In Amalgam Illness, Cutler explains that if you are chelating after Amalgams are removed, you should wait 3 months before using ALA. The reason for this is to allow the mercury in the blood to be excreted first. ALA slightly increases the permeability of the blood brain barrier to mercury, and using it right after acute exposure may cause some mercury to be deposited in the brain as the mercury concentrations move toward equilibrium. This equilibrium process is slow and ALA accelerates it.