How to remove mercury from the body? What is a substance? What is the medical treatment? How to remove mercury from the baby? We will try to answer these and other questions in our article.
What is mercury?
Mercury is a heavy silver-white metal. At room temperature it is converted into a liquid structure. The chemical belongs to scattered elements. In other words, in vivo you will not find concentrated mercury. In the free state, such a metal is occasionally contained in the form of intersperses of some rocks.
In industry, mercury is burned from the sulfide mineral. Vapors of the substance can easily go into the form of a silvery fluid substance with the highest density. Mercury acts so heavy metal that a person will not be able to tear a bucket filled with such a specific liquid from the floor.
Sources of Mercury in Daily Life
Oddly enough, a person interacts daily with objects that contain one or another amount of heavy metal. Usually, our body is exposed to substances in contact with household items.
Mercury is available in fluorescent lamps, manometers, and thermometers. Vapors of the substance are released during the combustion of coal. Heavy metal is used in small quantities for the manufacture of dental fillings. There is a chemical in some cosmetics and pharmacological vaccines.
Deceit of mercury
Before considering how to remove mercury from the body, let's find out what the health hazard of a chemical is. This heavy metal is highly toxic to any life form. We are talking about toxic vapors of the substance, the active release of which occurs at room temperature. When inhaled, mercury quickly dissolves in the blood. Circulating throughout the body, a heavy metal interacts with protein structures. The latter are deposited in the brain tissue, kidneys, spleen, liver, gradually poisoning organs and systems. What foods remove mercury from the body?
The destructive effect of a heavy metal on the human body proceeds without pronounced signs. Often, people who are poisoned do not even know about it. A variety of symptoms can occur, starting with a periodic headache and ending with a mental disorder. Such signs are evidence that the toxic effect of a heavy metal is reflected in a decrease in the body's immune defense. The progress of such conditions leads to unforeseen consequences, since a weakening of immunity acts as fertile ground for the development of a wide variety of diseases.
The insidious nature of mercury is the gradual accumulation of toxic substances in body tissues over many years. The risk group primarily includes people who live nearby industrial enterprises and are forced to breathe air contaminated with all kinds of chemical compounds. Such categories of the population more often than others suffer from visual and hearing impairment, motor coordination, and organic brain damage. All this is a consequence of the accumulation of mercury in body tissues.
Symptomatology
For chronic mercury poisoning, which has formed over the years, the following symptoms are characteristic:
- fast fatiguability;
- general weakness;
- depressed emotional state;
- drowsiness;
- increased irritability;
- deterioration of hair, nails, gums and teeth;
- disruption of the digestive system;
- development of sexual dysfunction;
- disorders in the endocrine system.
In acute poisoning with mercury vapor, a severe headache occurs, a state of body jitters develops, up to convulsions and convulsions, rapid deterioration of vision, hearing, smell, tactile sensations.
How to clean the room from mercury?
Often this need arises if a thermometer or fluorescent lamp crashes. In such situations, residents urgently need to leave the house, having previously opened windows and doors. Before resorting to cleaning up mercury, you should protect yourself using a respirator, a chemical protective suit.
The fragments of the damaged item, which acts as a source of the spread of mercury vapor, must be collected in a plastic bag. Balls of heavy metal become noticeable if you illuminate the surface with a bright flashlight. It is better to assemble mercury particles with a piece of wire, a damp towel, duct tape, and a pipette.
After eliminating the trouble, it is advisable to rinse the oral cavity with a non-concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. You can also take a few tablets of activated carbon. The room should be disinfected with an alcoholic solution of iodine. Floor coverings must be thoroughly washed with cleaning agents.
It is strictly forbidden to dispose of samples of mercury in the sewer or garbage chute. Having collected the balls of heavy metal in a bag, it is necessary to pass it to the emergency response personnel.
When cleaning the room from mercury it is forbidden:
- Sweep particles of heavy metal with a broom. Such actions will lead to the spread of toxic substances over large areas. Thus, fixing the problem will be much more difficult.
- Collect mercury with a vacuum cleaner. When the device is operating, air is heated. Mercury begins to evaporate more actively. Among other things, heavy metal settles inside the dust collector itself.
- To wash clothes in which the premises were cleaned of mercury. Particles of a chemical substance can settle on the walls of the drum of the machine. All things that came into contact with heavy metal should be thrown away.
Drug detoxification
How to remove mercury from the body using pharmacological drugs? The following tools will come to the rescue here:
- "Unithiol" - is used for various types of intoxication of the body;
- "Tetacin-calcium" - a remedy effective in case of heavy metal poisoning;
- "Succimer" is an effective antidote that binds toxic substances in the digestive tract and helps to bring them out;
- "Sodium thiosulfate" - a drug against chemical poisoning with anti-inflammatory effect;
- "D-Penicillamine" - an agent with immunomodulating properties;
- "Methionine" - promotes the activation of metabolic processes in the body, which accelerates the excretion of mercury.
Which drug should be used in a particular case? The choice of drug should be performed by a doctor, based on the specificity and severity of intoxication of the body.
Folk remedies
How to remove mercury from the body with folk remedies? There is a lot of edible, which helps to eliminate the effects of heavy metal intoxication.
So, let's look at products that remove mercury from the body:
- Rice - boiled, such cereal absorbs toxic compounds of heavy metal. Due to its high fiber content, the product binds alkaloids and toxins. How to remove mercury from the body in this way? It is enough to eat a few tablespoons of boiled rice daily. At the same time, it is important to refuse fried, salty and pepper foods, since in this case the detoxification of the body will not produce any results.
- Eating beets - a vegetable rich in flavonoids that bind heavy metals. As in the case of the rice diet, during the treatment it is worth abandoning the use of harmful products.
- Jacketed potato - contains an abundance of starch, which has an enveloping effect on mercury compounds and helps to remove toxic substances from the body.
- Chlorella - green algae is rich in minerals, proteins and carbohydrates, vitamins of groups C and B. The product blocks the toxic effect of heavy metals on the body.
- Decoctions of alfalfa, cilantro, ginseng - useful substances in the composition of such funds accelerate metabolic processes. With prolonged use contribute to high-quality detoxification of the body.
Antioxidants
How to remove mercury from the body? For these purposes, it is rational to resort to the daily use of vitamins E and C. The latter are indispensable antioxidants. It is sufficient to use one capsule of such products per day. Such practice in a fairly short time will reduce the signs of chronic mercury poisoning of the body.
Methylsulfonylmethane Therapy
Methylsulfonylmethane is a form of sulfur that binds heavy metals in the body. How to remove mercury from the body with this solution? To begin with, one capsule with a substance content several times a day should be resorted to. Next, you need to gradually increase the dose. If severe consequences of chronic mercury intoxication are observed, then therapy should be continued until the dose reaches 5 capsules three times a day.
How to remove mercury from the baby?
If heavy metal enters the baby’s oral cavity, it is urgent to induce a gag reflex in him. Then the stomach should be flushed using water with the egg yolk dissolved in it. Finally, it is worth giving the child activated charcoal.
Delays can lead to the most dire consequences. Therefore, having carried out the necessary procedures for the child, it is necessary to call an ambulance. The doctor will determine the next steps. Typically, mercury poisoning therapy consists of injecting glucose, solutions containing vitamins C, B1, B6, calcium gluconate.
Finally
So we found out how to remove mercury from the human body. In conclusion, it is worth noting that a critical health hazard arises only with a sharp intoxication by vapors of heavy metal, which requires an urgent response to the problem. In other cases, it is worth resorting to the use of the above methods for the systematic detoxification of the body.