Hi Stuart, it depends whether you have significant brain mercury or not. Some people do not take ALA, they detox their body load and seem to feel it's enough. But some feel this is essential as it does it all....I don't know, since I've never taken it long term. I was recovering from mercury toxicity just from doing DMSA, hot baths, antioxidants, moderate exercise and good healthy food, though no doubt I have never completely eliminated all my mercury.

I tried it recently and didn't like what happened. I didn't sense it was moving or pulling mercury out, but I did experience a worsening of my yeast condition, so not happy about that and can still feel it. So never again! Not for me!

Unfortunately with ALA side effects are not suppressed. But dose and frequency are very important. How are you taking it and how much are you taking? Just to get an idea, because you could be taking too much, and/or not taking it frequently enough. Andy says it should be taken every 3 hours around the clock, or you risk redistribution of more mercury into the brain.

But side effects are expected, because it really chelates pretty powerfully apparently. You may need to adjust dose and/or timing though if it is too much....

Some people prefer using cilantro to detox their mercury from those areas, though Andy says he does not know how to use it to recommend it's usage, but he admits some may use this if ALA is not an option, or they do not like to use ALA or other reasons, but I don't think in his mind it is ideal, since he doesn't like to recommend using something unless he's certain of the right way it should be taken to keep mercury from going into worse/more sensitive areas.

Sosick on here uses cilantro and does very well on it. I don't know how you'd react and I'd be hesitant to tell you to just go and do it because it works for someone else. That is really up to you what you'd want to try.

It also depends on how much brain mercury a person has. Some people do well enough just body detoxing with DMSA and/or other stuff and seem to find that even their brain symptoms improve (because sometime mental symptoms can be caused by toxicity elsewhere, like the liver etc). ALA does not just chelate the brain, it chelates other organs too, so it would be hard to say what your symptoms are caused by.

Do you find you are slowly improving as you take the stuff over time? If you have a break from it and clear yeast, are there signs of the underlying condition improving?