I feel like giving up. I cannot seem to tolerate chelation at all. Down to 6mg of DMSA headaches and dizzines within a few hours. Feeling not too bad physically but emotionally wobbly as i wouldnt bother at all not with chelation. Every time i try to chelate it begins to feel too much. I recently tried HMD (heavy metal detox) which is hailed as a very gentle chelator with very few reported side effects. Well it made me ill. I should have known better its got chlorella in it.

Richard, this sounds like myself and how I was when I was chelating years ago with mercury. I was one of those that no matter WHAT I did, I'd end up an emotional basket case during the movement of mercury and actually was a nightmare to live with.

Andy's was probably remotely more tolerable than others, but even then I'd lose it. the more poisoned you are, the worse the side effects.

I always compare it to a glass of water that is full enough as to be too near the top. Any movement of that glass, even very slight, causes overflow, which is how I compare one that is very poisoned. Also, you may also be hypersensitive to mercury, so any movement of it and you'll feel close to losing your rag. Actually you might lose it. I did many times.

You can get emotionally fragile, paranoid, angry, tearful, you name it. However, DMSA is not for everybody and you may find it too much for you. Oral DMPS is better tolerated and only need to be taken every 6-8 hours, as opposed to every 4 hours like DMSA. But unfortunately you can only get it by prescription.

The other alternative to DMSA is using ALA (every 3 hours) but that can only be used about 3 months or so AFTER your last amalgam has been removed, OR after any recent exposure of mercury.

However, it maybe likely you will have to simply go through this and some people have taken as little as 1 mg (I kid you not). So DMSA most certainly is a pretty strong chelator. Some people cannot even go past one or two days and simply have to stop. If you have to stop, do so. Don't push beyond sanity point.

Do not give up, but make sure you are supporting yourself in other ways also, so you're not overloading your body too much. candida diet etc, supplements (antioxidants) and plenty of healthy fats to help with bile production, healing of tissue, hormones, brain etc.

Also, you may find sweating "may" help you. Having hot baths with epsom salts (one cup or so) can encourage mercury release via the pores of the skin or using a combination of sea salt and baking soda (about a cup each). but only if you can cope with that.

I just hope you can hang in there and begin to see some improvements. The way of mercury is to drag you down into continual worsening of symptoms, then some alleviation then back to nightmare stuff again and on it goes until enough has been removed to where you begin to REALLY notice.

That's how it was for me and then I began to come right. Nowadays, I'm dealing with other stuff that is not allowing for improvements, but I can tell you when it was mercury, it took time and it was a lot of suffering for me.

I took 100 mg every third day and felt great, that way you can restore some of the good minerals on the days you are not taking the chelator. The Cutler method may be great for some people, but not for all, my ND has great results with this method..why don't you take a short break and then give it a whirl. And be sure that you are not taking any mineral supplements or B12 on the day you take the chelating substance. Please dont attempt the ALA until you reduce your current mercury load, that stuff is wickedly dangerous. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Best luck and feel better soon. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Sandi
xoxo

Richard - this sounds like adrenals. Chelating is hard on the body, and if your adrenals are weak (they are in most mercury toxic people) you can start to feel shakey, emotional, horribly depressed. Some people become hypoglycemic on DMSA rounds.Have you looked into glandular support for your adrenals? This could help you tolerate chelation better.

Nicola

I have tried 100mg one off dose of DMSA and felt relatively OK. This puzzles me. I cant take 6 mg doses every four hours for a couple of days but I can take a one off dose. Any theories?

HI Richard, if the 100 mg one off doses suits you, then you could stick with that. I know a guy who healed himself by doing that method and he recommends it. So if it works? Then great.

I used to do that, but found it too much for me, the reactions were beyond what I could tolerate, but my doctor wanted me to do the one off dose, even if it was just one 50 mg capsule every few days or once a week, she said it would still chip away at the mercury and get things moving out.

But of course, Andy's protocol seemed safer and cut down on those effects for me at that time, that's why I stuck more with his method. But I used to do hers as well, I'd try both, I just wanted the mercury out.

I think i just find mobilising mercury unpleasant full stop. Hal Huggins i think says detox = retox. And thats what happens. I want to feel better not worse, i already feel uncomfortable enough. The mercury tox symtoms i feel virtually all the time are of late are very mild and my physical health is much improved. Maybe the body will detox naturally without chelation despite what Cutler says. I looked on Hal Huggins site and he seems to look at nutrition mainly. Does anyone know if he advocates chelation at all? Couldnt pick that out from his site.

maybe you should address colon health, parasites, liver etc. first before starting chelation...

Considering that mercury has a half-life of 30 years in brain tissue without treatment, i don't think it's an option for many people to stop chelation. The big decisions lie in which form of chelation attack you choose, and which doctor you choose to guide you, and not a yahoo. I would also second colon health as an area to improve on. Half the detoxification system is in the gut.

Yes, Hal Huggins believes that diet is a big part of all this and said that not doing a proper diet destroys more recoveries than anything else he's seen. Hense the crucial part of sticking to a candida diet and including all the healthy fats, as this also helps with detox via the gut and liver and the fats are a big part of healing and helping the body eliminate metals.

The body will indeed detox some of that mercury naturally and if chelation causes far too painful results, then it is not worth it, unless you just want to do it every now and again when you feel like giving it another burst. But don't push it too often if you are suffering too much. The body is already doing some of it on its own. you can speed it up of course with chelation, but it can be very painful going as you know.

However, the problem lies in this. Depending on how poisoned you are and how long the toxicity has gone on, will depend on how much mercury storage you have in brain and organs. And often a person needs to take something to start eliminating brain/organ mercury such as ALA. Recommended to do that Andy Cutler style for more safety and effectiveness. This can be done about 3-6 months following last amalgam removal.

But you can monitor your own symptoms and decide how you want to go. You can still encourage excretion of mercury with the healthy foods and fats, plus having hot baths with epsom salts to encourage the sweat via the pores. And walking for exercise (treadmill or outdoors) and/or rebounding on a rebounder. All those things are helpful to a toxic person.

But to me, diet is the first and the major foundation, the rest is supplementary. And taking antioxidants and essential fatty acids is another big one. Like mercury free cod liver oil, along with the rest of the fats and diet.