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"Toxins cause cancer, therefore removing toxins can cure
or reverse cancer."
So goes the reasoning, which appeals to common sense, but ...
Environmental toxins do increase the
risk of developing cancer. We agree with advocates who work to reduce
toxins in our environment. And we support the idea of making healthy
life style changes - eating better, becoming more active, and avoiding
chemical exposures, such as from cigarette smoke and other
pollutants.
But we have found no scientific evidence (in test
tubes, or animal studies) to suggest that extreme measures taken to
reduce toxins in the body, such as chelating therapies, or the
removal of mercury amalgam fillings, or enemas, can reverse or cure an existing
cancer - or that either practice can improve one's general health
unless used to address abnormal levels of toxicity, or
specific sensitivities to the toxin.
Consider
that cancer cells will do well - as well as normal cells - when
removed from the body and cultured in toxin-free petri dishes.
Toxins can cause cancers, but removing toxins is not a plausible
treatment for cancer.
Mercury amalgams and cancer?
The obvious place to look for associations between
cancer and mercury is in the population most exposed to mercury
vapors: that would be dentists. We did that and found nothing to support
the theory that mercury exposures increases cancer risk. (See
related
PubMed articles.)
Our conclusion is that we ought to be skeptical of
those who promote extreme measures to detoxify the body unless
there is a clear medical finding that one needs to do so. It
is important that a credible doctor - not the practitioner who sells
detoxifying
services - has tested you and has found that you have abnormal
levels.
Finally, even when toxins exist in high levels, it's unlikely that reducing or eliminating the toxins
would reverse an existing cancer. For example, consider that quitting
smoking, while very good to do, is not going to reverse or even slow down
a lung cancer.
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NOTES & REFERENCES:
Note: We have opted to query PubMed, instead of
selecting a specific study, to avoid selection bias.
Occupational exposure to mercury
in dentistry and dentist mortality - Related
PubMed articles
Mercury concentrations in blood
and urine and amalgams - Related
PubMed articles
The effect of dental amalgam
restorations on blood mercury levels - Related
PubMed articles
Evaluation of Risks Associated With Mercury Vapor
from Dental Amalgam
Prepared by the Subcommittee on Risk Assessment
Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs
November 7, 1991 (revised August 28, 1992)
http://www.health.gov/environment/amalgam1/appendixIII.htm
