Hi all,

I just wanted to share my recent experiences with you. I can't believe that it's been such a long time since I had my amalgams removed (improperly) which has caused me to be severly ill. There were a few months last and this year that I "almost" had my life back, but this summer I have entered another long batch of filling very ill, lost weight AGAIN, and it seemed that all of my symptoms have returned, not as severie as in the beginning, but still enough to make me incapable to function.

I am not sure why symptoms come back at the times that they do, I have tried to link it to everything that I do, or eat, but there is no apparent link. This weekend I had very bad symptoms, strong panic attacks, suicide thoughts, shaking etc... It seems when the symptoms come back, I forget what it's like to have a normal life again, and faced with living like this I would chose not to live at all. It can get so discouraging some times, it's hard to go back to work when my head pounds, I can't handle any loud noises, lights, but I have no chioce...I have to work and I cannot constantly call in sick when I feel like this.

I was stuck at home and in bed most of the weekend, I am only back at work today because I had acupuncture yesterday, and it's one of the rare things that brings me back to life.

ok I didn't mean for this to be just a long complaint, but I wish that things would look better for me after such a long time...I just hope that very soon I will have a period of feel better rather than feel worse.

Best to everyone dealing with this issue.

Love,
Nina

Hi Nina

It is good to hear from you again, and I am sorry you have been unwell again. Your symptoms sound adrenal to me. Mercury is known to affect both thyroid and adrenals, and treating these two is often necessary to get well. Perhaps you have been particularly stressed recently and this may have affected your adrenals? Sounds like you need some adrenal support...

I would definitely get these checked out - there are saliva tests you can do for both. Lots of good info here.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

I hope this helps

Best
Nicola

Nina

another thought. Did you chelate the mercury out at all? My understanding is if you didn't do this, you will get a bit better, but not really well, and will be vulnerable to other stressors / toxins throughout life, as the mercury continues to disrupt the endocrine system. I think some people who are only mildly toxic can get better after amalgam removal without doing any form of chelation, but for most of us who have been compromised by mercury, our detox pathways are so weak we can't detox the mercury properly by ourselves, so chelation is required.

Mercury also messes up female hormones, so it would be worth looking into having these checked. I had low estrogen, which made me fatigued (along with the mercury, low thyroid and adrenals, of course), and gave me migraines every month. That's all gone now I supplement with estrogel.

Have you read Andy Cutler's Amalgam Illness book?

Best
Nicola

Hello Nina. My thoughts are that at least some of your symptoms might be due to a magnesium deficiency, B vitamin deficiency, and/or candida overgrowth. Are you taking mineral supplements? These are even more necessary when people are doing chelation. If you are not on any prescription drugs then you might want to try taking St. John's Wort. Sometimes St. John's Wort needs a few weeks to start working. Get the standardized 0.3% hypericin capsules. If you are on prescription drugs then get your physician's permission before taking St. John's Wort.

JK98, what you suggest will not work for everyone. It depends on how your endocrine system is doing. Based on the symptoms, I would say candida is definitely involved in this case, but the loss of weight and panic attacks suggests problems with both the thyroid (overactive) and adrenals (also overactive). If the thyroid is underactive you will you see benefits from taking a lot of supplements, like strong B-complex etc., but if the thyroid is not underactive, it tends to be overactive and you will only see more overactivity as a result. Which is not desired of course. Same goes for St. John's Wort, it can be a really bad idea to use it for those who haven't got an underactive thyroid.
What helps here is to avoid foods that increase thyroid hormones, and I've seen cases where magnesium (as JK98 suggested here) and copper helped, while zinc caused more thyroid overactivity problems.

nina,im sorry your going through this nightmare again. Unfortunatly mercury can rear its ugly head at any time. i believe that it will take forever to get all mercury out, thinking about how long it took to really build up and make us ill. i dont know if youve done any chelating, but it is the only way,and for me i will carry on for years at small doses , were taking mercury in everyday without even without amalgam, and if we are non-excreters of mercury it will build up daily.
I second nicolas opinion on the adrenals.
Dawn x

Hi Nina
I just wanted to say sorry you are still having troubles. I was wondering too if you have done any chelation. I have not started on dmsa or any of that. I am just currently using supplements. My body just won't tolerate all of that yet. I agree with everyone on the adrenals. Hang in there and hope you feel better soon. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yourmedicine.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for all your responses. In fact, I know it is adrenals for sure. I have very problematic kidneys, easily get kidney inflammation etc. I have read a bit online now and it seems that there are medications that people take for adrenal fatigue. Of course, I prefer to find out any natural alternatives.

I saw that a few supplements may be helpful, some of which I am already taking such as magnesium, vitamin B...

I have not chilated per se, my body has the tendency to detox on it's own, and I never reached the point where I was strong enough to begin. I do take Algin, Calc/Mag, Vit C and have taken other supplements, detoxing teas, have acupuncture treatments and do tai chi when I can.

If you have any recommendations for adrenals fatigue supplimentation, please let me know. If would rather not go see a doctor about this, I am sure you understand why. I am quiet happy with my acupuncturist who knows that my weakness is my kidneys...

Nina, to take care of my adrenals, im letting them rest by taking H.C.
i also take VitB5 500mg, 3 x daily
VitC powder, 5000mg daily
hymalayan sea salt in water, i tbs daily and in food.
Dawn

Dawn,

What is H.C.? Where do you get hymalian sea salt tablets?

Did you ever see a doctor for this, or just doing it on your own?

Thanks for your input

Hi Dawn
I was also interested in the sea salt. I have read some about it on this site but what does it do and where do you get the hymalayan sea salt.
Thanks Rachel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hellokitty.gif" alt="" />

By the way ~ thanks Nicola. I decided to check out my hormones, thyroid and adrenals. Going to have results hopefully in the next day or so and I am hoping I will have more answers.

I have not read Andy's book, I am afraid there is not much else I could do to chelate, so I have been doing a simple detox plan with eating healthy and taking supplements. I really don't have anyone to turn to who understands mercury and I understand that if a doctor doesn't know what they are doing, they could mess you up even more, and that is the last thing I need.

Anyways, hoping for the best, as always, trying to keep my strenght to fight my way through this, once again.

Love,
Nina

Forgot to mention, they are doing blood tests for all these to determine their function, so I hope that's the right way to go about it...

Hi Nina:

Sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Your story sounds close to mine in the way that you can feel pretty normal for a while, and then symptoms come back. I am 16 months post removal, and feel better than I did for sure.

It sounds like you are headed in the right direction as you say symptoms are not as severe as they were at beginning. I have had thyroid and adrenal tests, and these can show normal or in range, and you can still feel bad. So I try to treat them all naturally anyway with things like sea salt, good foods, and lots of rest.

Hope you find things get better,

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angelwing.gif" alt="" />
TW

heres a site on salt.
http://www.natural-cure-remedy.com/adrenal-fatigue.html

you can buy hymalayan or celtic sea salt in most health food stores, or on-line, they both do the same job.

This candida is a cursed thing.... It's that which causes the adrenal fatigue. I need only drop a clove of garlic in stomach, and BANG!, there you are. I don't also understand how you guys can tolerate several grams of C vit and also E vit, plus a lot of other stuff. There is no way I can tolerate more than 500mg of C per day., for longer periods.
I'm not getting panic attacks, but it's probably not far from that either, feel just like crap., and of course diarrhoea.

Hi pgm,
it might be the type of vitamin C people take that makes the difference.There could be another ingredient in the vitamin C you take that does not agree with you?maybe. Also is it a high acidity form of vitamin C?,this would be harder on your system.
Thanks for the reminder about candida as possible cause of adrenal fatigue,(&I suspect I experienced some "die off "symptoms the during the last week.)

Maybe food sensitivities are a problem for you, Nina. Check out www.mercola.com , www.dogtorj.net and www.corepsychblog.com .

No, I dont think the type of C vit is an issue for me. I'm getting equally unpleasant feeling from vit E and garlic. Especially salivation increases at lot. This is due to the candida. If you're a good detoxer, you don't really need to take many supplements, just go slowly, and give your body a push in the right direction every now and then. Otherwise you'll just burn your adrenals up. Many of the supplements I take are excellent (especially ALA chelation and also L-carnosine), but my adrenals can't just cope with a too heavy detoxing.

Nina:

This is a great book on how to restore your adrenals naturally (www.adrenalfatigue.com). I recommend it highly.

While some may recommend taking hydrocortisone (HC), it really depends on the outcome of your saliva tests, which need to be the one that tests 4xs/day and your doctor (whether an MD or ND) who knows what their doing when it comes to adrenals.

Another cautionary note: www.stopthethyroidmadness.com does have some good information, however, one really, really, really should see a doctor before getting on the HC, which is something they recommend and try to help people with on their forum. However, one must remember the forum members are NOT doctors and there are hundreds of posts they try to answer. You are better off finding an N.D. or M.D. that works with an N.D. -- just speaking from experience. I got on the HC and found out later I never should have, I was put on a natural adrenal supplement program as noted on the www.adrenalfatigue.com website, however, I had a hard time exercising patience while my adrenals were recovering because I was so desperate to feel better. I finally got off the HC 2 weeks ago and now am doing much better on natural supplements. Again, I highly suggest getting a doctors opinion that knows what they are doing in regards to adrenals.

Gabriella

Nina...

Here is some information that may helpful...

Adrenal Support

Trace Mineral Maintenance

Hope this helps.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twoandtwo.gif" alt="" />

Nina:

I am just getting my adrenals and thyroids tested at the moment. How do I go about finding out what the results mean?

I have zero faith in normal doctors, so that is not an option, at least until I have a much better understanding of these things.

Can anyone recommend some decent books? I have read one, but they recommend synthetic drugs which is not something I am willing to take. Natural remedies only.

Can anyone recommend a good forum to post test results that could help?

james l. wilsons "adrenal fatigue the 21 st century stress syndrome " is a very good book on adrenals and has info on diet ,suppliments and natural treatments ,I don't know any books on thyroid

http://www.realthyroidhelp.com/

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalThyroidHormonesADRENALS/

here you will get help in analysing your test results, and lots more to read. Please be aware though that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to thyroid / adrenal dosing. Realthyroidhelp, formerly NTH, believe that everyone should be on 3-5 grains Armour. I got up to 3 grains and felt terrible - overdosed. I do much better on 2 grains Armour and extra T3. Mercury toxic people don't convert T4 to T3 very well, and taking this much T4 made me feel awful. You have to find what's best for you - same with adrenal support. And try the weakest form of support first unless you have very weak adrenals already.

It has taken me 18 months to find what's right for me, and I expect even this to be in a state of flux as I chelate the mercury out, and my body changes. I don't think my adrenals will recover fully - I think they are well and truly dead - but I am hopeful of the rest.

Best
Nicola

Thanks Mikey and Nicola. I bought the James Wilsons book today and that will be next.

Re forums, ok thanks, I have seen others recommending these, also with similar warnings to be alert.

I have been taking my temp 3 times a day too & plotting the average on a graph, so I need to find out why it looks like one of those earthquake alert graph thingys. Very jagged and low.

I find it quite depressing finding out more things wrong with me and not working correctly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />