I don't know anything about treatments for Hep C or your genetic problem.

I realize that people accept treatments that will cause medium-long term damage in order to fight an imminent, serious medical problem.

For example, people accept chemotherapy that causes secondary cancers and so many other problems in order to try to survive for another year. ( I'm not arguing for the use of horrible chemotherapy over the alternatives, I'm just providing an example )

So I understand if you choose to roll the dice with lipoic acid because you have a life threatening condition.

However I'll present some of the reasons Cutler advises against the infrequent dosing of ALA and share a few other thoughts.

It seems you have low exposure to mercury--Hg--but some people had a significant exposure that they are not aware of. For example, the person moved into an apartment shortly after an Hg thermometer was broken and cleaned up improperly in the bed room carpet.

Check out Cutler's comments on the Gregus study on inorganic Hg in mice.
http://onibasu.com/archives/am/74605.html

Notice that the mice treated with LA ended up excreting more Hg than untreated mice; however the treated mice also had *more Hg in the brain and organs.

So LA will kick up Hg but also has the ability to move it across the blood brain barrier and *into the brain.

Cutler points out that LA and other heavy metal chelators don't hold onto Hg really well. They just hold onto it better than cysteine containing foods such as chlorella, brocoli, NAC, etc.

Compare LA's two SH/thiol groups (mercury magnets) to cysteine's one SH group.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/othernuts/la/lastructure.html
http://www.worldofmolecules.com/life/cysteine.htm

We all know that some foods hang around in the body longer than others. For example we know that eating a steak dinner is going to provide longer lasting energy than a handful of candy.

This issue is important for chelation because the chelators don't hold onto Hg very tightly.

They'll kick up Hg from a part of the body that is not very vulnerable to it. Then after levels of chelator drop, the Hg has an opportunity to find a new binding site, possibly one of the very vulnerable parts of the body--brain, liver, thyroid, adrenals, etc.

So by taking LA frequently enough, you increase the odds that a molecule of Hg kicked up by one dose of LA will be escorted to the liver or kidneys by a molecule of chelator in the next dose.

You really want to avoid that "redistribution" of Hg to the most vulnerable organs. You also want to avoid having Hg bouncing around in the body damaging cell membranes along the way.

We need a balance of mobilization and excretion of Hg.

A fairly standard concept in pharmacology is dosing according to the half-life of the substance. How long does it take for levels of the medication to be reduced to half?

In the case of oral alpha lipoic acid, Cutler says the half life is around 3 hrs. That will vary somewhat from person to person.

I'm one of the sensitive folks who found that dosing every 2 hrs during the day and 2.5 or so at night is worth the extra effort. My head feels much clearer and I don't have the "tingly", mild headache in the 30 min before the next dose.

Taking DMSA or especially DMPS along with LA tends to reduce the side effects of LA. They work in the blood stream, not the organs, to clear out the Hg removed from the organs by LA. You are trying to help the Hg to move out of the body while being escorted by the chelator rather than have it bounce around wreaking havoc.

The rule of thumb in the Cutler detox group is that getting a reaction to taking LA suggests that Hg is involved. It will be interesting to see how you tolerate 25mg doses.

Since you are sick I strongly suggest that you try a round of LOW DOSE Cutler detox with LA and see how you react to it rather than roll the dice with a HUGE dose.

A very close female friend had a very bad reaction to taking a 100 mg dose daily for 10 days in the months after Amalgam removal. She was an emotional and intellectual mess and it took at least a year of additional low dose detox to just recover from the setback. Prior to that she had been getting nice early gains from 5mg doses of DMPS--AC protocol.

Cutler strongly recommends that people take generous amounts of other antioxidants--Vit C & E, etc--for additional protection while kicking up Hg.

You might want to do some rounds with DMPS before introducing LA to clear out the blood stream. Given your situation I'd avoid DMSA. It has a reputation for being tough on the immune system although I did okay on it for my lead problem.

There have been so many reports in the detox groups from people who struggled to tolerate small doses and other reports from those who had major setbacks when taking larger doses. Usually they were people who still had remaining Amalgam or had lots of Hg symptoms.

I'll include some examples below.

My impression is that doctors are somewhat blinded by their treatments or revenue from them. Furthermore, people with an Hg problem are so often stress intolerant. They are not the type to go back to the doctor after an adverse reaction and pick a fight. The'll run from the doctor and he'll never hear about the reaction.

There is yet another option. 75mg doses every three hours will provide 600mg per day.

Quite frankly there are not many people in the detox groups who say they can tolerate such doses in the early months of detox; however, maybe you don't have a Hg problem and so you'll not notice much.

Warning: a few people get a bit of a high on lipoic acid, at least in the beginning. A close friend and I do not but I've heard the reports from long time members of detox groups who I've come to respect. I think cutler had that experience himself.

Dr Dan Pompa who had a substantial Hg problem and used a variation of Cutler protocol for three years said in an interview that it takes some people even 6 months to realize that incorrect use of ALA is having adverse effects.

I'd expect these effects to be in the areas of stress tolerance, coordination, intellectual ability, but could also involve many other symptoms. Hg affects so many systems in the body. Unfortunately so many people are not aware of the potential side effects of LA kicking up Hg and so they would not correlate the two.

I'm not pretending to know what you should do but I certainly admire you for trying to do your homework. I empathize with your situation and hope you find something helpful.

Best regards,

Joe

-300mg ALA 2x/day while I still had amalgams....from really-sick-but-functioning to completely disabled, in just 6 months http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/24221
- KellyB. "...took 50 mg of ALA once per day for months...while I had Amalgams in, during the removal process, and even after they were removed....I have suffered tremendously because of this. My health deteriorated rapidly - MCS, extreme food intolerances , depression, anxiety, etc."
- 100 mg ALA in a multivitamin for 10 days. "...caused me to feel anxious, weak, fatigue. My head is held captive
to these heavy metals. I want my own brain back so I can think and function..."
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/86214
- 20mg ALA in the weeks after Amalgam removal. "...has given me the worst severe burning brain for 2 days straight, along with extreme burning muscle pain and weakness all over."
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/96458
-R-Lipoate w/ hidden amalgam //www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=2027011
...I took close to 200 different powerful herbs, and nutraceuticals including R-lipoate. It was at the end of that 5 month period, that I begin to get severe jaw pain around the rotten tooth ( the one that I did not know had an Amalgam in it). It was around this time that I essentially had chronic fatigue and anterograde amnesia set in. It was a profound, rapid, failure of my health, I went from ...going to college full time, to just being debilitated.
- ALA 600 mg 3x a day + NAC 1200mg x 2 a day. "... have severe ringing in my ears, brain fog, funny taste in mouth , headaches, blurred vision, memory problems and having difficulty functioning...stopped 8 days ago ...but it did not go away-- also head aches..." http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/message/306306
-200mg in B Complex w/ amalgam present. "I had daily headaches.... I had the weirdest tingling sensation in my face going EXACTLY from the tooth ... up into my cheekbone."
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/113243
-ALA 300mg. Teen in psych hospital w/ suicidal thoughts. Cutler comments on how the inappropriate use might be causing or contributing to the problem. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/message/294111
-300 mg ALA, 2x/day. "...improvements in peripheral neuropathy ...then developed worse neurological symptoms…” http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/42684