Well it looks like I've come to the right place <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

It's been a long road but finally I think I know what's wrong me. I believe I am Mercury Toxic. I've got a few moments up my sleeve so I'll tell you all about it.

For most of my life I've had constant brain fog and a bizarre short term memory (some memories just not being 'recorded' whilst having fantastic visual recall of others). It has always been a struggle to concentrate.

Fatigue is another one that's been with me to varying degrees for most of my life. Interesting side story; I went to the Doctor one day complaining that I was always tired and fatigued. He told me that there was nothing to worry about as 'a lot of people complain about it.' So are we talking about 'nothing to worry about' or an epidemic? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Acne - for all of my adult life I've had acne on my back. I used to get large boil like spots, not little red 'dots.' Until a year ago I used to also get small spots on my face, and the same boils used to appear on the side of my neck...always the same place on the side of my neck - and mirrored on the other side. My body has been trying to get rid of toxins but no one told me about that theory...

About two years ago in the middle of the night I had a bout of gastritis. I thought it was gas...but it didn't go away. The pain and discomfort just kept building. After 4 hours it just subsided. Gone. It wasn't until half a year later that I got my next bout - it was from this time that it became a constant part of my life. My body had crashed. Associated with the extremely painful gastritis was muscle spasms which would precede the gastritis event itself. No one could help me. No one knew what was causing it. It would then last longer than 4 hours a night - the whole night, sometimes during the day time. On average 5 or 6 times a month, sometimes more. My stomach would get so upset that I would throw up several times at the climax of the gastritis event. I thought it may have been a sensitivity to what I ate, but it seemed like only soft food would not aggravate it. Along with this I had terrible fatigue. I had to really push myself through work every day. I was pale and the dark circles under my eyes were even more grey than they used to be.

What was happening to me? The doctors said I was producing too much acid so wanted to put me on Losec. It did happen to work, but I didn't want to be medicated for the rest of my life, but they also put me in for a gastroscopy to check for ulcers or for anything wrong with my stomach.

Stomach fine. They had a theory about the upper valve being a little bit sluggish, but no matter how much they tried to convince me it didn't fit in my opinion.

The muscle spasms continued though, along the spine and between the ribs. I discovered (after looking at stomach contents and by feeling and self diagnosis) that my stomach muscles and a lot of other internal muscles were permanently engaging, which meant that food wouldn't actually leave my stomach, so more and more acid would build up to try to digest something that wasn't going anywhere. Eventually the build up of naturally produced acid would begin to aggravate the stomach and gastritis would occur. This would also explain why throwing up would be the beginning of the "end" of the session.

On the advise of a friend I decided to try an anti-inflammatory. Even though it's nasty medication, it FINALLY brought me relief from the hours of agony.

Then I ordered an Elisa test testing for food allergies - I was desperate. Before the results came back I started seeing a chiropractor. He could tell I was in a very bad way - a large number of muscles along the back and internal were very tight. I felt in a very bad way. After a few weeks of seeing him the results came back from the Elisa test...

I had NO immediate allergies to ANYTHING. Fine. Not a problem. However I suspected that...I did however have delayed reactions to...almost everything typical in the western diet.

Wheat Gluten, Gliaden, whole wheat (top of the reaction list) + Rye + Spelt
Dairy
Eggs (Top of the reaction list)
Peanuts (Top of the reaction list)
Sesame seeds
Garlic

I'm a stubborn and determined person, so as soon as I saw this I cut ALL of them out cold turkey. The Chiropractor noticed an immediate difference. I was still in a bad way, but it was a change.

I've been doing this for a year. In this year the acne is still on my back, but gone from everywhere else - no more boil-like spots either. I feel about as good as I did 10 years ago - so I'm better than I was a year ago, but still not "right."

That's when we come to Mercury... (In part 2)