== reply below

Thanks Joe, that's really helpful.
Interesting thing is that I started feeling anxious even before the Amalgam removal, it just exacerbated my symptoms. But I had my mouth full of old fillings, so they could be making me sick long before that.

== True but if you are somewhat stress intolerant like most people in detox groups, the thought of the scheduled dental visit was likely draining the limited reserve of your body's stress related chemicals.

Do you know if mercury can lead to hormonal imbalances?

== If?! This is one of the most vulnerable areas to Hg. For example, Boyd Haley the former chair of the chem dept at the U of KY once said in a talk that a hormone receptor for pituitary hormones ACTH, etc holds onto Hg about as well as anything can. He also points out that the levels of ACTH (stress/adrenal hormone) are similar to levels of Hg that can be in the blood from just a moderate number of Amalgam fillings.

== A. Cutler has a diagram in his book Amalgam Illness describing the places where Hg affects hormones and related systems. This includes adrenals, thyroid, pituitary (signaling from the brain), hypothalamus (brain control of hormones). Much more could be said on this huge topic.

The first thing I noticed when I was getting worse is that my hormones went out of whack, PCOS out of control, lost most of my hair, skin worse than in my teenage years and other embarrasing symptoms.

== Some very sick young women in the detox groups no longer have their period. Many women have irregular cycles and lots of mood problems associated with them. The woman I was seriously dating readily admitted that I had a better feel for her cycle than she did. This was because of mood changes during the "month." However after she started on adrenal support, especially pregnenolone, etc, I no longer had a good feel for her cycle. She was pleasant and reasonably affectionate most of the time. That was coming from a person with decades of PTSD.

I will give Vit C another try, my doc also says to do so. This time slowly and with lower doses, maybe only up to 3000-5000 mg.

== Yikes, those are low doses for you!? : )

What would be the safest dose to start with? 1 000 mg?

== You might even start with 500mg of buffered C with each meal and before bed. If that is tolerated, you might increase it gradually.

Raise weekly or every few days? I really don't want to go overboard again and I'm sensitive to everything I take.
My question is does Vit C chelate mercury? Can it actually give detox-like side effects?

== From reports in the detox group vitamin C does not produce the most commonly reported HM detox symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, maybe tingling or mild dull headache, etc. Some people get more energy from it. Personally I don't notice any changes from taking it; however, the Science supporting its value is so overwhelming that I take it. For example, most mammals make their own vitamin C. We cannot make it. We have to consume it; however even the best diet cannot come close matching what most mammals make per day, let alone the much higher doses they make when they are sick or under stress.

I now have just ascorbic acid at home but I'm going to order some buffered C, I'm thinking sodium ascorbate. I think that'd be the best for the adrenals since most of us with AF have low sodium.

== Seems reasonable. I mostly take the acid form just with my largest meal of the day. I suppose I could use a little extra acid at that time for digestion.

I'm also going to buy some plain Mg citrate or glycinate and discontinue or reduce calcium, let's see if I feel calmer after that.

http://onibasu.com/archives/am/2200.html
I can't seem to be able to open this link, could you repost it ? Thanks!

== The link is good but that site's availability is sometimes spotty. Try later. Also there was a time when it did not work well in Firefox.

I pretty much read everything about adrenals that is out there, now I started looking into heavy metals, and I will def. do more research on methylation and lithium if the anxiety and brain fog allows me.
It's like the more I know, the more I realize how much I DON'T know, if that makes any sense ;)

== That's so true. Hopefully that won't feel overwhelming for you : ) I choose to see it as hopeful; there are opportunities to pick up leads or clues.

The story you shared really gives some hope, anxiety cured 100%! that's a thought to hold on to.

== Very coincidentally that woman's brother just joined the FDC group today. From the introductory email he is not in good shape but he mentioned that she is 100% recovered. In truth there are probably some minor lingering issues. I'm not hearing many reports of 100% recovery in the detox groups, but plenty of people getting life-changing gains. Getting adequate adrenal support is clearly one of the reasons. It is so under-appreciated.

== Joe

-Cat

Glucose tolerance test is used for hypoglycemia. You have to be almost dead for mainstream doctors to consider you hypoglycemic. However you might get some useful information from it regardless of what the HMO doc says.

For example, my chiropractor was able to order it for me. My fasting level was around 88 (quite normal). However an hour after consuming the "sugar drink" my blood Sugar was almost 10 pts below that. 10 pts above fasting probably would have been normal.

This helped me to understand that I could not use Sugar to try to keep me alert and motivated during the day. While trying to do that I was on an energy rollercoaster. It also made my personality weird.

I later learned that I needed catecholamine support, including a little medication for inattentive ADD. It plus related supplements helped me to be more alert and less tempted to use sugar, stress and caffeine to maintain alertness. There is much more to my story but you get a feel for how the test might be useful.

Lecithin, B-complex and ox bile/artichoke are top 3 general supplements for liver and SIBO.