Discussion Board

I have read numerous sites claiming that methylcobalamin in large doses is capable of methylating the mercury in your body to create methylmercury, a more toxic form of mercury that can cross the blood-brain barrier and wreak havoc on the neural systems. Is this really a concern? If not, why is the resulting methylmercury not dangerous?! I'm pretty worried!

Why would the methyl group attached to methylcobalamin be any more likely to methylate mercury than other sources of dietary and bodily methyl groups?

~ Erin

I think that idea came from Hal Huggins, DDS, one of the originators of "biological dentistry" and pioneers in safe amalgam removal. A bit of a fanatic though, that's for sure!

Here is one small one for the "don't worry about it side"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7292517

I was thinking that the problem was more likely to be the exact quantity of methylmercury that could theoretically be produced using such high doses of methylcobalamin. When it's a source of dietary or bodily methyl groups, it's not in an unnatural state and it's in much, much lower doses than the amount that would need to be taken to allow for sufficient absorption of B12 by vitamins.

I'm getting information about both sides of the issue, but unfortunately that doesn't really alleviate worries.

when I tried to look into this issue it sounded like the solution was to take more b12, specifically in the methylcobalamin form since it is actually protective of the effects of the mercury... sooo...???

Yep, that's what I find, as well, Summer. I'm considering mixing the types of B12 I use to also include cyanocobalamin, hmmm. This won't be too toxic in moderate doses, so it can serve as a counterbalance to any methylation concerns, at least?