http://www.hugginsappliedhealing.com/faqs.php

'13. How do I know how much mercury is in my body?

This is tough. Cremation is about the only accurate method, but, it really does not matter. You will never get it all out, and that that is in storage is not bothering as much as that that is in circulation. The answer is to have mercury going out of the body just a few micrograms faster than it is coming in. We are all exposed to mercury daily in air, food and water. We excrete in sweat, urine and feces. Maintaining the balance in favor of more excretion than intake will keep you feeling good, and keep your chemistry looking good. Textbooks say the body has 13 milligrams in it. We have known of several people who went on doctor controlled fasts and eliminated a quarter cup of mercury rectally at one time. That is pounds, not thousandths of a gram.'

A quarter cup of mercury at one time??? This guy is crazy???

Yeah that is a lot of mercury, but hey you never know!! My burden is pretty high and if they gave me DMPS intravenously, I bet I would excrete loads at one time, that is why I will stick with the DMSA for awhile yet.

Sandi
xoxo

That's ridiculous. What type of doctor controlled fasts caused someone to excrete a quarter cup of mercury at once?When Huggins makes a ridiculous claim like that, it makes him less believable in general.

yes it's horrible. How can an intelligent person believe that?

quarter cup means the person was sh*tting mercury. Don't believe it.

I respect Huggins quite a bit with many of his recommendations, but other things I have come across have left me wondering.....and what I've read here just adds to that. I just dont know what to think!!!

One doctor in US who spoke to a conference of doctors which is on audio tape even spoke of a certain professional who believed that B12 methylated mercury and should never be used. She said she was so stunned at this professional's apparent lack of knowledge on basic biochemistry. (I think she may have meant Huggins, as he's the main one I know of that mentioned this B12 problem). She then when onto explain further about the B12 and mercury and why it is ok to supplement it. Though for me, most of it was way over my head. Definitely directed to doctors, however some of the tapes were very good and able to be understood by those like myself. She spoke of the problems of finding very low mercury levels on testing in some mercury toxic patients. She said these will be your sickest patients. So she was very aware of retention toxicity.

Huggins also says that candida is our friend. This is probably one of the most misleading statements I have heard. If I had read that in my ignorance I shudder to imagine where I would be now. Possibly dead from suicide. If I had not tackled my yeast, even on a modified level, the outcome would have been dire.

Yeast is already at high levels in a metal toxic environment. It proliferates anytime the immunity is down and metals are present apparently (I can believe that). Perhaps this is a natural reaction and maybe some of that yeast IS in fact a form of defense. however, when this already larger yeast growth is fed even further by the typical western diet of gluten and sugars, it goes beyond even this stage of overgrowth and can become a systemic and serious fungus. In fact, it can be as damaging as mercury and allows mercury to do even more damage because of an over burdened immunity, overburdened gut and liver (from the yeast toxins).

It can take over and grow everywhere, and can affect the brain so seriously as to cause real psychological problems. Huggins is the ONLY health professional I have ever heard say that yeast de-methylates mercury and makes it less toxic. Everything else I have read states the total opposite and states that yeast methylate mercury and make it even more toxic and with my combined symptoms of candida and mercury, I I have no doubts that candida was my enemy, not my friend.

The only thing that might be a problem is that if the yeast happen to have a lot of contained metals in them and a person goes on quite an aggressive yeast killing compaign, this may release a large load of those contained metals in one go and make the person incredibly sick and toxic. You can get acute metal toxicity from attacking yeast too aggressively.

So this is why a person might be wise to take iit easy and simply go on a modified form of a candida diet at first, taking no antifungals. Just basically eliminating all the obvious bad foods like sugar, white flour, gluten and yeast etc. Might be able to include perhaps a piece of fruit a day or something just to have a "little" bit of natural sweetness. Later as the die off symptoms lessen, the person can get stricter. Certainly for me, I didn't think I was eating much sugar, but I was so sick that I decided to not have any of it. Little did I know, that even the bits I was eating earlier were enough to maintain the yeast at very unhealthy levels. I had NO idea and once I cut the sugar out and didn't cheat, then I started to eventually improve. Though I went through unpleasant yeast die off which made me feel sick temporarily from their toxins.

When you do enough reading as a sick person, you come across article after article and your own experience and observations of others on other forums and it is amazing what you do learn. I'll never understand the all the technical chemical terms or anything of that nature, but certainly experience by myself and others speaks volumes. Huggins does not always get it right. But i do respect so much of the other things he has laid out for us mercury toxic people.

I believe that guy should be told how dangerous candida has been for many of us on here. How many here go into a state of nightmare symptoms when they go off their diet? One girl I know of is not on this forum anymore because she is healing from her toxicity. She believes part of that healing was the diet. Even now if she goes off it, the nightmare symptoms tend to return so she is obviously still metal toxic. The diet is literally keeping her going and she is now working and enjoying better health. And I hear this often, even on this forum alone.

I agree with Bex, mainly because she has way more patience typing lots of info than I do. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Thanks Bex! I don't know how you do it...

Huggins? What a great guy for getting us all informed. I signed up for his $560 total program, and there was quite a bit of value there. At that point, I was just getting into the journey, and saw it as a smart thing to do. Once I felt pretty sure I had mercury poisoning, I wanted every piece of information I could get! I also ordered biocompatibility testing through his affiliate company. It was expensive, but consider what your health is worth....I think we would all agree it is everything.

Yes, I also questioned some of his points/methodology, and after reading Cutler, decided his chelation approach was better. Every 3 hours, low dosages. But as for correct information, all of us are stuck with so much contradictory information, it is mind boggling. That's why this forum is so great; you kind of sort it out by other's posts.

Also I feel you can jam too many supplements down and feel worse. Supplements are great, but you really have to watch your reaction to them. But both Cutler and Huggings recommend lots of supplements. I sometimes feel, and have heard at least one expert say this is too much.

Sometimes I feel better just giving my body no supplements at all for a few days. And I sometimes think I feel worse taking B-vitamins, very hard to prove in a two a day formula with many other ingredients. I am sure there are some who probably thrive on B-vitamins.

I don't think Huggins is crazy, he was just filling in the blanks as best he could, same way Cutler does, or anyone who is pioneering a new approach. The facts come out later. He is to be applauded for having the guts to stand up on this in my opinion.

TW

HI TW, thank you! lol. I am at a really low ebb lately and cannot do much, so I tend to have all day sitting here and what better way to use it?

I agree with you on Huggins, I think he's done so much for people like us and many of his information I find of great value. his dietry suggestions have been SPOT ON.

I think too though that you have to take the best out of these professionals and apply the stuff that works and suits and disgard what doesn't. I agree, I do not believe that over the top supplements can POSSIBLY be of benefit. Im sure that some are necessary, but to go over the top is probably going to have the opposite effect.

Also many mercury toxic people react very easily to supplements and find they feel worse! When I was mercury toxic, I found a few that suited me, but that was it. The ones I was ok on were vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium (to a point, had to be careful) and zinc, these alone actually aided my body in eliminating some of the mercury believe it or not. I could handle a multi so long as it did not contain the allergy ingredients. B complex was debatable.

So it's trial and error alot of the time. I never found testing all that conclusive for me, so I went by my own reactions. This is why I found diet was so important, yet was not mentioned enough by Andy Cutler, or nothing was underlined in this area as being that important. I had to find my own way out in a long drawn out painful manner. Eating some of the wrong foods was actually causing me untold misery and I had NO idea.

But yeah, these two guys are great, but do differ on certain things. Some do find Huggins way helps them just fine, others find Andy does. Huggins suggestions in one detox pamphlet I have of his is loading doses of Vitamin C every now and again to help clear things out and then a maintanence dose. Also detox baths with I think epsom salts.. etc, to help eliminate mercury through the skin. And DMSA (only one capsule - 50 mg) I think Mondays. Wednseday, Friday. This did not work for me, made me incredibly sick because there was no back up dose to continue to grab the mercury that the one capsule had pulled out. So all it did was grab some mercury and move it around with nothing else behind it.

Andy's way was different for me and I found that I felt alright using it, a little unwell because of detox, but it was tolerable and something I could continue doing. I take most of the recommended supplements, but just not everything because I feel it is simply too much personally.

I was wondering how you were getting on Bex, as we hadn't heard from you for a while there. Has your condition got worse? I'm sorry you are suffering so much, you have worked so hard and done so many things well. Are you still thinking it might help to get your thyroid checked? How is it going with the goji berry juice?

Linda.

I admittedly know much less about it than huggins does, but that claim doesn't seem to be possible.

Hi Linda, hmmmm I struggle on as usual. I have admitted a very very big problem with addiction to certain foods. This is something I didn't have so much trouble at one stage because I simply didn't have the appetite.

Now, my appetite is erratic and this is the main beast I'mfighting right now (cravings and giving in). And I think you were right on the goji juice, I had some and am certain that I felt worse or gurgling in the gut (which often happens when I am feeding yeast). however I had also eaten a few chips.

So once again it is all trial and error. i still have it and may try it again well i feel more confident.

The diet is actually something so essential to me that it's just astounding what happens when I cheat.

I think a lot of this was from a course of antibiotics last year that I had for a flu infection. I never usually go near them but had no choice because I was awake night after night with fevers chills and non stop coughing.

Since the antibiotics, I have had a far worse problem now with yeast and dont recover as promptly as I used to after a cheat. It takes a long time apparently before gut flora has re-established itself and one MUST remain on the diet for a long period of time so that can take place.

I tend not to get into probiotics too much in supplement form because i heard one can become a little reliant on this...But I do eat acidophilus yoghurt. I dont know how much of that is actually making it to the areas where its needed though.

I haven't got my thyroid checked lately no. I'm hesitant to take anything for it anyway. I know people advocate it a lot, but its not something I have ever felt ok about doing.

I'm so sorry Bex. My thoughts are with you a lot of the time. I hear what you say about probiotics, but I think it is vital to take them when you are on antibiotics. The ones in yogurt aren't any great shakes when it comes to this; you would want a refrigerated culture from a health food shop. (This is the advice my naturopath gives to people when they are on antibiotics.)

Yep, I know what the food cravings are like. You and I both know how critically important a good diet is, but when biochemistry is "off," the body can start craving all kinds of things, whether they are actually good for us or not.

I got fed up with the sugar cravings lately and decided to just give in, after 2 months of a very clean diet. I rememer last winter, always feeling better when I was having sugar. I guess I was seeking the kind of unhealthy "break" that others might get from alcohol or other drugs. What I found, though, was that the sugar didn't really help me in any way, and it made a lot of things worse. My cortisol went through the roof, my gut was upset, the crashes between sugar hits were awful, I spent money on this stuff even though we're broke at the moment, and I even had spells (during the subsequent days of withdrawal) where I felt like everything is utterly hopeless and I wanted to die. Sugar is just evil.

Get this, though. I've gone several days without it and should be getting back onto an even keel. And I am -- apart from sugar cravings, how perverse is that! It's coming from my body, not my brain. My brain knows how pointless it was to eat the stuff. My body doesn't seem to care. I wish i could do something to make the cravings go away, I am sick to death of them. I've started another chelation round today after about a week's rest, and normally that would be enough for me to shut all thoughts of junk food away, but they are just such a plague right now.

I guess all we can do is just keep trying; at least we have the knowledge of what is actually healthy, and can keep striving towards that as best we can. I do hope you decide to get your thyroid tested, I'd like to think you could maybe get some help from something like Armour. As for me, I phoned my doctor's office yesterday and found that even though it's been over 5 weeks since I saw my GP, he still hasn't referred me for those mercury tests. Good lord, it's a good thing I'm not dying.

Take care Bex and let us know how you're getting on. I pray in my own way and you are there.

Linda.

Bex I think what Huggins meant when he said candida was our friend was what Klinghardt discovered. He said that the yeast grows in a metal environment to protect us from the heavy metals.

"Most if not all chronic infectious diseases are not caused by a failure of the immune system, but are a conscious adaptation of the immune system to an otherwise lethal heavy metal environment. Mercury suffocates the intracellular respiratory mechanism and can cause cell death. So, the immune system makes a deal: it cultivates fungi and bacteria that can bind large amounts of toxic metals. The gain: the cells can breathe. The cost: the system has to provide nutrition for the microorganisms and has to deal with their metabolic products ("toxins"). That does not imply that the tolerated guest cannot grow out of control, as it sometimes clearly does."

This is from.....

http://mercuryexposure.org/index.php?article_id=66

I wonder what would have happened to our bodies without the so-called "benefits" of candida...... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Sandi
xoxo

Hi Linda, thank you. You are a very caring person. I think I may have to get some of those probiotics. Something doesn't feel right. IT feels like the good bacteria isn't filling the gaps back in. So though I may try and starve the yeast again, it takes ages to feel remotely better, but one small cheat and it's back again heavily. As though the gaps are there waiting for the yeast to settle right back in. Almost like no good bacteria is there....

I'm so sick of this. I know you are too. I am scared of becoming reliant on something to where I get even worse unless I keep taking it or need to take higher doses in order to achieve the same result. Scares me! But I may have to bit the bullet on this one.

Yes, much like yourself, the crash between sugar hits is horrific. It is absolutely not worth it whatsoever. Yes it feels great at the time, you feel like you've had your next "fix", but the withdrawal and painstaking times of the body trying to mend from it are just ridiculous. I find it's taking up so much of my life and really it is my own fault. Nobody else makes me eat those things, it's myself. It the most powerful urge I think I've had. I find when the cravings hit bad enough, I go brain dead. I actually can't think about a thing BUT that.

Yep, all we can do is keep trying. I dont think there is any real cure for this, other than simply doing it. And finding ways to prepare by keeping a good intake of healthy food so you do not get caught short. I'm not saying it makes the cravings go away, but when you have true hunger as well as the typical cravings, you're a sitting duck. This is my problem. I will go to my brothers house without eating breakfast (because I dont really get hungry in the morning)....well by the time I'm there and there for long enough? I get TRULY hungry. Unfortunately I also have the typical cravings as well. What happens? Well you can imagine. So I am now trying to eat before I go, even if I dont really feel like eating and I may take somethign with me in a bag. Cold chicken or something to tide me over in case. I have to do this. (nuts or yoghurt). anything that I can snack on.

Wow, you have been waiting five weeks and still no referral for testing? lol yeah it's a good thing you are not dying from this thing. boy are they slow. I get the same here as well and it is highly frustrating. gotta wonder what they're doing in the meantime....

Yes I may get my thyroid tested, though everytime I did in the past it always turned out ok. I am in no hurry to ever take something for it though because again I do not wish to become reliant on it and find that in the long run I need to stay on it permanently or need even more of it to function. that is a real fear with me.

Thanks again Linda, it helps when you've got others battling along with you. Not nice for them though, but doesn't feel quite so isolating.

take care too.

Hi Sandi, that makes a lot of sense. Kind of what I had in mind that a certain amount of yeast proliferates in that situation and maybe that is a natural protective mechanism, but as we know that it is so precarious because any feeding beyond that point and it can go into major problems with horrible ill effects.

So there seems to be a balance of not giving that already overgrown yeast a chance to go bezerk by feeding it further.

Yes maybe that's what Huggins meant. Certainly he does not advocate sugar because in his book the diet he states avoids sugar, caffeine, milk etc....I just wish he would be clearer on this because candida is also highly damaging.

So that link you gave with those comments makes ALL the sense to me. It's a case of keeping off the high carbs/sugars so that the overgrowth is not pushed over that limit and eating healthy foods so the body can keep the overgrowth somehow under some form of control.

I know that feeding my candida has been disastrous, but perhaps killing too much off is also disasterous (antifungals one prime example).....if you give the body what it needs and remove the sugars/garbage, at least it gives it half a chance to harbor what it needs and to disgard the rest.

We're quite a pair then Bex, LOL. Even my naturopath doesn't quite seem to understand what the biological sugar cravings are like. Just don't eat it, she says. I'm beginning to wonder if the SAD influence is already beginning; that causes carb cravings. The depression first began in a September and one of the first symptoms I noticed was a bizarre craving for bread. I am not a bread-person at all. I was exercising at a gym regularly, not eating a lot of sugar, but those carb cravings were there, as well as fatigue and sleep problems setting in. I've failed again today I am afraid. This is a big battle for me as it is for you. It's nice to have the support here though, I don't feel so alone in this. I've stopped the chelation until I can manage to deal with my eating problems.

I hear what you are saying about becoming dependent on things. I feel the same. I guess the important thing to know is when they really are necessary to function. Probiotics when you are on antibiotics, yes. Thyroid hormones when you're not sure there's anything wrong . . . tricky. I wish I knew what else to suggest. My naturopath online would be able to help you, but her focus is on helping people who have been on psych drugs. Technically yes I think you'd be accepted on her list, but as you say it sounds like most of your problems don't involve psych drug withdrawal. I could be wrong though. Sometimes they can mess things up badly and leave them that way, don't underestimate their power to cause you grief in a hundred different ways.

Hey, what's it like over there, if you don't mind my asking? I've known several people from NZ and they were passionate about what a special place it is. I'd love to visit it someday. Do you live in a city or out in the countryside somewhere?

Linda.

Hi Linda, lol I know. I wonder too if there is more to this SAD thing now too. It has been winter here and a bad one (at least for me with my pathetic circulation)....I wonder if there is a connection with my terrible cheating on my diet. I have really been strangely depressed and something is setting of a trigger of somehow searching for relief in eating.

I was not given probiotics by the doc when he put me on those antibiotics last year (not on them anymore). I was only on them for 7 days. Amazing I got this sick. Mind you, one guy did the same and never recovered (scary). I told him to stay on the diet and not give up (good at giving advice, but not so good at following it). I dont know if he did or not, never heard back.

I dont know about psyh drugs. I was only on them for a rather short period of my life (age 21). I simply reacted to them with so many side effects, that long term use was not really possible. But they did do terrible things to me at the time. However, doing nothing didn't seem to be an option either. Either way I was a mess. But again once I got on the diet, that's when things improved greatly (at that time) and would have remained that way had other things not occured later on! I dont attribute what I have now to psyche drugs, but rather multiple factors (infections/ residue mercury perhaps /cavitations/ incompatible composites... maybe). Nothing is a sure thing though.

New Zealand like anywhere has it's really great places and mundane ones. Some places are breathtakingly beautiful. So much so that if I see it on TV, I think "is that my country?". so yeah I dont really live in the breathtaking areas <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. Queenstown is probably the best if one wishes to tour here. The South Island is the place to go for beauty. I live in the city areas more and I should be ashamed because I have really not seen enough of my own country. This country is the kind of place where you can leave one area and go to the next and go from extraordinary to completely ordinary (like anywhere I guess?).

My ancestors all came from England, Ireland, Norway etc. Sometimes I'd like to leave here and go to those places. I always feel some kind of affinity to them...I've been to europe and part of me didn't want to leave. I felt something over there that I do not sense in my own country. Perhaps it is the incredible history of those places? I felt a much stronger atmosphere over there. I cannot describe it, ...quite ghostly/eerie almost. Something I have NEVER felt before. I soaked it up, though it was not like I was visiting great historical castles either. I have no real idea exatly what it was.

Yes I agree Bex, we have to stick to a clean diet to avoid methylating more mercury....eating sugars or high glycemic foods are totally off limits, and when I avoid them completely, my cravings totally disappear...it is the only way.

There is no such thing as just one, or a little bit of cheating....not in my experience anyway. It just leads to big time binging...that is what happened to me last Christmas. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I think that is what Huggins meant, I don't think he proposes feeding more yeast.

best love,
Sandi
xoxo

Have you seen countryside like that in Lord of the Rings then, Bex? One of my friends from years back used to like to go caving there. Another person I worked with sang the praises of the white beaches near her home.

I think I have an idea of what you mean about this place where I live. I've met a number of Americans who feel the same. I wonder if it is because everything here is just so much older and has so much more history. As a former colony you are new, and cultural heritage in that new place does not stretch far back. Here in England, you can visit sites that are 5000 years old. This blew me away when I first came here from the US. Over there, 100 years is "old." And as the Native American heritage is not shared by many people there, they don't have much of a sense of history stretching back.

I feel these things more keenly when I am not depressed, which stands to reason. It has to be said, though, that the place where a person is born and raised has a huge influence. My husband and I have no desire to move to the US, but in certain ways it will still always feel more like home than here, simply because it's where I grew up, and I have many memories from there. I can call myself British, I am a citizen here and have soaked up the ways pretty well. But there's always going to be a bit of that sense of the foreign, that this heritage is not mine.

It just occurred to me that this has absolutely nothing to do with Huggins. I don't set out to intentionally pull people off the topic, sorry. I just had to ask though, NZ sounds like such a special place. Hope you're OK with that Bex <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Linda.

Sandi I am not ignoring you, that is some very good advice. My problem, and I think Bex's, is that following the diet still is not eliminating the cravings. I agree with you, it should, and it does for most people. It is very healing. And cheating can really throw the body out of whack. My diet was scrupulously clean for 2 months though, which was a big achievement for me, and the sugar cravings NEVER went away, all that time. I fought them with willpower because I wanted my chelation to be successful. Willpower is certainly fallible though; it usually isn't the best way to approach something. You have to get it at its source.

I really admire what you are doing yourself. You are dedicated, and you will beat that cancer and find your way back to health. You're a great inspiration here.

Linda.

Hi Linda. Yes ive seen Lord of the Rings and it was filmed in Wellington (where I live on the outskirts of). I haven't really seen the actual areas myself close up, but it's quite something to see it on film and think "I actually live near this?". Doens't seem real in a way.

Yes, when I am more healthy, I pick up atmosphere far more, a little like something inside of you is suddenly clearer/cleaner. And yes I think it is the very long history of those places and so much of it has been kept.

New Zealand is pretty new in comparison, I dont feel it here as much. But again there are certain areas of New Zealand that DO seem to have some of that (more south island). Have you heard of the "Moa"? THe biggest bird ever discovered that became instinct a LONG time ago. You should look it up if you haven't, this was a native new zealand bird. I wish they still existed! lol, I know this is off-topic too. I hope the original poster doesn't mind too much.

Oh yeah, I dont lose my cravings anymore either Linda and that worries me a little. i used to lose them after a few weeks and got results much more, but these days I assume I am weaker and far more toxic, so obviously I dont heal properly. It's like some kind of constant battle going on.

Still I keep trying. NOt much else to do other than battle on. I ate cheese yesterday thinking it might not be too bad, but I think it's yet another one I'm going to have to avoid. Mind you I am still in the early stages of the diet after my previous cheat, so it might still be the withdrawal symptoms and up and down symptoms from that. But right now I'll avoid it. If I improve again later, I think I'll experiement a little and then things will be more clearer for me.

Not easy eh?

No, not easy. But easier when we support each other here at least.

"Moa" is a usual word in the crossword puzzles I do LOL. I will go and have a look at a picture of one.

If you do want to have cheese, I wonder if you can find some made with raw (unpasteurised) milk. Unfortunately raw milk is illegal here in the UK, but one of the major supermarket chains imports some raw milk cheese from Canada and it sells well. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig are big advocates of the enzymes and beneficial bacteria in cultured foods and reading their cookbook inspired me to try the cheese. It's wonderful stuff, makes all the other cheeses seem bland and manufactured.

I wish you could find an expert over there to help you. Some people on this forum have gone to people who are really supposed to know what they are doing, and still haven't been helped. It isn't right that it ultimately seems to be up to us to work things out for ourselves. But at least it's better than putting our trust in allopathic GPs who will give us drugs and unnecessary surgery, at least we know the truth about that.

lol! I used to do crossword puzzles all the time....I dont know why I stopped. I could get back into it and I find it so addictive (not a bad addiction though).

Yeah, I may have to get a better type of cheese. Right now it is still trial and error. I tried some cheese again and goji juice and pretty sure both are out. Boy it doesn't take much to make you feel worse. In fact, I can almost feel it descending on me quite soon after, but again it is subtle at the sametime to where I cannot be certain it's the usual, or the food that's done it.

Better safe than sorry I say. Hey, if I can eat my yoghurt and some raw nuts, then that's pretty good. I still have to watch them as well though.

Well I've been to some good doctors in the past who did get me on this kind of diet and they saved my life. But unfortunately now? I have to be on a much stricter one than they suggested. Fruit is OUT. So it is definitely a combination of self experimenting, mixed in with professional advice. Though much of the other professional advice I got was so damaging to me, so you really have to be choosy and you're lucky if you come across a doctor who is into this area of health. They really do recognise candida.

I won't forget the doctors that believed me and were into health. The other ones were hopeless and did nothing to help me at all.