Mike, I would not put too much devotion into these testing methods. They can only say so much and often can give contradictory answers. It also depends on the operator. I've had this myself.

Onetime I went and I had mercury and other problems....next time apparently I didn't. This was absolute rubbish, I was still sick with both and had to continue treating BOTH regardless. Another time I was told that I had mental/emotional blocks which were stopping the healing process.......Yet I was not blocking anything, I was doing all I could to heal but I knew something was wrong and it sure wasn't that~!!!! They ALWAYS revert to this. I've had that said by two health professionals now and I really started to doubt myself......until I heard the same senario with a few others. If you don't respond to treatment as they want you too, or think you should, they revert to this. It also covers them quite well because if you're not responding properly, they have a back-up. And it leaves you blaming yourself <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> This is what I believe because I know myself better than they do!

I knew full well I was ill and there is no contest between their testing methods and my body's symptoms. Which one are you going to believe? Your body or his flawed testing? Their own bias also comes into it I'm sure.

You know yourself much more than they do. I'd go with what the others have said on here and trust yourself. IN a way you have already answered your own questions/doubts and I hope that we have confirmed things for you!

Testing methods are always FLAWED, no matter WHAT you get done. They never tell the whole story. I'd very much doubt you would be rid of candida or metals when you haven't had the amalgams gone for too long or chelated for long enough. This is just illogical unless you were already pretty strong in the first place and detoxed extremely fast...

If the amalgams made you sick in the first place, and the exposure during an unprotected removal - you do not recover over night or in a few months. It takes a long time, plus yeast will usually continue to be an issue until your immune system has recovered some of its strength.

If DMSA is continuing to cause detox symptoms (or any improvements, or it's doing something), then you can be pretty sure that you are still full of metal. And your blood/tissue levels must still be high in order for DMSA to cause that. And the touches of improvements on occassion after going through those difficult detox symptoms are yet more confirmation.

Only when DMSA stops causing any symptoms at all, can you be pretty sure you've detoxed those areas and can no doubt move onto ALA. But it takes months usually to do that and some spender longer on DMSA than others because they just take longer for things to clear.

So believe YOURSELF first and foremost and do not allow others around you to cause you to doubt. Any testing that might help show up a few things, great, but I think you already pretty much know what's wrong with you. If testing shows you are just dandy, when you KNOW you're not - move on. This is typical Mike, I cannot tell you how many times I've walked away from testing scratching my head! and then relying further on my own symptoms and going from there. The only part of this that IS in your head is the toxicitiy messing you up, as it is so many other poor sods on here and elsewhere.

Jinx, don't give up, keep on keeping on. I believe you are doing the right thing. Good diet, strict and healthy and reducing blood/tissue levels of mercury with a protocol that suits you - and see what happens in the future. It is a slow process and if this Cutler protocol is something you can remotely tolerate, even if it is still causing symptoms, I'd say continue!

The more poisoned you are, the worse the symptoms will be when you try and eliminate them. But I find DMSA can sometimes help symptoms, it doesn't always make them worse. THough on other rounds it did. So I could never tell what the round would be like. But it definitely did reduce the mercury in the blood and other areas over time.

It is a real test of patience and will power and I do not think you're going to help yourself very much by trying to get these people to diagnose or confirm the state you're in, when the end-result is often very frustrating and contradictory.