I've been seeing this naturopath for about a year now. Spent thousands of dollars at his office too... He has always been pretty good with everything until today. Last visit we both agreed it was heavy metals causing all of my problems. I brought in Andy Cutler's book because I wanted to show him which heavy metal protocol I wanted to follow. He was pretty much against the idea of oral DMSA every 4 hours. He wanted me to go on 100mg oral DMSA every other day.

Since I read Dr. Cutler's book, I immediately told him that would do more harm than good because the metals would be redistributed in the body in between doses. He immediately rejected the idea saying that the chelating agent's job is to get the metals out and they would never let the metals go back in the body. Ugh, how do I even begin to tell a doctor he is flat out wrong.

Now I am a really pushy person when it comes to doctors these days because if you aren't you never get help. I insisted on doing the Dr. Cutler protocol. He is getting 15mg DMSA capsules made for me at a compounding pharmacy. YAY! Success.

However despite him giving in to my demands he was basically clueless on how detrimental mercury is to the body.

I was just really disappointed today and wondered if anyone else has had this experience with their doctors. What should I do?

What should you do? Well, based on my own experience, I would do what is best for your body and base it on somebody who has done years of research and understands the dangers and nature of mercury enough to where he's even experimented on himself and gotten himself well (Cutler). YOU come before anything or anyone else in this regard.

Believe me, out of everything I have tried, his was the ONLY one I could cope with and made faster more definite progress with. Everything else redistributed the mercury and turned me into a psychological mess (thankfully I came out of it). Had I continued, I hate to think.

You may find some professionals find it a bit insulting when you come up with a protocol that differs from their own. Ego is at times a funny and difficult thing. I had one who insisted that I do his, even though his protocol was hurting me. Even though I said I tried Cutler's and it was helping me. Still didn't want me to do Cutler's regardless. I persisted and tired to do his, but kept getting horrible and intolerable symptoms.

So what did I do? I broke away and did it Culter style and managed to get a new exposure of mercury OUT of me, safely and productively. Each and everytime I get poisoned with mercury, I find Cutler's is the only one that manages to get it out in a way that is better tolerated and safer.

I have honestly tried so many other methods in my life and I think wasted much time and caused myself much unnecessary pain in doing so. Admittedly there are other methods that do indeed suit people fine and they can do very well on them. We are all different. But all in all, I do find many seem to find his a far better tolerated method.

Please don't do anything that makes you feel guilty simply because a health professional tells you so. Do what you feel is right for you and what works for you. That is the main thing here and mercury is not something you want to fool around with (egos not withstanding). I have tried the one off dose of DMSA and been horribly affected. I was screaming and up all night when I took a one of dose of 50 mg of DMSA.

Yet I took 50 mg of DMSA every 4 hours and only got the yucky detox symptoms, but remained sane and mostly stable. So yes, Cutler is correct, there is indeed danger in isolated/random chelation protocols and I found out through experience, he was right! Not a nice way to learn though.

Thanks Bex for the post. I appreciate it!

I am just concerned that even if I get better he might not believe me. Or if some type of complication comes up he might immediately blame it on the protocol or refuse to refill the prescriptions. I can't imagine any one of his patients actually gets better on the every other day protocol. I wish I could talk to some of them about it.

Even you had a doctor that saw you getting worse on his protocol, but continued to tell you it was best. I am sort of getting this vibe from him and it's scaring me. He was never like this at any other visit and I think I hit a sore spot with him.

I have no intentions of doing the every other day protocol. I was just really dumbfounded to see this doctor immediately reject Dr. Cutler's protocol without even knowing WHAT IT WAS or WHO HE WAS. It was just like, "Oh that's different than what I recommend, so it's bad". He copied a few pages from the book, but I told him to fully understand the protocol you have to read the entire book. I doubt he ordered a copy for himself tonight. Maybe I'll just say a prayer for him. I don't know. These natural doctors are blind too.

As long as he refills my DMSA prescriptions, I guess I will continue to see him. I just wanted to have a doctor that I could talk to about this protocol and it doesn't seem like he is the one. I feel like I'm going to be on my own with this protocol. I'd love to have a doctor keeping an eye on my progress, but no one in this area that considers themselves "natural" doctors wants to touch DMSA or even talk about it. They all want me to use chlorella, EDTA, cilantro, glutathione (sp?), and everything else Cutler says to avoid like the plague.

/sigh I'm frustrated tonight. Thanks for letting me vent!!

Hi Birdlady,

Is there any reason you need to get prescriptions from him and not order them from the internet instead? Which is what many people do.

His way probably will get rid of some mercury and some have done it that way. One man I was talking to online was cured by taking 100 mg capsule of DMSA daily (or every other day).....so yes it can work. However, for others it can be the cause of horrible redistribution symptoms that they cannot tolerate. Like myself. So it's hard to know how you will respond to it....

Is it worth such a risk though I wonder? Not that you are going to do it, but he can certainly apply the pressure being in the position he's in.

They really do get quite put out if they find you are looking at a protocol that is not theirs and has been successful. It's sad, and they should be open to view ANYTHING that might actually be an improvement and a safer way to do it....until he understands the method and why, he may consider it "bad" because he's not informed and may not wish to be.

You can order online, so if you are interested, I can go find out where.

It is my experience that almost ALL doctors whether allopathic or hollistic share the same trait - they ALL think they are the spokesmen for truth. just because one is holistic doesnt make him less of a... doctor.:/

Well I could order online, but I pay $150+ a month for health insurance. I figure I might as well get my monies worth and have the insurance pay for it. Most of what I have done in the past year to help myself hasn't been paid for by the insurance. Yet people continue to say how great national healthcare would be.

The other problem is that if you buy OTC, DMSA only comes in 100mg capsules. I know for a fact, that if I buy those I will be more likely to miss doses because of the amount of time it would take to prepare them each day. Opening up a pill and dividing the medicine seems way too tedious to me.

Having 15mg capsules made for me by the doctor I am seeing is perfect. Perhaps he will come around if I begin to get better on this protocol. I think if my hair started to grow back he would become a believer. My hair loss has totally puzzled him since it started to fall out last year.

Shoot, I was hoping you would come up with a way to find the DMSA at lesser doses..... Once you remove your amalgams, there aer ways to make the amount lesser. (You have to take apart the capsules and mix it with an acidic fruit juice and then measure in equal parts while mixed well...tricky and a pain). Its hard to find lower dosages of the ALA, too, but they are out there. Sorry... just reread. So your Dr. DOES give you 15 mg. DMSA??? I'm going to approach my endo on that next week.

I have to use our medical insurance, too. I use to spend a fortune on herbs, etc. Still do, but wish I could more. I think it would be a good thing to learn to grow your own and turn them into tinctures, etc.

Duh....sorry, didn't read this far up. GOOD FOR YOU!!!!! (On the 15 mg...)

Hi guys,
You can buy smaller doses of DMSA here:

http://livingnetwork.co.za/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65_68

The owner of the site is a member of the frequent dose chelation group (andy cutler protocol) and arranged to have these smaller doses made up by a compounding chemist. You can also get tablets that contain vit C or ALA and DMSA together. The dosages start at 3mg which is excellent! I totally agree, I don't see myself spending a lot of time splitting pills etc. I think some other companies do sell less than 100mg DMSA, I'm pretty sure you can easily get 25mg from other sources maybe iherb?? or viaglo?? somewhere like that anyways

Now we're talking!!! I'm going to do this! Do you have any recommendation on how slow to go? I don't want to be rediculous...I tried 25 to 100 mg before, but it boxed my kidneys. I almost decided to go with Biochelate which is only EDTA - good for some things, but it said no side effects cause it was so low dose. I think something like this is perfect. I'm assuming if its even being sold at 3 mg., people are realizing its best to take it very slowly at this point? Not real up on the most current thoughts with all this. Also, pretty sure I have it in my brain....would anyone recommend taking it with the DMSA right away or waiting? I got rid of my amalgams...gosh...don't even remember the year, but likely 7-8 years ago. I'd like to take ALA, actually, for other health reasons, too and for its anti-oxidant properties. If going that slow....couldn't hurt. I so very much appreciate this information!!! Thank you!!! Not sure how to order with US dollars, but guess it'll come up how to. Any recommends, though, on how low to start?

I'd start pretty low depending upon how toxic you are. I decided to go with 15mg, but we will see how that goes. He is giving me 2 weeks worth to see how I do. If it's too much maybe I'll bump it down to 10mg.

The website above is very good if you don't have insurance and if you can't hook up with a compounding pharmacy in your area. You will get absolutely burned on shipping from this website considering it's coming from South Africa.

100 15mg pills from the website is $33. If you take 1 pill every 4 hours that is 6 pills a day. 1 Bottle will only last you 16.5 days. If you do this without any insurance plans whatsoever you are looking at $180 for 3 months. Shipping is about $25 a pop for me in western PA. Obviously at that rate you would want to buy lots of bottles so you aren't paying for shipping each time.

I personally plan on taking the DMSA for about a year. At that point I will reevaluate how I am doing and see if I want to continue. A whole year's worth of DMSA from that website will cost me about $720+shipping costs. This is the reason why I really want to get something going with my insurance because I'd rather pay the $10 copay for 100 pills rather than $33 +shipping.

Like I said above I'm already paying for this stupid insurance. I might as well may it worthwhile!

Good points. I was wondering what the shipping would cost. Hadn't gotten that far. I think I'd try the 6.5 first...(for me). But think I'll also see what my endocrinologist would consider. Does your insurance pay for a naturopath??

My naturopath does not take insurance. They say you can submit your claims, but honestly it is such a hassle. AND these insurance companies will do ANYTHING to not pay. I figured even if I did submit my own claims there is a very large chance that it would cause more problems than necessary and ultimately I'd probably find myself on the phone for hours with them.

I've already spend hours on the phone with them trying to cover blood work. They will nickle and dime you any way possible.

They might pay for the naturopath but I haven't tried.

I didn't think most insurances did cover naturopaths. But maybe some do. We have great benefits, but if you use anything natural it has to be under certain kinds of doctors like D.O.s I wish they covered chiropractic. (We are military). My dental plan won't pay for anything but amalgams cause its the govt. and its cheaper. I have to pay a lot for a slight filling. One resin recently fell out and had a tiny filling recently behind a crown that had to be replaced from a temporary from when I had my work done ages ago. EXPENSIVE.

Make sure you have plenty of alkalizing minerals before and after so you don't deplete your system and cause more harm. What's your pH? That will tell you if you are ready for chelation yet. It should be in the 6.8-7.2 range. Check this site out http://curezone.com/forums/f.asp?f=740, and type in search for amalgam fillings or see my post called "Progress and Information" for the link.

Be well!

Yeah, I never submitted the doctor visits because I doubt they will cover them. Technically he isn't a "naturopath", but it's just easier to say that so people understand he is a "natural" doctor.

Getting 8 amalgams removed and 8 more cavities filled will likely cost me about $3000 if not more. It's been an expensive year. UGH Dental insurance is worthless though.