Hi Inspirilla,

Your welcome. I understand what you're saying about the lack of sleep if you have to wake up every 4 hours, but again the broken sleep from waking up to take a dose of DMSA is nothing compared to the possible adverse outcome you may have from NOT taking the nightly doses. Not doing the nightly doses, means you are taking DMSA randomly (indiscrimmantly), which will result in redistribution and possibly worsen your condition (if we are to take Andy's word for it).

Waking up every 4 hours is a minor inconvenience compared to the possible damage or unnecessary redistribution one will likely get if they do not stick to the continous frequent dose (during the night as well as day). This ensures a smooth safer movement and removal of mercury. If you break that protocol for the night so you can sleep, you are not following the protocol. no offense here ok? Just pointing that out.

Sleep is important yes, and broken sleep is undesirable, but again this is why Andy allows for the breaks between rounds. Like doing 3 days on (non stop every 4 hours) and having 3 or more days off for a break to catch up on that broken sleep. You may even wish to have a whole week's break or so before doing another round of 3 or so days. Andy is adamant it MUST be taken during the night as well as day. That is the entire point of the protocol.

This is why he gets annoyed because people will adjust his protocol to suit them, not realising that it is designed for our safety and effectiveness and then when things go wrong, they ask him "why am I worse". Come to find out, they decided not to take the nightly doses because they did not want to wake up and miss any sleep. He has to explain to them the continuous dose does not automatically stop when we go to bed.

I know you are aware of this, but Im only passing this on because if you really wish to follow his protocol, you simply cannot skip night doses, irrespective of broken sleep. But that is up to you. I'm glad that so far you have not had any adverse reactions, but I would not keep risking it personally. Redistrubtion does not always show up immediately and can hit a person later on. Has happened to myself. Even taking a dose of DMSA too late is risky enough.

It is not about taking longer to chelate mercury by skipping night doses (that isn't really the issue at all) it is the sudden stopping of DMSA for the night, and then starting again the next day which causes mercury to be moved erratically and increases the risk for damage. Starting and stopping like that is the very thing Andy is trying to have people avoid.

Hope my post here does not cause offense to you. I know waking up can be annoying, but if you follow this protocol, you have to do it. Keeping the DMSA capsules right beside you on a bedside locker, a big glass of water and a little alarm clock and set it every 4 hours is what I do. You only wake up, take a capsule, and then reset the clock and go back to sleep. No, I dont enjoy it, but it's not an option if I want to keep things safe and effective. And you will only be waking up about twice during the night. E.g. taking a dose at 4 am and then again at 8 am. Not as bad as waking up every 2-3 hours!

anyway sorry for the longwinded response here!

"I agree its important to keep the distribution of DMSA, but sleep is also important. It will take longer for my body to expel lead and mercury I accept that. However, its going to be a long haul. From 6 months to maybe 2 years and more. I want to maintain my enthusiasm for this process and dont really relish that time walking around like a zombie but if my symptoms worse I may just get up in the night to do this."


Just to emphasize what has already been said...

Dosing DMSA at 4 h intervals, day and night, is a mandatory part of Andy Cutler's protocol. Giving up the night time doses doesn't just mean that it will take longer to chelate. The risks involved with skipping doses is that mercury and other metals will be forced into places where they were not before leading to long term, likely irreversible damage. Look at the list of illnesses of the cover of Andy's "Amalgam Illness" book (www.noamalgam.com) to see the type of illnesses that you would be risking by giving up night doses.