There has been a lot of negative reports on the results of clay baths from people on the internet, in general. As far as I am concerned clay will draw mercury out through the skin and out of the body but in order to recover with clay baths a bit more needs to be done.

As most of us are aware mercury becomes lodged in the brain, and associated glands, the pituitary and hypothalamus. I believe that the majority of mercury poisoning symptoms come from the mercury that resides in the brain and these two important glands.

In order to remove mercury from the brain we first should detoxify our body of mercury as best we can with upwards of 30 clay baths, more is better. Next we have to take something that allows the mercury to cross the blood-brain barrier (while continuing clay baths), namely ALA or maybe cilantro if you trust it. I have no experience with ALA but I find cilantro to work well for me. From what I have read the dosing of ALA is a sensitive issue, look into Andy Cutler's protocol.

I think that like DMSA alone, clay baths alone is an incomplete treatment for mercury poisoning. Neither clay or DMSA will remove mercury from the brain on their own but will remove mercury from the body once it is crosses the blood-brain barrier with ALA or cilantro.

ALA and cilantro can further poison the brain with mercury if taken incorrectly or before the body is sufficiently detoxified of mercury.

I believe that full clay baths, clay foot baths and simply applying hydrated clay to your skin are all effective at removing mercury.

-Colin

What makes you believe clay baths actually work. I have taken a couple and don't notice any difference. But I am just kind of winging it...

I read some positive things about clay helping autistic kids. I've also read a couple of studies that said clay was effective at adsorbing mercury. The studies outlined what types of clay were best for adsorbing mercurt, they were kaolanite and bentonite as far as I remember. I read that clay was being considered as a mercury clean up tool.

Most importantly when I muscle test for my bentonite clay it tests better than any other supplement I have. I also took my clay to my naturopath and his vega testing had the same result. I have found muscle testing to be accurate and a indispensible diagnostic tool for myself and when I visit a holistic doctor.

-Colin

Colin, I use the clay baths and have gotten good results so far. How do you guage when the right time to start the cilantro or ALA? And then how can you tell when using them is pulling out mercury from the brain?

Hi Dizzy, I relied entirely on muscle testing to determine when I should start using larger doses of cilantro. I always muscle tested good for tiny bits of cilantro when my body was still toxic but not for larger doses. People tell me that they aren't as in touch with muscle testing as I am and if that is the case I would recommend just doing 40-50 baths first, then try a smallish dose of cilantro or ALA. See how that affects you. You shouldn't stop doing the baths when you are taking the cilantro or ALA.

When you take ALA or cilantro mercury will cross your blood-brain barrier and effectively migrate from your brain to your blood or possibly from your blood to your brain. So it is important to detoxify your body enough first so the net flow is out of your brain and into your blood.

I kept track of my body's total mercury load with muscle testing. Before I started the baths it was at 100% and after about 40 or so it was at 2% <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. Each bath seemed to take my body's total mercury load down 3% or so. I believe quite strongly that my testing was reliable and accurate.

After clay baths I usually felt something. Usually the next morning I would feel terrible and that feeling would fade out as the day progressed and by that night I would feel nice or normal again. The morning after my first clay bath I felt really bad, by that night though I felt very good, seriously good.

I recommend you try practice some muscle testing to see if you can get some clear answers from it. Or you could always go to a naturopath or some other holistic practitioner and ask them to muscle test you for things, including clay, ALA and cilantro. Good luck, Dizzy.

-Colin

I'm still waiting for the test that shows Mercury in the water. I don't believe they do what they claim, or someone would prove it.

Testing people's levels before and after is rather meaningless IMO, too many variables.