As of today I'm having serious doubts to whether I am mercury toxic or not. The last few years I've lived off assumptions based on what I've read and what supplements seem to have worked. I went through Adrenal Fatigue, Depression, Lyme, Candida, Celiac, etc. I have experimented with about 100 supplements in the last three years.

Lately the methylation/mercury toxicity theories are gaining popularity and people actually seem to be getting better. I've tried methyl donors with some good results then big time side effects.

My most recent success (and nosedive) was Chlorella which in three days made me feel more normal than I have in the last ten years (last 4.5 with CFS). I searched for the answer for that and the glaringly obvious answer was that Chlorella s reported to move/chelate mercury. Chlorella has some vitamins and protein and Vitamin A precursors nothing special there. (BUT it also has Chlorophyll and enzymes as does spirulina).

Now I'm in the mercury camp. I'm getting strange results from MSM and Selenium and Garlic. I've been getting wiped out by anything that lowers cortisol. My physiology seems to be VERY dynamic since the Chlorella. A couple days of severe back and neck pain, then good days, all of a sudden very sensitive to selenium and MSM. Kidneys and/or adrenals sore. At least with the constant fatigue I was stable.

So I have had a lot of mercury in my mouth and according to Marie
at mercurypoisoned.com

"exposure to mercury + symptoms of mercury toxicity= mercury toxicity, with or without testing high on a heavy metals test. "

http://www.mercurypoisoned.com/new/doctors_and_dentists.html

And I do have the typical shopping list of symptoms you see on every site that promotes thyroid, adrenal, cfs, mercury, candida, celiac, etc.

But now I'm wonderingif it is mercury...

Today I felt almost as good as I did on my good Chlorella day but this time using Spiruina.

If I have mercury poisoning would I be able to feel 80-90% cured for a day or so here and there?

I have read of those who have chelated or had their amalgams removed feeling better immediately for a while. Is that normal?

I can't find anything suggesting Spiruina is a chelator. Same vitamins, protein as Chlorella (without the hard cell wall). Not as much B12 or Chlorophyll but a ton of enzymes and maybe something that helps build hemoglobin.

I'm not sure what to think right now. Three years of testing and researching everything and I feel like I've gotten nowhere except maybe I've found a couple of things that might help.

actually if you chelate, the chelator will mop up mercury mostly in your bloodstream, maybe loosen some in other places... your body eliminates it... you feel good at first for a day, then a few days, then whump down you go because your blood stream is filled uo again... so you chelate some more... you feel good for a few days... then whump... as time goes by those feeling good periods get longer and longer as your body's load of heavy metals and other junk is lessened. but it takes time, anywhere from a few to several months to really be able to hold onto a couple weeks of feeling real good in between bouts of chelating/detoxing.

just stay at it. You are probably just getting different effects from different things interacting in your blood as your body eliminates them. But if you have set yourself up to eliminate, eliminate you will. drink plenty of water.

spirulina makes me feel great too. you must be absorbing it well. It's loaded with vitamin a.

hi sregan : I went though the same thing when deciding if I wanted to get my 9 amalgams replaced ,it was last resort for me I had already been down the traditional medicine road with many prescription drugs thrown at me and my health was getting worse with every month that went by , I also had 3 boxes of all kinds of suppliments that I tried over the years ,some worked for a little while and some did not work at all , so once I made the decision to have my amalgams replaced I was more focused on that , but after removal I knew for sure that the this was the root of the problem ,I went through a 2 week peroid of feeling worse ,then I started to feel better and was not on any suppliments at the time so I knew it was the amalgams causing the problem, I have slowly been getting better , but I know that it will take time to be cured , I know that i was showing mercury poisoning symtoms starting in my teens but did not know it at the time I had 15 filling total
4 extractions ,1 bridge , and 9 replacment fillings later doing better , I think the fact that you are more sensitive to the msm may be telling you that mercury may be the cause , msm is a organic sulfur compound and will mobilise mercury but not remove it , be very careful with it , speaking from experience I know that it can cause damage for a mercury poisoned person

The MSM and selenium sensitivity must mean something. The guy on mercurylife.com mentioned that it was a good idea to do a little research of your dental history and see what you can dig up.

I had a prior bout with Chronic Fatigue for about a year back in '91. I wonder if I just had some new amalgams put in just before that. I know that I had a of of dental work in the couple years prior to my CFS in early '03 but I don't know if it's enough by itself to show proof (had some fillings removed and replaced with composite but I doubt he use any special protocol in the removal).

Today was just a little better than my good Chlorella day and without a doubt the best day in the last 5 years. Supplements were the same except I backed off on the Spirulina (seemed to overdo it and was a little nervous and jittery yesterday). Today was wonderful, how amazing to feel just plain normal again. I'm going to keep my current regimen which does not involve any chealation supplements and just about 80-160 mcg of selenium and 250-500 mg of Spirulina (I also take some other stuff).

If I am mercury toxic I would expect to degrade slowly then need to chelate again (Pectasol with or without Chlorella). If I am not mercury toxic I would expect to stay better and suspect the Spirulina (and Chlorella probably did but whacked out my adrenals as well) is stimulating my thyroid, adrenals and/or pituitary (and possibly pineal).

Today was "back to reality". Still I've had a couple of really good days within a month since I started experimenting with Chlorella, Pectasol, MSM and Spirulina. Sounds like a mercury issue huh?

Heart wrenching.... yesterday was a gift and I savored it, now it's gone and I'm left once again reading my notes figuring out how to recreate it.

I spent the last week or so in lower back agony from the MSM and possibly the Pectasol before that.

I guess it's going to be Pectasol and possibly MSM or Chlorella with Spirulina and lots of buffered C along with some selenium and all the other stuff I usually take.

That's how it was for me with mercury toxicity. You feel like you're getting somewhere, then you get pulled back under. It is a continual cycle of clearing some mercury through painful detox, having a patch of feeling better (maybe a day or a few hours) then more downloads from deeper areas and filling you back up again...

I'd be happy one moment and then I'd feel it descending on me again and this is what continued to occur for a long time. You end up wondering what is going on, but in the end I knew it was mercury. It plays you like an instrument and the symptoms are quite wild and unpredictable.

Usually we have a load of it stored in tissues/organs and the body will to some degree after amalgam removal, go through a healing crisis in an attempt to dump the years of storage. It is a very painful time. I used lots of different products and chlorella was too much for me. But I did take it sometimes and sure it did push more metals around and no doubt out of me, but at a big cost. I could only handle just vitamin C, vitamin e and selenium and even then they caused enough symptoms in the beginning too. They were from a lab, so they were good quality and worked. Chlorella was powerful then for me and I had to keep stopping because I couldn't stand the symptoms...this was a typical senario for me. Though all in all, they all did encourage metal elimination, agonising as it was, I would not do it the same way if I could go back I don't think. I was also able to sweat some of it out too by hot baths with epsom salts (or sea salt and baking soda)...usually just a cupful of them each. I sweated better than and came up in the mercury rash, so it aided further elimination. However, this happened after a DMPS IV, so it probably pushed a load of mercury everywhere and forced my body to try and eliminate it. Didn't take much to encurage that process further.

I used Andy Cutler's later and found it easier, because it didn't just put me in a constant state of mobilising metals and excreting a bit each time after a lot of agony to do so, it worked by grabbing the metals and keeping them grabbed and escorting them out of me in a better fashion, making way for speedier and more definite improvements without such wild and agonising symptoms. Though it all takes time no matter how you do it.

whatever works for you. Just be careful and don't overdo it, you can mobilise so much of this stuff, it can really HURT and for ages too. I never used MSM, so I don't know about it. But I know sulfur can hurt a metal toxic person a lot. I used to get really sick after eating cabbage, broccoli, eggs, onions etc. I think this can be a good indication of how metal toxic you are, or should I say I think it indicates too much blood/tissue mercury.

Anything sulfury with someone who has a bunch of metals floating around just stirs them up...though it did erupt an excretion and I always felt some metal came out in the process, but again I don't know how damaging that may have been considering the impact it had...However, some people do excellent on high sulfur, even if they are very metal toxic.

It's a fine line I think to get it right. If you are low in sulfur and need it, you may find it really helpful because your body will put it to good use. If you are already high in sulfur, the extra will just be used to mobilise mercury a lot more....this is what I've read and I think experienced too.

The more toxic you are, the more side effects and even the safest protocol will unlikely eliminate detox symptoms. They can pretty much be expected as part of the healing process. But should not be tolerated beyond sanity point!

I would not recommend high sulfur unless you know it doesn't hurt you. But of course it's up to you which way you want to go. I would always take time off inbetween and replace minerals and drink water. I think it's stressful to eliminate metals on the kidneys and other organs and they can really throb! They need a break and a period to recuperate. Some metal will have come out, but a lot resettles again to allow the same process to start all over.

It can drives you crazy. Here is a senario that someone described, which I thought was pretty apt. Try and imagine a tank full of water and the dirt has all settled at the bottom of the tank. When you decide to try and clear some of that crud out, you stir up the stuff from the bottom and it clouds the water, everything looks really bad and in the process you get a bit of it out, but the rest resettles again until the next time.

If I was you? I would keep on the vitamin C, and selenium and add vitamin E to it and zinc/magnesium/calcium if you can.

Wishing you the best.

Bex, I appreciate your comprehensive posts...


You had mental symptoms also not just physical? That is a huge part of my problem. The body usually feels fair or ok, the mind is clouded, anxious, etc. I really got to see how bad this Wednesday.


I'm wondering I hadn't taken anything for a week that is a "chelator" or "mobilizer" except a small amount of Selenium. For a couple days I ramped up on the Spirulina (1g per day) and backed off a little when I started getting mentally jittery (hyper) for a day then the next day...WOW.

Starting 12/28 I was taking 750mg MSM which had 60mcg molybdenum (I took it because I ran out of moly and felt I really needed it).
On 12/30 I added Pectasol because I was having lots of low back pain thinking it would help mop up if the MSM was mobilizing. Took that through 1/1. 1/2-1/3 just 100mcg methly selenium. 1/4-1/5 nothing mercury related. 1/6-1/9 60-70 mcg selenium (same kind) and started adding spirulina as described above. On 1/9 I had the wonderful day but a full week from taking any Pectasol or MSM.

Does that fit in with your scenario? Or is a full week a little late to experience the euphoria phase of the detox?

Bex,

I just read that selenium mobilizes mercury. That fits in with what I experienced and can explain what happened this wednesday since I was taking Selenium the entire time. The spirulina must have triggered something?

Hi Sregan, sorry I didn't respond to this myself! Sometimes I forget and then I re-read the posts and realise I never answered.

You asked if my symptoms were mental as well as physical? BIG TIME. Heck yes!!!! But the thing is, you can have a very toxic body and get mental symptoms, even if it's not brain related and vice versa. So I never knew what was going on, I know I suffered severely mentally (anxiety, depression, brain fog, screwed up weird fearful thinking etc).

You can get delays in detox symptoms or improvements! Most definitely it can hit later. E.g. some people may take a higher dose of chelator and think they're not really getting symptoms and all is fine and then suddenly be hit later on with a massive load of symptoms....and that no doubt would go for euphoria also.

So it's really hard to know what is going on. Because mercury gets stirred up, it re-settles, it clears, it dumps, so you can get these odd patches of clarity and joy and you just want to bask in it and don't want it to go and then wham it's gone again and you're back with the same old symptoms.

I would not personally use MSM, or any high sulfur supplement because it can really stir things up too much and with that, mercury maybe able to enter more sensitive areas (brain maybe one of those). Again it is up to the individaul what suits them. Symptoms can be expected with any detox you do, and much moreso if you are severely poisoned.

But never go beyond what you can handle into what I used to push myself into (insanity land). If your symptoms are detox and you feel grotty that is pretty normal. Even on Cuter's, I got aching, very tired, and very sick by teh end of the round. But I pushed it to an entire week long of every 4 hourly DMSA. I look back and realised I could have shortened my rounds and made life easier. Symptoms increased the longer I was on the round.

So the body requires a break to recuperate from moving/removing mercury and it never removes all the metals that you'[ve pulled out of tissue, some may come out, much of it gets reabsorbed. So you can get symptoms from all of these things.

I am just repeating what I've read and what I have gone through, but I have no medical background or study of mercury myself to be able to state exactly what goes on.

I experimented a lot on myself too and was hurt greatly by so many things. Chlorella hurt much more than spirulina, but was more powerful than Spirulina for metal toxicity, but I had to quit. Just mobilised it too much and hurt tremendously many times. It helped evetually but at a cost.

Yes I too believe that selenium can displace mercury, because I've gone through it too. Not chelate it exactly, but if it competes with it for binding sites, then maybe that can happen...however it can also help symptoms too. It binds it up apparently too somehow. I'm confused, but I know it can cause some dramatic symptoms in mercury toxic people that feel very suspiciously like detox symptoms or mobilisation.

I don't know about Spirulina, I don't remember it did much to me with my metals....it's possible since it's an algae, but they too can be contaminated. Chlorella must also be from a pure source. Chlorella is much more powerful with metal than spirulina in my opinion.

I might be answering my question of the title of this post. As suggested by the author of this site: http://www.mercurylife.com I am in the process of piecing together my dental records.

March 22, 1995 I came down with CFS for the second time (first time was a couple of weeks I had an unexplained illness that wouldn't go away). It lasted for a little over a year. In looking back at my old calendars of that year in April 1994 I had 3 trips to the dentist. I'm guessing 1 for consultation and 2 for fillings. I remember telling the dentist that I hadn't been for over 5 years and he said I was doing pretty well for that. I had 3-4 small cavities I think. I went again twice in January of 1995 I assume for more fillings (I should get detailed information this week). In February of 1995 I had the FLU for 4 days. A month later March 22 my CFS symptoms start.

Being an overachiever I am now on my third run with CFS. I did have a lot of dental work done the 2-3 years prior with Crowns and Root canals and amalgams being removed unsafely.

I'm curious how I got over my CFS in '95? I was taking Bupropion and was in the gym 4-5 even 6 days a week bodybuilding and taking a lot of protein powder and the only real supplement I was using was Melatonin. I know a high protein diet is recommended for the mercury toxic as protein binds with mercury. Also I just read that stimulating the Dopamine D2 receptor can help enhance methionine synthase although I'm not sure if Bupropion did that.

"The most important mechanism for causing the problems we’re seeing are dopamine stimulated methylation. Total dependence on methionine synthase (B12 enzyme), methyl passed to dopamine phospholipids. Fixing the enzyme methionine synthase is number one on the list of things that can help autism. The enzyme is very metal-sensitive, thus effected by thimerosal. "

From: http://www.drneubrander.com/Files/BioChat%2020050713%20-%20Dr%20Richard%20Deth.doc

Now I'm even more convinced that I've had almost 6 years of my life taken by mercury. I never would have believed it until recently.

Hi Sregan…….you are doing lots of research! Well done. i too have done lots of reseaqrch. Have you read Amalgam illness by Cutler yet?

Probably it was whey protien, as in the body builder formulas. whey protien powder is great for chelating, helps your body produce glutathione, which helps you eliminate heavy metals and other toxins quicker.

I keep it on the shelf, i use it in fruit smoothies. Great picker me upper.

Use unadulterated plain whey protien for the best effect.

Good whey protien has a good amount of calcium too to replace mercury and lead that comes out of bones and tissues with the real thing your body needs.

Sunshine,

Yes I have his book, got it about a month ago. It is full of very good technical information on nutritional supplements. I started researching when I discovered I wasn't going to get better any other way than through my own efforts. Crazy isn't it? Someone who is very illl having to cure themselves.

You are in the right place, most people here are doing the majority of getting better by educating themselves.

Now you have started, there is no turning back!

Good luck

I got a call back from my dentist from '94-95. They did 4 amalgams in March of '94, I went back in Jan of '95 to get a temp fix for an amalgam that fell out. Got the regular fix in Jun of '95.

The filling must have been cracked for a while, probably leaking even more so. The coincidental thing is that my first trip to the dentist was Mar 22 of '94, my first CFS symptoms (mostly anxiety) started Mar 22 of '95. Exactly a year later.

My current illness started in June 2003 and I had been to the dentist quite a bit in the 2 years prior getting fillings removed (no protocol) root canals and crowns. I contacted these guys today and they are sending me their records for me.

Looks like some strong evidence.

Yup, all yr evidence is adding up up up. It found it very interesting figuring out my mercury history. It was like finding the missing part of a jigsaw puzzle.

The title of this thread is “Am I mercury Toxic?” – you have been researching like a crazy researcher…..so what do you think now? mercury toxic?

I've actually been researching like this for more than the last two years. Mercury/toxins is/are probably about the only reason that can explain everything.

I still think it could be a thyroid thing, but again Mercury could be in play from that.

If I'm not mistaken, the thyroid is one of the main areas mercury affects. When I was mercury toxic (when I still had amalgams), an iridologist kept telling me it was my thyroid. I think Hal Huggins talks about this in his book somewhere. So although normal testing will show things maybe normal or that there is plenty of hormone, mercury can interfere and block it from doing its job.

I also used to have extremely dilated pupils and people thought I was on something all the time. lol. It was a freaky effect for sure, but that died down after amalgam removal and now they look normal. I don't know what that was related to either, but obviously over stimulation of something (adrenals?). I have also tested as having too much steroid hormone too and one doctor reckoned they were tell tale signs of mercury.

However, once he gave me a DMPS challenge test and didn't get a level of mercury (only a small one), he refused to believe I was toxic from then on. Even though I displayed every sign. He didn't understand how to properly do a challenge test unfortunately and should have done it properly. But instead the DMPS pulled so much metals/mercury out of me and around my body, I was an absolute mess from then on as my body was forced to try and detox it. No doubt a level would have shown later on as my body pushed some of this into the urine. However, testing me right after the challenge test was stupid to say the least. I already had a full bladder at the time!!!! Apparently you're meant to keep taking urine samples over a longer period so the body has a chance to push some of those metals that got pulled out by the DMPS into the urine.

AFter that, I had Rashes and all. So be careful of testing for mercury, little to no level may show, yet you maybe riddled with it. It's just bound up in tissue/organs/brain and there are apparently more effective ways of doing challenge tests too (Andy has mentioned it in his book). Plus it only takes a very small bit for some people to react badly to as well. The sickest patients apparently often show the lowest levels because they hang onto it, rather than eliminate.

A doctor here who is one of the best in NZ (Dr Godfrey) found out about my challenge test and he said sometimes it takes more than one to get a level to show up and again it's got to be done right or you get false negatives. He knew what he was talking about and understood my hair test results too. I showed very low levels of mercury and far from happy about it, he was very concerned. He told me that even unpoisoned people have a higher level because they excrete any mercury they're exposed to OUT. I was retaining it to the point that almost none showed up. This was why I got so ill from this stuff.

Retention toxicity is the worst position to be in!

My mum has been on thyroid meds for years. I might ask her to send me a pill and see if it does anything for me as a test.

Mercury screwing up the thyroid is most common in mercury toxicity.

To discover if your adrenals or thyroids are in trouble just take your temperature…….quick and easy. You will know in 3-4 days if they need support.

http://www.drrind.com/tempgraph.asp#summary

I have been doing the temp chart and is really easy to do but not so easy to know what to add. LOL I added some kelp and temp has come up just a bit. I added adrenal stress formula with the raw adrenal from bovine sources and messed my stomach up for a week. It also had betaine in it and I think that was the culprit. Still working on all of it though.
Cool chart though really lets you know what your body is doing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/byebye.gif" alt="" />

Got a letter from my other dentist. I went a ton of times and spent about $7,000 between the insurance and my money from 8/2000 - 3/2003. My CFS started Sometime near 6/2003...