Re: How do I know chelation is working?

December 8, 2007

>

> How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking this

> DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved around,

> but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of my body?

>

If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should be

taking the mercury out.

There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met the

counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that mercury

had been removed from my body.

There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As time

goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is an

indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started 18 mg

DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS and 12.5

mg ALA.

Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the mercury

is leaving.

> Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

>

Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it would take

some out and redistribute too much).

J

>

December 8, 2007

>

> How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking this

> DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved around,

> but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of my body?

>

If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should be

taking the mercury out.

There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met the

counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that mercury

had been removed from my body.

There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As time

goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is an

indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started 18 mg

DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS and 12.5

mg ALA.

Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the mercury

is leaving.

> Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

>

Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it would take

some out and redistribute too much).

J

>

December 8, 2007

--- Thanks . That doesn't offer me a great deal of comfort though

unfortunately.

1) I am following Andy's protocol to the letter.

2) I have been chelating almost every week with DMSA for 28 rounds (9

months).

3) I managed to get up to 25mgs every 3 hours but have had to lower it

back down the 12.5mgs because I am in the 9 month dumping period it

would seem :-(

4) I haven't had any symptom improvement at all. And I have recently

had a Panoramic xray to double check there is no amalgam in my mouth.

5) I can't face another hair test as I am still losing my hair and

there is not enough left to have a hair test without the patches showing!

6) I can't go near ALA yet - it made me very very ill at 3mgs.

This is all so miserable. If only I could know for sure that I am on

the right path and not wasting my precious energy and money. I rarely

hear from anyone else on this list who hasn't had some improvements by

this stage.

On a brighter note - am I correct in thinking that if I was just

stirring things up and not excreteing the mercury at all, I would be

feeling much worse?

In frequent-dose-chelation , " "

wrote:

>

> >

> > How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking this

> > DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved around,

> > but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of my

body?

> >

>

> If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should be

> taking the mercury out.

>

> There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met the

> counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

> chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that mercury

> had been removed from my body.

>

> There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

> chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As time

> goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is an

> indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started 18 mg

> DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS and 12.5

> mg ALA.

>

> Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the mercury

> is leaving.

>

> > Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

> >

>

> Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it would take

> some out and redistribute too much).

>

> J

>

> >

>

December 8, 2007

One clue you have given me is when you say you have lost too much

hair. That could be a thyroid symptom. If possible, try to get a

blood test for free T3, free T4, and anti thyroid antibodies and post

the results to the group. If you have hypoadrenal symptoms (fatigue,

frequent infections, difficulty shaking infections, low BP, dizziness

on standing, hypoglycemia, and some others I'm forgetting) try to get

a 4x per day saliva test for cortisol.

I was lucky that I was prescribed replacement hormones before I had my

amalgams removed. Even with optimization of the hormones my body

wasn't making consistently I still had to chelate with 18 mg DMPS for

***a year and a half*** (and I was chelating continuously) before I

could increase the dose to 25 mg!! Some might say that I am super

toxic; I ??like?? to think that part of the reason chelation is so

slow and tricky with me is that my adrenal function was worn down to

almost nothing by the time I figured out that mercury was the

underlying problem to all of my problems.

Because of the nature of DMSA (two thiol groups on each molecule) it

has to be taking some mercury out as you chelate. Slow is good

because your body has time to heal from the damage that the mercury

does on the way out.

J

> > >

> > > How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking this

> > > DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved

around,

> > > but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of my

> body?

> > >

> >

> > If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should be

> > taking the mercury out.

> >

> > There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met the

> > counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

> > chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that mercury

> > had been removed from my body.

> >

> > There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

> > chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As time

> > goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is an

> > indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started 18 mg

> > DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS and 12.5

> > mg ALA.

> >

> > Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the mercury

> > is leaving.

> >

> > > Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

> > >

> >

> > Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it would take

> > some out and redistribute too much).

> >

> > J

> >

> > >

> >

>

December 9, 2007

--- Hi

Yes I am taking Armour thyroid and am on prednisolone for the adrenals

too. I am also addressing female hormone problems but everything has

proved difficult despite mine and the Doctors best attempts. I think

the mercury has mucked everything up so much that there isn't much I

can do apart from keep chugging on with the low doses of DMSA.

The only time my hair loss stopped was when I got my ferritin up with

iron infusions. (I think that was the reason). But it has dropped

almost nothing again within months as my periods are still

uncontrollable. I also think that I was actually MORE ill when the

ferritin was in normal range so I am in no hurry to repeat the infusions.

I think you are right about the adrenals - mine are pretty much

useless now. They were bad before chelation but now my Doc thinks they

are pretty much lifeless.So I do realise it's going to be slow :-(

You do give me some envouragement though - by saying that the DMSA HAS

to be removing some of the mercury.:-)

Thanks

In frequent-dose-chelation , " "

wrote:

>

> One clue you have given me is when you say you have lost too much

> hair. That could be a thyroid symptom.

> amalgams removed. Even with optimization of the hormones my body

> wasn't making consistently I still had to chelate with 18 mg DMPS for

> ***a year and a half*** (and I was chelating continuously) before I

> could increase the dose to 25 mg!! Some might say that I am super

> toxic; I ??like?? to think that part of the reason chelation is so

> slow and tricky with me is that my adrenal function was worn down to

> almost nothing by the time I figured out that mercury was the

> underlying problem to all of my problems.

>

> Because of the nature of DMSA (two thiol groups on each molecule) it

> has to be taking some mercury out as you chelate. Slow is good

> because your body has time to heal from the damage that the mercury

> does on the way out.

>

> J

>

> > > >

> > > > How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking

this

> > > > DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved

> around,

> > > > but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of my

> > body?

> > > >

> > >

> > > If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should be

> > > taking the mercury out.

> > >

> > > There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met the

> > > counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

> > > chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that mercury

> > > had been removed from my body.

> > >

> > > There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

> > > chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As time

> > > goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is an

> > > indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started

18 mg

> > > DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS

and 12.5

> > > mg ALA.

> > >

> > > Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the mercury

> > > is leaving.

> > >

> > > > Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

> > > >

> > >

> > > Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it

would take

> > > some out and redistribute too much).

> > >

> > > J

> > >

> > > >

> > >

> >

>

December 9, 2007

> > >

> > > How do we know that chelation is actually working? I am taking

this

> > > DMSA (9 months worth now) and can feel the mercury being moved

around,

> > > but how do I know that it is actually taking the mercury out of

my

> body?

> > >

> >

> > If you are using the DMSA according to Andy's protocol it should

be

> > taking the mercury out.

> >

> > There are a couple of ways of double checking. My hair test met

the

> > counting rules before chelation and after a year or so of DMPS

> > chelation it no longer met the counting rules, meaning that

mercury

> > had been removed from my body.

> >

> > There will be a dose that you found comfortable when you started

> > chelation and a higher dose that was too much for comfort. As

time

> > goes on you will be able to increase your chelator dose. That is

an

> > indication that mercury has been removed. When I first started

18 mg

> > DMPS and 5 mg ALA was the max. Now I can tolerate 25 mg DMPS and

12.5

> > mg ALA.

> >

> > Symptom improvement would be another way of knowing that the

mercury

> > is leaving.

> >

> > > Is there any possibilty that it isn't?

> > >

> >

> > Only if you are taking it in high infrequent doses (then it would

take

> > some out and redistribute too much).

> >

> > J

> >

> > >

> >

>

December 9, 2007

" jodi2ben " wrote:

> This is all so miserable. If only I could know for sure that I am on

> the right path and not wasting my precious energy and money. I rarely

> hear from anyone else on this list who hasn't had some improvements by

> this stage.

Hi , I'm sorry you are having such a rough time.

I wanted to add that I felt like all my improvements from chelating were nearly

wiped away

at the beginning of this year. It was a huge step backwards.

As I've posted before, it turned out that I had a severe fungal infection in my

gut, too

much bad bacteria and hidden food intolerances. These problems were throwing my

hormones off.

I can't say enough how badly I felt.

They say often on Autism-Mercury that " yeast can mask improvements " . It seems

to me

that lots of things can mask improvements. Yes, by chelating you're taking the

mercury or

other toxic metals out and getting well. But there are often other things we

need to get to

the root of in order to feel much, much better.

I've never found fixing hormone imbalance easy--thyroid, adrenal or sex

hormones.

And to find a good MD to help? Where, where, where?

Hang in there.

December 10, 2007

Hi, I remember the dumping stage of mercury well. It occured a lot

longer after amalgam removal that I would have expected. The last

amalgams were removed in 1997 and I was sick immediately following

this removal. Very bad and regretted getting amalgams out.

Took some DMSA (the wrong way though) and appeared to go into a sort

of " remission " of symptoms for sometime. Perhaps it just did a quick

clean of the blood thre for a time, I don't know. I was not " well "

as such, but not anything atrocious and seemed ok for about a year

and a half and THEN out of the blue I suddenly started feeling

horrible. Just like I was being poisoned all over again but much

worse. And I was crying, salivating, and going into horrible fits of

this nearly everyday. My body would go through this, release a bit

of the toxins, feel better and then the entire thing would build up

again and on it went. No sooner had a bit been cleared, more came to

the surface.

I think this was in early 1999 when this began, so it was a real late

dumping starting point. But once it began, I was in for it.

I did anything and everything at that tme to try and speed it up and

some very stupid stuff. Causing horrific suffering in the process,

but I knew something was happening, but just didn't know what. I

didn't know if I was getting worse, or better. It was insane. I

wished I had known about Andy's protocol more then, but I did not

until later on.

I did start chelating with it and I did not get such insane detox

symptoms like I had with other products and found I was able to do

proper chelation rounds and not have to keep stopping and taking ages

to recover because of damage/redistribution. However, I took it back

then at a dose probably higher than what I should have done because I

really was very toxic. I would feel pretty ill for sure, tired,

achey, yuck basically. But I did over time get this mercury out.

It took me about 2 years from dumping stage onwards to start coming

right. It was not an easy time, my body had honestly no interest,

other than excreting the poison, which was misery for me. But

obviously my body knew what it wanted to do and without the DMSA the

frequent way, it would have been much more painful and drawn out.

I was getting well after that though. I was only debilitated later

by a viral infection and other infection that I never recovered

from. I'm affected to this day.

But just to give you a little bit of hope to say that you might well

be experiencing the mercury dump (second phase of suffering).

>

1) I am following Andy's protocol to the letter.

>

2) I have been chelating almost every week with DMSA for 28 rounds (9

> months).

>

> 3) I managed to get up to 25mgs every 3 hours but have had to lower

it

> back down the 12.5mgs because I am in the 9 month dumping period it

> would seem :-(

>

> 4) I haven't had any symptom improvement at all. And I have recently

> had a Panoramic xray to double check there is no amalgam in my

mouth.

>

> 5) I can't face another hair test as I am still losing my hair and

> there is not enough left to have a hair test without the patches

showing!

>

> 6) I can't go near ALA yet - it made me very very ill at 3mgs.

>

> This is all so miserable. If only I could know for sure that I am on

> the right path and not wasting my precious energy and money. I

rarely

> hear from anyone else on this list who hasn't had some improvements

by

> this stage.

>

> On a brighter note - am I correct in thinking that if I was just

> stirring things up and not excreteing the mercury at all, I would be

> feeling much worse?

>

December 10, 2007