I consider myself to be fairly advanced through the detox process now as many of my symptoms have greatly decreased if not completely gone. However, I still get annoying mental symptoms, some which pop up now and then, others that I fairly constant like social anxietys and phobias.

I'm assuming that these constant mental symptoms are due to the mercury still in my brain, and apparently the only way to get this out is using Alpha Lipoic Acid. I've used it before and stopped pretty much straight away because it increased my symptoms since I had high copper. Now that my copper is down I think I'm ready to take it, as I am very keen to really get on with the detox and get rid of these lingering mercury mental symptoms, of which have plagued me ever since I was about 5.

So what are people's experiences with ALA? Anyone used it to successfully reduce symptoms of anxiety other mental symptoms similiar to mine?

I've been amalgam free for 6 months. I've been detoxing with chlorella and various vitamins, and I feel like there's been an improvement. I have various symptoms that could be related to mercury in the brain, horrendous anxiety, tinnitus.

A while ago I started taking ALA, 60mg every 4 hours. I did, however, stop after a week as I was feeling awful; it felt like too much mercury had been released. As soon as I feel reasonably better, I'll start again but at a lower dosage, and this time with another chelator that actually rids the body of mercury and doesn't merely mobilise it, as ALA does.

When I was taking the ALA, my anxiety did worsen. I guess that's thanks to more mercury being mobilised in the brain. Also, you must remember ALA chelates from fatty tissue, not just from the brain. ALA seemed to be an excellent chelator, but i'd suggest going slowely.

There seems to be two things that may chelate mercury out of the brain: ALA and cilantro. See http://www.newconnexion.net/article/05-04/cilantro.html for info on cilantro.

When I used Cutler's protocol I couldn't continue, probably because I started at too high a dose with DMSA and it seems to have interfered with my phase I and II liver function, and by the time I reduced my dose it seems the damage was done. Now I can't seem to use anything but Algin and supportive supplements.

I did try fresh cilantro recently to restart the process, as per the link above, but it was a pretty rough ride too, probably because my body load of mercury is too high.

Use ALA or cilantro too soon without reducing the body load first and it can redistribute mercury back into the body and brain and seems to be rather dangerous for some of us.

If you are really mercury toxic don't start ALA too soon, but it also seems to be needed to get mercury out of the brain, in its own time.

I tried taking cilantro/coriander a while back. It made me really aggitated. I remember shouting or should I say screaming at my friend because he was annoying me. But other times when I've taken it things haven't been as bad.

I equate my reaction to two possible variables 1) the amount of mercury in my body, excluding my brain, as the mercury in my body could be transported to my brain, making things worse, or 2) the mobilised mercury in my brain affecting me on its way out.

In future I'll only be taking coriander when I'm in tip-top shape physically.

I have had dramatic reactions in the past when taking cilantro , even just a little in salsa. I have come to recoginize it as a powerful mercury mobilizer; Good for detox, but use with caution.

I used ALA and made myself much worse. I used it when I was not ready. I can't even handle small doses of DMSA, so why I risked ALA is beyond me.

It's scary when it's used too early or at the wrong time. Horrific actually. But I have heard good things about it and how it's helped people with the last stubborn mental symptoms and they've pretty much been cured.

So you're probably good and ready to try it, but be warned, using it at even a slightly too high a dose can be quite frightening. So many start as low as 5 mg. Also the symptoms from it don't seem to show up and you think you're doing just fine and wham they begin to hit and it's just not worth the higher doses.

Use it every 3 hours and if possible, use it with DMSA or DMPS for more stability and greater detox. I believe on it's own, it's less stable. But it's up to you.

It should help, you do sound ready for it, so best wishes and go slow and safe.

I can't do Cutlers protocol no matter how small a dose. My liver and kidneys hurt a lot and my candida flares up as both DMSA and ALA are known to aggravate this.

I'm not sure as to why, but for some reason I tolerate cilantro very well. I had slight brainfog and a touch of depression in the beginning. But after doing a few rounds of one week on and one week off, this disappeared. My abilities to focus, learn and remember have improved tremendously <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I am returning more and more back to my old confident, focused self. I'm beginning to understand that this herb is becoming my life saver.

It was a friend of my mine, who is also detoxing, who recommended fresh cilantro. He had been using Cutlers protocol for about two years before starting cilantro and noticed a profound improvement when he started using the herb.

Both ALA and DMSA make my anxiety unbearable. Cilantro does sometimes give me a slight nervous feeling about an hour after ingestion, but it has never given me an anxiety attack and it subsides again quickly.This I can definitely live with. My friend has the same experience, a nervous feeling occasionly, but never an attack.

Hmmm, this was supposed to be about Cutler successes, but thought I'd give my 2 cents about the cilantro......

Ann <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

When you used DMSA and ALA, what dose did you use? Many people make the biggest mistake over overestimating their body's capabilities in catching up to what these chelating agents are pulling out and end up overwhelmed and repoisoned and sicker long term. These agents are highly potent.

The fact your kidneys and liver were acting up, tells me you were overtaxing your organs of elimination and too much metal was being moved, which would have worsened the candida as well. And yeah, as you said, DMSA and ALA also can feed candida on top of that.

I have heard very good reports on ALA and bad reports, and the same with cilantro. It's too easy to get bad effects on all these chelating agents, natural or not and sometimes a person is so toxic, that whatever they use is going to produce a terrible reaction. Sometimes a person has to go through a lot of initial agony (even when they use very low dose) in order for the load to be lessened enough to where they no longer get such a terrible response and their body begins to breathe easier and begins to get a bit stronger from less of the poison.

Very sad that some have to go through hell in order to achieve detox. but this is in the extreme cases. They say you don't need a healing crisis? Bollocks, sometimes it's unavoidable when the level of toxicity is reached crisis point. What else can you expect? It's like a cup filled up too high and you stir it and it overflows. Until you do enough stirring to where you've lowered the liquid in the cup and stirring no longer causes it to overflow, you're going to have the overflow symptoms. It's NASTY, but sometimes initially unavoidable.

I'd be interested to hear what dose of cilantro you're taking and how you are taking it. If it's helping you, I would NOT stop, but am curious as to the method you're using.

No worries, I am NOT going to stop taking cilantro <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Not sure why you wanto know which dose of DMSA and ALA I have previously tried Anonymous, but here is the info anyway: The lowest amount ever tried was 5 mg ALA every 4 hours and 10 mg DMSA every 4 hours. Going lower than this is pretty much impossible as there wouldn't be any powder left <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> to pour into the new empty capsules. I've also tried a little higher doses of both, but with no success. I have spent years educating myself about mercury and detoxing so know that many poisoned peoples system simply cannot tolerate any chemical chelators, and at least not until their body burden is vastly lowered naturally with the help of time, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and a very healthy diet and lifestyle. Chemical chelators are definitely not for me.

Regarding cilantro: I started off with half a pot of fresh cilantro herb a day divided into two doses. Now, about six months down the road, I use one fresh pot of cilantro per day, divided into two doses. One half I mix into my freshly made morning vegetable juice and the next as part of my dinner either in the sauce or with the side-dish. One week on, one week off.

Ann

Hi anne, (I use the name Bex on here, I forgot to put that in and used anonymous instead) thanks for providing all the info. I was curious to see what dose you had taken of DMSA and ALA, because I am having big problems with them too, even on only 17 mg of DMSA. You took even lower, so yeah, it seems many of us are so toxic, we can't tolerate these chelators.

Not sure about cilantro for me, but I am certainly interested and thank you for outlining how you take it. I could try this at some stage. I've been warned about it, but I've reached a point where I'm not sure what else to do. I have a product called "NDF" here and it contains cilantro (plus chlorella). i was warned against this too, but again, for some people it has helped tremendously and yes others it's hurt. How is one supposed to know what will suit them? It's all a gamble.

Anyway, right now I have been hurt badly by a few things I've done (taking garlic, and taking ALA). This is because I have cavitations in my mouth, which produce anaorobic bacteria and do all manner of things with and outside of the mercury and often combine with certain nutrients (sulfur amino acids) and can form far worse toxic compounds with the mercury. I can't even get surgery to have them done because I'm too ill. Yet they're probably the reason why i can't get well.... I can't win. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

anyway, best wishes with the cilantro and hope you achieve full health <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cilantro doesn't seem to bother me either, but a garlic supplement called TODA sure did....terrible panic and anxiety...and yet raw garlic is fine for me...I guess it is the concentration of the supplement and I took it on an empty stomach first thing in the am...wrong thing to do I guess. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Sandi

Hi Bex

Yeah, I've previously considered the NDF product too before I discovered I could purchase fresh cilantro in the grocery store. What made me hesitate was the chlorella in the NDF. I've tried two different brands and even did some extra research to check if they were "clean" chlorella, but still got very, very bad reactions from them. I quickly felt more poisoned. Hmm, I guess it's safe to say that with mercury detoxing there isn't a straight forward simple solution, one size fits all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Ann

i've gained some weight and got candidas these past few months--and considered renaming my nickname, "chubb-locks"! ..lol!

but have stopped the chelating stuff for now and have worked on using more gentle chelators. I am dropping the excess weight- and drinking more water between meals is helping with that. The ALA was effective in getting my brain fog cleared though- even though I didnt like that i gained some weight, etc. Now I find I can think more clearly-- even more than before.!

I recall Andy Cutler mentioning that you must take ALA 3 MONTHS into the chelating process--NOT before. This makes sense. I also would take it in small doses and be patient with detox if you are at the fine line between life and death with mercury symptoms.

Algin is a Godsend by the way. I wont' be without it!