hello,
I have been ill with IBS and muscle fatigue, muscle twitches, jaw and neck pain for a few years now. I have finally decided to have my amalgams removed in August. I am however a bit confused about if I should take DMSA or not. My doctor gave me three tablets of 500mg DMSA and told me to take them for three days after removal. Any advice will be helpful.

DMSA is tricky, as are all chelators, because they can easily move mercury into worse areas or stir it up where it is (if it's already in worse areas), and simply excerbate your symptoms, and in some cases, cause damage.

What your doctor is recommending is a pretty typical protocol. Perhaps he's had success with this, but I do know of people who have been injured by it badly and have had to find out a safer way of using DMSA.

There is a protocol going around that is supposed to be very good for many mercury toxic people. Works well for a lot of us, but again, everybody is different, so there are no guarantees. And right now, I'm finding any chelation bad, so I'm having to stop.

But if you are interested. The way they take it is according to Andy Cutler (biochemist). He's studied mercury poisoning for many years and treats mercury toxic adults and autistic children with great success. He's cured himself of mercury poisoning also.

He says that DMSA has to be taken every 4 hours around the clock (yep all night) for about 3 - 7 days straight and then break for the same amount of time you were on it and continue doing this over and over for about 3-4 months or so. Reason being, DMSA only remains in the blood for about 5-6 hours and then the blood levels of it drop significantly. If it's taken every 4 hours, the blood levels of DMSA remain pretty consistant and therefore, the movement of mercury is more consistant, even, and there is no random highs and lows of DMSA and therefore less bouncing around of mercury.

If you take DMSA in large doses, or periodically or widely spaced apart, you risk moving mercury into worse areas because there is no control of the movement as such. When it's used every 4 hours, mercury appears to be more safely escorted through the body because the DMSA levels in the blood remain pretty even.

Though some have to take it even more often, due to having a fast metabolism and using it up quicker. But 4 hours is the usual recommendation.

Most start on very very low doses, because if you are very mercury toxic, you could get very sick on doses that might be nothing to someone else. Many of us start on only 12.5 mg of DMSA (half a 25 mg capsule).

You can split capsules up to get this dose, though it can be very annoying, so the idea is to get hold of the 25 mg capsules online. Order them and then split them in half when you need to take a dose. You can increase the dose later on as you find you become less toxic. Even 12.5 mg can be too much for some.

So you see how dangerous the high levels can be. Taking it every 4 hours is the key though. If you miss a dose, or you're late, it's better to stop the round and wait for a few days before starting again, to avoid the bouncing around of mercury if you let the DMSA levels in your body drop by leaving the next dose too long.

But again, it's up to you. THis is just another method and is being used by more and more people. And if you're interested, there is a forum for people using it that way called frequent dose chelation. You'll find out what you want there by checking out the files and links section and you can also find out where to get DMSA in 25 mg capsules etc.

Here is the link if you're interested. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/

But again, you have every right to follow your doctor's recommendation. But I get concerned because so many of us already HAVE followed our doctors and ended up worse from the very protocol yours is recommending. Not sure why they keep using that one, but I assume some people do fine on it.

hmmmmm
thanks for writing back....am a bit confused as to what I should do. ......maybe I hsould have my amalgams removed and see what happens for a month after and then decide?

Hi Bex, It sounds if you have used the Cutler protocol yourself with some success? Can you tell me how long your waited post mercury removal to begin? Cutler says 4 days.

Do your symptoms get exacerbated during chelation? I am more terrified of the chlelation than the mercury removal itself.

Thanks so much for the info.

Hi, right now I'm getting success with nothing. It doesn't matter what I do, but this could be because of cavitation bacteria poisoning me daily and why i cannot heal and why it's complicating chelation.

But what I can tell you is, before I had this issue, when I was just mercury toxic? Yeah,Andy Cutler's protocol helped me, but I was using 50 mg and really now I think back, I pushed myself to use it for an entire week (every 4 hours). I would be ok for a few days, but it would effect me later quite badly and I would be too ill. So there is no doubt people have to modify it to suit themselves, like lower dose and fewer days.

I don't recall when I started using his protocol. Certainly it was not known to me for years after amalgam removal. I had done all manner of things before that. I think if I recall, I started his protocol about the age of 28 or so, on and off. And by 29, I was coming right. Before that, i was all over the place, but obviously still detoxing mercury even though I was not using the best methods. But his protocol appeared to speed things up more and get more mercury out. If I recall correctly. It didn't give me the horrendous shocking side effects, though it certainly made me feel worse for wear after a few days on it, which is normal and I would just stop if I found i was feeling too tired or bad and take a break and do it again.

Now, I can't do anything without terrible side effects, but as I said, cavitation bacteria can be worse than mercury. And also I had recently used garlic supplement which I believe pushed mercury into far worse areas and has done some damage. So this has made any chelation almost impossible for me.

I hope for you, that the andy cutler protocol works well. The symptoms during it? This varies for everyone. They can worsen or improve, it depends. You only have to use a very small dose and see how you react after a day or so on the every 4 hour regime.

The real problems are things like garlic supplements which just move mercury everywhere, and using ALA too early on etc. DMSA is ok, but for me using it now is not good for some reason. I'm not sure why, but can only imagine it's because of what I did earlier with the garlic and using ALA too early. (i have had another recent exposure to mercury also). So right now, anything is making me worse. Does not matter what I do. I cannot even use selenium! And that is a very good supplement for any mercury toxic person, so go figure.

Hi anonymous, yeah it's all confusing. Very much so. But you can look at the options and decide whatever you feel like doing when you feel like doing it. Waiting a while after removal is fine.

I've done many things over the years, all sorts of detoxes and probably some of them dangerous, but I think for me, the frequent dose chelation was probably the safer and more logical of them. Again though, you just do what suits you and what you can cope with.

Otherwise you just feel overwhelmed!

best wishes though whatever you decide to do.