Hi Wormwood,

I have had hair analysis testing, and both times showed very low levels of mercury. I was pretty much told there was no problem with mercury. However, an expert here in New Zealand who has treated mercury toxic patients for years analysed the tests and told me another story. Based upon my symptoms which coincided with mercury, my reactions to provoking metals via mobilsation/chelation, he interpreted the condition as retention toxicity, which he said is one of the worse case scenarios and often the sickest and most difficult mercury toxic patients to treat. This basically means their body is not able to eliminate mercury efficiently enough, which is why it is not showing up on testing. He said ideally, the mercury levels should rise on testing to show it is coming out.

In fact, he said a healthy person would show a higher level than what I did because we're exposed to this one way or the other. To have such low levels was not a good sign in his opinion.

This could by why I was so ill. Which made a lot of sense, since I had a great deal of pain and trouble trying to detox mercury over the years and how long it took to do so. Extreme reactions upon any provocation/movement of the mercury in me was also evident this was the problem. Basically all my symptoms got much worse upon trying to detox the mercury, yet over time, I was making improvements.

So low levels can be interpreted in a way that may not be entirely accurate. low levels may mean low levels, but it can also mean the person is reacting to even a very low level of mercury. Or it could mean the mercury is bound up tightly and not being actively eliminated, therefore is not showing up.

High levels maybe bad, but may also indicate the person is able to excrete the mercury. It can also mean the person is being poisoned right at that time (existing amalgams and/or or some other current exposure).

Usually the way of discovering if mercury is indeed a or the culprit, is looking for a pattern (mineral levels), taking note of symptoms, reactions to chelation etc.