Thanks for these articles.

This is why Andy Cutler has a specific protocol set out to use this stuff properly so that it will work rather than hurt.

Andy believes ALA should not be used until body/blood levels of mercury have first been reduced, either by waiting it out, or by chelating with an agent that does not cross the blood brain barrier (e.g. DMSA). Then later ALA can be used to chelate the brain and other organs.

ALA allows mercury to move back and forth across the blood brain barrier more easily. Which is why it can move more mercury in there if the body levels are still high.

The studies they do on rats do not seem to prove helpful or telling enough in what happens to humans in regards to brain chelation. The blood brain barrier of the rat is far more permeable than a human. This is why ALA is required so we can get mercury out of the brain more easily.

They said that DMSA could cross the blood brain barrier because it could chelate brain mercury in rats. This has not proven to be the case in humans for the same reason above. It does not cross over to any clinical degree, unlike ALA.

The article is certainly of concern though, but I think human results from ALA chelation would probably be more helpful. I know some on here who are using it, perhaps they could respond to this?

I know that Andy has warned about what can happen with ALA and it can be very serious. Though it's an antioxidant, it's a powerful chelating agent for mercury and used in correctly can make someone VERY VERY sick (to say the least).

I am soon to try ALA the right way and I hope things will work. So I'll report on this when I try it. However, it is negligible if I really have much mercury still in me or not. But it's worth a try. I would not be doing this if I felt I had a high body/blood burden of mercury. DMSA usually produces symptoms or improvements if that is the case. DMSA is proving to be ineffective now, which tells me I maybe ok to try ALA.