Re: DMSA chelation and lead - best guesses

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I believe DMSA has been approved by the FDA for

treatment of lead poisoning in children. Then again

the FDA has allowed the use of mercury-based amalgam

filings and asserted they were safe until 2006.

Unfortunately all forms of chelation mobilize metals,

particularly after the chelator wears off at the end

of a round, and most of us experience a worsening of

symptoms resulting from mobilization. This is very

palpable when chelating mercury, but it's reasonable

to expect that the same thing would be true with other

harmful metals such as lead which might not cause

obvious side effects. Unfortunately the only

alternative is to chelation is to leave the metals

where they are.

With my own mercury poisoning I'm generally very

sensitive to chelators. I began chelating at very low

doses of DMSA (6-8mg at 165 pds. of body weight) and

had few side effects at these doses. My

interpretation of this is that because I am only

mobilizing small amounts of metals at any one time,

there is very little " mobilization harm " added to the

" body burden harm " . I like to think that this

balances the risks of the two.

Also be aware that increases in dosage cause a linear

increase in side effects, with a much smaller (30% ?)

increase in excretion. The main idea is that there

are many good reasons to use doses low enough to cause

almost no side effects, or just very low doses period.

Finally lead is stored in bones, and can only come

back out of them at a relatively slow rate. So even

after you get all the lead out of blood, most of your

body burden will still remain, and lead will gradually

leach back in from the bones. My point here is that

you can't hope to get all the lead out with a short

series of large doses. Rather you should use many

small doses over time - I have heard that it can take

as much as 7 years for 100% of lead! Of course with

recently poisoned children one might expect more

circulating and less stored lead.

Finally my own experience (and that of some others) is

that taking chelators reduces the symptoms of toxic

metals (which can be pretty unmistakable in the case

of mercury) during rounds of DMSA. I do hear lots of

reports of during-round side effects from people on

this board, but usually these people are dosing at 50,

25, or 12mg. I used to have during round effects at

these doses at well, but they went away when I used

smaller doses, and over time my tolerance improved.

So you may actually achieve less harm during rounds of

chelation with DMSA, if this view is correct. Because

I haven't heard many reports from people dosing at 3,

6, or 8 mg of DMSA, I really can't be sure whether the

presence or absence of during-round effects is really

a function of dose.

It's afterwards that the effects hit me and some

others, during redistribution. The main thing is to

make sure that you always avoid any space in the

dosage schedule during the round. A break of more

than 3 hours during a round and you have avoidable

redistribution.

If you use low doses for some months, much of the

circulating lead will probably be mopped up. Yes, it

will damage stuff on the way out - toxic metals do

that. By using low doses and taking breaks you will

keep this damage to a minimum. Most harm will

probably occur after the rounds. Once the circulating

lead is mopped up, whatever new lead comes out of the

bones will probably be excreted almost immediately,

even at low doses.

These are my assumptions based on my own

self-experiments and what I have heard from others.

Good luck,

Dave

--- wrote:

>

> How does hair level lead relate to blood level? I

> read that chelating

> lead can be dangerous because it will cause blood

> levels to go up

> making symptoms worse and will cause renal damage on

> the way out.

>

> I am worried that I may have stirred up lead while

> trying to chelate

> mercury by adding DMSA and it is causing some pains

> on and off for my

> son - most recently in his knees. We have only done

> a couple rounds of

> DMSA and I stopped almost 3 weeks ago because of the

> pains. I don't

> know whether to continue or just keep on doing ALA

> only? Anyone have

> experience with lead?

>

> We have a pediatrician who has taken a blood test,

> but we don't know

> the results yet.

>

>

> KAI : , what doses of DMSA and ALA are

> you giving your son ?. Every 3 hours ? How many

> days on and how many days off ?

>

>

>