Hi Tracy, I can only really echoe (once again) Sunshine's statements, but I'd like to go further regarding the swallowing of the mercury and candida and diet. And hopefully maybe some of this might help you as it did me.

I too had unprotected removal when first removing amalgams, but at that time, didn't notice the impact....I still don't know if it did anything or not. The last lot of my amalgams were removed with full protection. However, evenso, the rubber dam that was on my mouth during amalgam removal was removed and the grains of amalgam still sitting in my mouth were swallowed by me. The reason was, the assistant was doing something else at the time and had her back turned.

I swallowed the grains of amalgam and was shocked. I told the dentist and she tried very hard to act like it was no problem, they'd just pass through my system. She was wrong. They did not pass through my system, but instead poisoned me at that moment so severely that my mouth/lips were shaking all the way home. From there, I had crying and headaches and was extremely pale. I was obviously very poisoned. Not just from the stored mercury I had anyway in my tissues/organs, but from direct poisoning from swallowing this file poison.

There is a reason they are usually so vigilant about suction and a reason why mercury is dealt with carefully by them in regards to the environment. One dentist even admitted to me that mercury is extremely toxic to the environment and then he paused and said "but it's safe in the mouth" (what do you think of that? Amazing eh?). lol.

Anyway, I was not quite the same after that incident and had to have some form of chelation, which was too expensive to continue but must have helped (DMSA it was). Over time, i seemed to improve to some extent, until I hit the mercury dump stage (which occured about a year or more following last amalgam removal). Where stored mercury starts to erupt out and you can feel repoisoned. Then of course I embarked on chelation to speed this up and make it easier.

At any rate, I must tell you that diet, as Sunshine said, is very important (essential). Whether I had amalgams, or not, the diet probably saved my life. Candida can be a big part of the mercury syndrome and may even cause many or most of the symptoms. THough mercury maybe the cause and allowing for pathogens to flourish, not treating them can result in excessive toxic load. Toxins like that can poison your gut and liver and also affect the brain. Yeast can do that! Combine that with the mercury and you can have a real serious problem. I was suicidal I was so toxic.

Reducing yeast takes a load of the immune system and allows for the body to deal better with other problems (mercury included). Even with amalgams, I found diet was a life saver for me and I felt much better after being on it for a few weeks. The diet is the most important and can be helped by antifungals, or done alone. I would personally just address the diet, because that is what keeps the yeast feeding and growing. Not doing the diet, but taking antifungals is a bad move. You're only killing what you keep feeding by the diet, increasing both ongoing die off toxins and ongoing toxins from feeding them at the sametime.

The diet consists of eliminating COMPLETELY, all forms of sugar (you may even need to reduce or eliminate all fruit), honey, wheat/gluten grains etc. If you have a bad case of it, you would also need to eliminate high carb foods - potatoes, corn, carrots, beets, peas, beans, all grains (even non gluten) and all fruit, milk, etc.

You can freely eat meat (which is good, you require protein and Dr Hal Huggins said he's not yet been able to cure a vegetarian from mercury toxicity. Something in meat protein is necessary, as well as the iron and other nutrients). You can freely eat eggs for the same reason (free range). And freely eat low carb vegetables (which are plenty). You can eat butter (animal fats are very good and very healing and butter is recommended by Huggins also for mercury, he believes it even chelates it....not sure about that one, but it's great stuff). You maybe able to consume raw nuts like almonds and brazil and raw seeds like sunflower and pumpkin etc.

Oils and fats should be extra virgin olive oil, organic virgin coconut oil (be careful if it makes you sick by killing too much yeast and more than your body can handle), fish oil (mercury free brand), butter, lard etc.

Outside of that, it's up to you if you want to include any higher carb foods. I cannot do so, they make my condition FAR worse. And it takes me awhile to get back on track again. You might get away with it more, depends how serious it is. But definitely steer clear of sugar, wheat/gluten and coffee too.

Caffeine and milk apparently (according to Huggins) interfere with the detox of mercury, they also seem to increase candida too.

Detoxing candida (or die off) isn't pleasant, but doing it by diet is much safer than antifungal use. Diet simply denies them what they need to thrive and they begin to slowly get sick and die. When that happens, temporarily you can feel a bit worse for wear until the dead yeast is flushed out of your system. You may not notice improvements for a few weeks (maybe 2-3 weeks or longer). It depends how toxic you are. In the process of doing this, you may also gain a bit of metal elimination too. Some metals do come out naturally and if the body is helped by a healthy diet and elimination of all the stuff I mentioned, it can increase it's ability to detox anything. The gut and liver (needed for detox) will improve as well.

Your immunity should improve from this and your whole system should be aided by it. It may not be a cure for mercury, but it is a help. Outside of doing that, the book that Sunshine recommended is fantastic (Amalgam Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment by Andrew Hall Cutler), as well as Hal Huggins (It's all in your head).

when I was mercury toxic, I detoxed mostly in the end with DMSA according to the Cutler protocol and started to come right. Before that, I did all manner of detoxes which often made me feel intolerably worse due to moving mercury all over the place. Cutler's works by controlling the movement of mercury more, allowing for safer and more tolerable detox and symptoms. The diet is essential before, during and after and for some they need it just to control some of their symptoms and make life more bearable.

I was lucky that once, even with amalgams, I did not need to eliminate fruit or potatoes or non gluten grain. I could still eat those. However, these days (due to chronic viral infection), I need to stick to the stricter diet to gain any control. Either way, all sugar and wheat/gluten was a nightmare me for me, then and now. You will be the best judge on whether you can still handle "some" higher natural carb foods or not.