Mercury Chelation: What Works, What Won't

How to detox one of the most vile toxins on the planet, still used in some children's vaccines.

Updated 10-30-22

How We Detox Heavy Metals Today

Since writing this post in the mid-2000s, I’ve discovered nano-zeolite for a detox. I’m leaving this post up because it’s part of my journey but I don’t use any of this now. We occasionally take ALA for liver cleanse, good stuff. Today, for heavy metal detox, we use zeolite, details are here.

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Original Post

Back in 2008, when I was searching the www for information on curing Ryan's asthma, I stumbled across the notion that asthma was the result of mercury poisoning which was the result of mercury-laden vaccines.

I wrote two posts on chelation back then: Discouraged [aka Chelation Post #1] and Chelation Post #2. In 2009, I wrote the Vaccination Wiki (fully updated).

Ryan had had a few vaccines by then. He'd been fine, no asthma, no allergies, right up until vaccination... so I put two and two together in my inimitable fashion* and determined he was quite possibly mercury toxic.

*My inimitable fashion means, "Going on gut with a few facts to support that wonky feeling I call intuition." I think there's an actual name for this kind of scientific deduction. When I stumble across it again, I'll share it. You've read my disclaimer?

So I searched the www for information on mercury chelation and (luckily) found Andrew Cutler's low-and-slow chelation protocol. If you want to learn more, join the Facebook group frequent-dose-chelation. You'll find a wealth of information, both scientifically-proven and anecdotal, about people curing themselves of all manner of illness. This includes moms curing their children's autism via frequent-dose chelation using ALA and/or DMSA as the chelating agents.

In my cancer quest a few weeks ago, I learned a lot about ALA. Dr. Burt Berkson uses ALA and LDN (both of which we take) to cure liver cancer. Yes, cure. I'm reading Berkson's book on ALA now. Excellent. The man is a genius.

A friend asked how safe is it to take 600 mg of ALA in a day if you are mercury toxic. When might it not be a good idea? Good question. Here's what I learned from Dr. Cutler:

Using ALA as A Mercury Chelator

ALA is the most powerful mercury chelator because it BINDS to mercury and carries it out of your body via pee and poop. DMSA, another chelator recommended by the Cutler protocol, also binds to mercury. The difference between the two is that ALA crosses the bbb (blood brain barrier) so can attach to the mercury in your brain and carry that out, too. DMSA does not cross the bbb.

Mercury, obviously, crosses the bbb all by itself. Go, mercury.

If you are heavily mercury toxic, then, theoretically, ALA could cause problems. If you have too much mercury and the ALA dislodges more than it can carry out all at once, then THAT excess dislodged mercury might move around and lodge somewhere it will cause more trouble than the place it was originally. Like your brain.

If you are not heavily mercury toxic, then taking ALA is probably not a problem. There's more chance the ALA is carrying the mercury OUT than there is that it's simply carrying it AROUND and dumping it someplace else. ALA does not stay in your body; it leaves, so any mercury that has attached leaves with it.

ALA and Amalgam Fillings

The biggest threat to your health when considering ALA is if you have amalgam fillings. Those fillings are releasing mercury all the time. If you take ALA when you have amalgams, the ALA pulls MORE mercury from the fillings, very likely more than the ALA can carry out. THAT mercury will find a comfy place to sit in your body: organs, brain, fat (where it waits patiently till you go on a diet, then, as your fat melts away, that stored mercury is released back into your body)

Ever wonder why you get a flu-like crud sickness when you start to lose weight? It's because your fat is releasing stored toxins back into your blood stream.

For this reason, Cutler warns that, if you have amalgam fillings, do not take ALA until you have those fillings safely removed. In fact, wait three months after your amalgam fillings are out before taking ALA.

Don't Our Bodies Chelate Heavy Metals All By Themselves?

They should, with two big-time exceptions.

1. When your natural chelator is in good working order, you are flushing all your toxins. You have to ask yourself how well is YOUR body's flusher working?

2. In today's world, we are overloaded with toxins: in the water, air, clothes, furniture, home construction materials, faux-food. Toxins are everywhere and the poisoning is constant: just considering industrial food, GMOs, radiation alone... heck our flushers are probably plumb wore out by this time.

Dr. Cutler says the best way to find out how mercury toxic you are (because these days, everyone is mercury toxic) is to get a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA or simply "hair test"). Affordable, easy do-at-home test, quick results, plus a customized protocol showing you how to detox heavy metals and balance your minerals/nutrients. You'll see fast and measurable improvement in your health and vitality! If you'd like to do a hair test, email me here.

What About Natural Chelators, like Cilantro and Chlorella and Garlic?

These herbs and spices -- and all the other foods people think are chelators -- are not chelators. In fact, they could do damage, as far as mercury goes. This is because they do not bind to mercury because they don't have the correct/enough thiols.

The only thing these herbs and foods do is to simply dislodge the mercury from its current comfy place in your body, leaving it to wander about to find another comfy place to land. Since mercury crosses the bbb, it can wander all the way up to your brain.

Again, this is really only a problem for people who are heavily mercury toxic. Just don't go expecting herbs and foods to chelate mercury when they can't. Eat them, by all means! Cilantro and garlic are staples around here. And certainly have other miracle healing qualities, no doubt about that. They just don't chelate mercury.

What About EDTA Chelation?

Cutler says no, but I personally know people who have done it and were glad.

I prefer the low-slow Cutler approach and we did his protocol for several months. I could not keep up with it, though. For one thing, the schedule is grueling.

The other thing, and the main reason we stopped, is because Ryan's asthma cleared up through other means -- gymnastics and raw milk, to be specific. All four of us now take 600 mg of ALA everyday (along with our myriad other vitamins) and feel great.

Have you done chelation? What method did you use? Did you measure the results via any kind of testing? Thanks for sharing -- I appreciate the information!

P.S. One more note about detox. When you find yourself going through this, focus on completing the detox. Don't let the toxins wander about and get stored someplace else in your body -- get 'em OUT: sauna, coffee enemas, sweating, exercise, deep breathing, clay baths, tons of detox ideas out there.