[R]eading David Hammond’s Mercury Poisoning: the Undiagnosed Epidemic was very good for me. I learned some important things about my situation that have changed the way I think about my illness and I’ve begun some new experiments. I highlighted about 30 to 40 passages and want to share a couple of these insights with you.
First, one of the biggest eye openers for me was to understand how mercury interacts with lead. David reproduces a number of graphs showing that mercury causes an increase in lead toxicity of up to 18 times. When you see that on a graph it is powerful. There’s no doubt in my mind this is one of the reasons my progress has been slow and painful. And this may be the main reason I’ll be here writing about my seemingly endless suffering for another couple years.
Second, David mentions the fact that the male case studies in Jeffries’ Safe Uses of Cortisol on average take 30 mg of hydrocortisone while the women take a lower 20 mg. I’ve had to increase my dosage substantially since starting chelation and may end up at 30 mg very soon, but I won’t feel as bad about that now!
Third, I’ve begun experimenting with DMPS after reading about its ability to chelate lead in addition to mercury.
And finally, I was very impacted by this statement David makes near the end of the book:
There have been no sudden improvements in my original symptoms. They have all gradually and almost imperceptibly diminished over the course of the past three and half years.
I’ve decided to stop waiting and hoping for a big breakthrough and to start truly looking at my detoxification as a three-year marathon. The “breakthrough thinking” I started out with was dangerous for me as it set me up to take too much risk with my dosing and set me up for too much heartbreak.
I have a tremendous capacity for suffering especially when I think it will pay off in the long run. That approach would work great for me if I were single with no major responsibilities. Fact is though, that I’m married with kids and I run a struggling business. We all have combat exhaustion from a dozen years of illness and struggle.
So the three-year marathon is really the only way we’ll make it through together.
Thanks David!
If you haven’t read David’s book, I’d encourage you to get started because everyone who reads it will find meaning and enlightenment in different places – these are just a few of my personal takeaways.
Did you have an interview or podcast with David Hammond somewhere online?
Like you, I appear to be suffering from mercury toxicity. My case is different in that I had generally tolerated my mercury load for years. But in order to get my prediabetes under better control I started taking large doses of alpha lipoic acid (ALA) irregularly. Within a month of doing that I had a dramatic crash. I went into glycolysis and had heavy acid accumulation in muscles and systemically. I had unquenchable thirst and had problems hydrating. I had unbearable and constant fatigue and brain fog. I have a 24×7 sound in my ears like a tuning fork. By taking the ALA, I may have moved mercury in the tissues into places like my brain, and possibly into the intracellular environment where it broke my aerobic metabolism.
I am going to have my amalgams out soon and start the long difficult process of chelation. I gather from your case and others that this will not be a cake walk, and it may be three years of struggle to beat this.
Sounds like you have a good grip on what happened to you… here’s the interview: http://howirecovered.wpengine.com/meet-author-david-hammond-recovering-from-industrial-heavy-metal-poisoning/
Just to get to the point where mercury started to be a suspicion was about six months of struggle. It was fairly terrifying to have such severe symptoms and have allopathic doctors literally not have a clue what was wrong and not even have any interest in investigating possible causes. I think people with disorders that attack metabolism simply fall through the cracks of the medical system.
Six months is fast – took me a decade to get focused on heavy metals. Falling through the cracks is an understatement:)
Hi Pone,
not everyone has such a difficult time with chelation as Eric. I have been chelating for over 4 years now. I have had setbacks at times, but they haven’t been major. Some people make large gains in a short period. The fact that you have been sick for a relatively short period of time is in your favor. I was sick for 30 years and getting steadily worse before I started chelation.
Thanks David. I’m thinking that my case is a little different from most in that my illness probably stems more from genetic susceptibility and weakness of the liver then any dramatic exposure. I think my liver and detoxification system (and possibly kidneys and adrenal glands) could not cope with exposures that were just a little bit above average. My impression is that people with deficient livers may have great trouble with chelation. This is a lot of speculation, but it’s where I’m headed now!
Hey Eric, has the higher dose of HC helped? have you noticed testosterone being lowered by the HC or is it relatively normal?
hi Ron, I do think the extra hydrocortisone has helped. I have not had any testosterone testing but now that you mention it, it’s possible I am lower. But I’ve also been under loads of stress…
Thanks for bringing David’s book to light. I look at this journey as a marathon, not a sprint. No matter how much I wish for a breakthrough in symptom reductions, I realize that is highly unlikely and take what little improvements I can get.
Keep writing and sharing your development and knowledge. I have learned a lot from your site.
Thanks Shane, great job with YOUR blog – you’re a good writer and it seems we are running along about the same place with chelation:) I’ll add a link to yours in a moment…