New here..I've just ordered a hair test so we'll see. I feel like crying that this could possible be my problem. I have several questions.
Could a cracked or a broken tooth/w broken filling cause more exposure to mercury? Can symptoms be cyclic or of varying degrees? Could a higher reading for "billirubin" and "monocytes" in a blood test mean anything? Also, can SSRI's (zoloft) mask or just supress the symptoms of mercury toxicity? I have been having problems for years and I know its not all psychological. At least I don't think. It started in 97, was Dx with Resting Tachycardia, rx'd beta blocker. Ok for a while. 99/2000 was having panic attacks, anxiety, agoraphobia. stopped beta blocker, RX'd zoloft. ok for a while, go off meds, get symptoms go back on tx.. through all this have changed diet, Dr's, have vitamin minerals supplements, Finally I have done a slow taper of med but still have problems. Over the years I've had bouts of veritgo, I get at least 3 infections/year mostly sinus, or strep, I get a strange feeling sometimes in my head and then leads into a hot flash, with shaky hands. Sometimes I wake up and have shaky hands, but I don't have hypoglycimia. I get bouts of a metallic taste in my mouth for days at a time.(and it's not adrenalin from an attacked because I can be calm) phobias that I never used to have. I get nervousness, fearfullness sometimes. For No reason I can put my finger on. I can go on, but I'll leave it at this for now. Does this sound familiar or similar to anyone out here? Did I mention that I have alot of fillings? The one bothersome thing that is starting to happen often is word articulation. I can't get the word out. I have to think about if for a few minutes. Something simple as telling your kids they can play on a trampoline. I couldn't get the word for trampoline out for a minute. Or during discussion, I was trying to get out the word "warrant" and I was telling my hubby, you know the paper you have to get before police can tap a phone or come in a house (we were talking politics) This is my newest symptom.

It is highly likely it could be mercury. a leaky/broken filling is even worse as you can imagine. Also symptoms do not always appear immediately on having amalgams, which is often why people do not associate problems being related to them. IT comes down to immune status also, overall toxic load, sensitiivty etc as to how you will handle the mercury coming off your amalgams. Mercury accummulates in the organs and tissues.

Some people can seem to handle amalgams ok, and I "seemed" to handle them until my teens and then I was hit with the typical symptoms and have never really recovered. Though I did at one point improve markedly from amalgam removal, diet, and mercury chelation. I later declined by other problems unrelated to mercury.

So there is definitely hope for those thinking about removing their amalgams. As far as I know, there is no real conclusive test for mercury because so many things come into it. Mercury does not always show up accurately on testing and you can show a very low levels and be highly toxic, or someone can show a high level and seem to show no real symptoms. This could mean the high levels in indicative of the ability to excrete mercury and move it out of the tissues and the low level may means it is heavily bound up (you're retaining it). It could also mean that the low level is enough to poison you (some have a much lower threshold).

So you can see many reasons for results. And your odd symptoms are very mercurial, I have had them all. Confusion, loss of concentration, loss of memory/recall, reading ability, all sorts of things can go wrong (lowering of IQ), depression, suicidal thoughts, fearfulness for no apparent reason, phobias, heart racing, insomnia or oversleeping, swollen tongue, dents in the sides of the tongue (caused by teeth pushing on a swollen tongue, puffy eyes, metal taste, metal smell on body after exercising, exercise intolerance, feelings of total rage, personality changes, burning sensations in throat/mouth or even parts of the body, headaches/migraines, dilated pupils, clammy sweating or almost NO sweating at all, flushing in the face, cold body temperature (cold intolerance). blurred vision/visual changes (difficult focussing), exhaustion, yeast infections, dark greyish discolouration in the gential areas (where it should be pink), uncontrollable crying spells, uncontrollable salivation, pale or even greyish looking complexion, drawn in the face, dull looking eyes, joint pains, muscle weakness, fading in the colour of the hair, brittle hair and lack of lustre, clenching/grinding the teeth, etc etc.

Those these symptoms could be related to many other disorders, mercury appears to have a way of producing many of them at once in a person and often no testing shows anything amiss.

It is a torturous toxicity and if this is what you have? I would seriously consider embarking on amalgam removal, but only do this very slowly, carefully and make sure you find a biologic dentist who is a reputable one. Do not rush in because the exposure to mercury during removal can be VERY risky and many a person has gotten far worse from that alone. So you would do well to have full protection and gradual removal and enough recovery time inbetween each removal of amalgams. Possibly doing 2-4 at one session, but I would be more inclined to do "2".

You may also find treating yeast may help you. Not aggressively treating it, but eliminating the things that feed it like sugar/gluten/yeast/wheat etc. This has helped a number of people on this forum cope better. It is already overgrown when a person is toxic and cannot control it, but to feed it beyond that point with these types of foods? can cause it to go right out of control and become an illness in itself. Treating yeast with diet can often allow the immune system to get stronger and more able to handle the mercury. It also helps the gut and liver (which are needed for detox).

I hope this is somewhat helpful to you. I'm sorry I could not answer your other questions, someone else hopefully will.

The high monocyte count is indicative of an infection. It might be bacterial, or some other cause. Imo a good regimen to put yourself on is olive leaf extract, grapefruit seed extract, plenty of vitamin c, 30-50 mg a day of zinc, and a B complex vitamin with 25-50 mg of each. Your other symptoms indicate it might be a systemic candida infection. Mercury toxicity can cause candida to grow out of control. Olive leaf extract and grapefruit seed extract work against candida, bacterial infections, and parasites. I suggest that you start out with small dosages of these. Perhaps start with just the olive leaf extract and see if you get a strong reaction to it. If your infection is candida, then you may feel worse after taking it, as candida being killed release toxins into your body.

It's doesn;t sound like it's all in your head anymore, sounds like it's reached your extremities as well. The metallic taste speaks for itself. You probably have muscle weakness also yes?

I had difficulty articultaing when I was very sick also. Took a good couple months of heavy duty chelation for that to clear up. I am still getting better in that respect. I have had 4 teeth pulled that were loaded with metal simply because I was truly in a crises state and wasn't even going to consider other options (less expensive, less fear of complications). that helped a lot. the rest I am having fixed.

Your symptoms truly do sound like a classic case of mercury to me. I had high monocytes and lymphocytes when I was real sick too. Much better still not perfect but I have allergies on top of that which will probably never go away.

Echinacea would be really good for you, use with discretion. And find a good worthy dentist with lots of experience in amalgam removal. A dentist that knows what he's doing will cut and lift the filling straight out, if they file it down you'll get much sicker... that's a good part of how I got really sick.

Andy Cutlers book “amalgam Illness” has a checklist in it, that enables you to check through yr symptoms and give you yr probability that you have/have not mercury poisoning. When u get yr hair test results the book also helps u understand the results, $35 well spent.

Yes, I get that when I cannot remember a common word, I just can’t spite it out, it’s ………ummmm…………………………………frustrating <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Sunshine

Doesn't that just drive you nuts!!! I get so frustrated, I feel like an idiot....and chemo makes it even worse. But this diet is flushing out so much heavy metal, I am hoping for big improvements. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

And yes Snowbird, antidepressants will mask the symtpoms of depression from metal toxicity, and the higher levels of bilrubin are an indicator that your liver could possibly be overburdened. I would say that you might benefit a great deal from a candida diet and a good mercury detoxification program.

best luck,
Sandi
xoxo

hal huggins book (it's all in your head) about $12.00 on amozon.com ,will go into the bloodwork questions that you have and answer some of your questions ,to me it sounds like some type of toxic biuld up is going on and your liver can not handle the load anymore on its own , I know that amalgam removal probably sounds a little drastic to you right now but ,if I were in your shoes that is the first place that I would start ,your symtoms sound very simular to mine before having my amalgams removed ,mercury is very nasty stuff and can cause many of the symtoms that your experiencing

I ordered the huggins book yesterday.......

Thats where i started and its a very good read.