Polly: My doctor thinks I might have some mercury (probably not a lot). To prepare my body to release the mercury, he has started me on homeopathic minerals. This prepares my body to accept other minerals. Later, he will place me on the actual mineral supplements, after testing.
Later— Polly: I have high aluminum levels according to my hair analysis. Yet, I don’t drink beverages out of aluminum cans, and I don’ t use aluminum foil in cooking, and I don’t take antacids. The only source I can think of is the aluminum pressure-cooker that mom used to cook with everyday when I was a kid. Come to think of it, she also used to cook roasts in an aluminum pan with foil over it. Maybe I was more susceptible than most, since low cellular energy will tend to cause the cells to take up whatever metal is in the environment.
One of the participants a DAN! conferences said that treatment with lipoic acid pulled aluminum out of her child. Then there is citric and malic acid which will attach to aluminum and bring it into or out of cells. [5 ] Other dietary acids (oxalic, tartaric, succinic, aspartic and glutamic acids) will form aluminum complexes which can transport aluminum. [6] Aspirin removes aluminum from the blood. [7] Invitro tests show that DMSO will remove aluminum from brain tissue. [8] Desferrioxamine, cysteine and EDTA will also remove aluminum.
I really don’t know which chelator is best for me. However, I decided to experiment with lipoic acid first. I took 150 mg time-released lipoic acid every eight hours for three days/nights. It made my handwriting go crazy, and a skin infection flare up. However, two months later, both the handwriting and the skin are much better than they have been in a long time. My sinus infection seems better, I’m not quite as scatterbrained/forgetful, and I have more energy too.
I included a little silicon and extra magnesium with my experiment. Being low on silicon predisposes you to aluminum poisoning, so I used some Biosil (silicon drops) from Jarrow. [9] There is a good article on aluminum at http://www.ithyroid.com/aluminum.htm The article states that Carl Pfeiffer, PhD, MD uses magnesium, zinc, manganese, vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B12 and folic acid to bring down copper or aluminum levels. Manganese is usually supplemented as about a third of what is given in zinc. However, it depends on an individual’ s readings. Magnesium, calcium and B6 are also important when you have aluminum poisoning. [10] Aluminum attaches to phosphate and may lead to low levels of phosphate or interference with the use of phosphate. [11] Check alphaketoglutaric acid levels if you suspect aluminum poisoning. The aluminum will interfere with the formation of this amino acid. [12] Glycine is also very important for the removal of aluminum. This is from the description of glycine from Kirkman Labs:
Mineral salts of glycine have the ability to chelate aluminum and transport it out of the body. … Glycine and Taurine (another amino acid) have virtually the same action on neurons in the brain. Both have a relaxing, calming effect, another desirable response when doing stress inducing metal detoxification using DMSA and/or lipoic acid. Glycine and Taurine work synergistically with each other.
Avandish: I remember reading in one of Hal Huggin’s books about specific detox baths that removed large amounts of aluminum. You may want to call them. Bifidobacteria ferment fiber and produce nutrients that help clear metals including aluminum. Michael Ziff’ s metal detox book suggests using a total of only about 150 mg of lipoic acid daily, and he states that a higher dose can be counterproductive. Huggins suggests that low doses of any chelating agent for long periods will bring you improvement quicker than high dosages will because you reduce the concomitant damage caused by other deficiencies brought on by higher dosage chelators.