Taking Alpha lipoic acid supplement & feel awful, what do I do?

[Jarod]

I have no idea what is going on in your situation.

I can add my experience with metals though.

One thing I did was have a "metals test" done by urine testing.(doctors data test I think) My doctor had me do it before we started any kind of protocol.

Later on when I started feeling lousy we tested my urine again for metals. It turned out I was "dumping metals". Meaning the amount of metals being released when the vitamins all started working.... methylation?

My problems were with high lead. Some people have high mercury.

Sometimes "dumping" metals can cause fatigue, irritability, constipation, brain frog, etc....

 

[Lotus97]

Well I am sure all the advice above applies to some people but I can tell you MY experience with ALA...I can NOT tolerate it. It lowers my blood sugar so much that I have serious repeat low blood sugar attacks (like 3/day). I can tolerate some but not much. I am hypoglycemic but normally do not suffer issues as long as I take my DHEA. Come to think of it, I have not tried ALA since I started taking DHEA so might be able to take it now. Thing is, it was such a horrible reaction for me that I am not anxious to try it again.

Did you take it with a meal or on an empty stomach? If you took it with a meal maybe it wouldn't drop your blood sugar so much?

 

[Lotus97]

I mentioned earlier in this thread that I took 1200 mg of alpha lipoic acid and NAC without any problems even though I had amalgams. Recently, I heard from two people who had tested positive for mercury toxicity, but didn't have any problems taking NAC or ALA so I don't think taking either of these in high doses are a valid way of determining mercury toxicity. I don't believe that most people with amalgams have mercury toxicity though. Getting your amalgams removed without first being tested for mercury toxicity (or at least having a valid indicator such as a significant worsening of health of after getting amalgams) seems risky. I'm also not convinced that alpha lipoic acid being able to cross the blood brain barrier is a good thing since it can potentially deposit mercury in the brain.

 

[Sam7777]

As chris shade points out, and as is indicated in eastern medicine. Gut health underpins these things. Anyone with compromised bowels, simo, LGS, intestinal permeability, autism, IBS, liver pain, gall stones, kidney pain, adrenal hormonal deficiencies stands the greatest chance of having knocked out PHASE 1,2,3 and thus will be most likely to not naturally excrete metals. So when they take DMSA, DMPS, ALA they are going to likely stir up a bunch of metals and the metals wont have an exit route. Then it will go into the brains and nerves and make them much more ill. I believe this is partially what happened to me.

 

[Johnmac]

Yeah I think many can take ALA episodically and/or in high doses and do fine - no sfx & so no diagnostic use. But many have very serious side-effects. (I was one, but I've seen even worse. Indeed a friend took ALA this week, not knowing what it was - and had 24 hours of vomiting. She has a mouth full of amalgams, so my guess given that ALA has few sfx in itself is that she has some mercury toxicity.)

(Taking ALA in high doses is never recommended under Cutler BTW. Max after months or years of build-up would be 200-300mg.)

Your result may have simply because you excrete mercury well, and notwithstanding your amalgams you don't have that much deposited in your body.

Yep, amalgam removal if not done safely & properly can be disastrous. Even then it can have sfx. Personally I just couldn't stand having the world's most toxic non-radioactive element in my mouth, so had to get mine out willy nilly. (I didn't notice any change to my health - though I do note big changes now, after two years of chelation have presumably removed a lot of the mercury those amalgams sent to my kidneys, adrenals, brain, etc.)

ALA crossing the BBB is a good thing when the mercury concentration gradient between the body and the brain favours the brain - that is, the brain has more mercury than the body. Mercury will naturally move "nett out" rather than "nett in" under those conditions. This is achieved by chelating for a few months with a chelator like DMPS or DMSA, which can't cross the BBB, to clear the extracellular spaces & bloodstream.

John

I mentioned earlier in this thread that I took 1200 mg of alpha lipoic acid and NAC without any problems even though I had amalgams. Recently, I heard from two people who had tested positive for mercury toxicity, but didn't have any problems taking NAC or ALA so I don't think taking either of these in high doses are a valid way of determining mercury toxicity. I don't believe that most people with amalgams have mercury toxicity though. Getting your amalgams removed without first being tested for mercury toxicity (or at least having a valid indicator such as a significant worsening of health of after getting amalgams) seems risky. I'm also not convinced that alpha lipoic acid being able to cross the blood brain barrier is a good thing since it can potentially deposit mercury in the brain.

 

[Lotus97]

I can't afford amalgam removal either way so maybe I'm somewhat biased

 

[dannybex]

Agree with Sushi. All these are mercury symptoms. ALA taken improperly (more than 3 hours apart around the clock) will produce exactly these symptoms if you are mercury toxic. This is in the literature, plus it's been my experience on taking ALA improperly. (I slept 18 hours a day, and couldn't find my way out of the bathroom. My favourite memory is standing in a bank staring at a sign which said, 'Please take a ticket', and trying to work out what it meant.)

Could you post the 'literature' backing up Cutler's claims. I've been going around in circles with this issue for years, and was a part of his yahoo group, etc., but could never find any of these studies or literature that back up his claims.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

[dannybex]

Could you post the 'literature' backing up Cutler's claims. I've been going around in circles with this issue for years, and was a part of his yahoo group, etc., but could never find any of these studies or literature that back up his claims.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Nevermind. I've done a lot of reading in the last 2-3 weeks or so and am now 100% convinced he knows what he's talking about. I wish I hadn't let his occasional snarkiness get in the way of his protocol recommendations.

Speaking of 'talking about', here's an interview that's quite informative:

http://www.healthcentersofthefuture.com/DrCutler/DrCutler.mp3

 

[dannybex]

I mentioned earlier in this thread that I took 1200 mg of alpha lipoic acid and NAC without any problems even though I had amalgams. Recently, I heard from two people who had tested positive for mercury toxicity, but didn't have any problems taking NAC or ALA so I don't think taking either of these in high doses are a valid way of determining mercury toxicity. I don't believe that most people with amalgams have mercury toxicity though.

He talks about this and there are several quotes on the frequent-dose and related yahoo groups. Apparently some can tolerate thiols -- especially just a few doses -- before 'trouble' sets in, while others have less problems. Also, there seems to be a genetic predisposition that determines whether mercury (or other heavy metals) are released normally or not -- explaining why some (or even most?) can tolerate amalgam fillings.

 

[Johnmac]

Sorry for the slow reply. I keep forgetting to check in.

I think the Frequent Dose Chelation forum has a Files section listing the studies Cutler leans on. However it sounds like you're convinced anyway...

John

 

[Lotus97]

He talks about this and there are several quotes on the frequent-dose and related yahoo groups. Apparently some can tolerate thiols -- especially just a few doses -- before 'trouble' sets in, while others have less problems. Also, there seems to be a genetic predisposition that determines whether mercury (or other heavy metals) are released normally or not -- explaining why some (or even most?) can tolerate amalgam fillings.

Someone started a thread about getting a MELISA mercury sensitivity test:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/determining-mercury-sensitivity.23152/
Maybe that's why some people have more of a problem than others.

 

[Lotus97]

Does methylation affect thiol sensitivity much? Because I when I was taking 1200 mg NAC, 1200 mg ALA, and 4000 mg MSM (also high in thiols) I wasn't doing methylation. There was a period during that time where I was taking 20-30 mg P5P and also 500-1000 mg TMG, but I wasn't taking B12 sublingually or any methylfolate. Actually, maybe the TMG mitigated the effect of the P5P to a certain extent since it stimulated the BHMT pathway.

 

[dannybex]

Does methylation affect thiol sensitivity much? Because I when I was taking 1200 mg NAC, 1200 mg ALA, and 4000 mg MSM (also high in thiols) I wasn't doing methylation.

I don't know. There is a gentleman in the adult chelation group that said methyl folate helped his thiol sensitivity.

I can't remember...do you still have your amalgams Lotus?