Mercury and Health | Scientists find mercury’s long-term harm to your health - Chemosmart

Kadam Dipali
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Mercury

             In the latest study which is from the University of Rochester, researchers discovered that mercury exposure can distrub the early enhancement of the relationship between muscles and the brain. This could lead to motor control situation later in human life. 

Methylmercury to come into the environment in the form of industrial pollution and also in the form of natural sources, replace in the sea and is finally absorbed in plants and other tiny organisms. 

  

                Mercury bio-accumulates as it moves up the food chain and usually extended humans in the form of fish consumption, which is a main food source in several parts of the world. Much of our understanding of the effect of mercury exposure comes from major 20th century industrial accidents in Japan and Iran, which poisoned thousands of people with high levels of mercury exposure.

 

             Several victims of these accidents show a range of neurological symptoms same as cerebral palsy, containing muscle weakness and impaired motor control.  In  this study, the group discovered the mechanism by which mercury can destroy improving muscles and motor control.
   


            The researchers discover a gene called Nlg1 which encodes a protein in muscles which play an important role in forming the relationship between muscles and neurons, called as the neuromuscular junction. The Nlg1 gene expression is altered when exposed to Methylmercury in the early evolution phases .

 

                  The observation of the harmness or benefit of fish absorption during pregnancy is Farmful to health. Fish are a good source of omega-3 acids and other nutrients that are needed to brain development. The United State  Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency currently acknowledges the health application of nutrients in fish, but also recommends that pregnant mothers limit consumption and establish fish with higher concentrations of Methylmercury.

 

                   Nevertheless, 10 years of  research containing mothers and kids in the Seychelles Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where residents consume a wide different types of ocean fish resulting in Methylmercury exposure which are about 10 times greater than in the populations of the United State and Europe, have muddled the scientific consensus. Researchers found that the fatty acids in fish increases developmental and educational outcomes and may even help protect the developing brain from the harmful effects of mercury.

          

Mercury effects on Health

              This are currently working to   transform these new findings and goal to see if muscle weakness, loss of motor skills, and other causes may be observed in the mothers and their children.

 

This research is published in Neurotoxicology and Teratology and Toxicological Sciences. One author of the study is Matthew Rand, Ph.D.