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musicchick581

Senior Member
Messages
115
@taniaaust1 I already have Genetic Genie and the MTHFR Support reports. I know how to read them and I have done research on them. We were referring to the snptips and how to get your 23 and me data into it. :)
 

musicchick581

Senior Member
Messages
115
@Star-Anise -how is the silica going so far? Your supplements? Which do you think are helping most? I'm drinking Fiji water today and hoping that will help. Also, did you get urine tested for metals first? I've been told that urine tests aren't accurate because they don't test what is built up in your body. Do you think it's a better indication than hair tests? My hair test a couple years ago showed higher aluminum...hmmm
 

Star-Anise

Senior Member
Messages
218
@Star-Anise -how is the silica going so far? Your supplements? Which do you think are helping most? I'm drinking Fiji water today and hoping that will help. Also, did you get urine tested for metals first? I've been told that urine tests aren't accurate because they don't test what is built up in your body. Do you think it's a better indication than hair tests? My hair test a couple years ago showed higher aluminum...hmmm

@musicchick581

Right now I'm mostly doing the nutritional balancing program with Theresa Vernon to address my mineral imbalances & metals in body. My hair test showed high aluminum (no surprise to me). I'm drinking exclusively high silica water. The best thing that has helped with the aluminum is this RNA Zeolite product. It was amazing! I felt so much better & my sensitivities decreased significantly! Theresa V recommended it & finds her high aluminum patients are her most sensitive patients! :) I don't know much about urine tests. I think the main thing regardless of what type of test you get is that you work with someone that really knows how to read it:)
 

Star-Anise

Senior Member
Messages
218
@musicchick581
Side effects can be detox symptoms if too much too fast. I had 6 sprays on 1st day & ended up with a really bad headache. I had to do 1-3 sprays spread throughout the day, & worked my way up to 20+ sprays at once several times per day. I'm currently waiting for the mail fairy to deliver more :)
In regards to MTHFR - not sure about interaction, other than if methylation is compromised it may be more important to go slow/low due to backlogged detoxification related to reduced methylation... S
 
Messages
65
Is silica safe? My hair analysis showed increased aluminum too but that was all that was increased. My doc still wants an EDTA chelation IV urine test this week. I'm still on the fence. He said hair samples (I had it done two or three years ago) only show metals from the previous 6 months and not buildup in the body.

With respect, I'd be careful following verbatim the advice of your doctor. Provocation tests are not a very good idea to understand mercury levels. They mobilize large amounts of mercury, allowing it to cross the blood brain barrier. EDTA, moreover, is known to shunt mercury into the brain, but itself doesn't cross the BBB. Bad news!

Your doctor's opinion on the usefulness of hair tests is misguided. You really can't be certain whether high or low mercury on a hair test is indicative of body burden. Someone could be low on the hair test, for instance, but have a very high body burden, because they are poor at clearing mercury. Similarly, someone could be high, and have a low body burden. Mercury accumulates in the brain and organs, and stays there. His/her six month statement is nonsensical. The best way to understand body burden is to look at whether your minerals are deranged (Doctors Data Inc Toxic Metals and Minerals test). Nothing else causes derangement but mercury. (For instance, high copper on a hair test in the absence of mercury would not cause derangement.) I had significant derangement, but average hair levels. ALA has had a powerful effect on me. I don't see the point in methylating if you have heavy metal problems.

I have had great results thus far from AC's protocol, using ALA and DMSA. DMSA is a sulfur containing drug, but it isn't metabolized in the same way as sulfur-containing foods. I haven't had a problem with either drugs with my CBS 699 mutation. Yasko is wrong about the need to limit these drugs - and, indeed, her pushing of EDTA. In other respects, she is extremely smart, however. I have recently had HUGE problems introducing B6, B1 and B7, the latter two sulfur containing b-vitamins. Even though my urinary sulfate is always at 800, and hasn't changed in 6 months, the addition of these B's has left me unable to do anything but lie down feeling toxic to the hilt.

Sorry for the digression. I come across lots of people who follow the advice of their doctors on the metal issue, and experiencing long-lasting damage!

Leon
 

whodathunkit

Senior Member
Messages
1,160
@Leon, I too got great results from using ALA and DMSA. Added some things to it for good measure to "catch" other metals besides mercury, including EDTA. But I've always had reservations about the EDTA and did not use it as liberally as I've seen it recommended here and there.

I agree with you about doctors. One of my biggest reservations about following their advice verbatim is that they frequently have not tried extensively what they recommend. It's hard to knock them for that because unless you're as sick as some of us around here you don't need to use these things as extensively as we do, but still, experience is the greatest teacher. You really can't know until you've tried it.

You sound like you've had some experience, so I'll ask: what do you think of EDTA as an adjunct when using other chelators like ALA and DMSA? I've pulsed/alternated DMSA with EDTA in a chelation regimen with good results, so right now I'm satisfied. But always seeking new input, espeically about EDTA which, as I said, I still have reservations about even though I've used is successfully in the past.
 
Messages
65
@whodathunkit - Glad you've had good results. You talk of other metals, which ones? ALA is good not only for mercury: it also removes arsenic and cadmium quite well, and may even chelate lead and more besides. It is also the only thing that crosses the blood brain barrier and enters cells. So, as a rule of thumb, you only ever need ALA. But I like the way DMSA smooths out my rounds on ALA, and I also have a lead problem. Others use DMPS with ALA. There has been some discussion of using EDTA, but people following Andy Cutler's protocol rarely use it. He has said:

"EDTA is an old chelating agent for lead that has been superseded by DMSA, and is an "alternative medicine" treatment for vascular disease - most widely known as the alternative to bypass surgery that has all the heart surgeons up in arms since it actually works but bypass seldom does. As you would imagine, the level of controversy is intense.

EDTA is not an effective chelating agent for mercury detox."

So, it is largely unnecessary. He has alluded to the problem recently of using EDTA:

"There are never any circumstances EDTA should be the first line of therapy for someone with an existing mercury problem. I have NEVER heard a good story involving this, and have heard lots of
bad ones.

The use of EDTA in people with too much mercury around who are sensitive to it causes an impairment of both intellect and emotional regulation. This is the kind of problem that the person who has it is often unaware of and thinks is everyone ELSE's problem. In the extreme it is bipolar disorder or psychosis - you really don't want to
head that direction without a real need and no alternative."

There are many research papers (about 31) showing negative effects from EDTA and Hg complexes. If you're a member of the Yahoo Frequent Dose Chelation Group, it's in the "Links" section. One such study:

"Copyright © 2000 HealthGate® Data Corp. All rights reserved.
Record 1 from database: MEDLINE
Return To Top
Title
HgEDTA complex inhibits GTP interactions with the E-site of brain
beta-tubulin.
Author
Duhr EF; Pendergrass JC; Slevin JT; Haley BE
Address
Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy,
University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington.
Source
Toxicol Appl Pharmacol, 1993 Oct, 122:2, 273-80
Abstract
We have found that EDTA and EGTA complexes of Hg2+, which conventional
wisdom has assumed are biologically inert, are potentially injurious to
the neuronal cytoskeleton. Tubulin, a major protein component of the
neuronal cytoskeleton, is the target of multiple toxicants, including
many heavy metal ions. Among the mercurials, inorganic mercuric ion
(Hg2+) is one of the most potent inhibitors of microtubule polymerization
both in vivo and in vitro. In contrast to other heavy metals, the
capacity of Hg2+ to inhibit microtubule polymerization or disrupt formed
microtubules cannot be prevented by the addition of EDTA and EGTA, both
of which bind Hg2+ with very high affinity. To the contrary, the addition
of these two chelating agents potentiates Hg2+ inhibition of tubulin
polymerization. Results herein show that HgEDTA and HgEGTA inhibit
tubulin polymerization by disrupting the interaction of GTP with the
E-site of brain beta-tubulin, an obligatory step in the polymerization of
tubulin. Both HgEDTA and HgEGTA, but not free Hg2+, prevented binding of
[32P]8N3GTP, a photoaffinity nucleotide analog of GTP, to the E-site and
displaced bound [32P]8N3GTP at low micromolar concentrations. This
complete inhibition of photoinsertion into the E-site occurred in a
concentration- and time-dependent fashion and was specific for Hg2+
complexes of EDTA and EGTA, among the chelating agents tested. Given the
ubiquity of Hg2+ in the environment and the widespread use of EDTA in
foodstuffs and medicine, these mercury complexes may pose a potentially
serious threat to human health and play a role in diseases of the
neuronal cytoskeleton."

Hope this helps. So (a) it isn't necessary; (b) it is potentially injurious; and, (c) ALA, DMSA and DMPS are tried and tested, and used appropriately pose far fewer dangers.

Best,
Leon
 

whodathunkit

Senior Member
Messages
1,160
Great info. Especially Cutler talking about DMPS superseding EDTA for lead. I did not know that, and that's what I was using EDTA for: to scrounge up lead and perhaps aluminum and other things that ALA/DMSA/etc. didn't catch. I was never using EDTA as first line for mercury, though.

I was also using modified citrus pectin (MCP) for lead, FWIW.
 
Messages
2
@musicchick581

Right now I'm mostly doing the nutritional balancing program with Theresa Vernon to address my mineral imbalances & metals in body. My hair test showed high aluminum (no surprise to me). I'm drinking exclusively high silica water. The best thing that has helped with the aluminum is this RNA Zeolite product. It was amazing! I felt so much better & my sensitivities decreased significantly! Theresa V recommended it & finds her high aluminum patients are her most sensitive patients! :) I don't know much about urine tests. I think the main thing regardless of what type of test you get is that you work with someone that really knows how to read it:)

Hi there! I've been researching nutritional balancing for the last 2 months and I'm wondering how did your work with Theresa Vernon go? Are you still working with her? I had a conversation with her this week and I'm considering starting the program. Any feedback about your experience with her would be very appreciated. Thank you!