MS Inc.: The Myth About Multiple Sclerosis and Mercury

Mention of one of the original scams in a recent comment brought the topic, flooding with unexpected emotion, to me this week. I’ve touched on this subject before under the heading of MS Quackery and it’s time it was put to bed. Mercury poisoning was first “linked” to multiple sclerosis in the surrounds of Minamata Bay, Japan in the 1950’s. To be fair, looking at the symptoms of this massive episode which now takes on the name of the bay – Minamata Disease, you can see why one might think of MS: Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases paralysis, coma, and even death were possible. Sound familiar? The massive pollution of the bay with mercury by a local manufacturing factory fed bacteria which converted the heavy metal into an organic compound called methylmercury which fed smaller fish that in turn fed larger fish and then further up the food chain. “Dancing Cat Fever” was what the locals called the disorder as small felines were the first land animals to begin showing signs of the neurological destruction of methylmercury poisoning; stumbling and falling. Soon birds that ate the poisoned fish were falling from the sky and not long after that, fishermen and their families began to exhibit MS-like symptoms. Back in the days before MRI, it can be understood why some would think that their MS symptoms might have been linkable to mercury....
Source: Life with MS - Category: Other Conditions Authors: Tags: myths about ms mercury and ms myths about multiple sclerosis Source Type: blogs