Amino acids for mercury detoxing

[Mary]

I think 3 amino acids somehow got my detox pathways working as they should. For years I reacted very strongly to any substance which had "cleansing" or "detox" properties - e.g., apple cider vinegar, chlorella, cayenne - there were several others which don’t come to mind right now. Often something would seem to hit me out of the blue and I’d have to look at everything I was eating or taking to nail down the culprit (which I usually found).

A detox foot bath wiped me out badly for 3 days, as did 20 minutes in a FIR sauna.

A large part of the time I seemed to detoxing, and I believe it was primarily from mercury. I had spaciness, difficulty concentrating (felt like I was stoned - yes, familiar from many years ago! fatigue, and digestion screwed up.

I had around 10 fillings removed in around 1997. I felt no different afterwards. I tried Andy Cutler’s protocol a few years ago, stuck it out for 3 or 4 months, felt no different, and was extremely discouraged to read it could take years.

About 2 years ago I started taking gelatin at night for sleep because of its high glycine content. The first night I took it I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and got lost the next day two blocks from my sister’s house - I could not figure out how to get there, I had to call her to get me there - obviously a major detox reaction. I somehow managed to keep taking gelatin, probably cut the dose and now I’m able to take pure glycine (which was way too strong for me before) 3 grams at night for sleep with no problem.

I had a similar experience with inositol, though not as extreme, but again, I’m now taking it with no problem at night for sleep.

Glutamine did the same thing, caused detoxing, again though not as extreme as the glycine. I started taking BCAAs and glutamine last November for PEM. And I discovered pretty quickly that one of the properties of glutamine is, you guessed it - detoxing! I stuck with it by lowering the dose.

I’m now taking all three of these amino acids with no problem, and I have not had any detox symptoms for five or six months.

Glycine, inositol and glutamine are all mentioned as being important for phase II liver detoxification in this article: http://www.diagnose-me.com/treatment/liver-detoxification-phase-II-support.html

I also take taurine, choline and cysteine which are also mentioned in the article, although I never noticed any detox symptoms when I took them as I did with the other 3 amino acids.

My guess is that these amino acids helped get my detox pathways working how they should. Of course a good test would be to try a FIR sauna again, which I probably will do some time just to see what happens.

In February of this year, right around when my detoxing seemed to stop, I had the Quicksilver mercury tri test done (https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/mercury-testing/testing/mercury-tri-test), which showed that my mercury levels were very low and that my detox capabilities were just fine. Well, they weren’t fine for years and years prior to then.

I’ve forgotten how bad it used to be and just how often I would be detoxing. Last year when I increased my folate by 800 mcg. I was truly impaired for almost a week until I figured out what was going on and in the meanwhile bought a cell phone I didn’t really want or need. I felt like I was on a drug.

The amino acid doses I’m currently taking are 2 grams of glycine before bed, 1 gram middle of the night, one 500 mg. capsule choline/inositol before bed, and one in the middle of the night, and 2 grams of l-glutamine in divided doses on an empty stomach with BCAAs (which are helping lessen the duration and severity of PEM).

 

[Critterina]

Hooray for you! Good news is so welcome! Please keep us updated here from time to time, like when you try the FIR again.

 

[whodathunkit]

@Mary: Probably you know this, but in case you don't: glutamine, NAC, and glycine are glutathione precursors so maybe you were low in that.

I haven't read it all yet but the link looks really interesting...nice layman's breakdown of phase I and phase II detox. Thanks for posting it.

I really like glycine for sleep. Glad to see someone else getting some good out of it, too. Good on you for your progress!

 

[Mary]

@Mary: Probably you know this, but in case you don't: glutamine, NAC, and glycine are glutathione precursors so maybe you were low in that.

I haven't read it all yet but the link looks really interesting...nice layman's breakdown of phase I and phase II detox. Thanks for posting it.

I really like glycine for sleep. Glad to see someone else getting some good out of it, too. Good on you for your progress!

Thanks @whodathunkit - I'm sure I was low in glutathione - one of Richvank's major hypotheses re CFS. I'd been taking NAC for years with no noticeable benefit or side effects either way, but my doctor told me to take it so I did.

It totally makes sense that the glutamine and glycine would help with detoxing by increasing glutathione. It's just so amazing to me that I have apparently stopped detoxing - it was a major problem for years. Or at least my body is now detoxing properly so that I don't get overloaded and sick with toxins.

The glycine hit me so hard initially, but I love it now - it is great stuff for sleep!

There are several amino acids which have helped me a lot in various ways, including the amino acids mentioned above, BCAAs, beta-alanine, the carnitine family - they are very powerful and I think probably all too often overlooked. I am a little in awe of just how powerful they can be.

 

[whodathunkit]

@Mary, totally agree with you about the carnitines, esp. LCF. It's been a life-changer for me, for sure.

Perhaps you're not "detoxing" any more because you're probably pretty cleaned out. There's no backlog of crap left to get out! If that's the case then it's really great news.


Interestingly, I have recently found that I can only take the glycine/glutamine/NAC combo for a couple months and then I get feeling low and detox-y and have to quit. I go through about 1.5 months where it's great, and then a couple weeks where it dawns on me something isn't quite right and isn't getting better and then I stop. I think the combo does me a lot of good but perhaps the ramped up detoxification with the backlog of junk that is probably in my system just overwhelms. I may try strategically pulsing doses.

I just found out I probably have slow Phase I detox at least (maybe Phase II, haven't figure that out yet). So I dunno. I'm still very much in the learning stages about why this or that works or doesn't work for me the way it does. I'm pretty adept at trying new things and effectively dosing myself according to my symptoms and reactions, but it's hard for me to say *why* things happen the way they do. Increased brain fog since I ramped up methylation can make it hard to learn new things, too. For now I'm okay with the trade-off...the increased physical energy from the methylation supps like LCF is worth the fairly minimal increase in brain fog and I'm still fairly early days in the long journey back to wellness...but it does make it difficult sometimes to grasp new complex topics. My attention wanders away much more easily than it did even four years ago.

 

[Gondwanaland]

I can only take the glycine/glutamine/NAC combo for a couple months and then I get feeling low and detox-y and have to quit. I go through about 1.5 months where it's great, and then a couple weeks where it dawns on me something isn't quite right and isn't getting better and then I stop.

Glutamine promotes cell proliferation, esp. RBC and WBC, and after a while one might run out of some ingredients, like I did recently and then got extremely anemic. I run out of copper, but it could be iron, or B6, or B2, or B1.

 

[whodathunkit]

@Gondwanaland: thanks for the tip, Izzy. I'm anemic and have been for a long time (from chronic blood loss) so that could be my problem with it.

 

[Mary]

I think the combo does me a lot of good but perhaps the ramped up detoxification with the backlog of junk that is probably in my system just overwhelms. I may try strategically pulsing doses.

Pulsing makes a lot of sense. An alternative would be to try lower doses, or a combination thereof. It's good you're at least able to tolerate them for periods of time. Hopefully you'll continue to improve! (I never thought I would get past detoxing --- it still seems too good to be true)

Good luck with everything - we are our own lab experiments, that's the only way I've made any progress. I do use self-muscle testing (and also have a chiro who does it). This has helped me immeasurably when trying to figure out what's going on - whether I'm detoxing or herxing or my body just doesn't like a particular thing, etc., and what's the best dose, and so on. I've been doing it for a long time and when in doubt I see my chiropractor and have him double check whatever's going on and we're generally in agreement. It doesn't have all the answers but it's certainly helped me from going bonkers!

 

[Mary]

Glutamine promotes cell proliferation, esp. RBC and WBC, and after a while one might run out of some ingredients, like I did recently and then got extremely anemic. I run out of copper, but it could be iron, or B6, or B2, or B1.

I didn't know that about glutamine - that's really good information, though I'm sorry to hear it made you so anemic! It seems impossible to stay on top of everything - it's such a balancing act!

 

[shoponl]

In February of this year, right around when my detoxing seemed to stop, I had the Quicksilver mercury tri test done (https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/mercury-testing/testing/mercury-tri-test), which showed that my mercury levels were very low and that my detox capabilities were just fine. Well, they weren’t fine for years and years prior to then.

@Mary, "Very low" levels?

Chris Shade mentioned that healthy people will show some mercury in their Tri-Test results. The ideal situation is to show a little mercury in the top three bars; and to fall on the line for the blood vs urine graph, and close to the line for the blood vs hair graph. That shows that you are getting some mercury exposure (we all have some exposure) but are handling it well.

If mercury tests very low, as shown in the top three bars, then it indicates a C677T or similar problem... i.e. mercury is being locked up in the tissues. Chris Turf mentioned the same thing when I talked with him last year.

I looked quickly, but didn't find a link to the archived webinar. If you want to call and ask about it, the webinar title is, "Mercury Tri-Test Interpretation—The Advanced Course", from 8/26/15. He mentioned the C677T situation near the end of the video.

I have C677T but have taken methylation supplements for a few years now. I'm thinking of taking the Tri-Test under the assumption that methylfolate and B12 have improved my methylation. Hopefully the Tri-Test will show something... I'd be happy with midrange-to-low levels and a good excretion graph. I'd like to take R-ALA and glutathione but right now they make me ill.

 

[Mary]

@shoponl - Is Chris Turf with Quicksilver? Oh my - always something new!

Well, my excretion graph is very good, and R-ALA doesn't make sick, and several things that used to make me sick no longer do. I'm not getting mercury detox symptoms like I used to. I really think the amino acids made a big difference.

But - having said that - I will look into the issues you raised -

I do show some mercury in the tri test results, but it's all below the average.

 

[Wayne]

The amino acid doses I’m currently taking are 2 grams of glycine before bed, 1 gram middle of the night, one 500 mg. capsule choline/inositol before bed, and one in the middle of the night, and 2 grams of l-glutamine in divided doses on an empty stomach with BCAAs (which are helping lessen the duration and severity of PEM).

Hi @Mary,

Thanks for your great post--much I can relate to in it. Thanks also for spelling out so specifically on your supplement schedule. I'll be checking into the links you provided soon. Thanks again!

 

[Johnmac]

FYI, glutamine and glycine in a 2:1 ratio is the main Cutler recommendation for countering the often diabolical effects of thiol particles in some foods dragging around mercury that has been dislodged by a chelating agent such as ALA - the dreaded redistribution.

I personally discovered that methylfolate fixed this problem entirely, but until I had the g/g helped.

 

[Mary]

FYI, glutamine and glycine in a 2:1 ratio is the main Cutler recommendation for countering the often diabolical effects of thiol particles in some foods dragging around mercury that has been dislodged by a chelating agent such as ALA - the dreaded redistribution.

I personally discovered that methylfolate fixed this problem entirely, but until I had the g/g helped.

Very interesting - it sounds like I inadvertently stumbled across Cutler's amino acid recommendation, though not in the recommended ratio. I had been taking methylfolate for several years, but had still been having mercury detox symptoms, until around last February.