainly agree with this statement after having examined the test results of several hundred patients with chronic yeast infections. I have discovered not only an elevated mercury level, but also an elevation of the other sulphydryl metals arsenic, lead and cadmium.
I have also noticed in the hair test an elevation of copper and/or zinc. This occurs due to a metal binding protein called metallothionine inside your cell. This protein loves the sulphydryl-loving metals mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) but also loves the metals zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu). Sulphydryl loving metals are metals which are attracted and bind to compounds attracted to substances containing sulphur. Knowing this helps us to understand what agents are best used to help remove these metals, like garlic. Aluminium detoxification for example is quite different from mercury detoxification, as aluminium is not sulphydryl.

As mercury levels increase, copper and zinc elevation in the hair test results may increase. The reason for this is that as the cell’s sites become increasingly occupied by mercury, copper and zinc are literally kicked-out of the cell as metallothionine’s binding affinity for Hg is many hundreds of times greater than it is for copper and zinc. Some practitioners who then interpret their patient’s hair analysis reports with elevations of copper and zinc state that the patient has a “excess” of copper and zinc in their body, when in fact the opposite applies, they have a deficiency. The patient’s hair is showing elevated levels when in fact they have low intracellular levels of these two vitals metals. Have you done your hair test yet? Ask your practitioner, you can also do a hair test through me, I can point you in the direction of a lab in the USA who I consider the best in this field.

Mercury certainly was one of the leading causes with my chronic yeast infection when I was in my twenties, I had all of my mercury amalgam fillings replaced with new mercury amalgam fillings. Not long after, my yeast infection took a turn for the worst and my health plummeted. It wasn’t until a year later after I completed a hair analysis that I discovered how high my hair mercury levels were. Over the next eighteen months I replaced all my thirteen mercury fillings for white composite fillings and then undertook a heavy metal detox.
If you are serious about yor health and have mercury amalgam fillings you may want to consider having these fillings removed and replaced with white composite fillings, particularly if you have noticed a sharp decline in your health and an aggravation of your yeast infection after a lot of dental work.
With a hair analysis, you can either request a head hair or pubic hair test. Head hair is the preferred sample, but if your hair is dyed, permed or bleached in any way or has had any treatment in the past several months then do a pubic hair sample. Those in trades like jewellery, sheet metal workers, printers, welders, mechanics, bus drivers or people who are around metals or chemicals are best to complete a pubic hair test I feel. This is because their head hair may have a certain amount of external contamination.

My concern with heavy metals is that most all medical practitioners are not interested in toxicity with their patients, and many natural health care professionals (at least in Australia and New Zealand) simply don’t have the right kind of training to know what to do with their patients who may be affected with heavy metals, pesticide toxicity or who are generally toxic in other ways. A quick two-week detox just won’t cut it I’m araid, nor will a detox out of a box ready made detox kit that some practitioner market to their clients. There is no simple solution, but by undergoing a cleanse as I have suggested above, you will be going a long way to reducing your toxic load, and by cleansing annually you will be making even greater strides forward. Living the clean lifestyle is one of the best ways forward.

Polymorphonuclear phagocytosis and killing in workers exposed to inorganic mercury.
Perlingeiro RC1, Queiroz ML.
Author information
Abstract
The ability of neutrophils to phagocytose and kill Candida species as well as the splenic phagocytic function were investigated in workers from a mercury-producing plant. In the neutrophil phagocytosis study, two species of Candida were used since in individuals with myeloperoxidase deficiency neutrophils are unable to kill Candida albicans, while Candida pseudotropicalis can be effectively lysed. Phagocytosis of both antigens and splenic phagocytic function were normal in all the workers studied. However, following ingestion of the organisms there was considerable reduction in the ability of neutrophils from exposed workers to kill both species of Candida, and this was not explained by a mild impairment of phagocytosis. After improvement in the hygiene conditions in the factory, a new evaluation was performed, 6 months later, in the same workers and urinary mercury concentrations were determined monthly in each worker. Despite a significant reduction in urinary mercury concentrations, a greater impairment in the ability of neutrophils to kill C. albicans was observed. The killing of C. pseudotropicalis presented no further impairment when compared to the previous evaluation. These results suggest that impairment of the lytic activity of neutrophils from workers with urinary mercury concentrations within the safe level for exposed population is due, at least in part, to some interference with myeloperoxidase activity. In addition, the mercury-NADPH complex, once formed, could limit the utilization of reduced pyridine nucleotides by NADPH-dependent enzymes such as NADPH oxidase, thereby inhibiting the PMN respiratory burst.


For those who doesn't know it, myeloperoxidase is an enzyme that produces hypochlorite ion, which is one of the body main defenses against candida. Mercury and Lead inhibit myeloperoxidase production.

Jorge