Mercury damages neurons at both ends of life...

If you ever put an autistic kid and an Alzheimer patient together, it's striking what you see:
repetitive movements and speech, emotional outbursts, social withdrawal.

I got this from Terri's Newsblog:

"In sum, both the findings from epidemiological and demographical studies, the frequency of [mercury] amalgam application in industrialized countries, clinical studies, experimental studies and the dental state of Alzheimer's disease patients in comparison to controls suggest a decisive role for inorganic mercury in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease".

Another highlight, also from the abstract: "Experimental studies have found that even the smallest amounts of mercury but no other metals in low concentrations were able to cause all nerve cell changes, which are typical for Alzheimer's disease."

Full article: http://www.nel.edu/pdf_/25_5/NEL240504R01_Mutter_.pdf

Also interesting: Report: Over 5M living with Alzheimer's

Where does one get mercury? Fish, "silver" dental amalgams, vaccines, contact lens solutions, and (another reason to go green) breathing toxic emissions from coal plants. You can skip the fish and get composite amalgams, but it's hard to stop breathing...