What type of mold test are you thinking of?

For this and several other reasons, I felt that the doctor was ripping me off, and have decided to go back to my LLMD and just ask for the specific test from a specific lab.

Then my doctor puts the patient on an oral program for six weeks and then repeats the hair analysis. If the metals in the hair go up, it reflects what has been mobilized in the last six weeks.

No test will show how much mercury remains in the body.

Since so many people are so very ill, he prefers to do this instead of doing a challenge test giving a very toxic drug such as DMSA, in an environment or to a patient where this is not safe and a patient may not tolerate it. In that case you see only what has been mobilized in the six hours and not much more.

He says that the challenge tests are very misleading and you cannot give somebody 500 mgs every day. He sees to many problems from DMSA. He tells that he has seen seizure disorders being triggered by DMSA and he disagrees totally because of because of the complications that he sees. I have heard him say that if there should be a website, it should be "DMSA backfire.com" and not "DMPS backfire.com." He calls DMSA a bad drug that is used by many people who allegedly never see a problem. He disagrees because he has a few of the patients that had been on DMSA with other doctors that he attempts to correct. The patients just never go back to the doctor after they have a problem. So many people live under the illusion that they are doing something that is side-effect free that can be quite severe.

My recommendation - from all that has passed by me over the years - think a few times before doing DMSA. My doctor has a protocol that he teaches, but only because doctors want to know. Same with the challenge tests. There are some occasions where he uses it, but everything and the patient's condition has to fit.
I detoxed mainly with some DMPS, but mostly with cilantro, chlorella, goatwhey, etc. All this has to be timed right because not all these substances work in every body part. If you have metals in the brain, it takes a different approach. It takes a number of different substances to mobilize it from different areas and then chlorella, etc. to mop up. Don't play around with it - you can do more damage on your own. Find a doctor that is experienced. I have said this about a thousand times.

Read my post on "this is how we got well" - it gives you a clue how we did all of this.
I was extremely ill, sick, toxic to the hilt.

I was also allergic to mold and fungi. In fact, I was allergic to everything. But with the cleaning up of the metals, most allergies whatever they are seem to slowly disappear. So I would not waste a fortune to do a test that tells you little.

Take care.

GiGi, what does your Doc use for the oral program?

The way his doctor explained it to him was that the DMSA loosened up the metals and the DMPS was the garbage truck that bound to them so they could be flushed out of the body.

He also used the oral cilantro and Bear garlic and chlorella -- I forget in which order right now.

The doctors who specialize in heavy metal chelation for the most part belong to ACAM (American College for Advancement in Medicine) http://www.acam.org Click on Public and then Find a Doctor

Each of these doctors will probably have their own protocol for chelation, just like most LLMD's have their own favorite antibiotic protocols. In my opinion, EDTA and IV glutathione while they can be beneficial for various reasons are not very effective as mercury chelators.

In our travels searching for a Lyme diagnosis we have been in many doctor's offices and the patients being treated for mercury toxicity almost all told us their primary symptoms were fatigue and tremors -- many of them shook in their sleep as did my hubby. Mercury blocks the receptor cites for Acetylcholine and a person may develop a Parkinsonian tremor as a result.

As with any medical treatment, do your own research. What works for 1 person may not work for another. Hubby knew after challenge test that mercury was his problem -- it was nice to know that before spending $8000 for dental work.

I do agree that the hair test is useful primarily as a screening test. However it may show elevated levels of other metals such as nickel and tin which are also found in dental amalgams. Probably either lab you mentioned is ok for hair analysis. For urine challenge tests with DMPS and/or DMSA I would recommend Doctor's Data.