lol ok Sunshine. Well, the MOST I manage to gain in life is some form of control over symptoms. All the things I am doing now used to give me dramatic improvements and I was already well on the road to recovery years ago from mercury toxicity.

My immune system pretty much crashed after an infection that has never left me in 2003. Still get fever, sore throats etc whenever I attempt to exercise. Even if I do not get this, I am ill permanently. On top of this is the possible cavitations in the jaws (which I've mentioned previously). I'm sure people are sick of me going through it all, but just to recap, that my lack of strides in health are from being held back by a number of things at once, some of which I am no doubt not aware of.

Yes I do cheat on this diet. I usually get to about 10 days to two weeks and I crash. I keep getting back up and trying but obviously my excessive cravings for the wrong foods lead me astray (lack of will power).

I dont do oil pulling, but I do use a gum treatment which appears to aid my gums pretty well. If I stop using it, they revert back to being as bad as ever, which I believe adds to the load if my body is constanty fighting one thing or another. I believe it's a vicious cycle with one thing setting off another. I believe periodontal gum disease is immune related. My gums were fine before all these problems hit (even with mercury toxicity they were ok). THe gum treatment does actually control this. It also contains colloidal silver.

But my cheating I believe is a big issue here. I do not believe the diet will cure me because there is something much bigger than that at work (obviously), but unless I can pinpoint exactly what all the problems are and how to cure them, then the best I can do in the meantime is help my body as much as I can. Obviously cheating is not going to help.

My last cheats consisted of donuts, biscuits (cookies for those from US), ice cream, lol basically all that you mentioned~! I went hell for leather. Interesting thing happens when I cheat. My body (legs in particular) will start to get puffy looking, I actually start looking swollen. As though the toxins are somehow affecting my kidneys and my body is attempting to buffer the toxins with fluid....not sure if that's what it really is, but it's a strange thing.

My cheating so far has happened everytime I have been at someone's house and they have offered me something (sister in law usually). I will start by saying "no thanks, I am really trying to stick to my diet" (they know I'm on a candida diet). But after a lot of "no, but thank you anyways", I'll weaken and usually it is something non sugar like "pasta" or "lasagna" and here is the trap. Because it's not sugar, I get the idea into my head that it won't be too bad, but no sooner have I tried it, than that little button is pushed and I'm gone. I mean I will bulldoze anything in my path (food wise). I'm a machine.

So by the next day, I find I cannot wake up properly (drugged feeling). I'll spend the day in a stupor like condition and having to start frm scratch because one cheat, even if it's not direct sugar appears to be the thing that flicks the switch. So here i am again, starting from scratch. I was proud of myself the last time, I made it to two weeks and had no intention of cheating until my sister in law made a Lasagna, which my brother refused to eat (because he had a late lunch), she sat there and stared at all the food she made and looked at me and I thought "oh hell" and it went down hill from there. I think I was trying to fool myself into believing it was for a good cause, but that's how candida works on you. Somethign happens to my brain when I'm craving, I'm sure of it because after I've given in and satisfied myself, I come back to my senses and think "why did I do that????".

So yes this is a REAL problem for me. I believe I can do it though because 2 weeks straight would have lasted had I not decided that I was doing someone else a favor by eating their food. It would help if those around me were a little more supportive, but I cannot rely on that and really it comes down to myself.

As far as water goes? I dont drink it straight at all. I drink herb teas, vitamin C and lemon in water. I figure that's pretty good....

I do mention things that have worked for me, I wouldn't pass something on if it hadn't. These things always worked in the past and still do now (to a point) if I stick with it. ie. the andy cutler protocol worked for me, and enough other people to where I feel comfortable passing that on. The diet? the same thing, but you've seen the problems. It is easy to tell others what to do, but practising what one preaches is another story sometimes. Dont get me wrong, i've managed to stick to this diet non stop in the past with little to no cheats at all. But these days I am really struggling with cravings.

I get up and start again, but I need to stick with it fulltime.

Yes there are nightmare stories out there on amalgam removals and wonderful successes. The nightmare ones appear to be those that got all their amalgams out in one session....so I think the expousre during removal must be devastating to an already weakened body. Your wife is wise, do not get your mind into the nightmare stories, because it's the successes you don't hear about. Plenty of people on here leave and plenty more join up. You only really hear the worst because they are the ones who stay on the forum. I've already seen people come and go and gotten well. Two of them chat to me on email and are VERY happy. But interesting thing is, they say diet is playing a HUGE role in this. They are not yet well enough to get into loose eating. IF they do, they find the still remaining mercury pulls them down again. If they get back on track, the diet eases the symptoms as they continue to detox the remaining mercury. As long as there is mercury, yeast will usually be there and will usually continue to pose a problem until a person is detoxed enough to where their immunity is able to control yeast without much help.