News you won't see in controlled mainstream media.

Are you detoxifying properly? One thing I noticed is that if I become constipated during a round I feel much worse. Detox teas help me feel better, although lately I wonder if using them during a round might impair the effectiveness of the round? Chelation does give me muscle ache. I plan to basically veg on the days I chelate, as my energy levels become even lower, and my muscle ache increases. I need to push the envelope a bit though, as otherwise I am afraid progress will take too long.

How long have you been taking 17 mg of each? I think it is probably not so good to stay at that dose for long without increasing it, while others might say to stay on that dosage until the symptoms during chelation decrease. Are you using just DMSA for the last few doses of the round? That might help quite a bit to decrease the end of round symptoms. I noticed that the next day I don't feel as bad if my last two doses are just DMSA.

Thanks gdawson, I'll try taking a longer break.

I've been so sleepy lately. This is a new one. The insomnia I get means that I get sleepy early in the evening and wake up early in the morning. The rest of the day I'm usually OK. Oddly, this is pure sleepiness without fatigue, and it's fatigue that always plagued me in the past. I could easily sleep all day and still feel sleepy when I woke up.

Ah, the many facets of mercury poisoning, LOL.

Strike a light! There I was feeling sleepy and blah -- and suddenly this evening, bing! it went away. It's past 10pm and I am wide awake. I suddenly have energy too. I'm bouncy. Earlier, I could barely drag myself to the kitchen to do the washing-up.

Will I feel this way in the morning? What's going on? It's so weird, so sudden and back-and-forth. Well I guess I shouldn't complain about feeling lots better at the moment!

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it is probably your adrenals. They are stressed from the chelation and aren't responding properly. This is why I cannot chelate at all. My adrenals go from making just enough to get by, to barely making enough to keep me from having an adrenal crisis.

In your case, it sounds like they aren't kicking in until late in the evening. Then once they kick in, they are going crazy producing TOO MUCH cortisol (playing catch up). This will cause you to feel wide awake and wired late at night when you should be winding down. Low or high cortisol can cause insomnia in people, but it's hard to know what you have without proper testing. Symptoms tend to mimic one another.

Waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep is likely low cortisol. Not being able to fall asleep from the get go is likely high cortisol. Adrenal fatigue has many stages and you can switch back and forth from one to another. Chelation can/will completely burn your adrenals out if they aren't properly supported.

I think a lot of you have severe adrenal problems on this forum, but just lump it together as a symptom of mercury toxicity.

I've been taking medrol (methylprednisolone) for a year for adrenal fatigue. In fact, at the time I started it, I stopped chelation. I was seeing a specialist in metabolic medicine here, who helped me with adrenal and thyroid support.

During that whole year, no matter what I did, I never felt any better. I felt worse when I stopped chelation and flatlined all that time. I started on different meds originally, before I settled on these. They seemed to make the winter a little more bearable but that's all.

I started chelating again at the beginning of last March and felt things start to lift straight away. I've had a couple of spells of feeling "normal," which I'd never had during all the years I've been ill. I know what an adrenal crash feels like, I know what it feels like to take too much of my med, and what stress and an adrenal rush do to me; I could list all the symptoms. These "normal spells" are just that -- brief realisations of what it felt like to not be ill. With a strange sense of peace thrown in. All that awful anxiety lifts and I feel alive.

It was lovely last night, so I decided to carry on with chelation for a day or two more. I'm back to feeling rather "blah" today but every time that "normal" feeling hits me, I feel heartened. It reminds me that it's going to keep coming back, and maybe one day it will stay.

I'm on day 5 of a chelation round. Sleepiness at night, gone. My mind is now sharp as a tack as well. That comes after weeks of particularly bad brain fog that hindered a lot of things I tried to do. I'm surprised at how symptoms just come and go like this -- fascinating to see -- and frustrating as well, never know what's next!

Linda, is your temperature normal, or are you running temperatures below normal?

I stopped measuring. It wasn't helping. Anyway I'm on T3 for thyroid.

I just had a really good round, I feel kinda like an idiot though. I learned that any fat soluble anti-oxidants give me the same symptoms as adrenal fatigue. so vitamin E, even though I was only taking 100 IU (333% DV) was making me feel dull and drained. I was taking vitamin E for a long time too, and didn't realize it was what was making me tired. Water-soluble anti-oxidants don't seem to bother me in this way.

The vitamin E I was taking was a very good natural version by now foods (true-E) and I tried another natural one, and both of them had this effect on me. I think it was just strange that it gave me every symptom of fatigued adrenals, and without the E I feel lots of energy and full of life (not all the time, but a lot more of the time).

I really don't think many people would react to vitamin E like I do, but I thought I would mention it just in case.

Selenium zaps me too if that makes sense, infact it gives me bad anxiety and makes me wake up nervous (Early) as well. I know the supplements say natural, what else is in them? We have to wonder at times.


I try to stay away from too much now as far as Vitamins go and do better for it. I take Molasses now, Spirulina, Ginger and Cod Liver Oil and maybe a thing or two more a day, thats enough for me right now.

I think the main thing here is to go with what your body is telling you. I tinkered with my supplements a couple of months back and felt awful. Things might change in the future as we get well, but for the time being perhaps our bodies just can't handle certain things.

I would, however, always recommend taking several grams of vitamin C a day.

As for me, I'm generally feeling blah these days, though I think part of it is my adrenals struggling to get rid of a cold -- it's been lingering for weeks and is trying to break through now but hasn't quite. And I can't get my diet clean. I've put together an EFT regime with one of my holistic therapists and I hope it will help.

Ya, I definitely should listen to my body on this one.

I have no doubt the quality of the vitamin E is good, vitamin E and fat soluble anti-oxidants just make me feel like crap. Even organic red palm oil, high in E and fat soluble carotenes makes me feel terrible the day after eating it.

I'm taking a whole week off of chelation...want to test out some herbs (astragalus, made a tincture) and a few foods. Also just set up our saltwater in ground pool and I want to see if swimming makes me feel better or worse. I'm the one who maintains it so at least I know there aren't any chemicals in it.

Linda, have you ever tried accupuncture? It had some interesting effects on me, and I also really liked how chinese fire cupping effected me.

"I would, however, always recommend taking several grams of vitamin C a day. "

Not too much though, as it might be a stress to the kidneys. I take just 2 grams a day of vitamin c. It is a good idea to spread it out in a few doses a day. Imo taking more than 4 grams a day of vitamin c for long periods of time is not a good idea.

Linus Pauling disagrees with you.

I used to take 6 grams a day but it wasn't stopping me from being ill more than I was well. That stopped when I bumped the dose up to 9 grams.

Very poorly people have taken upwards of 100 grams a day intravenously without ill effects.

Yes I have read that about the Kidneys too, I don't use alot of Vitamin C because of that there. I would try to get it from Acerola Powder or Camu Camu etc., thats the natural form and probably works alot better with the co factors.

Can you tell me where you read this info or could you cite a study? It doesn't chime with the things I've read myself. Thanks.

"Vitamin C Toxicity

The upper limit for vitamin C intake is 2000 mg/day. Up to 10 g/day of vitamin C are sometimes taken for unproven health benefits, such as preventing or shortening the duration of viral infections or slowing or reversing the progression of cancer or atherosclerosis. Such doses may acidify the urine, cause nausea and diarrhea, interfere with the healthy antioxidant-prooxidant balance in the body, and, in patients with thalassemia or hemochromatosis, promote iron overload. Intake below the upper limit does not have toxic effects in healthy adults."

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec01/ch004/ch004j.html

Linda, I hope that you are using a buffered form of vitamin c(ie. calcium or magnesium ascorbate, as huge amounts of acidic vitamin c, especially when taken on an empty stomach might cause a problem. Vitamin c is also an anticoagulant. If you also take large amounts of vitamin E with it, you might develop a problem with slow clotting.

I started this round with 75 mg ALA plus 50 mg DMSA. After the first dose I felt strong muscle ache, but after the second dose my muscle ache is much milder. I am glad I didn't try to use 100 mg of ALA this round. If this round goes well, then I may stay at this level for a few rounds before going to 100 mg ALA + 50 mg DMSA each dose.


I am wondering about which supplements might interfere with chelation. There are two that I immediately suspect, which are zinc and selenium. I read about one study on rats in which the presennce of sodium selenite caused less mercury to be excreted from the kidneys while doing DMSA chelation.

I read that zinc reduces the effectiveness of DMPS chelation, and also read that zinc is chelated to at least some degree by DMSA, so having extra zinc in the bloodstream during chelation might decrease the amount of mercury and other toxic metals excreted. Since DMSA does cause increased excretion of zinc, it is probably a good idea to take zinc supplements between rounds, but not during rounds.

JK, selenium probably binds tighter to mercury than DMSA does, and it forms an insoluble salt that doesn't get excreted.

Studies on DMSA and Zinc showed DMSA did not raise zinc excretion in the urine to any significant amount (though it did very slightly), so it most likely does not have the same effect on chelation that selenium does. I would guess mercury would still bind tighter with the DMSA than the Zinc would so it shouldn't be a problem.


As for vitamin C, here is a study that showed 1g of ascorbic acid daily reduced naturally produced anti-oxidants, and signficantly reduced endurance during exercise. This study was done on both humans and rats with the same results

http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2009/02/vitamin-c-supplementation-and-exercise.html

I never trusted, nor tried mega-dosing of vitamin C. I know animals naturally produce there own vitamin C, and that humans don't have that ability anymore, but I'm pretty sure we have evolved some other mechanism to make up for that loss.

"Studies on DMSA and Zinc showed DMSA did not raise zinc excretion in the urine to any significant amount (though it did very slightly"

My concern isn't so much for the amount of zinc lost during chelation, but that since DMSA does chelate zinc to some degree, extra zinc in the blood during chelation might cause more DMSA to be used up grabbing zinc, rather than grabbing toxic metals. While the percentage of zinc in the body that is lost is low, but an even slight increase in the amount of DMSA used up grabbing zinc rather than toxic metals wouldn't be good.

As for vitamin c, even 500 mg a day is a megadose, but over 2 grams a day is an ultra megadose.

But judging by how much zinc is excreted, I think it doesn't bind tightly enough to effect DMSA's mercury chelating abilities. Mercury would probably easily displace any zinc that is bound to DMSA since the bond is weak.

If DMSA bound tightly to zinc, the body would have some severe side effects to DMSA since most of the zinc in the blood would be made unavailable to the body, and zinc is crucial in so many processes. I really don't think you have to worry about zinc in regards to chelation.

JK, you're coming to this forum and quoting stuff from Merck?

'Nuff said.

The vitamin C and vitamin E exercise study is an interesting one. Since I started learning about nutrition, I've noted with interest the number of studies that come out claiming that vitamins are useless or bad for us, and they make headlines around the world. The newspapers don't publish the abstracts, or information about who funded the studies. One that I'm aware of, on vitamin E, used the L-chiral form, which is useless and possibly dangerous to the body. I'm not saying that any of these studies should be dismissed out of hand -- just that the details should be looked into before going along with brief summaries of abstracts, when the journalists have almost always not looked at the actual studies. (Less well publicised are the thousands of deaths occurring from FDA-approved medications. Strange, that.) So who is so interested in making yet another claim that vitamins are useless? Is someone's patent running out -- are they trying to head off competition? Questions worth asking. Vitamins C and E aren't big money-makers but pharmaceuticals, which we are told are safe and effective, are. (Sorry, up on my soap box.)

Anyone who wants to read more into this particular study can find an interesting discussion here. I found this person's comments interesting:



I'm surprised that the large body of work that Linus Pauling did on this vitamin, seems to be largely forgotten or ignored. NIMH claimed to have repeated one of his studies and declared that Pauling's results were invalid; NIMH was subsequently shown to have failed to follow Pauling's methodology, but the damage to his reputation was done:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/12154.php

From the reading I've done about this vitamin and Pauling's studies, I am quite happy to take large doses, and they have made a noticeable difference to me; though I am still poorly, I have gone from catching a cold/having a cold/fighting off a cold more than half the time, to almost never.

Personally I feel frustrated with repeated attempts to rubbish vitamins. If someone feels that vitamin C is interfering with their exercise, they can take it at other times of the day, though I don't know enough about biochemistry myself to be able to say exactly what is going on there.

There are other tbings besides vitamin c that one can take to boost immunity, such as zinc, vitamin A, and numerous herbs. I am not questioning that vitamin c is useful, although 8 grams a day isn't 4x as useful as 2 grams a day. Even at 4 grams a day, most is probably excreted and not utilized. Vitamin c has some anti inflamatory effects as well, although there are a number of herbs that are antiinflamatory. Years ago I did take around 10 grams of vitamin c a day, but discontinued that, as I felt it really wasn't much more beneficial than taking 2 or 3 grams a day.

Maitake or Reishi Mushrooms can jack up the immune system as they have Beta Glucans in them, they either raise or drop your immune system as needed I have read JK98. I have the Reishi, I need to start taking it now.


I also took 10 grams a day and sometimes got dirreah and didn't really feel that much better overall, so I cut it back and then eventually switched to Acrelo Tablets which I did better on (They only contain 500mg of C too).

This is not the case. Like claims about vitamin C causing kidney stones, it is more rumour than fact. While it's great that everyone here shares personal experience, and while that is equally valid for us all, I would respectfully ask that you do a little research before you make remarks like the above. IMO it is unhelpful to be giving incorrect information on a forum like this.

I find myself feeling increasingly emotional about this subject so I think it's time I gave it a rest for now.

I'm also going to respectfully ask that if people here are interested in continuing discussion of this topic, perhaps it could be taken to a new thread. In future if I want to look back at this thread, it would be helpful for me to be able to find information about my chelation experience.

I'm really amazed at what a roller-coaster I am on now. I mean literally, I can be feeling so low that I feel like killing myself at one time in the day, and quite upbeat and confident another. It's getting to be a bit alarming; I keep wondering where the real "me" is underneath all this.

What's amazing, also, is that I'm feeling all these emotions at all. It feels increasingly like I'm going back to the time before the antidepressant and the withdrawal damage, which left me emotionally numb for so long. And I'm getting little glimpses of what it actually felt like to be "normal." I can't believe what a wonderful feeling it is. I didn't know I was born. After everything I've been through, just living a day of that -- something I always took for granted -- would be a treasure.

I am hoping that with continued chelation, things will even out and the good will start to outweigh the bad. The bad is really, really bad and it interferes with my ability to do my job and live the rest of my life.

It might not be a bad idea to lower the dose a bit Linda, especially if the bad is interfering with your ability to do your job and live the rest of your life.

Its interesting what you mentioned about the real 'me' beneath all of this. A lot of our personalities are a result of the ways we have chosen to cope with the effects of mercury. I have felt poisoned since a little child, and would tell me mom something was wrong and I remember having strong anxiety even at 4-5 years old. My grandpap died when I was 5 and I remember thinking how nice it was that he never had to worry about anything ever again. Because of how sensitive I was I liked spending a lot of time by myself...but all of these traits were my way of coping with the mercury and are changing as the mercury is leaving my brain and body.

"It might not be a bad idea to lower the dose a bit Linda, especially if the bad is interfering with your ability to do your job and live the rest of your life. "

I disagree with this. I am wondering if the opposite makes sense, to move to a much higher dosage, even if it means being totally debilitated during chelation, and just chelate for 2 days a week on the weekends. It seems like I am debilitated by chelation even at a lower dosage, so I try to push for a higher dosage during chelation, but just chelate for 3 days at a time. We are all different though, and have different severity of mercury toxicity. I had 25 mercury fillings, so I guess I have been exposed to much more mercury than most people here.
I am now doing chelation at 75 mg ALA +50 mg DMSA using 3 day rounds(2 nights). I am even thinking about going to 100 mg ALA +50 mg DMSA for the next round, although I will probably just do 75 mg ALA + 50 mg DMSA for at least one more round.

When you have adrenal issues it is a really bad idea to overstress them by upping the dosage like that. This is not a sprint to the finish, this is about removing deeply stored mercury without doing extra unnecessary damage in the process.

I really think doing high doses for only 2 days would result in quite a bit of redistribution.

Well as far as what I'm doing myself, it seems to be working OK so I will stick with it. I'm taking 25mg ALA and 12.5mg DMSA on the Cutler regimen, but actually at the moment I'm on the 5th day off round. My adrenals struggle to cope with this amount so I think raising it higher would be foolish. The medrol I take means I don't cope well with extra adrenal stress from any source. A year ago I could take 100mg ALA and 50mg DMSA per dose, but it's hard to say how much it helped me because I rarely took a chelation break; I felt immediately awful as soon as I tried. As it is now, I seem to have 2 days of awfulness post-round before I start feeling better.

Bottom line? I think everyone has to do what works for them.

Linda, you might do better on 25 mg ALA +25 mg DMSA. I noticed that when I took ALA alone, my symptoms were much worse than with ALA plus DMSA. The DMSA seems to have a calming effect on symptoms. Taking just DMSA for the last few doses of a round also seems to prevent symptoms after the round ends.

I have been trying to increase the ALA dosage before increasing the DMSA dosage since DMSA is expensive, and ALA is so much cheaper, however when I notice stronger symptoms from the ALA it seems to mean that I need to increase the DMSA. Andy Cutler advises staying between a 1 to 2 to 2 to 1 ratio of DMSA to ALA.

There is no free lunch and your body will pay you back for all of the meds youre subjecting it to . Some people want to be paients the rest of their lives.
Antidepressants and prednisone make people feel better initially but worse over time . Antidepressants cause adrenal stimulation and then burnout and so do steroids.Many people take steroids and antidepressants for chronic pain and feel better at first but much worse over time. Eventually the steroids destroy immunity , leading to all knds of infections , cancer increased hepeatitis and AIDS risk, inability to heal wounds, liver problems,mood swings,glaucoma, cataracts,,acne, infertility, cancer,kidney tumors, osteoporosis,arthritis,round face, joint pain, violence,low blood pressure,numbness and tingling, artherosclerosis,tendon rupturesCushings,psychosis,fatigue,insomnia.headaches,adrenal exaustion and lots more good stuff.
Most people who have doctors appointments today are going there , unbeknownst to them , for something caused by a drug given by a doctor or by a medical procedure or dental procedure.

Hi, you're new here so I'll assume you're not familiar with my history. You are preaching to the converted. I went on antidepressants several years ago after trying every other "healthy" means that I knew of to get better (which wasn't actually much at the time). They didn't help, and I did long-term damage to myself when I discontinued. That was over 3 years ago. While I try not to get too preachy with people. you will never see me recommending psych meds of any kind to anyone.

The steroid dose I am on is a physiological dose. I tested positive for adrenal exhaustion and I have been under the care of one of this country's foremost experts in metabolic medicine. The idea here is that the steroids give your own adrenals time to rest and heal, and then you come off them. Again, I was desperate at the time, I'd been ill for years, and I have no doubt that I have adrenal problems. I'm not sure how much the steroid has benefitted me, though probably it's supported my adrenals during chelation. I would like to come off some time in the near future but it's playing with fire because my system has been very reactive since the antidepressant experience.

As for my actual chelation experience? I seem to be having a damn hard time between rounds, feel pretty bad. I think I have sinusitis too. Never mind, could be worse.

Hey Linda,

I did not know you were already on Medrol. Have you had your sex hormones and DHEA-S checked since being on the meds? Once you start taking adrenal meds, it will cause the ACTH to plummet. This gives your adrenals time to rest (if it's a primary adrenal insufficiency) BUT when this happens, it will lower aldosterone, DHEA-S and subsequently all of your sex hormones.

I have been on 27.5mg of HC for about 7 weeks or so (I can't remember exactly) and my DHEA-S went from 215 (45-320) to 24!! I'm sure my doc will start me on some DHEA after I talk to him tomorrow. Unfortunately it's part of taking the good with the bad. I can't live without HC at the moment. I may be on it for the rest of my life because we aren't sure what's causing the problem.

Once your "adrenals" start to work, your thyroid may start to show problems too. These problems were likely always there, but were simply masked by how low cortisol levels were in the body. It didn't allow the hormone to make it into the cells properly, so labs may have looked OK. Unfortunately once you start on adrenal meds that is just the beginning. Unless you have a doc who can critically think and not just look for the "H" or the "L" next to the labs, you will probably have a hell of a time getting better. I'm thankful to have found a doc that knows there's a difference between optimal levels and "in-range" levels.

Do you have cortef/HC on hand to stress dose with? How much medrol do you take and how do you dose it?

Hi Birdlady,

I'm also taking T3 for my thyroid. Not sure how much that is helping either, but the SAD this past winter wasn't as bad as the previous 4.

The problem with my doctor is that the medical establishment doesn't like the way he does things and they took away his power to prescribe. He is still much in demand in alt med circles and he travels around the country doing clinics even though he's in his 70s. A number of people on this forum have seen him. But it means that any tests I do have to be arranged privately. That puts a big crimp on things. I got myself a thorough sex hormone test at one point but it was wonky across the board, things being "up" when they should be "down" and vice-versa. I did try DHEA at one point and it made me worse. For me, I think I'm going to leave sex hormones alone and hope that with chelation and time they will balance out. My libido seems to be getting better. I was left with permanent sexual dysfunction after discontinuing my antidepressant but I'm making slow progress. My periods are still extremely heavy. I tried natural progesterone cream but that didn't help either.

I do have HC for stress dosing, but it doesn't help a great deal. Medrol is better for stress dosing, for me, but I have to use it very sparingly because my body quickly adjusts to having that amount and I go through withdrawal when I don't keep it up. It's a big problem when I'm ill. I don't actually like being on this stuff and want to come off it but it's been extremely difficult. Most of the time I get withdrawal symptoms which simply don't go away, no matter how gradually I go. I can't honestly say it's made a great deal of difference for me and it's caused me a number of problems. At the bottom of my adrenal problems, I believe, is mercury toxicity; though it got a lot worse when I withdrew from the antidepressant. I got additional problems then like sensitivity to light and sound, and heat intolerance. Those are very slowly getting better.

The only thing that's actually helped me has been chelation. Do you chelate?

Hormone replacement is a tough thing to get right. My doc says it takes up to 6 months just to get on the right track. I'm only on my second month, so I still have a little ways to go.

I was chelating for a while, but my adrenals completely crashed from it. That's when I decided I would get those set straight before I went ahead and started up again. I was on round 10 when I stopped, but was seeing some improvements. I was dosing with 25mg of DMSA every 3 1/2 hours.

I'm dealing with other health problems (thinning of my retina), so I'm still taking it easy. I certainly do not need to put anymore strain on my fragile body.

I am sorry to hear that your hormone replacement isn't helping. Obviously something isn't right.

Someone your age should not be taking all these drugs and they wont cure you .
Antidepressants have taken away the sex drive of many people I know and me and it never came back even years later, a fact the pharmaceutical companies manage to keep secret . If a person's sex drive is minimal or absent , the drugas probably damaged the parts of the brain responsible for sexuality .
Brain scans show psychiatric drugs actually shrink the brain and the cells that are destroyed are not replaced.

Sorry, I'm not sure you've read all the posts here. (?) I haven't been on ADs for more than 3 years and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. I'm also not sure what you mean by "all those drugs." I'm doing what seems to be right for me, which up to this point has meant supporting my adrenals and thyroid as well as chelating.

I lost my libido and my genitals were numb for a long time after coming off the AD, but these things are improving. While I believe that ADs do damage to the body and the brain, I also believe that the body can repair itself in time with the right help.

As for how I've been doing . . . I had another spell of feeling really good, but also started to get what seemed to be symptoms of high cortisol. This seemed to me to mean that I can safely reduce my adrenal med, which I have done this week. I've been through the standard couple of days of "yuck" and am starting to feel better. For the time being I'm going to see where this goes, in hopes that I can reduce the med some more. If I feel the need to chelate while I'm doing this then I will, but it might be wise to keep the two processes separate so I can monitor how I'm feeling.

That seems like a good sign if your adrenals are starting to produce more cortisol on there own. I agree that you should take a break from chelation when reducing the meds so you can easily pinpoint any changes in symptoms.

My chelation is going extremely well...I did a 6 day round at 17mg each ALA/DMSA and it was really smooth. I just really hope this chemical sensitivity of mine eases up soon, it can be quite a hassle at times.

I have read many books and scientific journals that find that antidepressant use causes a permanant reduction in the number of receptors in the nervous ststem . Apparently , when you cause an excess of serotonin in the synapses , the brain reacts to the imbalance by destoying itself . I think I have improved over the years but i don't think I will ever be the same as before I took antidepressants

Fox news has a quetion and answer forum with an MD on Sunday and one of the questions was what causes low libido . The doctor said that it often results from a deficiency of dopamine . One of the many adverse effects of antidepressants is drasticly lowered dopamine.People with Parkinson's disease are deficient in dopamine and when they are given drugs that increase dopamine , one effect is increased libido . People who are low in dopamine also have chronic muscle stiffness and pain , similar to Parkinson's victims and this probably accounts for why I and so many other users of antidepressants have chronic pain. My chiropractor , who is a senior citizen , said that decades ago he never saw young people whose muscles were rigid . That is probably because thay weren't on antidepressants back in the 70s.The problem with taking anything that increases dopamine is that it ultimately makes the problems worse after improving them temporarily . I know people who have Parkinsons and their doctors admit that their medications will hasten the progression of the disease , whch is true of almost all medications.

Birdlady - Have you ever asked yourself why you dont produce enough hormones on your own ?
You might , but your doctor does not want to lose a patient.

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say. I don't like your attitude at all.

We tried looking into the cause of my adrenal insufficiency and we could never pinpoint the exact problem. It's not a signally issue from the pituitary like I had originally thought because my ACTH was high. There are no antibodies attacking my adrenals either, so it's not autoimmune Addison's Disease. We also tested for a few genetic, enzyme deficiencies and those came back borderline. Basically we have no idea, but I know that I need to replace what they aren't doing correctly (hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone). I couldn't go on any longer and was on the verge of complete physical and mental break down with all my health problems.

How much longer was I to suffer to figure out the cause?

Ya inert your attitude is very unfriendly. If you want people to even consider your opinions it would be wise to word them differently.

As you why the body doesn't produce enough hormones, I think a large part of it is mercury related...here is a chart from Andy Cutlers Book

The medrol reduction actually went quite badly and I had to put my dose back up. Some good has come out of that though. Based on my reaction to certain foods, I'm going to test the possibility that I have a dairy intolerance. Even on my best dietary behaviour I've had butter, cheese, sometimes yogurt. Fingers crossed -- it's been a difficult week and I could do with some relief. Still holding off on the chelation for now.

Gary I understand this, but you cannot chelate with weak adrenals. You'll find yourself in the hospital sooner than later. I think I was almost there last October.

I understand the necessity of getting hormones supplemented when your adrenals and other glands are so out of balance. I wasn't saying to chelate when your adrenals are a wreck, just that mercury seems like it could be the reason why the body isn't producing hormones properly.

My point is that these drugs not only don't cure anything , they cause tremendous harm.You won't get better by taking progesterone or prednisone.I know someone who went into early menopause in her late thirties when she stopped taking progeaterone. Progesterone inhibits ovulation so when she stopped she had excess ovulation , hormonal imbalance and menopause. For information on the effects of these drugs , you might want to refer to
www.herbal-supplements-guide.com/prescription-drug-side-effects.html
www.shirleyswellnesscafe.com
www.about.com
www.drugs.com

The next question the doctor on Fox news was asked ironically was how to treat a runny nose . The doctor said the best thing to do is to take over the counter antihistamines. Antihistamines damage the nervous system when used for years and cause Parkinsons and low dopamine and muscle stiffness and low sex drive. This is a classic example of doctors reccomending drugs to treat the side effects of other drugs without recognizing that our drugs are causing our illnesses.

" just that mercury seems like it could be the reason why the body isn't producing hormones properly. "


Perhaps mercury indirectly, but if the body is deficient in necessary minerals, then the hormones will be messed up. Magnesium, zinc, and iodine are typically deficient in those with mercury toxicity.

Today officially marks two weeks of a super-clean diet, which has also been dairy-free. No sign of feeling any better yet. It's been two weeks of hell to be honest: adrenals are in a mess, can't think clearly, generally feel miserable all the time. I really hoped I'd found an answer there. Give it a few more days and then it will be back on the chelation supplements; they still seem to be the only thing that helps.

Hi Linda,

Hmmm, I"m not sure if giving anymore time to the completely dairy free diet will be overly helpful? It's possible it may take longer, because it takes me 6-8 weeks to recover/improve after a cheat (but most people get improvements earlier than that).

But regardless of such diets, the culprit that forces one to be so strict is still at work. Whatever that is. In your case, if ALA gives improvements (or sometimes exacerbation) of symptoms, you've probably already nailed the problem. Chelation is the key, or one of them anyway. Butit would be nice to still gain further improvement during the lengthy time of chelating wouldn't it? And not knowing what other issues might be at work. Whether they're more superficial or part of the cause.

I'm sorry the dairy free hasn't proven effective so far Linda.

Let's just hope future ALA will make you feel a bit better again!

Well the idea was that I would test for dairy intolerance. I'd been reading about food allergies and intolerances and they can cause all the symptoms I have. The body is inflamed much of the time which can cause a negative cascade of symptoms. The brain can become inflamed too. Alas, the problem for me doesn't appear to have such a simple solution.

I am on the third day of my first round of chelation in a few weeks and it's been awful. I'm fatigued, I've had dizzy spells, and I'm impatient, angry and despondent. I am starting to feel like I really have covered absolutely everything that could be causing my symptoms and there's nothing left to pull out of the hat. I am also struggling to keep my diet clean because the sugar cravings never go away, and they're awful today -- and not because of anything I ate that triggered them. I will probably give in if they carry on and bury my head in a bucket of ice cream -- but then? I just don't know anymore.

Cutting out dairy for a few weeks can be a drastic step for many people. Many might get over half their calcium intake from dairy, and cutting this out with taking more high quality calcium supplements to offset this might be a problem. Dairy items such as milk and yogurt are also good sources of potassium, so cutting these out also means one needs to find other sources of potsssium to replace them(perhaps vegetables?)
Diziness might be caused by a lack of potassium, or even perhaps a lack of sodium. The need for potassium and sodium is even greater in hot weather. Many with mercury toxicity do better on a relatively high sodium diet. Not all dairy items are the same. Many who are dairy intolerant do okay if they switch to low lactose dairy items. Yogurt is much lower in lactose than other dairy items, or you could get special lactose reduced milk or cottage cheese, or take lactase supplements(Lactaid) when you consume dairy products. Imo low fat plain yogurt is an important food that most people should eat.


I am convinced that sugar cravings are due to low serotonin levels and low blood sugar. I have changed my eating habits, eating 4 small meals a day rather than eating two large ones.
I also take magnesium with each meal.

On the Paleo diet you're not supposed to have milk because of the lactose, but I didn't think I had a problem with fermented dairy because the lactose is broken down in that. So I'd have plain natural yogurt and cheese. Cutting those out wasn't very hard, I didn't have them that often. But I did find that when I went off the rails, the sweet things I ate almost always had dairy of some kind in them. Could just be coincidence, I don't know.

When I had my hair test results a year and a half ago, it showed that there was more calcium in my body than I was able to absorb. For my own safety, I cut out my calcium supplement until such time as my absorption gets better, though I'm still keeping up with other minerals like magnesium.

The sugar cravings are constant, they don't match up with when I'm hungry. I think they are probably tied to weak adrenals, but I don't understand it because I'm on a strong adrenal medication. I really do think that my adrenals are at the heart of this but I've got books, I've got a specialist doctor, and I've done everything I can humanly find out about to treat them. My doctor is flummoxed. I've even started running a little magnet down the associated meridian to try to stimulate them though doing it with a finger never helped much in the past.

There's a missing key here. Food sensitivity would explain things, but these tend to be foods you eat a lot and crave, they are "feel-good" foods. I cut sugar and grains out of my diet anyway, and if it isn't dairy, I doubt if it's anything at all because nothing else I eat fits that description. And there's nothing else I eat regularly now that I also ate regularly when I became ill.

Yes the chelators have worked for me in the past, and I'm hoping my body is simply re-adjusting to them now. It's horrible. But I can't honestly see how mercury from 4 fillings and lots and lots of chelating afterward could still be making much of an impact now. My body seems to eliminate other toxins without much trouble so it doesn't make sense to me that so little mercury could still be causing me so much grief.

I don't think that I have huge deficiencies of any minerals; my hair test didn't show any, I eat a balanced diet, and I take supplements like sea salt. I tried supplementing potassium and various other things for a while but it didn't help.

My Yahoo adrenals forum has long been out of ideas. I don't know of any other specialists who can help me here. When I had those 1 1/2 weeks of feeling well at the beginning of April I wasn't doing anything differently, I was just eating a clean diet and chelating. It had never happened to me before, the whole time I'd been ill. Maybe I just need to keep my diet clean a while longer and trust that results will come, but those dang cravings are driving me mad.

I just want to know what's wrong with me . . .

"The sugar cravings are constant, they don't match up with when I'm hungry."

so that probably points to low serotonin rather than low blood sugar. Are you doing anything to try to boost your serotonin levels? I use licorice tea to do that. Others use St. John's Wort or 5 HTP.

"But I can't honestly see how mercury from 4 fillings and lots and lots of chelating afterward could still be making much of an impact now. "

You had only 4 amalgams? Did you eat plenty of tuna or other high mercury fish like swordfish? Perhaps your problem might not even be due to mercury, but perhaps lead, other heavy metals, or
else some other digestive or homonal problems?

Do you get enough vitamin D? Do you notice any pattern to how you feel at different seasons? Any other possible patterns? Have you tried rotation diets? Do you believe your drinking water is safe, and not loaded with heavy metals? Do you live near a coal powered electric plant or other major source of air pollution?
Are you sure you aren't exposing yourself to too much aluminum?
Many advise not to cook in aluminum pots or using aluminum foil, and not to take antacids with aluminum. Aluminum containing deoderants might also be a factor.

I am convinced that bread is also something that people should stop eating. It usually has bromine in it, is made with yeast, and has way too much carbohydrates.

I appreciate your attempts to help JK, but I've read about all of these things, considered them, and tried the ones that seemed relevant. Others, too. We dismantled our wifi and cordless phone in order to cut EMF exposure down. I've done lightbox therapy to death, sat in the sun for hours on end. Tweaked diet and supplements six ways to sunday. Fortunately I think we live in a relatively healthy area, not even any fluoride in our water. No exposure here to lead or other toxic metals, and I don't use aluminium for cooking. No new furniture or other things in the house that could be outgassing. I hardly ever eat fish, I have no tattoos, and I haven't had any immunisations in years. I haven't got any better when I've gone on holiday for a week or two. I've used liquorice root, and 5HTP and St. John's wort made me sick. I've done lots of spiritual things too.

I don't honestly think it's likely that anyone here can come up with a magic answer. I just needed to vent because I don't want to live the rest of my life like this and I'm running very low on ideas. I would have considered going back through all the GP and endo stuff in order to get X-rays and whatnot, in case there was a tumor, but the symptoms have been so very steady all this time, neither getting better or worse apart from brief moments. And they started quite suddenly. I'm still thinking I had an adrenal crash but if so, I don't seem to be healing.

Linda, do know what dental materials you had to replace your amalgams with? And would they be responsible at all? Or were you feeling no better and no worse after their replacement?

Did you ever find DMSA to be of help at all? Because if there was any lead involved here (which I doubt), that would probably be a good bet to use.

You have certainly done so much investigating, that I'd say indeed one would be hard pressed to come up with any answer or even another enquiry for you. Very difficult!

You already do so much to help yourself. I really haven't a clue as to what might be going on here..... you did find the ALA appeared at one point to be helping you, at least occassionally? Perhaps if resume, you may find that recur. I noticed a bit of a change in you when you were regularly doing ALA. Perhaps because of stopping it for sometime and now starting it again, you've slipped back a bit more and now that you've done a round after a while of not doing any, the symptoms are stronger and unpleasant?

Thing is, it seems you have already done alot of chelation and only having 4 amalgams? Well, I guess anything is possible Linda. But it does seem a strange and stubborn condition. Let's just hope that perhaps if you continue again with ALA, you may get some better days again.

I am still hoping that time and even more ALA chelation might bring a breakthrough. I do know that chelation can take months/years! Certainly there is likely more to this than mercury, but until/unless you find that out, I'm unsure what else you can do.

Could it be ALA is very innefective for some? It is a Sulfur right? Maybe you don't do well at ALL on any kind of sulfur like I do not do well.

Keep us updated Linda Lou.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. Sulfur doesn't seem to be a problem for me, I can eat lots of foods with sulphur in them. I do know that a few months ago, when I tried taking ALA on its own, I felt horrendous and had to reintroduce DMSA with it. And I seem to be getting redistribution symptoms this morning after having finished my round last night. So no, it doesn't seem logical that mercury could still be causing problems for me, but if I'm reacting to chelators then I think I need to continue with those. In answer to your question Bex, symptoms have been steady even when I had my amalgams replaced with composite, so I don't think the new material is a problem.

At least today the sugar cravings and anxiety have died down, and I'm not as fatigued. The experience of the past 3 days rather puts me off starting another round in a few days but hopefully the next one won't be so bad.

What bothers me is that neither of these substances, DMSA or ALA, is well understood, and there have been very few studies done with them. In fact, no one understands how any substance fully reacts with all systems in the body, our knowledge is not that advanced. I guess I have to hope that the reactions I'm getting are positive and they're taking me in the right direction.

The way I see it honestly is chelation can mess many up more and seriously is not for all! Some do better on it yes, but where is their candida or their organs when they start it? In Good health?

How is their diet and lifestyle? Chelation does well for some, but form what I have read on here not many do that well on it and improve, so where is it effective? What is the rate?

Some know I am against it in here, I would rather get Candida down and eat better (Which I have and felt alot better from Candida alone, felt byss when I knocked that down).

Does Candida make metals that much worse? Do alkaline minerals reduce alot of symptoms of mercury and rendor it useless sometime? I think so.

I will not be doing ALA nor any of that anytime soon, nor care too. I see so many with negative effects from it that it just makes me scared to death of it, from yeast flareups etc.

I love all in here, but they know where I stand on Chelation. I feel the natural way is the best, displace metals with minerals from FOOD not supplements which actually can carry metals in them etc. Some supps can carry metals, did you know that?

I believe someone said they got worse on DMSA and ALA from Lead in those supplements they were taking? Hospitilized for 8 months? What about powdered herbs? Organic? Think about that.

Yes, it can. Whether it's natural or unnatural, because moving mercury is always highly risky.

I haven't seen this occur with Cutler's protocol as much as I've seen with other methods. Quite the opposite. However, no method of moving mercury is completely without effects (whether natural or not).

As far as I'm aware Sean, Linda started doing ALA, because of the very problems she has mentioned, not because of or after using ALA!

I have seen Linda actually have some good effects from ALA and that has given her hope in the past. I have not come across any of her posts where she's mentioned deteriorating after ALA or further!

The testimonies are also encouraging. As have the few on here who have used it properly! Sunshine, Dgawson and I think JK etc. Sunshine is now near well as far as I know.

This is what is encouraging me to do some rounds of the stuff. I did a recent round and found i came up in the typical "mercury rash" (which I had in the past when detoxing the stuff). So that was a surprise! I haven't done any since, i've had a bad flu.



That's your decision and I respect that. But again, the many negative effects are not something i have seen with Cutler's protocol. You gave a link awhile back, but it was to do with wrong methods of using chelation and ALA more than anything. And somebody who was very keen on putting Cutler down and anybody who used or promoted his protocol. The person even went so far as to accuse those who promoted/recommended his protocol as deliberately out to harm others. Which is completely ridiculous and to me spoke more about the person making such accusations!

Just as natural methods can screw people up if used incorrectly. It's all about moving mercury and the safest method of moving it out - as you already know.



Yes, I am aware where you stand on chelation. And I can understand the concerns, because of the risks of moving mercury. However, leaving mercury where it is also not the answer and in fact will continue to remain and poison the body and brain unless it is removed properly.

I've seen enough people and heard enough improve and even get well from proper chelation. Yes, people get screwed up by wrong chelation. But let's not confuse the two.

Natural does not always = safe with mercury. Again, plenty are made worse by messing around with mobilising natural agents as well.

I have heard some supplements do carry heavy metals. But without supplements, I did not make nearly as much progress with my toxicity. So I guess it depends on the quality!



I haven't heard about this myself, but would be surprised if this was so and concerned of course. I haven't noticed that I ever got further poisoned by using chelation! Rather, it was helping to get the metals out. If people can get their mercury out by organic herbs? Great!

I'm just not so sure about brain/organ mercury! A great diet with proper nutrients is always recommended and aids healing, but as far as I'm aware, I don't know that this alone is going to detox a person from their organ mercury!

Me, I wanted to do "natural" chelation first, after amalgam removal (which did make me feel worse). I had a lot of garlic and coriander (cilantro). I also got a tincture called HMD. All of these things simply made me feel weird and spacy. It was only when I started DMSA and ALA that I began to improve. The improvement carried on for a month or two, until I was back to how I'd felt before amalgam removal. I'm not sure what benefit they've given me after that, but I know 2 facts: 1.) DMSA and ALA got rid of the mercury from my amalgam removal, and 2.) They've never made me feel permanently worse. If I've had a difficult round, I've been OK after it's ended.

I did feel a little better this morning; the strain that the chelators seem to have put on my adrenals is gone. But I'm still in an unusually bad way, as I have been. The fatigue came back and I ended up collapsing into bed for a few hours, though I wasn't really sleepy and I don't seem to have benefitted from it. All of my willpower was just about gone this morning, regarding my diet, and I was going to go out and get stuff. All of those things I wanted had lots of milk in them as well as sugar, so I figured it was worth persevering with this dairy-free thing a little longer yet. It's been 2 1/2 weeks, I'll give it 1 1/2 more just to be absolutely sure. Then if that doesn't work . . . chelators again I guess.

"What bothers me is that neither of these substances, DMSA or ALA, is well understood, and there have been very few studies done with them. In fact, no one understands how any substance fully reacts with all systems in the body, our knowledge is not that advanced. I guess I have to hope that the reactions I'm getting are positive and they're taking me in the right direction."


Thedy are both very well understood. ALA is a natural substance and is produced in small quantities in the body.

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/othernuts/la/


DMSA has been around for over 50 years.


ALA and DMSA seem to both lower blood sugar levels. Imo it is important to eat many small meals while chelating. One should also try to avoid taking DMSA and ALA with food. I usually eat a quick small meal half an hour after a dose, so that I will have at least two hours to digest the food before the next dosage.

dawson6
Saying that people should supplement hormones until they get well is like saying they should shoot themselves in the head until they get better . It is most likely the drugs , even the ones that supplement natural substances ,such as antidepressants and prednisone, that cause most illnesses and that prevent people from getting well . Michael Jackson's lupus was probably caused by prednisone given him for a back injury . Preliminary reports are that several ribs were fractured when they tried to perform CPR on him , probably because his bones were weakened by steroids . I have broken several bones , probably because of prednisone use and prednisone probably caused my depression leading to antidepressant use. Michael's vitiligo was probably caused by steroids.Prednisone also ruins your immune system and every other system and makes you more likely to get life threatening infections and less likely to survive them , even with antibiotics.It is interesting that people who don't trust mainstream dentistry fall for mainstream medicine.I know people who got steroid shots after injuries and got better at first , then got worse and got more and more shots and eventually their joints were destroyed so that now nothing can be done.
Almost no drugs cure anything . The most they do is suppress a symptom temporarily and cause a side effect that is worse than the original symptom . Most drugs are only tested a few weeks before being approved . If they tested cigarettes for a few weeks , they wouldnt find them to cause cancer or heart disease.
Ralph Nader's public citizen organization has a site called www.worstpills.org that has alot of information about the dangers of prescription drugs.
The Physicans Desk Reference is a good source for drug info . There are two versions of it, one for doctors and one for laypeople and the one for doctors is better. The Physicians Desk Reference is put out by the pharmaceutical companies so, if anything ,it is biased in favor of minimizing the risks of drugs.
There are several books written by doctors about the dangers of drugging your way to health.Some of the are
The Iatrogenic handbook by Robert Morgan
Before you Take That Pill by Douglas Bremner
Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Mendelson
Your Drug Might be Your problem by Peter Breggin
Death by Medicine by Gary Null
Selling Sickness by Ray Moynihan
The Truth about Drug Companies by Marcia Angell
Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry by John Braithwaite.
The Truth About Antidepressants by Timothy Scott
Two online sites with drug info are Shirley's wellness cafe and Ann Blake Tracy's drugawareness.com
If you look some of those books up on Amazon .com it will list books that people who read those books also read . Many are available in libraries.There are also many books on alternative health.

Dairy is not a good source of available calcium. I read that whole milk yogurt is better for you than lo or nonfat.

I suggest you find a wholistic MD Linda . I would not go to any doctor that prescribed psychiatric drugs, statins, chemotherapy for cancer , steroids for injuries or supposed adrenal insufficiency and a whole host of other pills which are ineffective aand unsafe and cause more problems than they suppress.

"I have broken several bones "

Are you sure it wasn't due to heavy soft drink consumption(which provides large amounts of phosphorus and no calcium to balance it), low calcium consumption, and low vitamin D? There is a link between heavy soft drink use and osteoporosis.

"Dairy is not a good source of available calcium."

Why not?

"Yogurt an excellent source of calcium and protein"

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_5_74/ai_81161395/

"I read that whole milk yogurt is better for you than low or nonfat."

Why? Where did you see that? Do they think it has more fat soluble vitamins? I take supplements of those, and avoid the large amount of saturated fat in whole milk yogurt.

Inert, it sounds like your life was strongly affected by certain prescriptions. Many people have had this problem. But regardless of what you think, not all pills make things worse...though most really are unnecessary and over prescribed. I would never recommend statins or antidepressants in any situation.

I don't take any Rx's, don't trust doctors, and haven't been to one in 8 years, but many people recovering from mercury poisoning do find great improvement by taking things like 'Armour Thyroid' and 'Cortisol (adrenal hormone)', and with this improvement they can focus on chelating, thereby removing the source of there illness. I never got to the point where I needed Armour Thyroid or Cortisol but many people here have, and unless you know what that feels like I wouldn't judge them so coldly. These things are like crutches if you break a leg. Try breaking a leg and getting around without crutches, you won't get very far, but if you use the crutches while the leg heals at one point you can leave the crutches behind.

I wonder what you are aiming to achieve here Inert? Have you come here to get help for yourself? To support others? Or to push an agenda? Pardon me for speaking plainly but your posts here are blunt and authoritarian. You may have some valuable experience to share and that is welcome, but please take other people's ideas on board too. We've had our own experiences, many of which you won't know about because you are new here, and we are working from knowledge and wisdom gained from those. It might be interesting for you to read the beginning posts of some people here to get an idea of what they've already done, what works for them and what hasn't.

For example, you said


I only took an antidepressant because at the time it was a last resort and I was in a bad way -- I'm not sure if you know what that's like but I hope you haven't been there. I didn't know then what I know now. I would not take statins and I would do everything possible to avoid chemotherapy if I had cancer, though it's difficult to speculate about because I haven't had that particular experience. I would not take high doses of steroids for injuries; I would not take steroids for anything other than straightforward hormone replacement. I had a 24 hour saliva cortisol test which showed that my cortisol was very low in the morning and in the evening, and I was taking many supplements to help with this that weren't working. There's a lot of naturopathic literature about adrenal insufficiency -- by calling it "supposed" am I to assume that you doubt that I had it, or that it's a bona fide condition?

I've worked with several naturopathic doctors and I haven't stopped reading books and web pages about natural health during the 5 years I have been ill. I have done dozens of things to try to find out why I am ill and I am continuing now to try different things. I'm beginning to think that the only person who can help me now is me, though I always welcome educated advice from those who know a bit about me.

I've decided to broaden my self-treatment to that of leaky gut syndrome. I'm on an anti-candida regime and have eaten a clean Paleolithic diet for a month now, both of which are steps on the way. (The diet has been the big one -- I've hardly ever been able to get past sugar cravings for very long without giving in but this time I'm going to do it.) I still take a good variety of supplements and it looks like I just need to add a few more to help with repair of the intestinal lining. This article got me thinking:

http://www.ei-resource.org/news/men...depression-linked-to-leaky-gut-syndrome/

I'd been investigating chronic inflammation because my symptoms seem to match it, and this in turn can cause other things like adrenal fatigue. Here may finally be a cause of it. I ate some homemade curry with a good dose of turmeric in it and felt a bit better for a while, and discovered that turmeric is a strong anti-inflammatory used in Ayurvedic medicine.

Wish me luck At the moment I'm starting to go heavy on antifungals and probiotics because if I've had die-off symptoms they haven't been obvious yet.

Linda, so what does this diet mean exactly? Have you tried eating 4-6 very small meals a day rather than eating 2 large meals? That often helps get rid of sugar cravings and helps stabilize the blood sugar. Another thing that helps stabilize blood sugar is cinnamon. Are you taking any supplements to help boost serotonin? Some people find licorice root, 5 HTP, or St. John's Wort to be helpful. There may be other herbs or supplements as well that help boost serotonin.

animal protein actually causes osteoporosis , whether dairy or other animal sources. Even though milk etc may have high amounts of calcium , the net effect of drinking milk is demineralisation of bones . Taking calcium will not replace this demineralisation . It is acceptable to have some animal protein , including dairy , but it does not promote bone health ;the opposite is true.

I stand by my comment that prednisone caused weakening of my bones JK. I never drink soft drinks ,and take calcium and vitamin D

You have the same chance of being alive in ten years after being diagnosed with lung, breast , pancreatic or other cancers whether or not you get chemotherapy.
Doctors told me that I had a chemical imbalance and that I needed antidepressants to balance my neurotransmitters. I now know that these drugs cause rather than cure chemical imbalances nd that they actually destroy the brain cells they hyperstimulate, resulting in a permanant reduction in receptors and deficiencies in neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
Prednisone makes people feel better initially but that does not mean it's good for you.Like smoking, the best thing that can happen to someone that takes prednisone is that their health is not ruined . It doesn't cure anything.It may reduce inflamation short term but it usually returns and is worse than before You should do some research and consider the possibility that your hormone replacement is the main cause of your health problems and not the cure. I know people who trace serious health problems such as arthritis ,life threatening infections,to use of lose dose cortisone cream for skin rashes.
The Physicians Desk Reference is put out by the pharmaceutical industry so it is slanted toward hyping the positive effects of drugs and minimising the risks,yet it lists hundreds of hazards of prednisone.Shirley's wellness cafe is also a good alternative health site and has alot of information on prednisone.
If I hear a doctor say he wants to give me some pills to balance my hormones I'm out of there.

My wholistic MD says that steroid use causes many cases of food intolerance.

I think you've made it clear where you're coming from mate. If you took a less confrontational attitude maybe people here would be keener to have discussions with you. I've been through similar experiences to you yet I feel like you're demanding an explanation and an apology from me, which will not be forthcoming. Try doing some research on adrenal exhaustion and see what is recommended for people to do when it is severe.

There is much misinformation out there regarding animal protein and animal fats and in fact, the opposite is true to what you've stated about it in your quote. Both animal protein and animal fats played a large role in the diets of some of the healthiest specimens/cultures displaying impressive dental/bone development that a Dr Weston Price has studied in depth.

Here is one such article regarding how important animal protein (and fats) actually are: http://www.biblelife.org/boneloss.htm

Here are a few comments I've quoted for you below, but I suggest reading the entire article and the link provided in there.

I don't buy the argument that milk causes osteoporosis. The studies that claim this don't insure that adequate vitamin D and magnesium are taken. With large calcium intake, large magnesium intake is needed. Those studes having people drink plenty of milk did not supply magnesium supplementation.

People think that eating dairy will prevent osteoporosis and , according to several PhDs an biochem and nutrition professors that I know , this is false.People assume that because milk has large amounts af calcium , it is good for your bone health.The countries that have high dairy consumption are not neccessarily low in osteoporosis.I am not a vegetarian or animal rights fanatic. I eat some low fat meat but I get alot of my protein from non animal sources.
Almonds have high levels of zinc but this zinc is not very bioavailable.Just because something is high in a particular element does not mean it is a good source of it.

The drug companies want people to take prednisone for adrenal exaustion because it causes pretty much every disease so they will have a lifetime patient. When I and many other people stopped taking antidepressants , we felt much worse ,but this did not mean that we needed the drug or that it was improving our emotional state. The fact that people (including myself) feel much worse when they stop taking prednisone means that the drug is causing , not curing, their health problems.
A woman I know told me she had back pain from a car accident that would not go away until recently when she had a steroid shot. Steroids damage joints rather than healing them and just because she feels better for now does not mean she wont be harmed in the long run.I think most illnesses are caused by medicine.

Western medicine just makes people sicker and sicker , suppressing symptoms without finding out the causes of the symptoms and substituting those symptoms with worse ones caused by their their medications.If someones hormones are out of balance . it is probably because of medications taken in the past or toxins such as mercury.
Holistic health practitioners such as Constantine Henry believe that cures move in a predictable order - downwards and outwards, from the most important organs or body systems to the lesser ones , from the mental to the emotional to the physical and from the most recent symptoms to the oldest ones.
Prescription drugs make people more toxic and make ones symptoms change in the wrong direction ; people get sicker and the symptoms affect more impotant organs instead of lesser ones such as skin.
If you watch programs such as Mystery Diagnosis , you will see many cases where a person had a minor inflammation such as eye iritation from contacs and was given steroid drops and then later had more serious illnesses and was given more steroids and the symptoms once again diminished until new worse symptoms appeared.
In wholistic health suppressing symptoms is considered harmful since they are part of the process of detox and healing.

Do you have obvious grey bags under your eyes ? If not , maybe adrenal exaustion is not the problem