I had a urine challenge test and showed moderately elevated levels of Lead, Mercury, Cadium (sp?) and Nickel.
Lead was the highest and it was borderline moderately and severely elevated.
One interesting thing is that I was told high levels of Cadium could have been a percurser to my breast cancer. Apparently the doctors who practice this kind of medicine have seen a distinct correlation.
But at least with the high lead levels, I have some chance of getting the chelation covered by insurance. Go figure, they cover removal of lead, but not mercury.
This is all very interesting, to say the least.
Anyone been through this? How did treatment go?
Many thanks!
Posted by johnnyb (Member # 7645) on :
Well, if they use DMSA (a very good chelator of lead), it will also bind to the mercury.
There is a yahoo message board - frequent dose chelation - based on the book by Andy Cutler, which may help with this.
Depending on how toxic you are, large single doses of chelators could cause more harm than good, as they "stir things up."
Do you own investigation and decide for yourself, of course. Feel free to PM me if you want more info on the frequent dose stuff.
- JB
Posted by vachick (Member # 8353) on :
Very interesting. What kind of test did they give you and who ordered it? Was it a regular internist or an alternative medicine doc or LLMD?
I am getting ready to ask my internist to do that kind of testing on me at my appointment today.
Are you surprised by the results? Were they optimistic about treating you?
Posted by lou (Member # 81) on :
I also tested with elevated lead and mercury levels and was told to consult a toxicologist to see if it should be treated.
Am inclined to give it a miss. Do I need this on top of everything else? I figure just about everybody these days is carrying around some heavy metals and unwanted chemical compounds. There seems to be a lot of different opinions on what to do to treat it, and sometimes this involves replacing amalgam fillings (in the view of some people). Just too messy, expensive, and filled with conflicting views in my opinion.
Posted by Littlesprout (Member # 7406) on :
I did the DMPS challenge. It took me a wk to get over it. I had high mercury levels. Then I found out that I am missing a glutathoine gene!
I think that is why my mecury levels are high and that I couldn't process the mercury out of my body after the DMPS
So I am doing the TD DMPS that they also use on kids with autism. I have to be the turtle when I want to be the hare. They have to do this for a yr.
My friend is doing the IV DMPS, he is a hare, and is already feeling better. ugh....... Mercury is a big problem, I think most Lymies have a problem with it.
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Lou said
There seems to be a lot of different opinions on what to do to treat it, and sometimes this involves replacing amalgam fillings (in the view of some people). Just too messy, expensive, and filled with conflicting views in my opinion.
Much like lyme disease.
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
Today I was printing off the product information ingredient list for the supplements my daughter takes. She uses a bio-identical progesterone cream through the skin care line that I am a consultant for.
For the FIRST time I noticed that EDTA (very small amount) was an ingredient on the progesterone cream. That's a great chelation catalyst. So, there must be something about metals that encourage cancer growth.
Interesting study.
Posted by mycoplasma1 (Member # 6377) on :
This question about metals plagues me (had mine out). What is certain people cannot detox metals and become ill because of this? We are all carrying high metal burdens, not only from teeth (probably very negligible) but from our air, water and food supply. There is a hypothesis that a huge percentage of people carry Borrelia and other pathogens (look at bowen tests), but some just don't get sick with them. What if we slowly accumulate these pathogens but then are unable to detox from metals and other chemical exposures and the cup runneth over?
This is more along my lines of thinking.
Then it would make sense that antibiotics may not cure, but detoxing metals would.
I am however very wary of all of these chelating agents and only chose to do metal free and chlorella, as I think the others are dangerous and metal detoxing is still blind science at this point.
Anyone think along these lines?
Posted by mycoplasma1 (Member # 6377) on :
This question about metals plagues me (had mine out). What if certain people cannot detox metals and become ill because of this? We are all carrying high metal burdens, not only from teeth (probably very negligible) but from our air, water and food supply. There is a hypothesis that a huge percentage of people carry Borrelia and other pathogens (look at bowen tests), but some just don't get sick with them. What if we slowly accumulate these pathogens but then are unable to detox from metals and other chemical exposures and the cup runneth over?
This is more along my lines of thinking.
Then it would make sense that antibiotics may not cure, but detoxing metals would.
I am however very wary of all of these chelating agents and only chose to do metal free and chlorella, as I think the others are dangerous and metal detoxing is still blind science at this point.
Anyone think along these lines?
Posted by ConnieMc (Member # 191) on :
Mycoplasma,
Just how effective is chlorella? I ordered a good quality brand and it says to take 15 caps a day. How does it work? Does it actually pull metals out of the system, or simply take out what's in the gut, or what? Does it cause the cells to get rid of the metals? If used over time, will it ultimately do the same thing chelation would do?
Also, what do you mean by doing metal-free?
I still feel a little uneasy about chelation. It also took me about a week to get over it. Considering the risks, not to mention the cost, I am not quite sure I will proceed.
But my doc INSISTS that these things are important if I want to feel better.
What we need is a crystal ball. I have spent a great deal of money on wild goose chases. Some of it has gotten me where I am today, which is much improved from what I was. But others have been a crap shoot.
Littlesprout, how did you find out about the glutathoine gene? I have never heard of that before. Is that something they tested after you had a bad reaction to the DMPS?
Posted by mycoplasma1 (Member # 6377) on :
Chlorella removes toxins in the gut. DMPS etc..is systemic and can move metal from one place to another, hence I would never use it, but thats just me (too many horror stories).
I feel the same way about wild goose chases, but I am better!
Have done very few abx. Pulsed low dose Minocin made me HERX and gained alot of ground in only four months.
Sorry I don't have more answers for you Posted by johnnyb (Member # 7645) on :
Low, frequent doses of Alpha Lipoic Acid can chelate mercury from your body. I started with a 30mg capsule every 3-4 hours. The pain is that you usually do at least a 3 day cycle and need to wake up in the middle of the night to take your dose. If you skip, you have to end the cycle.
ALA can be bought OTC from any vitamin store. Start low doses, because if you are very toxic, it can make you feel worse at first.
It crosses the BBB to get mercury out of your brain as well.
- JB
Posted by BugBit (Member # 7829) on :
There is research that indicates that heavy metals hide bacteria and virus in such a way that the immune system, nor medications can effectively get to them. Couple that with the location of teeth and what happens during a root canal and the Mercury issue is not such a big mystery.
It is also found that there are NO CANCERS that do not have heavy metals present alongside - as in the cadmium/breast cancer connection mentioned above or the altzheimer/aluminum connection we have all heard about, among many others.
I was very Mercury toxic with a mouthful of amalgam since age 12. Chelation for me, was like a miracle. My brain cleared up. I started to be able to tolerate antibiotics. I was able to take antibiotics which had been impossible for decades.
So, I can see it could be possible that if a person has a large body-burden of Mercury or other metals, that it would be impossible to COMPLETELY erradicate the bugs because they are well-hidden, add a little stress one day and out they come to play and multiply and that is why we never seem to get rid of anything for good.
In my opinion it makes sense to chelate and then treat with whatever medications are approprioate.
Genetics plays a role in how well we chelate naturally. I guess there are 3 types - those that do well, those that don't and those in the middle. If you don't chelate well naturally, you can get into all sorts of messes with Mercury and all the other metals as well.
Turns out where I live, we have incredfible levels in our water, of arsenic. It doesn't stop. Metals are everywhere we are poisoning ourselves to death every day and ignoring the symptoms. (The increased autism rates, the new auto-immune diseases etc etc etc)
Using an alternative method, I tested several times my levels of Mercury in my brain. each time I was around a "40". I was testing weekly. One week, I decided to have a tuna sandwich for a lunch one day. That week, my levels went to 170.
If you consider that the 40 (an arbitrary number) is very high load - that one sandwich was a dramatic and significant contributer to my total body burden. Even a good natural chelator would take months or years to get rid of that amount from only one sandwich.
Never again will I eat tuna, or salmon that is not "Wild" or most other contaminated seafood including most lake fish.
Oh, I could go on and on about Mercury. Get rid of it, take it slow, be careful, but get it OUT of you. *BugBit* *BugBit*
Posted by GiGi (Member # 259) on :
Will only comment on a couple items:
"Alpha Lipoic Acid does not detox the brain. It has never done anything helpful to the brain. People mistake it because when they clear out the liver and they feel better, they thinK "my brain feels better, therefore ALA must be doing something to the brain. It does indirectly, but not directly." Per Dr. K.
To clean out the brain, cilantro, goat whey, and a few other things are used.
DMPS is perfectly safe if done under the guidance of someone who understands heavy metal detoxing. The stories on the internet are stories not exactly true. I got rid of a bunch of toxins with DMPS accompanied by other things. There is no single agent that takes metals all the way out of the body. It depends on the body compartment where they are and then it takes always more than just one agent.
DMSA -- This is what my doctor told the audience at a recent seminar:
"I have seen many people become schizophrenic from DMSA. I have seen it in people and children triggering a seizure disorder, and I disagree with DMSA deeply and wholeheartedly bedause I see all the complications. ...the side effects can be quite severe."
All heavy metals are dangerous when it comes to cancer. Root canals are even worse.
The Progesterone cream is also available without the EDTA. I was very surprised to see one with EDTA in it and would not want to use it.
To the people deciding to keep their mercury, I will add a portion of a publication by Dr. K. in 1997:
"Most, if not all chronic diseases are not caused by a failure of the immune system, but are a conscious adaptation of the immune system to an otherwise lethal heavy metal environment.
Mercury suffocates the intracellular respiratory mechanism and can cause cell death. So, the immune system makes a deal: it cultivates fungi and bacteria that can bind large amounts of toxic metals.
The gain: the cells can breathe.
The cost: the system has to provide nutrition for the microorganisms and has to deal with their metabolic products ("toxins").
That does not imply that the tolerated guests cannot grow out of control, as it sometimes clearly does.
Therefore, there is still a limited place for antifungal/antibacterial treatment - but only for the acute phase of the disease. A so-called "die-off effect" (the sometimes severe crisis or even lethal reaction a patient can have in the initial stages of aggressive pharmaceutical antifungal or antibacterial treatment) is often nothing else but acute heavy metal toxicity -- metals released from the cell walls of dying microorganisms as suggested by my own correlation of clinical syndromes and urinalysis for metals."
I think I have posted the full publication here before. It goes into much detail and can also be found on the internet under "Amalgam/Mercury Detox as a Treatment for Chronic Viral, Bacterial, and Fungal Illnesses" Copyright 1997 by Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD.
We have a choice.
Take care.
Posted by Tensevern (Member # 5416) on :
quote:ConnieMc: I had a urine challenge test and showed moderately elevated levels of Lead, Mercury, Cadium (sp?) and Nickel.
I've had tests that show I have nickel DNA adducts. My CFS doc has suggested far-infra-red (FIR) saunas as a detox mechanism. There's literature that supports metal detox via sweating. My doc has been suggesting this to patients for about 9 months but there's already one report that someone's lindane (a pesticide) DNA adducts have halved. I've not yet heard results about nickel adducts, but I've started using an FIR sauna tent in hope. I have to use it for short periods of time because otherwise I feel yuk, presumably because I detox too much and my body can't cope.
Sue
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
GiGi,
Does Dr K still feel the same way about DMSA?
Posted by GiGi (Member # 259) on :
Canefan, yes.
Since this thread is an old thread, we now know that KPU is a big problem, either passed down from parent or Lyme induced.
I also would not attempt heavy metal detox without clearing the DNA dysregulations, aka allergies toward the most toxic metals. Every Lyme person who has done the AI test has the allergies toward the metals. It that is the case, it is very difficult to detox them, and
The worst you can do is trying detoxing metals yourself. D o n 't - you need all the expertise of someone who can stay a step ahead of you before you get into trouble. You can easily trap yourself by using the wrong agents at the wrong time. Detoxing heavy metals really is much safer with energetic testing.
Take care.
[ 08-13-2011, 02:53 AM: Message edited by: GiGi ]
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Metals are such a nauseating subject
Posted by WhitneyS (Member # 25666) on :
On this topic, but slightly off.
What cookware is safest for someone with heavy metals? I've been chelating for a while, have several metals very high, Aluminum being one of them. My cookware now is Aluminum, but the hard anodized (which some people say is safer than regular aluminum.....
Recommendations?
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Stainless Steel
Use lot of oils to grease the pan Posted by WhitneyS (Member # 25666) on :
What about the Nickel in Stainless Steal pans? Isn't that a problem...My nickel is high too.
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
It really becomes a problem if the pan gets scratched. Then it very easily leaches out the particular metal.
Hence when my punk a$$ roommate got an earful from me for using metal forks and scratching up 2 of my non-stick pans. lol D'oh!
I mean it doesn't take a genius to see you are literally scratching and tearing up the pan with a fork, right? I'm not out of line here, right? LOL
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