Here is an interesting discussion on Mercury and ALA:
http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/7/6/456.pdfALA versus Dithiol-based Chelating
Agents (DMPS, DMSA)
The ability of ALA to bind inorganic
mercury from rabbit renal tissue was compared
to glutathione and the chelators 2,3-
dimercaptopropane-1-sulfonate (DMPS), meso-
2,3-dimercapto- succinic acid (DMSA), penicillamine,
and ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid
(EDTA) (Figure 3).69
DMPS was the most efficient chelator,
removing 86 percent of the mercury in three
hours, with DMSA being the next-most efficient,
removing 65 percent of the mercury. In the same
time period, penicillamine removed 60 percent,
glutathione removed 50 percent, ALA removed
35 percent, and EDTA removed 20 percent. Only
the levels reached by DMSA and DMPS, however,
were statistically significantly different
from baseline (p<0.05). Therefore, the effect of
ALA and glutathione may show only a trend or
an apparent effect and are not comparable to
DMPS and DMSA. Although the actual effect of
a chelator or heavy metal-complexing agent cannot
be determined in a three-hour time period, and
acute doses of 10 mg/kg of inorganic mercury
would be considered highly toxic in an adult human,
there is evidence from this study that ALA
is a less efficient binder of inorganic mercury than
the recognized chelating agents, DMSA and
DMPS. All of the substances were used at a concentration
of 10 mM, a level difficult to reach with
ALA oral supplementation.
In another comparison study, ALA (25
mg/kg/day) resulted in an insignificant decrease
in blood and tissue lead in rats with lead toxicity
when compared to the dithiol-based chelating
agent, DMSA (dosed at 90 mg/kg/day) (Table 2).61
