Hi you're welcome Heavymetalme. Im the same, when you have toxicity like this, you can read something over and over and it is is nigh impossible at times to take it in as it is, or the mind will see it in another way. I have this a lot. You are not alone. Cutler's book could addle anybody. This is because it is not an organised book, and there are statements in there that dont always seem to match something else he may have said in another area.

Jinx, alpha lipoic acid chelates the body and the brain both. It is an organ chelator. DMSA does not chelate organs significantly, or barely at all. DMSA only really picks up mercury that is already accessible (mercury that the body would already be eliminating over time). It simply speeds up the process, plus makes a more thorough job of it and can suppress symptoms sometimes too (not always making them worse). I personally feel its a bit more powerful than that, but this is Cutlers view.

ALA should be brought onboard as soon as blood levels are reduced enough, because it will begin chelating the organs, as well as the brain. It is a chelator for the entire body/brain. But becuase of blood levels of mercury being still high right after amalgam removal or WITH amalgams, it is generally not advisable to bring ALA onboard too quick with high blood levels because though yes it chelates the body, it also passes over the blood brain barrier too and may take some more mercury with it. So you kind of want the blood levels lower, just to make things safer. Even though eventually it would bring that mercury back out again, it is just wiser to leave ALA out of it until you are 3 months or so past your last amalgam removal (or other mercury exposure).

But again, some people have actually cured themselves of mercury toxicity with DMSA alone, so that says a lot for DMSA! Though it apparently only chelates the blood and tissue, I believe to a point it must have some ability to chelate organ mercury a bit too. perhaps though it is just not as powerful as ALA and the fact is, you dont really want to hang around too long taking DMSA when it has simply stopped giving results.

In fact, Andy thinks getting onto ALA as early as possible (without causing unnecessary risk) is the best move. To get on with chelating the organs, where the mercury is coming from, where its stored because it'll just leak out over time continually. If you are chelating organs, the mercury will be grabbed before it can make you too ill. ALA will do this, but it is safer to use DMSA alongside ALA because as you know, DMSA can be stabler and may help the ALA grab more mercury at the sametime.

Yes, if a person has a lot of brain mercury, they will be wasting their time by "waiting it out". If mercury came out of the brain as easily as it naturally went in, we would not need ALA at all. ALA simply enables the mercury to pass more easily back across the blood brain barrier and out.

Mercury can already get in of its own accord, it does not need the escort of ALA to do that. It just needs to be mobilised all over the body to find its own way to the brain. But to get it back out? That is another story.