[T]he first time I increased my dose frequency (round 5), I went from 8 doses to 10 doses per 24 hours. I should have reduced my dose amounts (but didn’t do my research) and got into trouble. In round 15, I went from 8 doses per 24 hours to 9 doses and increased my dose amount a little bit, and it all worked out fairly well. The way to calculate your dosage when you increase frequency is to base your dosage comparison on the cumulative amount of chelator used in 24 hours.
So for example, in round 14 I was taking 400 mg of ALA per day and in round 15 I took 540 mg of ALA per day. To be safe, I reduced my DMSA to 225 mg per day from 400 mg. Turned out to be very wise to play it safe with the DMSA reduction because round 15 was uncomfortable. I did have a substantial headache for about 12 hours on the first day and slow thinking/confusion every afternoon thereafter.
Still, that’s probably just right for an increase round because in my experience, each round gets easier when the dosage is held constant.
I’m trying to pay a lot of attention to the way the round evolves from day to day because I want to understand how to find the sweet spot. While chelating I’ve had rounds where I felt better and better as the days wore on and some glimpses of euphoria and periods of high energy, so I really want to find a way to maximize those periods! I suspect it may not be possible to maintain if it is a passing phase somewhere in between a dose increase and adaptation.
I’m still in the middle of adding methylation supports and increasing amounts of existing supplements so it is also difficult for me to separate the chelation effects from the support supplements…
I’ve become convinced of two important factors:
- ALA has some kind of cumulative energy boosting effect on me which makes it harder and harder to sleep well as the round days go by – probably a result of its role in methylation.
- Omega-3 oils are the missing link in my Krebs cycle dysfunction.
These are my round notes – though not too exciting:
Round 15 (7 days) – 25 mg DMSA, 60 mg ALA every 2.5 hours, total chelation days to date: 63
- Monday, August 5: started round at 5 AM and got normal first day headache starting around noon.
- Tuesday, August 6: slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon, woke before alarm from heartburn.
- Wednesday, August 7: some intermittent feelings of well-being, slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon, slight headache after being late on a dose 15 minutes, woke before alarm from heartburn.
- Thursday, August 8: added 250 mg TMG at early-dinner, slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon, mild headaches on and off, very hungry in the afternoon on, a little bit of heartburn when first nighttime alarm rang.
- Friday, August 9: increased fish oil by 63 mg of omega-3, added 250 mg of TMG for a total of 1000 split between lunch and breakfast, some anxiety in the morning around 930 AM, slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon, very warm at bedtime and headache.
- Saturday, August 10: added 1 mg ADB12, added 250 mcg mb12 for a total of 1.5 mg, feeling better today, fewer headaches, slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon, warm at bedtime and a little too much energy, teeth chattering – difficulty falling asleep.
- Sunday, August 11: no headaches, feeling better than expected in the afternoon, even had thoughts of continuing the round.
- Monday, August 12: slow thinking/mild confusion in the afternoon
Eric,
Something that I think has worked well for me is to take some longer breaks (1-2 months) from chelation. This is related to my general thinking that the body needs time to heal and adjust. And since you are really ramping up a lot of supps and are getting quite a few start up reactions, it may be a good thing to take a pause from chelation. Maybe give yourself some time to find the right long term doses for some of the supps? Also, in my case, I was often able to up the ALA dose after breaks.
Then again, just because I think that this worked for me does not have to mean that it works for you or anybody else…..
thanks Viking, I’m glad to hear that, it makes me feel in less of a rush to chelate and more free to follow my nose with the other supplements! it is difficult to know what’s going on if you’re chelating and ramping up methylation etc. at the same time…
That sounds very similar to some of my rounds!
For many rounds, I always got frontal lobe headache around the eyes. It was very specific and after a while I just called it “ALA headache” in my notes.
The “slow thinking/mild confusion ” also sounds very familiar. Had that many times.
But it is now all gone! As a matter of fact, I am on round (day 5) right now and so far nothing! No sfx what so ever.
WOW WOW, that is just extraordinary.. brings tears to my eyes, just amazing – you did it!! Thanks for sharing:D
I’m so hopeful I’ll be saying something like that in a year or year and a half. Still seems a long way away but I believe it’s possible.
My ALA headaches are more generalized and often feel like they’re in the center or back of my head slightly. I did a couple of salt pushes today to see if I can get rid of my iodine headaches…
“I’m so hopeful I’ll be saying something like that in a year or year and a half. ”
That seems realistic!
If I understand it correctly, you have now been chelating for around 5 months and have done 63 full days. This is very similar to what I did in the beginning. I started supps in Nov 2011 and did my first chelation in Jan 2012. The first five months looked like this:
11 full days on 25 mg, split in 3 rounds.
12 full days on 50 mg, split in 4 rounds
11 full days on 75 mg, split in 3 rounds.
19 full days on 100 mg, split in 5 rounds
The last round on 100 mg was done in mid June, so about 5 months from the start. This was a total of 53 full days. During this time, I very much did what you are doing now, i.e. trying various supps and doses.
After that, I took a 3 month break and then went for 200 mg in Sept 2012.. My goal has been to do around one week of chelation every month and that has more or less worked. In total, I have done 60 full days at 200 mg, split over 12 rounds.
If you read the FDC forum, lots of people have done many more days, but most of them are on much lower doses. My feeling is that the average dose there is around 25 mg (many on 5-10, some around 50 and very few on higher). So in order to compare, I have calculated (using Cutler’s numbers) that my total chelation to date is the same as around 100 rounds on 25 mg.
Some juicy numbers there Viking, thank you – that’s very motivational!! I especially like that you took months off and were able to tolerate larger doses afterwards. I think the same can happen for me because the supplements and exercise are increasing my strength. I wouldn’t say it’s dead obvious yet, but my intuition says so. We also have some significant business events to take care of which might force me to take a few breaks with chelation.
I just got another big clue when I moved my iodine dosing around. I discovered that when I stopped taking iodine in the morning (also stopped the topical use for a couple days), I started getting a headache when I took my morning dose in the evening. So I think I can interpret that to mean my body wants more iodine. Am thinking of increasing to 75 or 100 mg for a couple months… any thoughts or references on taking more than 50 mg?
“any thoughts or references on taking more than 50 mg”
Well, my view is that it is OK to go higher than 50 mg but that one should then add only KI, i.e. not take several Iodorals. I have taken this for some periods:
http://www.iherb.com/Life-Extension-Potassium-Iodide-Tablets-130-mg-14-Tablets/4402
What I would do is to take one 50 mg Iodoral plus one of these 130 mg KI first thing in the morning. Then I would wait around 2 hour and do a salt push and also take a few grams of vit c for the next hour. I have done several runs of 1-2 weeks like that. But I can’t really say that I felt much effect.
There is quite a bit of debate about how high you can and/should go with iodine doses. The forum at curezone is fine if you want to get a feel for the various arguments. It is a bit confused at times but there is also a lot of good info:
http://curezone.com/forums/f.asp?f=815
Some people there are aginst going over 50 mg and some take up to a gram a day…..
Thanks Viking, much appreciated. In light of the controversy, I think it might be better for me to stick with topical application to get up over the 50 mg mark because it absorbs slowly and steadily and has a convenient feedback mechanism, in that I can watch the amount of time it takes for the iodine to disappear. In theory, if it ever hangs around for 24 hours I’ll know to back off. The salt and vitamin C didn’t help much but I think I’m going to be back on track today. I was really astonished by the headaches my dosing change caused. Two evenings and nights of feeling like garbage.
Oddly in spite of very poor sleep Friday night, my energy level was unusually high Saturday, maybe because of the carnitine (first day at 2 g). Had trouble falling asleep also but I attributed that to being absurdly exhausted by evening. This is my second day on 2 g of carnitine fumarate and all’s well.
Debating whether to increase my folate which is only at 400 mcg or add SAMe next… either way I’m going to skip a week of chelation and feel good about it thanks to your comments 😀