I've just come back from my holistic doc visit who uses kinesiology testing for diagnosis. For those who don't know, kinesiology is about testing your muscle weakness whilst holding a 'sample' of material againts your chest and thus getting a response, either positive (if your muscle gets weak) or negative (if it doesn't). If you have candida and hold a sample againts your chest your response should be positive (muscle gets weak).
A couple of months ago he tested me for all sorts of things and it turned out I had candida, heavy metals, bacterial infection, toxic overload, stressed liver, messed up autonomic nervous system and other things. So it was pretty accurate with what I had already known abut my condition.

Anyway, he tested me today and all those things came back 'perfectly ok' meaning I don't have candida, heavy metals etc. Yet, I still have all the symtoms and react to foods, have gases, gurgling in the intestines and above all my brain is still very bad intellectually. And I've also finished a 3 day dmsa chelation round just yesterday during which I had all the detox symptoms, and today I'm feeling a slight improvement in my brain after the round so it would appear there is still some heavy metal issue. Yet all those things come up negative in kinersology testing and guy has kept saying to me for the last couple of montths that I have some sort of emotional blockage towards healing and that I can't turn on the 'healing mode'. Yet I keep telling him that's because of my bad cognitive state that I feel 'brain dead' all the time, but he said it's emotional. And the one only thing that came up positive in the testing was 'emotional stress' or something like that which corroborated his opinion.

So basically I don't feel well at all and still have candida issues as evidenced by christmas/new year's eve diet and I told him that and asked how is this possible since I supposedly don't have candida anymore and if it is all in my head and he said YESS!!!

So now it turns out it's the emotions causing my brain problems, yet I just don't buy it , I had bigger emotional issues a couple of years ago AND WAS in a much better intellectual state, plus I am still brain dead even when I feel perfectly emotionally happy (like during christmas). And it doesn't make sense that the exposure I got over a year ago which brought on this terrible state I have been would just so easilly get all detoxed.

And now of course, my family AGAIN thinks it's all in my head and are telling me to go see a psychologist. Of course if I don't follow, and say I want to continue chelation because I think it benefits me and the anticandida diet, it will be more of a confirmation to them that they are right.

I don't know what to believe anymore. 3 years ago when I found out I had candida and told my family about it they didn't believe me but I trusted my instincts and eventually it got confirmed. And now my instincts keep telling me my body still isn't ok, esp since I feel so bad on the brain. But then again the doc would call my instincts plain subconsciousness at work.


Thing is guys I know I have emotional issues but I think they are the result of my bad wellbeing, of my serious cognitive problems that make me unable to participate in life and all that I have been to in the last months years.

I am so CONFUSED! I will appreciate some advice.

mike

Jinx

go with your gut instinct. I have been down the path of thinking it was all in my head, and that my inability to deal with stress / relationships had caused this so-called hypothalamitis - where the hypothalamus gets stressed for too long and down regulates production of the pituitary and all associated glands - thyroid, adrenals, etc etc - leading to chronic fatigue. It all fits, so it could be true.

And yet. My illness came on after a trip to the dentist, I have had exposure to mercury over decades, my symptoms got worse after amalgam removal and initial rounds with DMSA. Above all, I have this roaring metal taste in my mouth, and have had for 6 months. How does that fit in with hypothalamitis?!

I went to a yoga class once, and told the woman I was sick because of my mercury fillings. She instantly denied that this was the cause and told me it was emotional. I got pretty annoyed (inwardly) and didn't go back. How could she possibly know what was going on with me, and claim to know better? Unbelievable.

I wouldn't bother going to see any of these people - health professionals, kinesiologists, naturopaths etc etc. At this time you need sympathetic understanding people round you, and if you haven't got those - then avoid them, or don't talk about your illness with them. It will only wind you up and cause self-doubt. Many people with amalgam illness or chronic fatigue are fobbed off with a psychological cause. In England the only official NHS treatment for CFS is cognitive behavioural therapy - which is just ridiculous.

Like I said, go with your instinct. You know yourself best of all. I have often wondered whether I could put down a worsening of symptoms down to emotional stress - and time and again I can't -- but I can put it down to weak adrenals, candida, mercury on the move, under performing thyroid, etc etc. You have educated yourself enough on this now to know and trust yourself. If you're right - stick with the programme.

Nicola

Basically someone who takes your money to make you well and cannot accomplish the task will tell you that. It is in your head most likely not psychological but chemically. Brain chemistry disfunction can be caused by a ton of things. Mercury inhibits the production of Serotonin and Dopamine which would make you feel bad in mind and body.

With the brain chemistry I have had for the last few years I barely know where the chemistry ends and I start. Sri Nisargadatta says that free will is "ignorance of the causes that make you act." I am amazed at how much of our reality, lives, personality, outlook is related to favorable (or not) chemistry.

I experienced last week a total remission in a single day. I got to see the huge contrast between what I am with CFS and what I'm supposed to be. I took a few supplements to get there and I, for that day, was cured.

I was told it's all in my head, psychotherapy did nothing. Psychiatry, crooks, good at taking your money. How much of our medical industry might be geared around compensating for mercury/toxin illness.

If this guy can't help you then find a new guy. Get some real tests done (not to knock kinesiology but I wuoldn't use it as my sole basis for treatment).

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.

hi jinx, no- so called muscle tester knows how you feel, only yourself, dont waste your money on these tests.
thyroid/Adrenal, sex hormone, hair mineral tests are the only ones i would ever do. no one wants to feel as crappy as we do, its not in our heads, this is so annoying, if it were me id demand my money back straight away.

There are a lot of practitioners who unfortunately think that muscle testing allows them to accurately test the weaknesses and problems that there are within your body. From my experience it does...and it doesn't. This doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just means that there is more to the body than folks realise.

It will ALWAYS depend on how your body is dealing with the 'issues.' A few months ago the burden of the Mercury and candida may have had your body on the defensive, so being muscle tested for those would have created the weak muscle response

I would take the strong muscle test as a good sign that the body was going through a period of healing itself - so even though you tested with strength it wouldn't surprise me that you still feel bad and the problem itself is still present. For all I know next week if you get tested again you will come up weak again!

Tests like this are good barometers, but always trust how you feel. No one ever complained about feeling good <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi Jinx....I'm very new here but have read a few of your posts
I sympathize with your struggle
Have you ever been checked for lyme or any other auto immune illness?

I agree with Nicola “You have educated yourself enough on this now to know and trust yourself.”

That muscle tester was not listening to you nor your symptoms. Avoid him and don’t let people like that distract you from what you know you gotta do.

This muscle tester obviously has no idea about mercury problems, so how can he diagnose you one way or the other.

You have major head issues, so you need to reduce your mercury body burden with DMSA and then introduce ALA when yr body can handle it.

At the same time support your body with whatever you can and cleanse your body however/whatever you feel comfortable with.

“You have educated yourself enough on this now to know and trust yourself.”

Hey Jinx:

That's the longest post I think I have seen from you! You are an excellent communicator. It's hard to believe you are having cognitive difficulties based on how well you write. Maybe you are on your way to being healed....

About the muscle testing, it's very hard to say what truth is here. Sounds like this guy could be trying to say you were ill and you are now better - maybe from his actions? Has he been doing this a long time, and do people recommend him?

I was recently muscle tested by a friend who is studying homeopathy. My thought is I think it can work, but I think you gotta do it for awhile before you get good at it. I have been self testing by holding something in the crook of my arm, and pulling the "O" formed by my middle finger and thumb together apart. Good things seem to make it harder to pull fingers apart. Sounds like nonsense, but it seems to work. Now, the other thing I do is ask myself how I feel about a particular supplement, and see if I feel OK or if bad thought or feeling arises.

Aw, it's all hocus pocus, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Personally, I like to have tests where you can see an actual number, like dawn said. But your mind can influence the outcome of those tests too.

TW

mike
that is why I stay away from any testing now ,even when I was at my worst all the test came back as normal when I knew something was seriously wrong , then after having my amalgams removed and started to heal , I knew for a fact that mercury is the culprit behind my health decline the last 6 years , trust your gut instincts , there always right .

Hi Jinx
I agree with everyone else you know your body and have done enough research that you are right. I do the muscle testing too and similar to what TW said but I hold it against my chest and clear your thoughts and if you fall forward your body likes it and needs it, if you fall backward then no it won't work for you. It works fairly well. I tested my garlic pills(which I have been taking for 6 months) and my body does'nt want that right now. Well I thought that was screwy and took them anyway and messed my stomach up for 3 days as soon as I quit taking them, stomach cleared up. Go with your gut feeling.
I tryed some adrenal stuff recently( which messed my stomach up again) and I tested well to it at first but took it for 2 days and tested it again and was weak to it then. don't know what happens but I think the body goes thru some good days with detox and everything is flowing nicely and then gets sluggish and needs to slow up to catch up. That is just my opinion from watching what my body is doing and how the muscle testing is working with me.
One thing that is really getting my family to understand that my body is really having a tough time is the Temp chart Sunshine posted. I started doing that and wow really weird to see how the temps are fluctuating from day to day. You can also tell if the supplements you are adding are helping you. That is for the thyroid and adrenals. I have also been taking my blood pressure every day and you can tell when my body is struggling to get by. Here is the site you can get the chart from and all the info. http://drrind.com/
Might help your family to see this on paper. You know how the whole world likes to see the lab test well show them something on paper. Might help who knows. My thoughts are with ya and hang in there.
Rachel

Gosh, so many responses, thank thank you very much guys! This forum is a true touchstane for me whenever everything else fails!

I have to say things have pretty much got clearer for me, esp since I have notcied A BIG improvement in my brain wellbeing today. Yes as someone has said the strong kinesiology response is a sign that my body is healing and this today is turning out to be true! But I dont believe kinesiology gives the full picture and it's all a matter of right interpretation! I just think what this kinesiology thing showed yesterday is that I'm the beginning of a turning point and my body is starting to get the strengths back.

Proof - 2 days ago I completed a 3 day chelation round, after which I felt a *slight* improvement in my brain. Yesterday I was all an amotional mess because of overall wellbeing and that was componded by the doc's suggestion it's all in my head and my family's response to it! I was so damn angry and pscyho I trashed my room the day before yesterday and also yesterday in the morning. And I just couldn't contain myself. I have also been maintaning a very strict anticandida diet which now I know was killing the yeast. And yesterday I decided to test the theory of me not having candida anymore and went to the shop and bought like 5 ICECREAMS (yep!). I ate them all with WHITE rhye bread with garlic.

and guess what guys ? In a couple of minutes/ hours my anxiety and psychotic feeling COMPLETELY stopped. Then late at night I felt the brain improvement I was talking about. And I still have been feeling it this whole day today. Guess what again? About an hour ago I did a cleansing enema so that I get out all the bad things I ate yesterday. Now I feel anxiey again slowly setting in and my belly is grugling AGAIN! (it was grugling this whole time that I was feeling psychotic the day befor yesterday and before that).

Now contrary to a false logic that some people might apply THIS IS PROOF I still have candida/dysbiosis issue, and I have been in such situation a couple of times before in the past (but back then I didn't know what to make of it). I think the strict diet had been killing of yeasts this whole time, hence my psychotic/anxiety feeling and gurgling and eating those bad foods gave me a (drug-addict like) FIX and the candida killing process stopped and that's why I felt better.
But the very fact that this bad food yesterday didn't give any brain fog or drunken feeling anymore is proof of what the muslce testing showed, that my candida situation is much more under control.
I'm going back on the diet again and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna feel anxious-bipolar-crappy again, but this time I intend to pull through to the end.

So yeah you are right guys, you gotta trust yourself, and kinesiology or even any other testing NEVER gives the full picture.
But still I have to admit that this doc guys has a point of saying I have emotional issues and I am very negative. Truth is I probably have had very little faith in my recovery. But still It doesn't mean the physical problems are over, if anything this is just the beginning of healing and emotional problems can't get solved if you have brain not working right.

I guess the tough part is the family support , that doc is not just a plain kinesiologist he's actually an MD with two medical specialties and other medical degrees who turned holostic. He also told me once he's been cooperating wth other holistic docs all over the Europe, and that he's friends with hulda clark. (I believe him). So he's quite an authority, and I was the one who wanted to go thim in the first place, that's why my family prefers to believe him, not me. Sad because, if there are any true emotional problems of mine, they are because of such little trust put in me by my family esp since the problems concern ME.

That's why, AGAIN, thanx for having you here guys.

And I think I'm starting to believe;)

yep didn't take long for a detox reaction to occur, I started to be all all shaky and feel like a drug addict going through detox (my first impresson is william fichtner's agent mahone from prison break, if anyone's familiar:)) , can't think straight again and started irrationally giggling! (i think you bex mention it a couple of times).

the irony of it is, it occured just minutes before I was about to talk to my family about the whole issue and explain it to them the way I did to you above, but had to back out, lol, my funny little life.... anyway am gonna pull through this as I said.

oh, can anyone comment if they had similair reactions and wthether they share my candida-drug-addict-like logic ?

Hi Jinx, wow good to hear the update. But it's all so difficult to understand in a way, the body being this complex and this illness being complex as well.

I hope that the DMSA frequent dose style will actually start to settle this mercury down. How much are you able to take? And what happens if you take a bit too much? That can be quite diagnositic in itself. When I was fully mercury toxic, DMSA caused a lot of symptoms, but it helped too.

Well, Hal Huggins believes that candida is "our friend", because apparently he thinks it helps buffer the effects of metals/mercury and in a way protects us...he also thinks it de-methylates mercury and makes it less toxic....

Yet, in almost every other article I have read on the matter, the opposite is often said. That not only is it a very bad thing when it gets out of control, but that it makes mercury even MORE toxic...(methylating it). As does other bacteria....and messes up the gut and liver and can hinder detox. Plus the candida toxins can affect the mind too.

I think people's own reactions speak for themselves. The results of my cheating over Xmas have been catastrophic. I don't know any other word to use, because it has been totally disastrous. Now that I am back on the diet, the damage from the cheat is clear to see and I am struggling horribly.

For me I have to be very very strict because it's not all about mercury it is also about high bacterial levels inside of me and infection. When it was just mercury, I did just fine on more carb foods (like some fruit and non gluten grain, so long as I avoided wheat and gluten grains and direct sugar, I was ok)

I also know that die off from candida can cause a worsening of metal symptoms because the metals it may have been "holding onto" can be released back into the system. Plus the candida itself as it's dying is releasing more of its own toxins as well.

However, the diet is a much slower and gentler way of eliminating yeast. It seeks to starve off the overgrowth, rather than using antifungals which can aggressively kill a load of it at once, splitting the yeast cell walls open and releasing who knows how much metals back into the system. This can cause acute poisoning. I have had this and chelated it back out with DMSA.

I should imagine though Jinx that diet may do a bit of the same and may leave you more "exposed" to the metals. Plus the fact, yeast itself when it is dying can make symptoms worse temporarily. These can then circulate around your body and affect how you feel and think.

If the too strict diet is not for you, you might handle the less stricter version that I used to do when mercury toxic. I simply ousted all of the bad direct sugars, but I could still consume limited non gluten grain and natural healthy sugars contained in fruit fruit and even milk in my tea and cereal. However, I now find out that milk apparently hinders the excretion of mercury, as does caffeine. Not to mention gluten/wheat and sugar.

eating sugar itself and wheat/gluten Is probably a very bad thing. Because sugar lowers immunity anyway, it's not just the fact it feeds yeast it does so much damage in other areas and also can cause problems absorbing minerals and other nutrients (the very things you require to heal and detox). What can be a big problem with many sick or poisoned people. Not sure if its the gluten or the fact I hear wheat is treated with a mercury fungicide...either way, it's best avoided. I remember in my mercury toxic days (with or without amalgams), wheat used to bring on almost immediate mercury symptoms. It was very weird and frightening too.

It's hard to know the answers, it's about trying these things out on yourself. I myself do get a temporary feeling of more stablity when I cheat on my diet....but unfortunately this starts to fade over time and then the real trouble starts. So when I go back on the strict diet, the damage done during cheating is evident and very painful to me. Im on my 4th week and still suffering. The healing process can be more painful than anything, but for me it's the only way for my body to start working on these underlying problems. OTherwise I am walking a tightrope with cheating and thinking "i'm getting away with it".

So Jinx if the over strict diet is too much at this point and you feel you need more carbs, then you may do ok on some fruit, non gluten grain, potatoes and things. But I'd be careful! Certainly I would not eat any direct sugar contained in junkfood, cakes/cookies etc.

I know the giggling spells well! That can be yeast and metals/toxins. I have had this so bad, that I have had to get up and leave the room because other people were there. I have had it with yeast die off and mercury vapor release. I used to get it when I was lying down in the sun. I would start laughing uncontrollably to the point I couldn't stay outside anymore. I'd get it when bathing, and I'd get it when consuming hot fluids (when I had amalgams). Either way, it's almost like a laughing gas, because it seems to happen with heat and mixed with the amalgams or the mercury inside of myself. And candida die off does a similar thing to me. But yeast contain alcohol too, so that may not be surprising. HOwever, I think it's also about the yeast toxins and any metals it maybe releasing in the process.

The yeast crave sugars and carbs, so badly that sometimes starving them out can feel like you're going mad. You can crave like crazy,because they are craving. Feeding them makes us all happy ...... for a time. I think this is the addict like senario. Feed them, keep them happy. Which would be great if they didn't start causing their own problems down the line.

I think the body does have a certain amount of overgrowth always in a metal toxic situation. I do not know if this is all the result of lack of immunity to keep it lower, or the body's response to metals to try and "buffer" things a bit more. But one thing ive noticed is, this already higher level of yeast is like an accident waiting to happen. When a sick person with low immunity eats sugars and other high carb foods, this level of yeast tends to grow right out of control. And can take over and cause it's own illness. Yet if you eliminate these foods, the body is then able to keep a bit more control over it. I don't know about antifungals....I've had my past injury from them and don't know if they are a safe bet for a metal toxic person.

One site said that for a mercury toxic person, antifungal use is not only foolish, it is potentially very dangerous! For the reasons I mentioned earlier. And this is VERY real.

So Jinx, not sure about your particular situation. But one thing is sure, your cheats at least this time didn't bring on so many of the typical symptoms like brain fog and other things. Perhaps, aside from the still contained mercury, there is a bit more immunity coming back!

So the doc you went to, might not be completely wrong in what he said, but he sure isn't completely right either <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> You're still evidentally unwell and let's hope that chelation and healthy foods will eventually get you right. Don't deny yourself a bit of fruit or non gluten grain or a few higher carb vegetables, if you think you can handle that and it helps? Unless you are like me and need the more stricter diet!

I know that consuming anything off this diet, even the apparently "harmless" can feed enough yeast to cause a relapse in me. This time around I do not know if I'll come right. I don't seem to be making progress, so I feel disheartened to say the least.

Best wishes Jinx, keep us posted when you feel like it. It's good to get updates.

Thought this was a pretty good list of die off symptoms from candida:

Die off symptoms can consist of almost anything, but the most common scenario is that you will have an exaggeration of whatever type of symptoms it is that you already experience. You may experience physical and/or psychological symptoms. Here are some of the most common symptoms of die off:
- brain fog
- poor concentration
- tightness in the chest
- heart palpitations
- fatigue
- muscle and joint pain
- headaches
- sore throat
- anxiety
- depression
- irritability
- crankiness
- diarrhea
- sinusitis
- itching
- constipation
- gas and/or other gastrointestinal distress
- nausea
- intense cravings for sweets and carbohydrates
- cravings for alcohol
- you may even feel like you're drunk, because the yeast puts off alcohol.

yeah, thanx bex, I feel fluey now , runny nose and stuff, plus brain foggy so will answer in more detail later.

but thanx very much

Hey Jinx, no problem. Sorry to hear you're feeling so rotten, but let's hope this will die down soon. Sounds like withdrawal and die off to me.

Take care.

jinx : glad to see that you are showing signs of improvment , even short lived is better than none at all ,

I think that healing with chelation is like digging a hole in sand ,with every scoop of sand taken out , more sand fills behind it ,but not as much , so eventually we will get that hole dug out ,but just takes a little bit longer

Jinx, you should be happy. You are way ahead of me. You are still young, and are already making progress with chelation. I have been sick for over 20 years. I n the past year I had 12 amalgams removed, but still have around a dozen left.

Mikey,
I really like that description about the sand.That's just what it seems like sometimes.

JK98,
Maths has never been my thing,but I make it to be 24 amalgams in total. 12 already out and a dozen left?
How is that possible?
I read recently on this forum that a dentist is not supposed to place more than 4 or 5 amalgams in an adults mouth.How did you end up with so many?Sorry for all the questions but I am stunned.You must be a very strong person to be dealing with all this.You are doing the right thing getting them replaced.
Take it slow though .And try not compare with other people's progress.You are doing the right thing and headed the right direction.Wow that's themost amalgams in 1 mouth that I ever heard of.

Sunflower, I had 19 out and some of those had replaced other amalgams. I remember spitting out mercury chips for hours after leaving the dentist's.
Mark

"Maths has never been my thing,but I make it to be 24 amalgams in total. 12 already out and a dozen left?
How is that possible? "

There are 32 teeth. 24 have fillings. There are actully over 24 fillings, since a few teeth have more than one filling. The fillings were almost all placed from when I was around 5? until I was 25. I became sick when I was around 25, and it was then that I gave up processed sugar(except for a few isolated instances when I cheated). Now I am 48. More than 20 years ago when they were placed, very few people were talking about toxicity from mercury fillings. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. My symptoms went through cycles, getting better or worse at times. So did my weight, which varied from 150 to 225 pounds(i am a 5'7" male) When I first became ill, my weight rapidly soared from around 160 to around 200 pounds. Some people who were ill with chronic fatigue syndrome were talking about replacing their mercury fillings. Some did it, but were still ill. Since I had so many mercury fillings, I didn't even want to consider it. What changed my mind recently was one filling breaking, which required me to get a root canal. After that, I switched dentists. My new dentist wanted to replace around half of my fillings(most of the larger ones) since he was afraid that other fillings were having border separation. A number of websites I visited claimed that the average durability of a mercury filling is around 12-13 years. Mine are almost all over 23 years old.when I was young and in college I ate plenty of candy and chocolate. After having 7 amalgams replaced recently, my weight had gone down to around 170 pounds from around 200 pounds a few months earlier. It has remained at around 170 pounds for the past few months.

The 12 large mercury fillings that were removed have been (or are in the process of being) replaced with 3 crowns and 9 inlays or onlays. A few more large fillings may require an inlay or onlay(or perhaps a crown?). After that, the rest will be replaced with composites. Inlays or onlays are much more durable than composites for large fillings in rear teeth. My dentist uses an outside lab to make the inlays and onlays, so they take two visits. One to prep the tooth and get a temporary filling, then the second to get it installed.

Mike (Jinx):

You know if there is one thing I've learned voer the past year of dealing with this thing is that doctors often think they are God. It's really unnerving sometimes. The last MD I went to at a chelation center said he would have me exercising in one month (this was last November). I had my doubts of course and what he gave me helped, but we are dealing with a complex system here and no herb or vitamin or mineral is the answer, it's a series of things we are doing to get well. Taking one step at a time.

I don't bother with explaining things to people anymore for various reasons, one is their tendency to think I'm crazy. You cannot change people, they want to see results. Just keep doing what your are doing. Don't look for their approval.

The one thing we've got going for us in the US is that mercury is really getting a lot of attention and people are getting informed little by little and we are on an "organic" fad right now. I think it will stick, but the point is people are starting to listen. But with change, it takes years because people are involved. Talk to the people that you KNOW understand your situation.

In regards to having emotional issues, unfortunately right now you can expect to have these until your system(s) are healed. Totally relate. When I first started I couldn't even have one single conversation without breaking down into tears over absolutely nothing. I was a basket case. Here we are a year later and I am SO MUCH MORE IMPROVED, however, after rounds of chelation, adrenal buster days (stress), etc. I have relapses. I also deal with a mild form of candida because I changed the diet drastically a year ago, but still need to watch it. Hormones also play a big part in all of this because mercury attacks your endocrine system (adrenals, thyroid, pituitary, etc.)

If you can imagine your body as being one big system, you can't just treat part of it, it all needs to be treated. I know you don't have much money, really suggest you purchase good supplements and reading materials vs. spending them on the kinesiologist. Your gut instincts are going to get you alot further. You'll find most of us here on this forum are NOT relying on the doctors for much other than testing to see the improvements we're making and relying on "first hand" experience and advice here. You already know that Sunshine and a few others have sound advice. Follow it. Do little things for yourself like the diet and a few supplements and chelation. Just sticking to that will get you a lot farther than the MD, ND or other practioners. Remember, they are practicing on you, many times it's their opinion rather than based on true research and study.

You are doing great...keep going. Trust your instincts.

Also, remember, you KNOW why things are the way they are, you know what you need to do. Many do not, they are lost and have no hope of getting well. Keep going...