Mercury Detoxing

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.
John Dewey

These few days I have been updating my blog a little late. I just seem to have so many things to do.

Since I started the mercury detox, my coffee enema discharges seems to be more smelly than before. Perhaps more toxins are being discharged. Last two days, my shoulder blade area is also giving me some pain problems and I think this had to do with my lack of sleep, hopefully.

Childhood Friend
After diner, I met one of my childhood friend, Heng. He is one of the dozen or so childhood friends that I still keep in touch. I have spoken to him a few times but this is the first time we met since my cancer. We also agree we should the rest of the gang more often before anyone one of us decides to move on earlier.

I gave a quick update about my cancer and my therapies and he also updated me about his career. I am happy to note that he has finally quite his tressful job to do something he always wanted, to open a restaurant serving a mixture of Western and Malaysian food targeting the middle income people. I wish him the very best in his new venture.

Mercury Detox
I started my mercury detox on Wednesday. This is the required protocol before my dentist would remove my amalgam. I am taking a crash detox program mainly for removing amalgam and this should not be use as an guide for a complete mercury detox.

The following is a safe three steps mercury detox proposed by Mark Hyman, M.D.

Step 1: Getting Ready for Detoxification

This process can take a few months, and I can't stress enough how important this preparation step is. It is accomplished by optimizing your nutritional status and detoxifying ability. Once this is done you will begin mobilizing and binding the metals in your body and excreting them through your urine, bile, stool, and sweat.

Here is what I recommend to my patients.

1. Optimize your gut function. Eliminate the common food allergens ( dairy, gluten, corn, eggs, etc.), taking probiotics and enzymes for 1 to 2 months before detoxifying.

2. Optimize your nutritional status for detoxification. Use healthy fats ( omega-3 fats, olive oil, and flax oil), amino acids (which boost all your liver's detoxification capacity), and minerals, particularly zinc and selenium (which help your body detoxify metals).

3. Enhance your liver's detoxification pathways. Take folate and vitamins B12 and B6 and eating sulfur-containing foods such as broccoli, collards, kale, daikon radish, garlic, onions, and omega-3 eggs, as well as supplements such as alpha-lipoic acid and n-acetylcysteine.

4. Use herbal support for detoxification. These include chlorella, cilantro, garlic, and milk thistle.

5. Start sauna therapy. Make sure you take adequate electrolyte and mineral replacements to prevent dehydration and mineral loss from the sweat.

6. Optimize elimination routes for metals including your urine, stool, and sweat. Use fluids, fiber, and saunas.

Step 2: Integrate Additional Steps to Support Detoxification

At this stage you can integrate the following to support your detoxification even more:

• Dragon Naturals Cilantro Tincture. Take 2 drops in hot water before a meal twice a day.

• Chlorella. Start with 1 pill three times a day and then build up to 3 pills three times a day for 3 months if tolerated -- take 30 minutes before meals and at bedtime.

• Supergarlic 6000 by Metagenics (or an equivalent product). Take 1 twice a day.

• Hepatothera forte (or an equivalent product). Take 1 capsule twice a day by Prothera (Selenium, n-acetylcysteine, lipoic acid, milk thistle).

Step 3: The Metal Detoxification Period

• Find a biological dentist (www.iaomt.org) to evaluate the extent of your mercury fillings and options for replacing them.

This can be done slowly over time, but must be done VERY carefully and only under a trained biological dentist's supervision to avoid burdening yourself with more mercury during the removal process.

• Get a test to assess your total body load of mercury. This is called a challenge or provocation test. The easiest and safest way to do this is to take 500 mg of DMPS in one dose first thing in the morning after emptying your bladder, followed by a 6-hour urine collection. DMPS is a prescription drug and is not FDA-approved in the US, although it has been approved and used for decades in Europe.

The other option is to use DMSA, which is FDA-approved. It pulls out a lot less mercury and needs to be taken at a dose of 30 mg/kg for the challenge test. I find this is not as effective to get a true reading on what is in the body.

• Use binding agents to pull the mercury out of your body. There is a lot of controversy about the best way to do this. But after helping people detox from heavy metals for 10 years, I've found the safest and most effective treatment is oral DMSA.

It is taken as follows: One 100 to 250 mg capsule of DMSA orally three times a day before meals. Take it for 3 days. Then take 11 days off. Do this for 6 months. Then recheck your level of mercury through the challenge test.

• Do saunas daily -- especially on those days when doing DMSA.

• Consider getting intravenous vitamins and antioxidants for 3 months while undergoing this process this to administer glutathione, phospholipids, vitamin C, and B vitamins to boost detoxification. This is harder to get, but can help the process work better and help you feel better throughout the process.

• Drink enough filtered water and fluids to make urine clear.

• Make sure you have bowel movements twice a day. This is very important or you will reabsorb mercury from the gut. You can add ground flax seeds to shakes or foods, or take one to two 150-mg magnesium citrate capsules twice a day if you are not going regularly. You can also try even stronger laxatives if you have to such as senna or cascara.

• Consider whey protein to boost glutathione if you are not allergic to dairy.