12th MELISA® Study Group MELISA conference in Prague Prague, that beautiful and cultural city. In 1648, in the final stage of the Thirty Years' War, Swedish forces attacked the western part of the city, plundering the castle and the Strahovsky Cloister. They brought with them the Devils Bible (now in the Royal Library in Stockholm) and the Silver Bible (Codex Argenteus, now in the University Library in Uppsala). But the Swedes did not manage to cross the Charles Bridge into the eastern part of the city, where the Charles University had been founded already in 1348. Prague, also a city with a musical heritage, e g with the first performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1787. The native town of Bedrich Smetana, who late in life suffered severe tinnitus (did he have amalgam in his teeth?). Home town of the brave soldier Sveik. Native town also of Vera Stejskal - there she attended school and obtained her PhD before continuing her scientific career in Sweden In Prague, Prof. Vera Stejskal, with daughter Linda, organized the 12th MELISA Study Group, September 9-11, 2005. The theme was Toxic metals as a key factor in disease. The inauguration took place in Carolinum, one of the older buildings of the Charles University. About 60 participants attended from Europe, one from Jordan and one from Malaysia. About half of the participants were dentists, one out of four were physicians, and the remainder were bioanalyical experts etc. Oxidants and antioxidants were discussed i a by Prof. Karl-E Arfors, Stockholm (Free radicals in inflammation) and Dr Juan Sabater-Tobella, Barcelona (Oxidative stress and anti-aging medicine). In a film from 1979 Arfors showed that leukocytes stick to vessel walls in animals exposed to cigarette smoke - this could be prevented with vitamin C. Arfors also brought up questions about the amounts of vitamin C formed in the body in different animal species and how much vitamin C we should consume (humans and guinea pigs don't synthetize vitamin C). Prof. Vera Stejskal reviewed the development of MELISA® for the diagnosis of metal-induced inflammation. Vera reported that dermatologists in Sweden no longer perform epicutaneous testing for gold, because gold does not give any local reactions in the oral mucosa. According to Vera this is because high local concentration of gold damages memory cells: "One further reason against epicutaneous testing with gold is that you have to wait for 5 days for the reaction, and local irritation often remains for months. If the patient furthermore has titanium implants it may be impossible to evaluate because of widespread irritation." Vera also told us about a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) whose condition deteriorated in spite of having got rid of all amalgam in his teeth. MELISA® reacted positive to gold, and the patient recovered completely after removal of two gold inlays. Dr Elizabeth Valentine-Thon, MELISA® (LTT) Centre in Bremen, reported that MELISA® has been validated in a number of laboratories. In 550 patients positive response to nickel dominated with 68 %, followed by cadmium, titanium and gold with about 20 % positive reactions. (What is the source of titanium? Tooth paste, medicine tablets?) MELISA® was also used for monitoring the course of Borreliosis. Prof. Albert Feilzer, ACTA, Amsterdam, showed results of X-ray fluorescense studies on metals in dental fillings in 140 subjects. In 30 % there was a positive MELISA® response to one or more of the metals present in the fillings. In case of complete metal crowns, all metals present in the crown were also present in surrounding soft tissues. In patients with arthritis the MELISA® titer was high i a for gold. Prof. Feilzer also showed a picture of a "gold" inlay that did not contain any gold, but in stead palladium, indium etc. See his poster presented in 2005. Dr Bártova et al, Prague, had published a study on lymphocytes in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. When culturing lymphocytes with mercury present, antinuclear auto-antibodies increased markedly. That reminded me of a report by prof. Bengt Lindqvist in 1986 (Oral galvanism - a disorder of the immune defence. Läkartidningen 1986;83:1265): the patients had increased titer of antithyreoglobulin in serum, and biopsy of the thyroid glands had the appearance of tyroiditis. Furthermore, both human data (Kosta et al, Nature 1975;254:238-9) and animal studies (Khayat & Dencker, J Appl Toxicol 1983;3:66-74) reveal heavy accumulation of mercury in the thyroid gland. I have had several patients with thyroid symptoms that either diminished or were eliminated after amalgam removal. Dr Procházkova et al, Prague, analyzed metals in saliva in patients with "electro-galvanic" stomatitis. After amalgam removal the concentration of tin, silver, copper and chromium in saliva decreased significantly. Mercury also decreased, but not significantly (p=0,07). Dr Kurt Müller from Isny in Germany described 56 patients with health problems after titanium implants, 26 of which were in the teeth. The symptom complex that he described was however extremely multiple, and the patients showed varying degrees of reactivity to MELISA®. That the troubles might be due to the difference in reduction-oxidation potentials between titanium and gold was, however, not accepted by Müller. Dr Heiko Santelmann from Oslo presented an interesting investigation on the role of yeast products in patients with "irritable bowel syndrome". Besides diarrheas these patients showed a great number of other symptoms. On the assumption that Candida in the intestine was the cause of the syndrome, treatment with diet and Nystatin was tested. On follow-up with a thoroughly tested questionnaire the most marked improvement appeared in symptoms from the central nervous system (fatigue, exhaustion, mood changes, anxiety and crying attacks, impaired memory, vertigo, sleep and decision difficulties). See Dr Santlemann's website. Another new Scandinavian acquaintance was Hanne Koplev, a Danish veterinarian, who also had studied acupuncture. She stopped working as a veterinarian in 2001 because of Parkinson's disease, presumably caused by exposure to mercury and copper. In collaboration with private clinics she "challenged" 15 Parkinson patients with Dimaval (DMPS) and 3 patients with penicillamin in order to prove exposure to mercury and copper, respectively. Some were later treated with chelators and improved. Hanne indicated a number of exposure sources: mercury from dental amalgam; copper from intense pig farming, intrauterine inlays, cooking-vessels, copper tubing and amalgam; manganese from welding; lead from gasoline: "The Parkinson patients that I have seen were all heavily exposed with amalgam in their teeth, and sometimes also gold. The only exception was a dentist from India, working in Sweden, with no amalgam in his teeth, but exclusively amalgam in his work." The last day of the conference I had a delicious and enjoyable dinner in the Svejk Restaurant together with three of the other Swedes. Almost half of the participants enjoyed the next day in a bus tour to the northern part of Bohemia with interesting nature, manufacturing of garnet gems and castle visits. Vera and Linda had spent a lot of time and effort on program, pleasure and culture. Many thanks! Fredrik Berglund, MD, PhD

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