Its unusual for a 20 year old to realize they are mercury poisoned. What are your symptoms for the record.

If DMSA doesnt cross the BBB then it wont directly affect brain mercury. It is too early in your situation to even tell if you need DMSA.

My recommendations is to take ALA,eat meat,take vitamins,do saunas for the first year. OVERCHELATING will cause mercury to move into your brain.

Also stop eating all fish,stop taking calcium and magnesium supplements as they are made from sea creatures. AVOID aluminum added to baking powder and aluminum pots and pans.

Take your basic vitamins.
See how you feel in six months.

This natural product is designed by a doctor to safely remove the heavy metals.

Yes. You can't just go and release the mercury without having other ingredients to pick it up and move it out of the body.

http://www.scienceformulas.com/

tapering doses seems like an interesting idea.. throw it out there on a-m or fdc and see what the experts think :)

saunas would be fine on round.. i think it helps especially with nickel.

longer cycles are ok for some, but tough on the adrenals.

Quick background of myself:
- I am 20 years old.
- I am mercury poisoned.
- Hair Analysis readout: (3.5 ug/g) Reference Range being (<0.80 ug/g). So I'm slightly over 4x the limit according to Doctors Data Laboratories.
- I have never had any Amalgams. I was poisoned in the Summer of 2009 (just over 1 year ago) from excessive tuna consumption. (2 cans+ a day on average)
- I thought I was copper poisoned for a long time (same symptoms), but later found out it was Mercury poisoning.

-----It could be both. Many people have mercury + copper.

-Discovered it was mercury in May, 2010 (4 months ago).
-From the beginning of June to the end of July (about 2 months) I was chelating with probably the worst set of supplements possible: ALA (300mg twice daily), Chlorella (6000mg-10,000mg/day), Cilantro (about a handful/day).
- Those of you reading considering using Chlorella or Cilantro -> DONT!!!!!.
- All my symptoms have become far more prominent since doing so. Most likely from concentrating the mercury in my brain/liver from improper protocol.

-----Sounds like it's me writing your post. I did the same thing and almost died 6 months ago. Cilantro + chlorella. Then I found Andy's protocol and have been doing it right since. I am young too... just 18 years old.

- I have just started the Andy Cutler protocol. Have done 2 rounds of just DMSA (25mg/dose) 3 days on 3 days off as of Sept 10th, 2010.

-----Good. Keep the dosing between 1/8 and 1/2mg/lb

Ok so there was my breif introduction so you know where I'm coming from.

Now onto the NEW IDEAS!

IDEA #1 - Tapering Off Dosages at end of cycle. For example doing a 3 day cycle you would do everything normal as per the Andy Cutler Protocol, say 75mg/dose. But the twist would be at the end of the cycle during the last 3 doses would go as follows 75mg/50mg/25mg. My thought process on this is that it would reduce the mercury redistribution at the end of the cycles as it would slowly reduce levels of DMSA in the blood rather than just completely stopping all of a sudden. I would LOVE to hear everyones opinions on this as I've never read about anyone doing this and think it would definitely be worth it over the 50 rounds of chelating.

-----Bad idea. Andy says no and it is dangerous.

IDEA #2 - Doing 1 week cycles instead of 3 days cycles. This idea isn't really new as it is listed in Andy's book but I never see anyone actually doing it and was wondering if there is some kind of negative effect of it? In my opinion it would be better because there would be less mercury redistribution because you would only be stopping the DMSA once compared to twice in the same amount of time.

-----1 week cycles are OK. Keep the dose low enough that side effects are tolerable. If the lack of sleep from waking doesn't bother you then it is perfectly fine to do 1 week rounds. If your suffering though, 3 days on is just fine.

IDEA #3 - Sweating excessively day after ending of a chelating cycle. In this link: http://onibasu.com/archives/am/1498.html
, Andy explains that sweating reduces blood level of mercury. What I was thinking was that the day after finishing a round going for a run with a garbage bag on or going to a sauna would be an excellent idea to get rid of whatever the DMSA left behind in your blood, helping you to recover quicker from the cycles then if you were to do nothing.

-----This is true that sweating helps reduce extracellular mercury. I wouldn't suggest the sweating route... low doses of DMSA or DMPS work just fine. DMPS is better if you have no lead and can get a Rx for it.

So there they are! I would love to hear everyone opinions and if they have ever done any of them and their experiences!

-----We are very similar...both young....both mercury toxic....and both took cilantro/chlorella and hurt ourselves really bad. You are on the right track to good helath. Andy is a really remarkable man who has put a lot of effort into devising the most effective and logical protocol there is. If you haven't been tuna recently and have had no Amalgams it would probably be safe to start ALA. The mercury that is causing the problems is intracellular... DMSA doesn't help for that. What you probably did with the ALA doses and Cilantro was force a bunch of mercury into your brain and that is the problem. A few months of DMSA or DMPS would be OK and then you could add the ALA. You could ask over on the yahoo groups since your situation is different because it is from fish and not amalgams. Good luck bud!


I was trying to be as brief as possible as to not make this post a novel, so if theres anything not explained in enough detail for you let me know and I'll straighten it out!

I'm so sorry to hear about your mercury related illness. I mostly post in the yahoo Cutler groups and we not infrequently hear stories like yours--tuna diets, etc. Also Dr. Mark Hyman thinks long term frequent tuna consumption along with a year of work in polluted China made him sick. He says in his book that he had to go to 10 other doctors before someone realized that his "yuppie flu" chronic fatigue was due to mercury!

In our groups (Frequent Dose Chelation @ yahoo) we discourage people from tapering off. One of the most basic principles of the Cutler Protocol is to maintain a stable level of chelators in the blood while on round. When one molecule drops an Hg ion, there is then an increased chance that another molecule of chelator is coming soon to grab it before it becomes attached to an organ that is very vulnerable to Hg and which holds onto it very tightly.

Cutler recommends what you suggest in #2, that when you find a combination of dose and frequency of chelator that results in low symptoms on round you extend the rounds out a week or two; however he is very clear even in recent posts in the group that we need to take some time off btw rounds. People who chelate with Lipoic acid continuously will sometimes develop high copper along with its symptoms.

I've been using the protocol for a year and finally have a low enough level of symptoms on round that I will start to extend my rounds more than 3.5 days. I'm experiencing encouraging improvements in symptoms but I understand that Hg comes out of the brain very slowly.

We hear some of the most dreadful stories about the use of cilantro!
Middle aged former model tells her story.
http://whatidontknow.net/blog/eight-years-and-counting-my-chelation-story/

A formerly bright teen tells his story at the end of this post. He could no longer be mainstreamed in school!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/52916

He recently posted that he is slowly improving after 8 months. I can see this in the content of his articulate and intelligent posts recently.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/adult-metal-chelation/message/46712