ALA is a strong antioxidant (which is important when mercury toxic), crosses the blood-brain barrier, and mobilizes mercury.

There has, however, been a study that suggests that ALA is not as effective at chelating mercury as DMPS or DMSA. The study also suggests that ALA mobilizes mercury in the brain (I've only seen parts of the study so far).

As I see it, anything that detoxes mercury has to mobilize mercury and if you're going to detox the brain, you've got to use a supplement that crosses the bb barrier. Nevertheless, I believe this study has deterred many in the medical community from considering ALA.

I think this is the reason you don't hear about it as much as DMPS or DMSA.

Here is information in case anyone is interested:

Alpha-Lipoic Acid