Need some advice on detox after filling removal.

[Julie]

Hi, I'm new to this site. Wondering if anyone would have some advice for me.

I've been on a healing journey for the last 6 yrs. It started with a bout of Mono, (the third time I've had it) which affected my pancreas and gave me chronic pancreatitis. It also affected my liver. After a couple of years of going to regular MD's and getting much worse through tons of antibiotics and numerous harmful tests, they told me there was nothing more they could do for me. So, by the grace of God, I've been slowly healing through natural means ever since. I recently had all my mercury fillings removed and then did some detox for about 5 weeks. I did, Chlorella, Pectasol Chelation Complex, Maca, ACS, ACZ, nano spray, Mega Vit. C with D- Ribose, Greens+ and Liver Guard by Source Naturals. It was hard to afford all those supplements and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what else I could use, and for how long? Or if I should try to stick to this protocol for a longer period of time. I'm also dealing with candida. Wanting to really destroy it, and looking for any info there also.

Sorry this is so long. Thanks for any advice.
Julie <>/body>

[TanyaL]

Hi Julie,

I had my amalgams replaced in April08, so almost a year ago now. I knew, for a variety of reasons, that I had a fair amount of mercury I'd stored, so I'm chelating, have been since last year. I haven't used most of those products, so I can't really comment on them. I've been working with a HCP who's helped fine-tune the Andy Cutler protocol for dealing with mercury. So I'm doing a lot of vitamin/mineral nutritional support and then every other weekend I'm chelating with DMSA (not anymore, but that's all I used for the first 3 months after I got my fillings out) and then ALA (alpha lipoic acid), and now just ALA. I can tell that my metal burden has come down significantly, but I still have work to do.

If you think some of the health problems you've listed above are mercury-related, I'd say it will take a long time to get better. I don't know much about mono, but it seems like that's quite a burden, when it doesn't resolve quickly, and I don't know what to do about support for that. I know, in the autism community, there are products like ViraStop and probably others, but I don't have experience with them. Even though neither of my kids is autistic (both got a heavy toxic load from me though), I've found a lot of useful information from the ASD community and their approach to heavy metal detoxification.

I think now is a good time to get together a plan for this. Not sure if you're familiar with Cutler's work, he has found that people who remove their amalgams typically feel somewhat better in the first 3 months, and then they start feeling worse, and then maybe around the 6 month mark (plus or minus some for individual variation) they'll start feeling better and continue getting better. That down-swing can be reduced in intensity if you have a good plan to excrete the mercury that your organs start dumping--that's the reason for the downswing, your circulating metals go up during this timeframe. So I think it's good to think about this now, while you feel good (though hey--if you _don't_ have the downswing, all the better, but I wouldn't count on that).

I could share my supps, not sure if it would address all your needs but as a point of comparison, let me know.

[Julie]

Tanya, I will look up Andy Cutler's protocol to get that info.

It was 6 yrs ago that I got the Mono. I actually recovered from it pretty well and then had a huge filling removed by a non-holistic dentist who washed the whole filling down my throat, About 2 weeks later my face broke out in boils, and after that my pancreas flared up. I've had chronic pancreatitis ever since. I had some pain with the mono but it went away, so I really think the mercury must of accumulated in my pancreas which was already weakened.

I am taking some supplements; Multi, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, D-3, B-Complex, Udos' oil. That's all I can think of right now. If you have any advice on anything else I should be taking I'd appreciate it.

I'm also battling candida, and could use any info on what has worked for others.

[Julie]

Tanya, What are you using to chelate? Are you doing IV's or oral chelation?

Thanks,
Julie

[TanyaL]

I was using DMSA orally, the every-4-hours approach, round the clock, every other weekend, then I added in ALA orally (not sure if there's any other way ALA is taken, now that I think about it) every 3 hours (it has a shorter half-life in the body).

If you check out the frequent-dose-chelation yahoo group, their Files section has a Getting Started type document that talks about nutritional support (Bs, C, a DHA supp, mineral support but no copper or iron, magnesium, like that, but with guidance for dosages). And it has discussion on starting dosages of DMSA or ALA.

Are you doing anything special dietarily? For me, gluten and dairy free is really important, and it's one thing that the yahoo group I mentioned doesn't really seem focused on. GFCF is seen as important for kids, but I've seen it's just as important for me as it is for my kids.

[TanyaL]

My issues with candida are only recent (which is very atypical, I'll admit, of mercury toxic people) so I'm not terribly knowledgeable. The candida is probably holding onto a lot of mercury, so you'll want to go slow and gradual. And if you've got any food allergies (or intolerances, not just anaphalactic-type reactions, I mean) that could contribute to a bad bacterial balance in the gut and help the candida flourish.

My daughter has more of a tendency toward candida, but not terribly bad. For her, taking out gluten helped, and adding in a lot of probiotic-rich foods helps. Adults sometimes need to go slowly with this, else the dying candida that's being crowded out can release a lot more toxins than they have bandwidth to excrete. The list at the yahoo group has decent general detox pathway support. They don't talk much about bowel tolerance vitamin C (taking it 3-4 x/day, and increasing the dosage til you get loose stools and then backing off a bit) but I've found that helpful for us as well. Biotin is a B vitamin that works to starve out the candida (I forget the exact mechanism) when it's used in high doses--like 8-15 mg/day for an adult, but you wouldn't want to just start taking that much--again, all the toxins being released would be more than your body could deal with. So it seems like it's a slow, steady thing. And also--do you think the underlying reason for the candida is the mercury? Lots of antibiotics can promote candida, and food allergies, there've got to be more reasons as well. But it'd be a good idea to explore the possible underlying causes and see if you've addressed them, or it's the mercury that you're addressing now. Because if the reason the candida overgrew isn't addressed, in the long-run it'll be be a losing battle (though it sounds like slowly making progress now would be all to the good, even if you haven't honed in on the underlying cause yet).

[Julie]

I'm doing the candida diet right now. I've been off wheat and corn for a while, but now I'm doing almost no complex carbs except for an occasional red potato. I do eat some dairy. I like to get raw milk, but haven't got any lately. I eat some cheese and milk kefir. I'm eating fermented veggies (mostly cabbage). I try to buy mostly organic even with meats. Don't eat pork or shell fish. I use olive oil, butter and coconut oil for fats. I know there are some things I could change. Every once in a while I lose it and eat a ton of chocolate, but I'm really trying now to stay on the candida diet.

I'm going to look into the DMSA and AlA. I've heard of them but don't know much about them.

What is GFCF?

Julie

[Julie]

I'm sorry, I don't know what the heck I pushed to upload your reply to me twice. Please ignore that. I tried to erase it. I'll try again after this response.

When my face broke out in boils after the really bad filling removal, my regular MD had me on antibiotics for 8 months straight. I got sicker and sicker when I came off those antibiotics. They were really strong ones like cipro and cyclines. I do believe that's when I got the candida.

[Julie]

I've noticed since doing the metal detox, my tonge looks a lot worse. It's coated and kind of yellowish. I also find when I'm doing pretty good on the candida diet, or taking a good candida detox, I get a vaginal yeast problem. What's been working to alleviate it is vinegar and water but it keeps coming back. I haven't been able to completely get rid of the yeast. That's why I did the filling removal.

[TanyaL]

GFCF is gluten and casein free, it's just a common abbreviation in the ASD world (autism spectrum, I mean--I guess I'm stuck in acronym-land :-D ).

I need to avoid both of these proteins, and I think for me it's due to the mercury-opioid theory (google it, mercury and opioids or peptides--it has to do with a digestive enzyme that I am probably not making, the DPP4 enzyme, that breaks these down and instead they float around and act similar to opiods--my son will walk in circles more, stuff like that, with gluten or dairy, it's that kind of reaction going on--but as an adult, I don't feel as odd as I'd assume he may feel, I just have fatigue and my usual mercury symptoms--which at this point fatigue is really the biggest one).

One thing to consider, how leaky do you think your gut is? I'm considering either the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS (they're pretty similar) for my husband--he doesn't have mercury issues, but I think he's got a lot of candida and gut imbalance and I'm starting to suspect multiple food intolerances. SCD and GAPS are supposed to remove stress on the digestive system by restricting the type of carbohydrate--not really the amount. It's a different approach, and I'm looking into it as a means of healing his gut and hopefully reducing inflammation. But we need to ease into it slowly, I think it'll be summer before we really start.

Julie said:

I'm doing the candida diet right now. I've been off wheat and corn for a while, but now I'm doing almost no complex carbs except for an occasional red potato. I do eat some dairy. I like to get raw milk, but haven't got any lately. I eat some cheese and milk kefir. I'm eating fermented veggies (mostly cabbage). I try to buy mostly organic even with meats. Don't eat pork or shell fish. I use olive oil, butter and coconut oil for fats. I know there are some things I could change. Every once in a while I lose it and eat a ton of chocolate, but I'm really trying now to stay on the candida diet.

I'm going to look into the DMSA and AlA. I've heard of them but don't know much about them.

What is GFCF?

Julie

[TanyaL]

Not sure what type of healthcare providers you've got around, but Traditional Chinese Medicine is huge on what the tongue looks like. My HCP does TCM, but she's in Iowa (and I'm not, we're working long-distance at this point) but she's really knowledgeable about mercury and what healthy tongues should look like. Someday I hope I am too. :-D

Julie said:

I've noticed since doing the metal detox, my tonge looks a lot worse. It's coated and kind of yellowish. I also find when I'm doing pretty good on the candida diet, or taking a good candida detox, I get a vaginal yeast problem. What's been working to alleviate it is vinegar and water but it keeps coming back. I haven't been able to completely get rid of the yeast. That's why I did the filling removal.

[TanyaL]

The chocolate could just be because chocolate's so tasty, or for some people it's a magnesium deficiency. I've found this site useful...

http://www.psha-inc.com/guai-support/sf/TasteTests.htm

It seemed to work for us (the epsom salt taste test for magnesium deficiency that they discuss)--my daughter's still deficient, my husband too, but I'm okay. Weird that the same solution tasted different to all of us.

Julie said:

I'm doing the candida diet right now. I've been off wheat and corn for a while, but now I'm doing almost no complex carbs except for an occasional red potato. I do eat some dairy. I like to get raw milk, but haven't got any lately. I eat some cheese and milk kefir. I'm eating fermented veggies (mostly cabbage). I try to buy mostly organic even with meats. Don't eat pork or shell fish. I use olive oil, butter and coconut oil for fats. I know there are some things I could change. Every once in a while I lose it and eat a ton of chocolate, but I'm really trying now to stay on the candida diet.

I'm going to look into the DMSA and AlA. I've heard of them but don't know much about them.

What is GFCF?

Julie

[TanyaL]

http://www.sacredlotus.com/diagnosis/tongue/index.cfm

I knew I had a link somewhere! My husband's tongue used to be indicate dampness and heat, and I think we got the heat to go away with some herbs, but the dampness remains and to me it seems like it's correlating to gut health/candida type of things. Take a look and see--not that it helps specifically, but it's sorta cool to have this insight into what's going on, and a way to monitor progress. I should go look at my own tongue as well, just to see what it's like right now.

Julie said:

I've noticed since doing the metal detox, my tonge looks a lot worse. It's coated and kind of yellowish. I also find when I'm doing pretty good on the candida diet, or taking a good candida detox, I get a vaginal yeast problem. What's been working to alleviate it is vinegar and water but it keeps coming back. I haven't been able to completely get rid of the yeast. That's why I did the filling removal.