Mercury or as it is sometimes called night silver or Blue Mass, will clean out your pipes or your GI trac. A common use many years ago was to give a constipated person a dose of mercury at night before bedtime. The next morning your entire bowel would be subjected to a complete cleaning. The patient would catch his bm in a chamber pot and take it to the pharmacist who dispenses the mercury. He would stain the mercury out of the stool and use it again. Best to be the first in line for the new mercury shipment. But to be honest nothing organic gets into the metal and stay. It is so dense everything rinses right out. Still the thought is there.
The recoil reduces were fairly popular in the 70-80's. Tried them with no real felt difference. Guess it was up to the user to decide if it was a gimmick or real.
