Best way to test for heavy metals?

[- Adam -]

Hi everyone,

After a good amount of reading I'm ready to go down this avenue and find out with numbers if I'm toxic or not.

Inciting incident was failing out of tradeschool for pastry due to memory problems, being slow, having poor ability to hold tasks in memory and organize them.

other problems include having a hard time staying connected to a conversation, dark circles under the eyes, rashes on hands wont go away..

Before transitioning to something else I'm taking the time to investigate heavy metals possibily being a cause for my cognitive issues.

 

There's clearly a divide between hair test people and urine test people. I'm curious about your opinions

I was confused at first because I learned about the urine test first with Leo, but then find out Andrew cutler, who made this subject his life purpose, advocated for hair tests. ultimately I agree with the opinion that no amount of heavy metals is ok to have in the body, so a provoked test is not to be disregarded.

 

If someone here vouches for hair tests, can you tell me why?

Do you know of pre/post provocation test packages? (sending two samples)

Should I test on or off round if I only get one? (I'm streching myself thin financially)

Which test do you specifically recommend? Any affordable ones in Canada?

Test results may differ from DMSA to DMPS, right?

I've even seen fecal matter tests, No data on that?

 

 

Edited March 27 by - Adam -

[mmKay]

Hair tests are safe,  inaccurate and "cheap". Provoked urine tests are potentially dangerous depending on how toxic you are and how you tolerate chelators. They are very accurate to tell you how much of what youre excreting

The costs are up pretty fast. We're talking hundreds on just testing 

 

The best in my opinion is just to do a chelation trial. Any response to chelators, either good or bad I'd an indicator of toxicity and therefore you will benefit from following the protocol. And even more so given the symptoms youve listed 

Heavy metals are not the only issue. There are many many more health factors

 

 

Edited April 13 by mmKay

[- Adam -]

Thank you for your response @mmKay, I have found a lot of info and motivation to figure it all out in your Chelation Journal

I ultimately decided to do a hair test since it's the cheapest way to get data, and feedback on the ACC facebook group is that I almost certainly have mercury poisoning.

I just wanted some hint outside of my intuition to greenlight chelation as a worthy investment for me.

 

I'm attaching my hair test result in case you have comments, which would be welcome

[Leo Gura]

Hair test is not trustworthy.

Provocation is.

Edited Friday at 05:41 PM by Leo Gura

[- Adam -]

Welp, given I have them now, I'm just gonna take a starting dose of ALA & DMPS for a round and feel it out.

[Michael569]

@- Adam - what does the percentile indicate? What does the material on the next page say?

Is this percentile based on a population data or some internal comparison model?

[- Adam -]

@Michael569 I don't know what the reference interval is based on, but I score low on essential elements compared to it.

The next pages are a description/disclaimer for the test, followed by paragraphs called "Calcium low" "Magnesium low" "Potassium low" and so on.

No talk about reference range.

What I gathered is that Mercury and other such toxic elements interfere with the binding of essential minerals in the body, which shows up as low essential elements when testing.

Edited Saturday at 12:37 AM by - Adam -

[Leo Gura]

If you use an untrustworthy test to measure your health you will not only get useless results but even harmful results. So watch out.

[mmKay]

OP has limited finantial resources and common HM toxicity symptoms

It's nice to have accurrate metrics but the purpose of whatever testing is to anwser the questions of " do I chelate? and for how long? " ( Yes knowing how much of what is leaving your body has its value, but it's not essential )


Also a urine test requieres taking a fairly large dose of DMSA ( around 2000MG, make sure to move into a full 3 day round after taking the initial dose for the test).  It is suposed to be relatively safe but I just wouldnt do it off the bat...  the last thing you want to do is accidentally f* yourself up and be helpless.

Just do a few rounds of chelation trials with conservative doses ( see picture ) and see how you react first. You can allways go higher. 
 

Any reaction to chelators, either positive or negative suggest you will benefit from chelation.

In the case you've had amalgams then you can be sure you will befit from chelation . ( If you've had amalgams you need to be extra careful and make extra research. ACC group is great for this )

Also the ammount of HM in your body should ideally be 0, so almost certainly you will benefit from chelation .

Once you know you tolerate chelation well and can afford urine tests and want actual numbers then go for it.

 

Hair mineral tests are not very accurate  but they are not taken at face value. The mineral ratios  are "interpreted" - the HM bars are very inaccurate ( you look for signs of  "deranged mineral tansport" which you aparently have ) which suggests mercury toxicity,  anwsering again the question that you will likely benefit from chelation. 

 

For how long ? It's a process. Andy says when you can chelate at 3 mg/kg doses of ALA without any side effects (on or off round, and there are no further improvements to your health condition), chelate for another 6 months and you are done.








If you want to try higher doses of DMSA  go for it, but i'd recommend start lower.., Aparently I dont tolerate well more than 25 MG of DMSA every 3 hours for example.

You could argue that there is  such thing as " too small doses"  and that chelation is maybe actually easier with higher doses, but I have yet to trial that.

Let me know if you have any other questions

Edited Saturday at 06:06 AM by mmKay

[- Adam -]

I definitely would prefer to know exactly what I have but yeah the costs really get up there especially with shipping outside of the US.

I was also scared of taking a mega dose so quickly into my confused newbie phase. Note that I since found a safer adaptation of the provoked urine test with spread out, lower doses in Amalgam Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment - Andrew Hall Cutler p.178

That's the thing : I'm in a weird spot in life where I started an immigration project to Canada 8 month ago with a student permit, struggled so much to keep up with my program I had to drop out and re-evaluate my mental health, but on a budget because I might have to move out again soon.

 

Because I related to many of the symptoms, I made the investment up-front and bought chelators and supplements in bulk powder form, so as to keep costs to a minimum. (except DMSA and DMPS which are only available as pill bottles on livingsupplements.com) Dealing with powders is a puzzle but it has benefits.

 

Thank you so much for your help regarding starting protocol and doses

 

19 hours ago, mmKay said:

Any reaction to chelators, either positive or negative suggest you will benefit from chelation.

Do you supplement on and off round ? I think they suggest starting chelation like a month after getting on the Core 4, I imagine in part so you can register the effects of it seperatly, but I'm reluctant to the idea of taking pills all the time. They get very complicated with supplementation over at the ACC group.

Of course I'll be glad to find remedies for specific side effects once I have them but I would love to keep a simple process:

doing alternating rounds (with a progressive build up in dosage) of DMSA + ALA & DMPS + ALA

"start with one chelator"  -  Which one?

 

Here if you could suggest starting doses for each it would be great. here's what I noted in my common place book:

4 days on - 4 days off

DMSA : 30mg / Kg / day on a 3 hour reuptake schedule, so divided by 8 (you take 25mg per dose?)

OR DMPS : 200 - 500mg / day on a 6 hour reuptake schedule, so divided by 4

ALA : 25mg to 250mg every 3 hours

 

[mmKay]

@- Adam - 

All of this is anwsered in the " start here" section of the ACC group. I can't explain every single thing to you personally as it time consuming. I can still answer things here and there.

 

Careful with bulk form ALA. If you accidentally breathe in the fumes it can redistribute heavy metals around your body . There is one dude that committed suicide because of how bad it f*d him up, it's the first video in my journal. Be sure to wear a high quality mask. 

Chelators expire relatively quickly so keep that in mind when buying a lot of them. Look up FB group for storing options. I lost hundreds not knowing this.

There is a video on how to DIY your own capsules on the FB group, it's around the final 2 pages of my journal. You need a precise micro scale and make sure each pill has the same amount of ALA not to accidentally fluctuate chelator blood levels which would make your chelation experience worse.

It's little hassle but it cuts down the cost of chelation by X3 if not more. And it's not that complicated.

You absolutely supplement the same amount on and off round. This is important, otherwise you may crash during the recovery phase.

Doses are at the beginning of my journal. They recommend you take the core 4 for 2 weeks before starting chelation. Introduce supplements one by one and see how you react to them.

Adrenal cortex EXTRACT is very effective at supporting adrenals for me, and they recommend it as a 5th core supplement, so consider stacking up on that.

Other than that, look into thyroid support, liver support and adrenal support. It's all on the FB group or my journal.

"Taking pills all the time" is fine as long as you don't use shady low quality no brand supplements. If say you can comfortably take two dozen supplements daily  or more.

High doses of vit C work very well on me. I take up to 8g per day. Find your own doses ( I take sodium ascorbate as it's not acidic)

For doses and what chelators, see picture above. I've done 25 MG dmsa every 3 hours for 4 days. Now I'm testing same dose of just ALA.

larger doses or longer rounds than that gave me severe fatigue ( adrenal crash, for up to a week ) and yellow feces ( sign of insufficient liver support, poor bile flow.)

They recommend 10 rounds just DMSA before introducing ALA. I haven't looked into dmps a lot personally.

 

For suplements just start with the minimum that works. 

 

What I use:

Liver support ( artichoke extract, milk thistle extract), doses and links to what I purchased on my journal (not affiliated)

Adrenal support: Thorne Adrenal cortex extract. Works wonders. 

" Adrenal cocktail" : pinch of cream of tartar ( it's potassium, very care not overdoing it ) , Himalayan salt and ascorbic acid diluted in water to replenish electrolytes

Iodine for thyroid support 

 

Optional , that I picked, mentioned by Andy:

Vit A, high quality molecularly distilled omega 3, L- thyrosine, selenomethionine ( no more than one pill split in two , 12 hours apart, i believe its 200mcg per pill. It works good  off round to deal with redistributiom symptoms as it blocks mercury from being reabsorbed)

Edited 17 hours ago by mmKay