What is the evidence that cilantro actually chelates mercury from the brain?

Couldn't it be that it chelates from non-central nervous system tissues, and that if the mercury is not excreted tightly bound then passes into the brain? This would give similar symptoms, and the severity of the symptoms would depend on the concentration gradients of brain versus body mercury.

Does anybody now of any PubMed sources or reliable quotes from Cutler and the like that addresses this issue?

I'll get back to you if/when I find the quotes from andy regarding cilantro. I do recall him saying that yes it does chelate nervous system/brain mercury, but it is not known how to use it in order to ensure safety, which is why he doesnt advise it.

But here is a link which disucsses some people's personal reactions to cilantro and other products http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/Chelation_products.html#cilantro

Unfortunately as far as I know, cilantros' biochemistry has not been studied yet. I haven't been able to find any data of its mechanisms. I decided to try it anyway. I am about eight years postamalgamremoval, but no improvement was felt after removal. After several years I returned back to the amalgampoisoining theory and understood that lack of results from removal was because the mercury was tightly bound in my nervous system. I had continously used vitamins and minerals and eaten a healthy diet postremoval so I knew by now that my body tissue levels were pretty low. I decided to try DMSA and ALA, but no matter the dose, I just felt much worse and it became unberable. I decided to try cilantro. This had its side-effects too, such as depression and fatigue, but not the long list of side-effects which other chelation agents gave me. I used cilantro one week on and one week off, and within four months I noticed tremendous improvement intellectually, memory and concentrationwise. I have prevouisly tried all sorts of supplements, alternative therapies and so forth, but none gave me the results as cilantro managed.

In my opinion I would however not have used cilantro straight after amalgamremoval, when body tissue stores are still high. This for fear of redistribution. Cilantro seems to match ALA qualities as in that it mobilizes in the nervous system, I therefore feel the best protocol is to use it with a binder, such as DMSA for safe removal. I know from experience that cilantro does work, but at the same time I feel it is most important to use it at the correct time after amalgamremoval. I would personally use a vitamin/mineral protocol after removal to reduce body tissue levels and after about six months or so, if detoxing pathways have been functioning, I would start DMSA (frequent chelation protocol of course) for deeper body tissue chelation. After another six months I would have tried ALA combined with DMSA to start brain chelation. After six months to a year I would introduce cilantro for final improvements.........

This is not the scientific data you wanted, but I thought I'd post my experience anyway <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cilantro (chinese parsley)

This kitchen herb is capable of mobilizing mercury, cadmium, lead and aluminum in both bones and the central nervous system. It is probably the only effective agent in mobilizing mercury stored in the inracellular space (attached to mitochondria, tubulin, liposomes etc) and in the nucleus of the cell (reversing DNA damage of mercury). Because cilantro mobilizes more toxins then it can carry out of the body, it may flood the connective tissue (where the nerves reside) with metals, that were previously stored in safer hiding places. This process is called re-toxification. It can easily be avoided by simultaneously giving an intestinal toxin-absorbing agent. A recent animal study demonstrated rapid removal of aluminum and lead from the brain and skeleton superior to any known other detox agent. Even while the animal was continuously poisoned with aluminum, the bone content of aluminum continued to drop during the observation period significantly.

Dosage and application of cilantro tincture: give 2 drops 2 times /day in hot water in the beginning, taken just before a meal or 30 minutes after taking chlorella (cilantro causes the gallbadder to dump bile - containing the excreted neurotoxins - into the small intestine. The bile-release occurs naturally as we are eating and is much enhanced by cilantro. If no chlorella is taken, most neurotoxins are reabsorbed on the way down the small intestine by the abundant nerve endings of the enteric nervous system). Gradually increase dose to 10 drops 3 times/day for full benefit. During the initial phase of the detox cilantro should be given 1 week on, 2 –3 weeks off. Fresh organic Cilantro works best (as much as person can compress in one hand), when given in hot Miso soup. Miso contains synergistically acting amino acids.



Other ways of taking cilantro: rub 5 drops twice/day into ankles for mobilization of metals in all organs, joints and structures below the diaphragm, and into the wrists for organs, joints and structures above the diaphragm. The wrists have dense autonomic innervation (axonal uptake of cilantro) and are crossed by the main lymphatic channels (lymphatic uptake).



Cilantro tea: use 10 to 20 drops in cup of hot water. Sip slowly. Clears the brain quickly of many neurotoxins. Good for headaches and other acute syptoms (joint pains, angina, headache): rub 10 –15 drops into painful area. Often achieves almost instant pain relief.

Before I knew I had mercury poisoning, I started to have coriander (name we give to cilantro) quite a lot. Within no time I had really bad resurgence of symptoms. I was also taking glucosamine sulphate, but I'd taken this before without any such bad effects. It was this worsening of symptoms that made me look up on the internet and I found out about the fillings. I don't know for sure, but I suspect taking coriander in soups and in dishes might have done something.

I put a post up about adverse reactions to some chelation/protocols. Here is one testimony from what I put up -
Subject: Cilantro and Andy Cutler...
From: [email]TheSkyKing@a...[/email]
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 15:38:25 EDT
Yahoo! Message Number: 85703
Onibasu Link: http://onibasu.com/archives/am/85703.html
Click here to view the page without highlighting the search terms: Redistribution Andy Cutler
I am one of the people who tried Cilantro on "my own protocol" against the
information of Cutler. I paid for it.

I had had metal problems before the incident, but they were minor. I bought
a $200 juicer, and a $2.00 bunch of cilantro. Went home, juiced the whole
thing, drank it. Thought to myself, "wow, I am really doing something to get
this metal out of my body, I am proud of myself."

Look out. Two hours later I felt this strange flush come over my body.
INSTANTLY my short term memory was gone, rational reasoning abilities were gone,
emotional stability was gone.

These symptoms NEVER GOT BETTER until I began chelating with Cutler's
protocol. Even now, although I am MUCH MUCH better, I would say that MOST of my
problems were actually CAUSED by that cilantro incident. I am fully confident
that I will get 100% well....as a matter of fact, I know I'll be even better than
before the incident, because I WAS metal toxic before the incident.......I
must have been because of that horrible redistribution experience. Now, with
proper chelation, all my problems are getting dramatically better after each
round.

Cutler says don't use cilantro because the pharmacokinetics are unknown and
even the method of action is unknown.

I say, listen to Cutler.

Bryan

Like Bex, I had a bad experience with Cilantro that I have learned from. I felt better than I had in years since my amalgam removal. One day I decided to have a burrito. I knew it had a lot of cilantro in it, but thought, "How could it hurt?" It's only one time. I felt bad within 30 minutes. It's taken two weeks to see any significant improvement. I've had low level brain fog since I had it. (Before eating it, the brain fog had lifted). It's frustrating because I was doing so well. Looking back, it was not worth it.

Again, I agree with Bex, I know that I'll improve. It's just that, given the same situation, I would not want to eat anything with Cilantro in it again.

Oops. Just noticed that it was someone elses testimony that Bex was quoting from. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Just proof of my brain fog.

I believe that many bad effects stories can be told about DMSA, ALA, DMPS and cilantro. I am guessing those who have reacted badly to cilantro also react badly to DMSA and the others. They cannot tolerate any mercury mobilization at all and are kind of stuck........

I'm happy for anybody who makes progress in their chelation, whatever their choice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> However, I can say for a certainty that I was not stuck when I chose to eat that cilantro, having no adverse reaction to ALA for 4 rounds. I was doing great and was very happy with low dose chelation. I have not felt that good in years. The effect of the the redistribution from the cilantro was immediate. It made a believer out of me in regards to Andy's position on Cilantro.

It's not so much DMSA, ALA that is the issue, it is the way they are used that is "often" the problem. The reason many people react so badly to cilantro and other things, is because there is no known way of using them to make sure mercury is more evenly removed, rather than being wildly moved around.

At least with DMSA and ALA, there is a protocol that does enable a person to cut down this risk much further and allow many people to get on with chelating their mercury. Many of us cannot tolerate mercury movement, but many *myself included" are able to tolerate THIS way of moving it, which means that we can on some level get on with getting a little out.

It is not to say that everybody is going to cope fine, some even have problems on that, (I have on occassion too) but at least it's a safe manner of moving mercury in most of us. The candida diet helps this, because it reduces the load of toxins and allows the gut to eliminate a little easier, which takes more load off the liver.

I can use DMSA at a low dose every 4 hours and do fine most of the time and it's actually sometimes cured my bad reaction to using some other product that has simply mobilised mercury and not helped me at all. DMSA was able to improve that, but only if I took it the right way. Otherwise DMSA is just as bad if you take it randomly.

Any mercury mobiliser/chelator is risky if not used correctly. There are people who can do almost anything and seem to get away with it. But I would never do the same, because I know what my reactions are like. Iv'e been burned enough by doing that.

Hey all,

I am 22 months post revision and have been feeling great the last few weeks so I decided to use some of the cilantro that I had purchased (and used) when I still had amalgams. I took the amount reccommended on the bottle (can't remember at the moment-I think it was 20 drops). I also took algin to help move it out of the body. Three days later I had dreams of being out of control then I started on a down hill spiral was exposed to a few things that would make me feel bad so I didn't connect it to the cilantro. I couldn't keep my magnesium levels up as I was having all those problems bad muscle pain and wierd head feeling that I connect with too little oxygen or just blood flow to the brain and my arms started hurting and going numb.

I thought that I was at a point that I could go for getting it out of the brain, but evidently not.

Is there something that will do a better job at binding and removing than algin?

HI there, yes there is a product called DMSA (available online) that many people use to both bind and remove their mercury. It is also used on children, so it is safe. There is, as with anything, the rare allergic reaction to it or intolerance, but most do ok.

You start on a very low dose and take it every 4 hours around the clock (according to Andrew cutler's guide lines, he is a biochemist and well versed on the science of mercury and how to remove it safely). You have to set an alarm to wake up at night to take th doses also.

You take it for about 3 days straight on this regime and then take a break of the same amount of time (e.g. 3 days on, 3 days off). And then start again and continue this cycle until mercury is reduced in your blood/urine and tissue.

It takes a few months to do this, but it's wise to, as using products like cilantro or alpha lipoic acid, which can cross the blood brain barrier is risky when you already may have too much mercury in your body area and need to reduce that first before the brain. Otherwise you risk further uptake into the brain.

But that's up to you, you may wish to continue with the cilantro but I wouldn't advise it. At any rate, DMSA will bind and remove if you use it according to the every 4 hour regime.

You can use it for as long as a week if you want, but most try every 3 days at first. If you do it for a week, you must also take a week off, so you can do one week on, one week off. whichever works for you.

The dose is about 25 mg to start or less. Some have to start as low as 6 mg (which of course means breaking up a capsule). It's a bit annoying, but sometimes a person needs to if their symptoms of detox are too overwhelming.

Here is a link where you can buy DMSA http://www.vivagen.net/detoxprods.htm? It is about the 7th item down (the second bottle of DMSA). THe second one is the 25 mg one, which is the dose you'll want. You get about 120 capsules of 25 mg.

I hope this helps.

Dr. Sherry Rogers explains how if you use DMSA you should only use it for about 3 days and then you have to take lots of minerals(mgnesium among others) to replace those since DMSA is non-selective and also binds to minerals. Because I already have a magnesium deficiency problem, I do not want to take the risk of using DMSA.

I guess I should just wait longer and then try using very small amounts of cilantro with larger amounts of Algin.

Funny thing is, I tried the ALA thing (small amount every few hours) several weeks earlier for three days and didn't really notice any ill effects. Makes me wonder if cilantro removes more hg from the brain or if it just worked that way with my body chemistry <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

It has been two years since I had all amalgams removed and two months ago, my naturopath started me on a chelation program with DMSA, taken one 100mg. capsule every three days, with a small mount of cilantro, 12-15 drops in a glass of water. He is a great believer in VERY SLOW dextox as, in his view, moving too quickly almost always aggravates symptoms. We're looking at about 2 years to lower my heavy metal load. Reading these posts, though, has made me wonder if the cilantro use (I'm sometimes not very accurate, just squirt in a squeezerful of tincture, thinking it was just a herb extract that aided removal, never dreaming of the powerful effects mentioned here) is causing the upflare of my eczema.. He did say that the cilantro taken at the same time as the DMSA had a synergistic effect....of course, he prescribes very low doses, considerably separated. And, I take the DMSA at least six hours from any mineral supplements. Thoughts?

For myself, I was doing good on my chelation rounds. Slow but steady progress. Using ALA only, at the time, was working well. I decided to ignore the precautions about cilantro and was sorry that I did afterward. The fatigue was almost unbearable.

It was like I feel after chelation for a short time, but with cilantro the fatigue didn't leave. It took me two or three rounds of ALA to get back to where I was before taking the cilantro. For myself, I decided to not go there again.

My wife can't chelate with anything without problems. Finally we bought a far infrared sauna. It works without any sideffects.

RO

Cilantro garlic and chlorella work quite well for me.

I add lots of basil to the pesto mix which might explain why. Walnut oil with the olive oil seems beneficial also. Currently i am substituting spaghetti squash for wheat/grain based pasta also.

Quite yummy. I eat meat daily also, chicken, steak etc.

I don't understand why you need to take chlorella with cilantro. The only active ingredient in chlorella is chloryphyll and cilantro has plenty of that without the possible mercury contamination.Also you can use fresh cilantro but not fresh chlorella and who knows what happens to it with processing.

I didn't know that about cilantro. Alfalfa also has chlorophyll in it, which is why that can be another aid apparently at aiding "some" metal elimination. Not sure how effective it is though.

Cilantro apparently can detox the brain, but again this is why people can have adverse reactions to it. It is not known how to use it to keep things safe and controlled. Also if you still have too high levels in your tissue/blood, it can take the mercury into the brain with it. So I hear anyway. So it is always better to clear the tissue/blood first.

Though again some people can take just about anything and start improving. They are lucky, they probably have a better system for eliminating any mobilised mercury.

I wouldnt take any cilantro without a binding substance like DMSA

Would first try algin/pectin or natural cellular defence - if you can get through these natural chelators first, strenghten your body, and then bring in the big gun - dmsa. Maybe you may get over the hump and your body will dump the rest of the mercury on its own. The cerec porcelain inlay is good to replace amalgams, if you have any.

cheers

I gather that the cilantro tincture / liquid is much more potent than the fresh herb. Does anyone have any idea about it's potency. For example, how much fresh coriander is equivalent to drops or mls of the liquid?

Most health food stores no longer sell cilatro tincture because they found that only fresh cilantro has any effect.

My point was that chlorypyll is a binding substance which is why people take chlorella along with cilantro .The best way to get chloryphyll is by juicing just about anything green.
Elvis, I don't juice my young , and not only because children are low in chloryphyll. In any case, it seems that you think that my chromosomes should be confiscated, my dna destroyed and my eggs scrambled ,so you should encourage me to juice them.As far as using a cheap juicer , sorry I don't throw money out the window, especially if you are there to catch it.

Dr Mercola recommends using coriander (cilantro) tincture, and also chlorella. Here is his recommended detox protocol: http://www.mercola.com/article/mercury/detox_protocol.htm

Dr Mercola is an osteopath. Every osteopath I've met went into osteopathy because they were too stupid to get in to medical school.

I'm surprised I didn't think of that. That surely means everything he says is absolute rubbish. No one can learn anything about nutrition or health unless they are . . . what, a neurosurgeon? All of us on this forum may as well give up then becasue we're obviously too stupid to learn either.

Jill darlin', you may not be givin' your name, but you're still yankin' my chain. What about responding to Dr Mercola's protocol rather than doing the usual and saying he's a useless individual because he didn't go to "proper" med school or law school, which is obviously the ultimate measure of a person's worth?

if i were to have a bad reaction to cilantro... i would feel it almost right away right? and it'd usually be something to do with my head? has anybody used cilantro only a month after amalgam removal?

Where do you guys get cilantro? in the supermarket?

One reason why cilantro might cause bad reactions is there is no way to measure the dose, at least with DMSA and ALA you get 25mg and you know exactly how much you are taking
With cilantro you can't know, and maybe even different types of cilantro (newer, older) have different chelating properties
Sometimes nothing happens and sometimes it goes haywire

Yep, for some people this stuff can be great, others just get horrific reactions. There is no real controlled dose with cilantro because as Kriminal said, you dont know how much you are really taking when you're eating it, plus nobody knows exactly HOW to take it in order to keep things safe and not redistribute mercury - possibly into worse areas.

I would be careful on it. I've taken it and it just moved metals all over the place. Depends how well your body eliminates what has been stirred up. Some of us do not excrete well, so the poisons can end up in worse areas. I am one of those.

The only time I have had a bad reaction to cilantro is when my mercury blood levels were extremely high, prior to doing IV chelation. Taking vitamin C too close to the time of eating cilantro may also cause sweating. You want to use Vitamin C while chelating though, so take that a good few hours ahead of eating the cilantro.

I eat lots of cilantro, great big handfuls at a time, chopped in a food processor, I mix it with an equal amount of basil and several cloves of garlic. add olive oil and lemon juice and voila, pesto. It has never done anything but made my head feel better, no brain fog/sleepiness whatsoever and I was real foggy for a good few months. My brain fog returns within a week if I stop eating cilantro.

Seems to go well with alpha lipoic acid also, which I have been able to use successfully for the past several weeks finally.

You can buy cilantro at the grocery or grow your own if you are real picky like me about chemical free food, it's real easy to grow, seeds are available online if you can't find any locally. Mine was sprouting in the snow last spring, so it can even withstand cold temperatures quite well. Likes a good amount of water. As it grows, let some seed out so that you don't have to buy seed again and you will always have fresh cilantro on hand. It's a little plant, you can keep all you need growing in a flower box if you don't have any other options.

I consider it essential. nothing makes me feel better. I keep DMSA on hand to help clean up the remnants of heavy metals the cilantro has pulled out, because cilantro will mobliize your metals/mercury very effectively, but it won't bind them. I hate using DMSA alone, I have tried it, brain fog city. I also eat some chlorella about 30-60 minutes prior to eating my cilantro to help with that, but again, DMSA is an option there too.

You'll know if your cilantro routine is not synchronized proper, because your foggy head will remain or else you might get a foggy head. Don't over react, it goes away. Only use cilantro with chlorella or DMSA on hand and eat plenty of (fresh chopped) garlic with it too. N-acetyl cysteine in an OTC amino acid supplement you can use to increase glutathione also, which is the purpose of the garlic (it contains that or something very similar).

I did check on that cilantro routine with my doctor btw, he approved of it. The nurses in the clinic even insisted I bring some over for them.

The best place to get a tincture is here. If you are attempting a tincture, go excruciatingly slow, it can creep up on you and your brain will check out.

http://www.dragonriverherbals.com/Pages/catalog2.html

NDF also has it, in a more appropriate amount I feel.

It's best to use fresh cilantro which is sold in most markets.

I recall before I had my amalgams removed the brain fog was of varying intensities. Sometimes I forgot where I was going, or lost things, had to write everything down. Other times I was going without getting lost. It got progressively worse.

Got my amalgams drilled out/replaced and decided to start using cilantro. At first there was an effect like it was clearing my head, but then some hours or more later maybe the mercury got redistributed to my head. I stopped taking it. Cutler showed a chart of chelating and some chelation just increases the mercury floating around, but DMSA one week on, one week off, seemed to provide a quicker path for the mercury out of the body. I cannot give you the dose info. I do not have it.

There was a study done with dentists who had lower than normal mercury in their urine. After chelation their central nervous systems were attacked and their memory and motorskill testing was impaired. It was theorized that the chelation merely dislodged the mercury and did not bind it. Once every several days I took 100 mg. ALA. Was prepared for both a lessening of symptoms for a time and a reaction/relapse afterwards. Also added minced garlic to my meals. There is not enough data about the actual effects it has on me. I think glutathione is one of the compounds in the body that eliminates the mercury. If you use up all the natural binding chemicals in your body by releasing mercury by chelation then it might cause a bad reaction. This is all theoretical and not clinically tested. Hope it might help.

It has been shown that once the source of the mercury poisoning is removed, people's body levels of mercury returned towards normal without any special diets or meds. Great improvements were reported after months, and during the first several years. I was expecting improvement by eight weeks, but have evidence of it sooner. Gave up caffeine, lost ten pounds, and gained the increased feeling of energy and breath. Am glad I got my amalgams replaced. One survey reported high levels of satisfaction about amalgam removal on average nine months after removal.

Some amalgam disease research:

http://dqhall59.com./amalgamdisease/index.htm

!! Hi Bex !! Welcome back!