I've been doing Brownstein's protocol using Lugol's and I haven't been noticing much change, I think it's been over a year, in fact some things are getting worse, and while I kept up the iodine, it felt not quite right to me. Someone recommended a book that suggests some people need to address an underlying immune issue vs. just supplementation, and given my low white cell and low lymphocyte count, I think that makes sense. Apparently once you heal that (and the gut is often a big part of it, which I know I have a problem with), people often don't continue to need natural thyroid hormone or large Iodine doses. Just to make things more interesting, it appears I'm definitely in perimenopause if not further along, as my last period was 5 days late, and the next one never came at all. I'm 43 and not quite ready to lose the benefits of estrogen permanently. I've had some minor "hot flashes," though feeling warm hasn't been the worst thing, since I'm usually freezing.

I've been seeing a retired nurse who does energy type work and tests me with kinesiology. It's all very weird even though I'm pretty open minded about all kinds of alternative health practices, but I believe something is happening, although subtle, since I feel completely wiped out after every session and the last time I almost passed out in her kitchen. All she does is read stuff at me, have me hold vials and runs her hands down my back, tap my chest, top of my head, etc., all based on vibrational frequency I guess. I think NAET is one of the techniques, but she combines a few things. She tested me on a big bag of supplements I brought, and I tested negative (as in not good for me or not effective) on Lugol's, detoxified iodine, magnascent and Iodoral. (Along with almost every other supplement I brought.) What my body did like, apparently, was kelp. And not in quantity, either. What's weird is that all this time that's been my gut feeling about the kelp, but I've continued on the Iodine because of all the things I've read about how long it can take to detox other stuff and start really working for you.

It's only been 3 weeks with her, and I'm going to continue for a few months to see where that goes. I'm never sure about kinesiology since it seems like there's a large margin for error for any number of reasons, but she's finding stuff in line with what I've been told by other practitioners, so I think she's pretty good at it. She says it seems like my body is also rejecting magnesium, or reacting to it like it's an allergen or toxin. That sounds about right because I'm still dependent on the Meyer's injections with extra mag once every week or two in order to keep the severe cramping down. My legs are still whacked, circulation is still quite poor there, dependent on compression socks now, and overall I feel like something's really off either with cardiac function or just general circulation. I don't think she knows what to say about my legs, but her overall impression is toxins and virus - I think Epstein Barr came up.

I'm going to see if I can get an appointment with a different holistic doc I've heard good things about, he's supposed to be a really good diagnostician, and I know one lady personally in her late 70's he really brought back from the brink with chelation and some other therapies. Dr. Brownstein is just too busy, now. I need more personal attention, but I'm still officially a patient there because I can't go without those vitamin cocktail infusions with the magnesium.

I'm still not sure what to do about the iodine. It's insane the way what works for most people seems to rarely work for me - across the board, too. I'm feel like I'm actually getting pushed in a direction that feels a lot more ... like a psychospiritual shift needs to happen and this is all part of it - one way or another. Anyway, I'm putting it out there to the universe now, the question of something like "what is this, what am I supposed to learn from it, and I'm ready to be receptive."

Oh, BTW, any of you use Water oz products? That was the only magnesium we tried that I tested for. She had an old bottle of 4000 ppm, which it looks like they don't even make anymore, but she gave me what was left, and all I could get at the health food store was around 350ppm. I think I've seen 2000 online. I have other kinds of ionic magnesium I've used in that past and continue to use, but they don't seem to really work.