I thought I would try doing this last round with ALA alone. I always prefer to do things "naturally" and although DMSA seemed to be OK with me, I'm aware that it does rob the body of minerals, and it's expensive to boot. I was hoping to stand a chance of getting some after having a mercury test of some kind done, but it's been over a months since my doc said he'd refer me and I still haven't heard anything about that.

I felt no effect whatsoever after doing a day of 25mg ALA doses, so I thought I'd try going up to 50mg. (Previously I'd been having 25mg each of DMSA and ALA.) Yesterday I was fine with that but today has been a doozy, it's been really hard. I managed to get through without panicking or stuffing my face with sugar because I knew what was going on and I knew it would pass.

I'm just wondering what to do next. I'm starting to lose heart with all this. It's hard to know what's going on inside my body and what's going to help. I can say with certainty that my worsening of symptoms upon amalgam removal has gone, and I'm really pleased about that. I suspect, though, that I continue to feel depressed because my life just sucks right now and it's been a very long sturggle to try to change it. At times when I've been happier for whatever reason, I felt the depression lift briefly. I'm wondering how much help continued chelation will really be, because on days like this it takes a lot of motivation to keep going.

If anything, the brain fog is worse rather than better Might I need to take the DMSA along with the ALA? I'm a bit confused there. I'm told that the usual protocol is to take them together but Bex says a lot of people can take ALA alone.

If brain mercury is a problem and you're ready to take ALA, do you usually start feeling a benefit from it fairly early on? Can people who take ALA as a normal supplement do it without having any trouble -- does the fact that I feel this way show that I really do have more mercury to come out? I was thinking that maybe taking 400mg a day or so of ALA would be a really good addition to a supplement regime, but I don't think I dare take a couple of large doses in the day, I don't want to risk making myself sick.

I've said it before -- there's just so much guessing involved in this. What the NHS has to offer here seems more pathetic to me all the time, it's no "help" at all.

Linda.