Hey LJJ,

My business partner (Laura) and I both have this type of experience with Algin; We've used it a long time.

If I go out to eat and have salmon, I'll feel the effects of the mercury after. Laura will feel quite bad after and feel pretty grumpy. The symptoms are very predictable and repeatable for both of us.

However, if we take Algin, I will have no discernable symptoms of mercury and she will have only mild symptoms.

Now this works when we take Algin only 10 to 30 minutes before a meal. This must mean that algin is absorbing mercury right in the stomach preventing it from being absorbed.

I also have mild mercury symptoms when I work hard physically or work out. I'll take some Algin and symptoms will begin to subside in about 30 minutes and continue to subside for the next several hours. I have no explaination for this because in 30 minutes, I would assume the algin is still in the stomach so I don't know how it could be preventing reabsorbtion after the bile duct. Perhaps it has a way of slithering down to that point more quickly than I know; I don't know, nevertheless, it really works this way for both Laura and me.

I also notice a longer-term cumulative effect.

For example, if I'm doing physical work for several days and take Algin daily, the symptoms each day will be less and less severe. If I don't take algin at all, the symptoms will become more intense day after day. This makes sense to me because the Algin is occupying more of the colon and therefore absorbing more mercury preventing more reabsorbtion.

So, to answer your question, I would say Algin stays effective a long time, perhaps the entire time it's in the body. I would conclude that taking Algin at the same interval as your stomach's digestive cycle would be the best best. In other words, the amount of time that passes between the moment you eat food and the time the stomach allows it to exit via the pylorus.

This is what I would do, so hopefully this will help determine the interval for taking Algin for you too.