Re: ALA

[Guest guest]

Everything on the Mercola site has a peripheral enough relationship to reality

that it is of

no relevance to people who want to get better, but is very seductive and

confusing to

anyone without a lot of legitimate scientific background in the area (which

unfortunately

includes almost no physicians nowadays - it isn't their fault medical schools

turned their

curriculum into a liberal arts program).

Ignore it.

Andy

> I was reading an article on Dr. Mercola's site at:

> http://curezone.com/dis/1.asp?C0=49

>

> and come upon this:

>

> " Another concern is that alpha-lipoic acid reduces the removal of

> methyl-mercury by glutathione,

True but irrelevant, since ingested methylmercury is metabolised to inorganic

mercury in a

reasonable period of time and ALA increases inorganic mercury excretion.

> which is a reason why it should be given with DMSA.

No, this isn't the reason.

> There is also evidence that alpha-lipoic acid reduces copper

> excretion33. Since DMSA increases copper excretion34 (it has been used

> to treat the copper intoxication of 's disease35),

It does not do this to a clinically significant extent in individuals with

normal copper

metabolism (which is wildly deranged in WD).

> this should

> not be a problem if alpha-lipoic acid is used with DMSA.

This is an irrelevant statement.

> A serious concern with alpha-lipoic acid is that it can facilitate the

> movement of mercury out of and into the cells.

This is an insane statement.

This is WHY you WANT to use it.

DMPS and DMSA don't take mercury out of cells or out of the brain. It never

comes out of

the brain on its own. Without using ALA you can not get well.

> It can be very useful in

> mobilizing mercury from within the cells

Nope. This is actually an unfortunate effect that you'd rather minimize.

> and making it available for

> DMSA to chelate.

ALA is a more effective chelator than DMSA.

>Without the DMSA to " grab " the mercury from lipoic acid,

DMSA doesn't and can't in any theoretical sense do this.

>it may readily enter other tissues. "

This is a very twisted interpretation of reality.

ALA permits diffusion of mercury out of cells and out of the brain.

DMSA, since it can't get in there, suppresses the free mercury concentration in

the

extracellular space and reduces back diffusion somewhat.

The net rate of mercury flow out of cells is the difference of forward and back

diffusion.

Thus the DMSA may speed things up a bit, which is its theoretical utility, and

it does

definitely change the side effect profile which is its practical utility.

Since the actual rate of mercury clearance by chelators is half order in

chelator we know

that it is controlled by mass transfer resistance, not by chemical kinetics.

Thus to speed

things up we do something to increase the net diffusion flux by reducing the

back

diffusion flux.

> Comments?

This actually comes from my invention of this protocol, as laid out in Amalgam

Illness:

Diagnosis and Treatment. Unfortunately, part of the mental illness of being an

I M P O R T

A N T D O C T O R is the psychotic delusion that they can understand any

complex

concept without the need either for background knowledge (in this case of

kinetics

controlled by mass transfer, and the chemistry of chelation) or any real attempt

to find out

what the people who came up with it intended it to do and why they believe it

does that.

This situation is not made particularly better by the fact that kinetic, mass

transfer and

materials balances are generally considered difficult fields and MD's as a rule

lack about 8

years worth of undergrad classes considered essential for those in science and

engineering who actually do work in these fields. Unfortunately these happen

to be

crucial to figuring out how to do chelation properly.

> RO

>