Hi Joey

Your description of alternating highs and lows are what I experinced greatly in the beginning of copper detoxing. Now, just three weeks later, things have calmed down because I'm finally figuring out what I'm doing wrong and right and also what happens naturally during the course of this detox. I thought I'd write some experince to date, although I think I'm still busy learning......Yes, I do feel copper greatly contributes to anxiety and the dreaded panick attacks. It stimulates the brain too much preventing us from being able to talk reason to ourselves and it makes us loose control, or at least give us the terrible feeling of this. If copper-poisoning is your problem in additon to mercury, it is very important for the real Joey, the one who is naturally calm and collected, to take control, to get in there and tell your brain that you are now feeling copper effects, that this is NOT you, and actively try to help your brain to slow down whilst it is being bombarded by excitory messengers. A week ago I was doing really well with the copper detoxing, but then I borrowed play station kit and played for hours on end the whole week-end. In additon I started playing trance music which I haven't been able to listen to for ages because of the monotone, fast hard beats. Well, this didn't in the end go down to well. Copper causes mind-racing and the additon of the above activities stimulated my brain way past its limit. So try to limit TV watching and such so that your brain "only" has to deal with the stress from copper symptoms which could rise while copper is being released from its stores.

In the beginning I started with high amounts of zinc supplements. I think it was 60 mg per day divided into three doses. This was a BIG mistake. The anxiety was torture, I thought I was going crazy. Now I'm taking 20 mg per day divided into four doses and this is working very well. Since dosing various tremendously from person to person, my point is that zinc is a very powerful mineral and to be able to continue with detoxing without having the feeling of going crazy, it's best to do it as comfortable as possible. Small doses several times per day perhaps.

I also tried a molybdenum supplement in the beginning. This gave me terrible panick attacks. M is a metal and I've been told by a friend who is mercury chelating that M has a very similar structure to mercury and some may therefore get very bad reactions to it. So I stopped it, and things did very much improve.

I started taking a choline and inositol supplement as I have liver problems and suprisingly enough this supplement actually helped reduce anxiety, so thought I'd give it a mention.

Magnesium is supposed to be very calming, but for me in high doses it gives me anxiety. So I've had to divide a capsule into three and this started to give the desired effect. I know Mag. lowers blood pressure and it possibly lowered it too much in addition to being too high a dose for my ailing kidneys which then can lead to a build up and poisoning symptoms.

If you suspect you're low on zinc, you could potentially be low on important fatty acids. I've tried suppelementing with omega 3 many a time before embarking on the copper detoxing, but I always got more anxiety from it. Now I can take it and I'm completely fine. You actually need zinc to be able to utilize the positive effects of essential oils. Lack of good oils in the brain can create all kinds of mental symptoms including anxiety, so perhaps you could start with low doses of good oils after a couple of weeks with copper detoxing......

Red meat also increased my anxiety in the very beginning. So this too had to be cut down to small portions, but eaten at every meal. I also take a very small amount of folic acid with meat meals, about 40mcg, to prevent a build up of homocysteine which can affect brain function and create anxiety.

About the fiber. I decided to cut out the bran fiber I was taking. It gave me a very good feeling that I was detoxing my gut with this healthy fiber, but I noticed that my anxiety increased soon after eating it. It does contain high levels of copper and simultanously reduces zinc absorption, so I felt best to stop this. Instead I start my morning with two glasses of freshly made vegetable juice which also like bran fiber contains phytic acid, but in lower amounts (celery I think contains very much phytic acid so is best to avoid). With the breakfast I eat a few slices of luch red meat. Vegetables are also included in my dinner meal, but no carbs such as rice or pasta which readuce zinc absorption. Also I found the magnesium and high doses of buffered vitamin C (the acid C can acutally cause anxiety) keeps my bowels loose, thus avoiding the dreaded constipation and a build of toxins.

This is what I'm supplementing with and is not causing increased anxiety: L-methionine, zinc, folic acid, N-acetyl-cysteine, very large doses of buffered vitamin C (small doses of C strangely enough gives me anxiety), amino acids, omega 3, just a tiny dose of iron with dinner meal, magnesium and a inositol/choline supplement. All these except vitamin C, are taken in very small doses several times per day. I have stopped milk products (except butter) and allow myself two slices of white bread (white to avoid the copper and phytic acid) in the evening, but with slices of red luch meat on top. I've stopped olive, soya and sunflower oil for cooking as olives, soya and seeds contain very high copper and I'm afraid this also means the oils do to. Instead I fry meat in some butter.

About algin and zinc, I really don't know as I've never tried Algin so know nothing about it. Perhaps Russ can give you an answer.
Phew, this is a lot to read, but hopefully it can give you some ideas, who knows?

Ann