Hi Molly
welcome. Glad you found your way here. If you're going to follow the Cutler protocol, you need to find your way to the frequent dose chelation group
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/this is where everything to do with amalgam illness and the Cutler protocol gets discussed. A lot of us here are doing Cutler...
You sound very sick, and I'm sorry you've had a rough time on other detox protocols. The Cutler protocol is the safest in terms of getting the mercury out of your body, and you can adjust the dose to go as slowly as you need to. I and others have been very sick from mercury, but we are progressing slowly but surely on the Cutler protocol. I myself have done over 50 rounds of DMSA to reduce the body burden of mercury, and have now introduced ALA at 12.5mg. It is a little high, but I am dealing with it OK. Someone else I know is very sensitive and is dosing ALA at 1mg. You really can go as low and slow as you want. There should be no big healing crisis with the Cutler protocol, just slow chelation of mercury out of the body.
Everything will become clear when you read Cutler's book! Why other detox protocols don't work, why chlorella doesn't chelate mercury, simply moves it around, and why you had such a bad reaction to the erratic dosing of ALA. You have to dose according to the half-life of ALA (every 3 hours) in order to get a smooth movement of mercury out of the body.
I would say there is no harm in strengthening yourself with diet and supplements before starting DMSA / ALA chelation. Treating candida with diet, and possibly antifungals or probiotics is a good idea to decongest the gut, and make sure you can eliminate properly. Supplementing with antioxidants (vit C, vit E)magnesium, milk thistle, and vit B will support your body during chelation, which is stressful to the body. Another thing you need to consider is adrenal and thyroid support. These are often badly affected by mercury, and underperforming in most people. Some over on FDC think that adrenal and / or thyroid support should be mandatory while chelating, because if they are not weak to start with, they will take a hit from chelating, and possibly cause problems later on.
You will most likely find the combination of ALA / DMSA the easiest to tolerate. I did a few rounds of ALA only, and the redistribution effects were quite bad, and eliminated when I took DMSA along with the ALA. DMSA chelates extra cellular mercury only; ALA chelates organs and crosses the blood brain barrier to chelate mercury from the brain. For most of us, this is where there is the most mercury, and where it is doing the most damage. ALA is the real chelator, the real work horse, and you won't get better unless you use it. DMSA kind of mops up mercury around the body, but its unlikely that you'll get better using DMSA alone if you have a lot of mercury in the brain.
Blood tests are not reliable to show mercury levels. They will only show mercury for a few days after acute exposure, then the body squirrels the mercury away to other organs. The best way to find out whether mercury is your issue is to do a hair analysis. Again, this is discussed in the Cutler book. Another good website is
http://www.livingnetwork.co.za/healingnetwork/oral_chelation1.htmlhere they talk about the Cutler protocol, adrenals/thyroid, and you can post your hair analysis results for opinions. You can also order compounded DMSA / ALA in whatever dose you need - the only place on the web to do so.
More reading for you, but I hope this is helpful. We all hope we can get out of this (mercury) mess, but we have to accept that it may take a long time to do it safely. I have been chelating for a good 18 months now, and I anticipate at least another 2 years of ALA chelation. I am getting improvement after each round at the moment, so I hope that's encouraging.
Best
Nicola
