Perhaps there are some "undocumented" effects of DMSA outside of metal chelation, but until that time, the only explanation I have for what it did for me was.... metal chelation. Otherwise DMSA would have and SHOULD have worked for me when I had an even worse pathogen problem with all my infections, yet it didn't. It only worked when I was chronically mercury toxic or had re-exposure....why? because it was removing the source of one of my problems (mercury).

IT does not explan antifungals only treated yeast, whereas DMSA treated my metal toxicity.....Whatever other effects you or those you read come up with, there is no denying it is a metal chelating agent also and therefore results from using may also be from removing metals too.... Perhaps not in every case, I don't know. Personally I have tried DMSA many times when just dealing with pathogens and had no improvements at all. Then we re-exposed to mercury again...usually I find it helps. Sorry, but it's never helped me with pathogens yet. How do you know that the positive effects of DMSA cannot be explained by metal chelation alone? I'd imagine it could very well be explained by it, considering a person is in a much better position to fight other problems if there is less mercury around to hurt them ...How do you know some do not excrete mercury while using it yet still experience improvement? It is very very hard to get an accurate level of mercury and I don't personally believe there is any ideal way to measure that. Some people can be poisoned by very little mercury. It only takes me one visit to a dental office and I get poisoned. If it was just direct problems, once out of there, I'd be bouncing back. I would not require chelation, especially as I'm always treating my yeast. It takes me many months to get the stuff out because it stays in there. Many people retain mercury, holding onto it so tight they stay ill for ages following exposure. I usually require chelation to get it back out. Sadly I don't excrete it very well and levels don't often show up with me properly. That's why I hurt so badly with it. Those that do well, are the ones that show high levels during chelation. The stuff is coming out and coming out rather well. Lucky them. Dr Paula Bickle (USA) speaks about this and addresses a whole audience of doctors. She understand this and talks about retention toxicity (mercury) and how difficult these patients are to treat and get a level of mercury to show up. I think she should know her stuff, considering she's addressing a large audience of fully qualified doctors and talks also about the role of chelation and what they do, etc etc.

You talk about mercury's effect on immunity, yet you seem to disregard the fact that it's an accummulative poison and here is where I think me and you are clearly divided. Mercury does indeed build up in the tissues;/organs and brain. They've done studies on sheep (cruel admitedly), mercury does get deposited in the brain and other areas of the body.

Once amalgams are gone. Amalgam removal alone is not the cure for mercury burden or effects (wishful thinking), because the long term metal accummulation that remains continues to poison the person until they chelate it back out. Amalgams are not just dangerous because of their direct effects on the body systems/immunity, they are dangerous because of the insidious build up of toxicity. It isn't just the direct effects of mercury, it's the fact people are exposed to it 24/7 and the body does indeed store what it cannot eliminate....Of course their ability to control pathogens/infections is going to be seriously suppressed and then you wind up with a multifactoral problem and having to usually treat more than one issue at once to gain any kind of improvement.

Qualified doctors/natural health therapists know this. My own doctor knows this. One of the best doctors in New Zealand knows this. I don't know of any qualified physician who works in mercury that doesn't know this. They study this. Mercury is known to accummulate/build up in tissues/organs/brain. Otherwise all we would need to do is, remove amalgams and just treat yeast....sorry but that doesn't quite cut it in a truly chronically mercury toxic person. It would if the person hasn't much mercury build up I guess, but not someone with a high body/brain burden of mercury. I've seen this often on the candida forums. You can almost spot them sometimes. No amount of treating their pathogens gets rid of certain stubborn toxicity symptoms. I had this and it was mercury and I know full well it was.

The stuff must come out and usually it has to be helped out by taking stuff that has an affinity for metals. Mercury poisoning symptoms are documented, they can be pretty horrific, both acute or chronic poisoning. The detox from metals is also nasty, what goes in that hurts, usually hurts in coming back out. How can it not? You get re-exposed to it eachtime you stir it up, sometimes more symptoms result on the way out than in... Killing off pathogens also hurt, but nothing quite gets me like metals.

Once again, I am not disputing the pathogen relationship to all this and never have. But let's not push mercury to oneside or treat it as a side issue, when often it is the very reason and ongoing reason why people continue to have big big problems with infections of all kinds. And who knows which symptoms exactly come from what, when there are so many things no doubt happening at once. This is why you will see people on here treating yeast and parasites/pathogens and finding it "helps" but somehow....those that are mercury toxic seem to only get so far with it. If chelation was all about pathogens, in a mercury toxic person, it's a very expensive way to go about doing it (DMSA?)...and certainly as I said, it never did a thing for my yeasts/pathogens, it was only ever effective if I had been exposed to metals and it did a good job in pulling them back out of me. I felt it, I knew something was happening. I wish antifungals had done that and given long term results, I'd have saved a lot of money doing it that way instead. But they didn't.

Antifungals worked short term, chelation produced long term resutls from removing the source of the problem (metals). So that way, I could discontinue using it and find I was improving the more I used it and finding (at that time) that I could over time, get a bit looser on my diet as my body was now in a better position to fight yeast. AMalgam removal alone did not do this, antifungals/diet alone did not do this. chelation combined with the others DID do this. The pathogens treatments were always aids, but never removed the metals. One wrong move on diet and I'd plummet. Yet overtime treatment of metals and my body would begin getting stronger against the pathogens. Right now, I don't know what the issue is, but I feel it's infection/viral related, which is why I cannot go off my diet at all, or again I plummet. Because the underlying problem is ongoing.

I appreciate your pathogens/infections comments and reminders to people realise there is more to this, but I find your moving mercury off to the side as much as possible somewhat...curious to be honest.

And stating that the negative effects of mercury usually clears with a few days of amalgam removal is totally misleading and actually disregards just about every thing I've read on mercury and the doctors/health therapists who have studied and written about it. Wow, you should tell my doctor who has studied overseas on this issue. They even do challenge tests to measure increases in mercury (if they do it right). Andy discusses this also, there are proper ways of doing it to actually get a level of it, but often it's done incorrectly and instead leads to a worsening of symptoms and sometimes permanent damage.


The combination of DMSA and ALA is not aimed at pathogens, it is aimed at metal chelation, which is why Cutler talks about frequent dose chelating when one is dealing with mercury or they can make matters far worse from redistribution. You would not require doing this if it was just about pathogens, mercury is the one the right protocol to reduce redistribution risks and possible permanent damage from wrong chelation or at least long term pain! I've been there. It is about removing the body/brain burdens of stored mercury and thus allowing the body to better tackle other issues that were created by the mercury in the first place.

Andy does not talk in depth about pathogens because his main studies is mercury and how to chelate it out of the human body. He concentrates on this and this is why he has planned out such an effective protocol for many people and why he was able to cure himself also. I don't think I am completely blaming mercury for all symptoms, but I think it is reasonable to suspect it strongly in many cases of stubborn yeast (even post amalgam removal). So it's good to get a balance here, but again one can go the other extreme in my opinion and playing down the role of mercury toxicity and accummulation and concentrating on pathogens and having people believe that so long as they get amalgams removed, they only need to treat their pathogens and any improvements they gain from chelation is just...pathogens, not the fact that metal chelating agents may have chelated metals out of them.

This forum by the way is directed at amalgam fillings and mercury poisoning. It is not a pathogen forum with mercury as a side issue.