Hi,
First Post *waves shyly*

The paragraph a few down from that graph was more interesting to my mind. I quote:

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"Also strange was the fact that the three forms of lipoic acid were about equally effective in protecting nerve cells from a different part of the brain (the hippocampus) against this toxin. "
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If one were to accept the hypothesis that Lipoic's acids antioxidant effects are similar in outcome to its chelating effects with respect to its three separate forms (R, S and racemate-mix) then a logical corollary is...

The beneficial effects of using the racemate-mix is chelating really well certain portions of the brain, but not others.
Unless there is some studies where they killed an animal after using Lipoic racemate on it and examined different parts of its brain selectively for mercury - there would be no way to know.

So, to take an example, Joe Bloggs uses Racemate Lipoic acid, and gets a huge outpouring of mercury, even though his tests were showing clear just a week ago when he finished chelating with DMSA.

He draws the conclusion that the extra mercury came from his brain, and then when, his tests show no more (or very little) mercury coming out - **he assumes that thats the last of it from his brain**.

But it could be that large tracts of his brain are still full of mercury. If I, personally, was using Lipoic acid as a chelator (and, face it, there is no other agent good for brain mercury chelation), and if cost nor time wasnt that big an issue - what I would do is follow the normal racemate protocol. And AFTER THAT start using R-Lipoic acid for a few months to get any residual mercury out that may be in brain sectors that respond much better to R-Lipoic Acid (starting cautiously in small doses of course).

After all, if the fear is that R-Lipoic acid would be too strong and remove too much mercury - well, we already used racemate for a long while, didnt we?