Sunshine - you'll like this....
Today I got my latest hair analysis results and was pretty upset to set that my Ca / Mag ratio (indicative of blood sugar) had got massively worse (was 46 in my last analysis, has now gone up to 60). Calcium was much more elevated than last time, I have gone from being a medium metabolizer to a slow metabolizer. This matches with my symptoms - I realised on Friday I was feeling hypothyroid - cold, bad sleep, bad blood sugar control, to the point of diabetes - despite not changing my dose of Armour and T3. I was pretty upset and couldn't understand why or what had gone wrong. I thought chelating would make me BETTER.
The other thing that had changed from my previous hair analysis was lead, which had risen from the green zone to the yellow. I couldn't understand why lead had increased, but then remembered that DMSA pulls lead first (and that's actually what it's for - lead poisoning in children). So in these last 6 months I have been pulling lead, amongst other things. ..
On hitting the net today, I found this really helpful article about thyroid, minerals and heavy metals
http://www.arltma.com/HypothyroidismDoc.htmwhich explains that elevated hair calcium is due to low thyroid levels (so I was right about that) and also that lead causes a thyroid imbalance - in my case hypo. Bingo!! Hair analysis explained.
Next, to Cutler's Hair Analysis book about lead, where he states that chelation is much slower than for mercury - just once a month. So with my 3 days on, 3 days off schedule I have been probably been chelating lead too quickly, and this could explain the almost permanent metal taste I have, 18 months post amalgam removal. I am now going to take a DMSA holiday for a bit, and perhaps try an ALA only round.
All this is to demonstrate that the chelation path is not smooth, and can be very unexpected. I didn't know lead was an issue for me, I had no idea that chelating it could make me hypothyroid, despite no change in my thyroid dose. I also thought that having found the right thyroid dose I would not need to change it - except for a slight variation for winter and summer.
I thought I would share this experience, so that others can may be anticipate something similar when chelating. I was about to go to the doctor to be tested for diabetes, but now I thing I will wait a couple of weeks and increase my thyroid dose, and see what impact that has. I bet my fasting glucose will come down.
Sorry to divert the flow of this thread, but Sunshine was talking about learning and sharing. I have learned a lot today - thought I'd pass it on. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Nicola
