Re: Questions on reliable testing, DMPS, Mercola's protocol, etc.
The ONLY really reliable testing that can tell you about your body level of mercury is to chop off a piece of each of the known storage organs and send it to the lab.
There is NO test that can be even remotely as reliable performed WHILE YOU ARE ALIVE.
There is the DMPS challenge test, but it is only a reliable indicator if it is POSITIVE. A negative DMPS test has little
significance, since there are plenty where significant mercury excretion only starts after several treatments with DMPS. I myself had a positive first DMPS test, but then the measurements decreased linearly - only to suddenly jump threefold after the 5th treatment.
That is because chronic exposure may at some point simply overwhelm your body's own detox systems, which may be when the symptoms become worse and you start looking for answers. After having received help from DMPS the body starts working on it too (but won't ever get to all depots by itself).
Therefore, the right thing to do from a doctors perspective is the same the would do when they suspect bacteria: start a probationary treatment. Same here. If there is good cause to suspect mercury, right from the start plan for at least 5 treatments. My doctor (in Germany) planned 10 right away "and we'll see after that".
Also, unlike with acute poisoning you may not feel all that much improvement after each individual treatment with chelators. You where poisoned over a long period, you will have to look for real improvements in symptoms over a long period, I'd say half a year at least.
DMPS controversial?
Hmm... I started with DMPS 2.5 years ago and had >25 ampullas, and lots of DMSA and ALA (later).
That stuff IS dangerous, or actually it's the mercury that is moved. I now have a list of lots of symptoms that I had before I ever even thought about what was in my teeth, when I took them as "part of life" and considered myself healthy regardless of those many issues (so no one can blame my mind, that I read too much and then "thought" myself sick). By now they are all GONE. Completely. From relatively benign things like warts on the sole of my left foot to more serious things like allergies and an ever increasing duration of the common cold - the last few years before I got really sick and started to do my own research, when I got one it simply would not go away until spring.
DMPS is a little more toxic than DMSA, but the only real danger - apart from mobilizing too much mercury, which for chronic exposure sufferers is not an issue, really - is an allergy, and that does not come unannounced. Doctors (here, Germany) started using significantly higher doses, 2 ampullas instead of one for an average male, because they found it lowers side effects.
DMPS also is SIGNIFICANTLY more effective than DMSA. As a German doctor once said, DMPS is the excavator, DMSA the shovel. Both work.
By the way, as for DMSA and the often found statement that it encourages candida growth: I have been a human guinea pig, I did it all and for the last 2.5 years. It is NOT so. Yes, candida may grow while using DMSA, but it is not the DMSA itself but probably the mobilized mercury. How can I prove it? Well, by now I've much less to mobilize each time I use DMSA (not enough there for DMPS any more, so I stopped using that chelator), but even though I still had periods where I used quite a lot of DMSA I hardly get a gut reaction (candida) at all any more. So it can't be the DMSA!
Do you need a doctor for DMPS?
Yes and no. For the first few treatments, definitely! My doctor offered to let me save money by injecting it under the skin around the belly after the first few treatments. I rejected the offer (but much later did it on my own, injecting yourself under the skin, into the fatty tissues, is sooo simple and pain free too), because he also added a few other things like procaine, which is assumed by some "DMPS doctors" to help DMPS get into cells when used together. I also got DMPS and DMSA together, they have slightly different profiles (which organs they concentrate on, and DMSA is also great for lead).
As for allergies against DMPS: A lot of people will warn you of the slightest reactions as a sign of impending doom. However, I had reactions immediately after injection, e.g. a painful white spot on the tip of my tongue, which after getting it each time after three treatments (2 months apart) it not onoly didn't get worse, it went away. Other side effects increased over time, but very very slowly. It's definitely not a chemical one takes for fun, but outright allergies are rare. I still get no side effects after DMSA, so take DMPS while you can and later use DMSA, fits the profile of those chelators best anyway.
Oh, and as for Chlorella - I never believed in it. However, I ate it anyway because I liked it, and I got mine from a closed glas pipe production plant in Germany, 100% free of contaminants. I had many extended periods with and without Chlorella. In the end I had to admit, it DOES seem to work. I could repeat the experiment and always got the same result: when I don't take Chlorella brain fog gets much worse, stool turned an unhealthy yellow after more than a month without Chlorella, symptoms increase. I take Chlorella and within a few days I always improved. I still claim that you cannot detox using that stuff, but whatever the exact mechanism is - it helps, whether or not that has anything to do with mercury.