Former world kickboxing champion’s career ended prematurely by mercury poisoning from fillings

A former kickboxing world champion has revealed how he discovered that ‘heavy metal poisoning’ from fillings in his teeth led him to quit the sport he loved over a decade ago.

Christian Thomson stormed to the under 74kgs title in 2011 but after achieving the ultimate dream he retired and never fought in the ring again.

The Waterloo-born fighter was forced to hang up his boots because an unexplained chronic fatigue syndrome was plaguing his career.

Thomson, who is also a four-times British kickboxing champion, has since learned that this was caused by heavy metal poisoning from mercury amalgams in his teeth.

Now fit and healthy, the 33-year-old became interested in finding out more about what caused his early retirement from kickboxing.

Thomson says he “fell through the crack of the UK’s health system” who were seemingly unable to help him. The fact Thomson even won the world championship at all based on his condition makes that feat even more impressive.

After quitting the kickboxing, Thomson decided to reinvent himself and four years later graduated university with a degree in biochemistry.

Along the way, a routine visit to the dentist revealed two amalgam fillings in his teeth were in such a poor condition that they were leaking mercury and had to be removed.

Thomson said: “I was told by doctors to sleep more, train less, eat more, that the fatigue I was suffering was all in my head and no big deal. But there was clearly a problem. Even when I competing in kickboxing, I could never train for longer periods like some of my competitors or British team-mates could and I always felt it was very strange even back then.

“I would train hard but would run out of energy and get to the point where I couldn’t do more. This never affected me when I was competing but my training was based on short sharp programmes rather than endurance to counter my fatigue issues. When the dentist removed my two leaky fillings, they were literally like mush and, because of what I had learned at university, it all started to make sense.”

The type of mercury used in amalgam fillings is elemental (metallic) mercury and this is continuously emitted with much of the mercury absorbed and retained in the body. The more fillings a person has, the more the output can be intensified. All silver-coloured fillings are said to have 50 per cent mercury.

New regulations stopped dentists in the UK using amalgam fillings in children in 2018 and British Dental Association issued an alert to the profession over use of dental amalgams. They remain still widely used in this country and remains the standard choice of filling material in most situations, and unfortunately, for Thomson, were used on him.

Thomson underwent self-chelation therapy which involves using orally ingested substances and depositories to remove heavy metals from his body. After a period, the treatment worked and the former kickboxer started to lead a normal life.

Because of what happened to Thomson he remains determined not to let others who are trying to improve their health and fitness fail through a lack of identifying the body’s needs.

It has led him to open a physiology and fitness gym called Precision Health Gym with co-founder Virgis Siliniskas – the first in the UK they claim to incorporate a range of state-of-the-art health technologies that cannot collectively be found in any other gym.

Thomson said: “Your health and fitness impacts every aspect of your life, from your energy levels to mental well-being and physicality. Many people take steps in an attempt to improve this with expensive nutritional diet plans, gym memberships or even personal trainers.

“Some may find this achieves the results they’re after, whereas others might struggle to find a solution that works for them. For those individuals, it can be very frustrating and defeating, in some cases, causing more harm than good.

“I fell through the cracks of the UK’s health system so what I’m now trying to achieve, with Precision Health Gym is revolutionise people’s mindsets by truly understanding what their body needs and will respond best to.

“Today fitness tech enables us to discover details about an individual’s body that they never knew and allows to formulate highly personalised plans unique to them. Whilst on the plan, they can be continually reassessed to not only show them the positive effects but also ensure no changes need to be addressed.”

The health and fitness tech Thomson references includes blood analysis from OMNOS which investigates a unique combination of up to 59 blood markers and helps give insights into a person’s full blood count, fatty acid balance and blood glucose as well as liver, kidney, cardiac, digestive, vitamin and mineral tests.

Metabolic testing by PNOE measures how much oxygen and carbon dioxide an individual consumes. The changes in breath are used to indirectly measure how many calories a person needs in a single day. This can help PTs create a nutritional plan as it advises how much food and drink, they need to improve their health and fitness as well as how their body is responding to stress.

Body composition analysis, using InBody, works out what the body is made of including fat, protein, minerals and body water. It also describes weight more accurately than BMI. Body composition analysis can accurately show changes in fat mass, muscle mass, and body fat percentage.There is other functional analysis of the musculoskeletal system available which Thomson says it is currently only available at Precision Health Gyms where members are placed on a Diers pressure-plated treadmill with 240 images taken per second.

This data is then run through an algorithm that creates a 3D model of the individual’s spine and major joints, while the pressure in their feet is measured. This information is then used to define the best exercises to improve the posture and overall health of the individual.

Thomson added: “Nobody should have to go through life not knowing how and why they’re not hitting the fitness highs that they should be. Yes, I became a world champion in my sport, but what happened to me also forced me, in the end, to retire from kickboxing. Had I known earlier on in my career what was going on in my body, perhaps I could have gone on and won more world titles and been a multiple champion.

“The technology wasn’t available then but thankfully the health and fitness world is changing and the testing that can be carried out the body is absolutely incredible, and can be life-changing for people.”

PICTURES: STEWART TURKINGTON (www.stphotos.co.uk)