I'll try to keep this short and not go into tremendous complicated detail.
I have my mercury fillings removed at the end of March 2011.
A few months later, I took a Heavy Metal Cleanse product to try to chelate, then stopped for a full month. 40 days later, I used it again for a full month, then stopped.
It's been 33 days since then. I have days where I have definite flare-ups of what are either candida or candida die-off symptoms. My least favorite being the increased hunger (thyroid related?), but also feeling bloated at times, chills on my legs, random general weakness, spaciness, and the rash on my arms that sometimes occurs during die-off.
Other times I feel great.
Is this a result of the chelation and the fact that I used the product for so long? As mercury gets removed from the body, does it cause these flare-ups and/or die-off? Will this get much better over time? Has anyone been through this?
I am currently planning to take it conservative and stop taking any chelation products until at least next year, where I will then start a conservative Cutler protocol. In the meantime, I hope the candida-related stuff clears up.
I don't know much about the supplement you've been taking, but I wonder if it's effectively removing the mercury. It may be redistributing it and not removing it effectively enough.
As I'm sure you know, chelating can cause yeast symptoms to flare, so that is a possibility.
Chelating may also be causing the depletion of a mineral. I had trouble with Iodine and hypothyroid symptoms. You might try supplementing with iodine and see if that helps.
That being said, the side effects of chelating are extremely variable. Though I don't usually hear of people whose side effects continue for over a month after they stop a round of chelating. However, I chelated on a regular schedule, so I never waited a month before chelating again, so I can't be sure.
I suggest you try Cutler sooner and see if that affects your symptoms.
Now, I was chelating for 27 days straight (I was planning for 30, but I had flare-ups that freaked me out, so I cut it short). However, big flare-ups always occur only a few days after stopping. And those flare-ups include hunger increases. This has happened both times I started chelating, and it happened shortly after I had my fillings removed.
Right now, I am going to stay on the "off" period a lot longer. Possibly until next year (I don't want the hunger to flare up during Christmas vacation with the family).
A candida flare after chelating is not unusual from what I've heard and experienced. Mine happen about a week after a round of chelating. It goes away within a day or two.
Yeah, but I'm still having milder ones weeks after (though again, I was chelating for almost a full month). The hunger increases are NOT fun. I am taking a trace minerals complex (of lesser-known trace minerals) that someone at Whole Foods suggested after she considered that I might not be getting certain lesser-known nutrients from my limited diet. Hopefully that'll help.
Thanks. I'm having die-off today. Not sure why. Goji berries I just ate? I don't know, but it's noticeable.
Since many people say "at least as many days off chelation as on", do you think that the longer you chelate, the longer the side effects of the "off" days last?
Goji berries sound like a reasonable possibility for causing a yeast reaction, though I don't know much about them.
It's hard to say about longer term chelation and the types of yeast reactions they cause. I did chelate for 6 months while not taking any breaks because I didn't know any better. I remember feel pretty bad, but it's hard to sort out what reaction was caused by what.
Did you feel bad for a long time after you stopped chelating? I see people say that their "off" periods are worse than their "on" periods (others say the opposite).
Also, one thing I noticed: when I took oil of oregano, which is a VERY potent antifungal, for a couple weeks in a row, it took weeks for the POWERFUL die-off to stop, though I felt fantastic when it finally did.
I don't know. I'm wondering if the flare-ups are because of the "on" period of chelation being so long.
I definitely feel bad from the second day of chelating no matter which method of chelating I use. Then I feel a little bad for about a day after I finish a round, and then I feel better. Gradually, both the yeast and chelating reactions have decreased over time.
This feeling better three days later thing happens no matter how many days you'd been chelating? I'm definitely stopping for a long time.
Now, you say the reactions have decreased over time, but have they also decreased even when you haevn't been chelating? Have you taken a long time off from chelating and still had your reactions decrease?
The reactions have generally decreased during chelation and between rounds. I still have chelation reactions and yeast reactions, but they are much milder than before.
Everybody goes through chelation differently, so it's hard to say what's "normal" for you.
I'm not exactly sure how bad my mercury situation was before I began chelating. Not as bad as some of the horror stories I've read about.
My chelating history goes something like this:
A bit longer than 6 months with cilantro and chlorella. I didn't take many breaks during this period. I felt fairly horrible for much of the time but nothing I couldn't handle. After 6 months, I felt much better.
Then I changed to the Cutler Protocol for 2 years. The side effects were less. I took more breaks. For 1 year I could feel the progress. Then sometime in the 2nd year my progress slowed and seemed to stop.
I changed back to cilantro and chlorella for the last 4 months or so. I'm more systematic than I was the first time, and I'm taking breaks this time. I've felt definite improvement in 4 months.
Little by little my reactions have become less and less. My off periods last about a week now. The first day of a break I feel bad, but if I take chlorella, the bad feeling goes away. The next few days before I start another round, I generally feel much better. I still have the occasional reaction during an off period. Some of them with an obvious cause and sometimes I don't really know why I feel bad. The reactions are typically mild and go away after a day or so.
I got these reactions while I was using both methods I've tried.
So you've been chelating a lot over the past few years. For me, I've been "off" for 38 days now (after having been "on" for 28). My hunger has gone up in the past few days and I don't know why, and it's pissing me off. I haven't been taking antifungals to deal with candida at all for nearly 2 months, other than taking Candex (an enzyme) right before I eat any sugary foods to reduce the flare-up - and the flare-ups that I feel have been mild.
Only a few days ago I started taking bacillus coagulans, a probiotic that produces powerful die-off. The die-off has been less severe than it's been.
I guess right now I'll focus on killing candida a bit and not do anything with mercury for the next few months and see how I feel. I've seen people say that the mere removal of mercury fillings from their teeth has been a "miracle" and the candida cleared up eventually anyway. Me, I was impatient and started chelating within 2 months of having them removed, and that seemed to undo progress made in regards to my hunger going down (and I'd been having some truly fantastic really low-hunger days, too!). It makes me wonder if the mercury was slowly leaving me anyway, and the chelation stirred it up.
The number of people who experience the miracle you describe are very few. And even those people should chelate to get the mercury out. Most people only feel the miracle after months or years of chelating. I can tell you that the mercury does not leave by itself. You have to remove it.
You are eating sugary food? Couldn't that be the reason you are experiencing reactions?
I still have (mild) reactions, and I've been doing this for a while. You can't expect to be reaction-free so soon.
Remember, it took me 6 months of regular chelation before I felt better. How long have you been doing it? It's taken me a few years to reach the point where I can regularly break my diet without serious side effects.
I eat one sugary snack on weekend, and that's largely it, other than occasional cultured coconut milk (12g of sugar per serving), and I take enzymes before or after. The reaction tends to be mild.
But I started doing this precisely because the reactions were mild. They used to be much more powerful months ago.
I might stop the "one sugary snack a weekend" thing though and see what happens.
During an off period, is it okay to take milk thistle, zinc, selenium and vitamin E to try to push out the remaining mercury? Or is that not a "true" off period? Because when I stopped taking Heavy Metal Cleanse (which contains 20mg of ALA, as well as some chlorella and cilantro), I switched to that protocol instead.
How do you feel when you're using those vitamins? Do you feel similar to the way you do when you are taking the chelator? If not, then they probably aren't pulling the metal out of its hiding places. Your body will tell you. They're good supplements to take (vitamin C is also recommended if you aren't already taking it).
What method are you using to chelate? Are you taking the supplement every 3 hours, including at night? That's the way ALA will be effective (according to Cutler). Cilantro and Chlorella should be taken about every 4 hours including at night (according to personal experience). That's the way to keep the chelating action going and prevent redistribution.
I think you would be much better off with either ALA used according to the Cutler Protocol (with or without DMSA) or cilantro and chlorella used in their method. The three mixed together in somebody else's formula may not be the most effective way to go.
I was taking the product once a day. Anyway, that was over a month ago. I've stopped, and I've been taking vitamin E, zinc, selenium, and milk thistle every morning for over a month.
I'm asking if those four things - vitamin E, zinc, selenium and milk thistle - are likely to cause any harm in any way. If it's good to take them during an "off" period from chelation, or if they're chelators themselves in any way and I should just stop using them for a while.
I think they're fine. Most things I've read suggest those vitamins be taken in addition to chelators not instead of them. That likely means they don't have a strong chelating effect by themselves. Though there may be some methods I haven't seen...
Listen to your body. Your body will tell you if they are chelating or not. Your body will also tell you if it can handle the vitamins or not. If you're not sure, stop taking them and see how you feel in a few days.
I read a study which shows EDTA kills yeast and that seems to be the case for me. I have been using EDTA for about a year. It is mixed with garlic and Malic Acid. Whenever i stop the yest flares and I have increased hunger and food cravings and
a host of other symptoms. I'm trying to get Barium out of my system.
I've seen many people say that the only success stories of removing candida once and for all, involve the removal of mercury. And I did have mercury fillings in my teeth for nearly 2 decades, so I don't doubt I'd accumulated mercury.
Are you dealing with mercury or other heavy metals?
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Removed fillings months ago, question about candida flare-ups and die-off 
