Hi Linda,
Hi Bex,
Thanks for your input here. I really hope the ALA helps you -- have you started it yet?
By the way, here's what I do when I take my nighttime dose. I have a dawn simulator which takes half an hour to gradually come on. Usually the light will wake me very gently before the alarm goes off. I reach over, pick up my cup with my dose, take the lid off and drink it, then roll over and go back to sleep. I still feel it in the morning but it's certainly endurable.
No problem!
I haven't got any ALA yet, but I'll let you know when I do and what happens (if anything). I won't be taking large doses, but I'll be taking a good substantial dose.
Your alarm sounds so much more...forgiving! Mine is ok, it's just a light beeping, rather than a penetrating one that wakes you up violently. I always wake up with it. I don't turn the alarm off, I reset it there and then. If I turn it off, it's too high on the cards I'll just forget to turn it back on after I reset it or fall back to sleep before doing much at all.
This round I decided to go with my gut feeling and increase both chelators, so now I'm on 25mg ALA and 12.5mg DMSA. I'm aware that Andy Cutler would not recommend this and it was a risk, but I'm trying to trust my intuition more these days. I've been fine, no worse than before. I feel weird at times and the insomnia has worsened, but this is better than I felt without the chelators. I'm still fatigued all the time, but somehow I have more motivation to get up and do things. I'm still sticking to the no-sugar plan and I've cooked all kinds of nice things, mainly different kinds of curries. I also made homemade chicken stock this weekend, which is a big operation. I haven't done that in over a year and during that time, I could only dream of being able to do it.
Why would Andy not agree with this? It sounds fine to me. As long as you're taking both every 3 hours - that is the crucial part. And as long as you're not fiddling with the doses during a round.
I'm glad you are coping ok on this and you're noticing an increase in motivation! That's a good sign. Have you thought of taking the same dose of both chelators? 25 mg of each? Or is it more economical to take less of DMSA? I'm hoping that your persistant fatigue will begin to lift in time. I guess that can be brain mercury too. When you consider it's the control centre.
I'm now wondering where I should end the round. I was a little late in taking one nighttime dose (forgot to set the alarm) and I woke up with redistribution symptoms. I've always felt better on chelation. See how I go, but I think I'll carry on tomorrow, which would be day 4 of the round
I think you can take these up to a week or so if you wish. For some it's easier and more convenient just to do 3 day rounds (which can be done on weekends if a person works or is busy during week days). I have taken late doses before. It depends how late and if it's too late, it's better to stop the round. I've suffered redistribution before. I had a horrible backlash from one once when I was not treating candida and the redistribution from a very late dose of DMSA was enough to cause big problems in my gut. I could not tolerate DMSA after that until I treated candida. Then I was able to resume DMSA. But at the time, I didn't know what was happening to me. I was a mess. I blamed DMSA, I blamed the protocol (even though I screwed up on it myself). But it was both mercury and candida that were screwing me up.
I think longer chelating rounds are always beneficial, as long as they are not TOO long. Because of loss of sleep and how minerals get depleted through the stress of chelating metals out. So one must have breaks in order to replenish themselves. Plus I think things continue to happen inbetween rounds. Like me, when I exercise - I notice effects the day or days afterwards like a sense of metals trying to come out. Usually it's the rest times that I notice the impact of what's happened and my body is still trying to push toxins out. Exercise seems to set that off.
