News you won't see in controlled mainstream media.

Forgive me if this post gets a bit lengthy, but my health has been deteriorating for the last 11 years and I'm seeking answers from kind, open-minded people, and this forum looks to fit those requirements!

I'm just gonna give you all the facts and let those of you who care to help draw your own conclusions. I'll start by saying that mercury toxicity isn't the only causal agent I've researched...I'm a regular at various autism, autoimmune, allergy, and candida forums all over the net. I've read books and spent many a night reading these health-related things until the sun comes up in search of what's wrong with me. I've been to so many doctors for things like menstrual cramps, chronic fatigue, and other such things, only to be given psychiatric meds and fake tests (yes, I had one doctor examine me in a way that another dr. said could NOT possibly have been sufficient to make a judgment on my condition). I was committed to a mental institution when I was 16 for my extreme phobia of vomit that caused a near breakdown when numerous people got sick at once and then took psychiatric meds for the following 6 years. Prozac, Cymbalta, Luvox, Anafranil, Elavil, Risperdal, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Lexapro, Modafinil, you name it, I've taken it.

Anyway, here goes the flow of personal information about me: I'm a 23 year-old Caucasian female from Oklahoma. I am 5'1 and weigh about 115 lbs. My symptoms are as follows:

PHYSICAL
*Constant fatigue
*Swollen knees
*Food sensitivities (delayed reactions to egg whites, yeast, milk, wheat, gluten, coconut, and yogurt on ELISA test)
*Bloating
*Extreme menstrual cramps, fainting, numbness in hands/feet
*Joints that periodically make a "popping" sound upon movt.
*Allergies, worst with mold
*Constipation, w/diarrhea during period
*Need to "pop" neck frequently/headache in lower back of head
*Scoliosis in lower spine
*Cold hands and feet
*Near-sightedness (contact Rx is -7.50)
*Low blood calcium/magnesium levels
*Acidic body Ph
*Consistently high lymphocyte count
*Low-grade fever at doctor's office every time (99.--101 degrees)
*"Sluggish" liver, trouble converting T4 to T3 (or whatever)


MENTAL:
*Extreme fear of illness/vomit (runs in family)
*Intense fascinations or obsessions with people, things, etc. lasting up to 2 years
*Inability to maintain eye contact with others or remember faces of those I've met
*Anxiety about death, cancer, going out in public, etc.
*Stay up all night, sleep all day
*PMS and mood swings
*Feeling like nothing is worth doing, hopelessness
*Need to plan everything out on paper, make lists of daily activities and subsequent anger when plans change
*Vivid long-term memory, inability to be "in the moment"
*Need for alone time, music, and writing everyday/avoidance of social contact
*Feeling like sounds, smells, textures, tastes, and lights are too strong/loud/bright, etc.
*Limited diet (never tasted a hamburger or piece of fruit!)

I gave a history to the people on the autism/pdd boards, and they said across the board that I most likely have Aspergers/High functioning autism, though I've never been diagnosed. I was a hyper, shy child who never spoke in school but would come home and raise hell. I memorized books and was very advanced in vocabulary skills by the age of 2 and was a good student who had friends all through grade school. My baby book says I got a fever of 104 the evening of my MMR shot, and I had all the normal viruses growing up, nothing remarkable in the way of infections, illnesses, etc.

My real problems didn't start until I was 12. I'd always had a tendency to obsess over things and have repetitive thoughts; I'd always been a bit high strung and socially anxious; I'd always felt "different", but something changed when I was 12.

It was gradual, but life started to go downhill noticeably. I went through puberty and started my period. I started having pronounced obsessive thoughts (albeit enjoyable ones) about various people, TV shows, etc. I became extremely myopic and was told I had scoliosis. I started having multiple illnesses in my lungs and having a constant sore throat. I went from grade school to high school in a year's time (how my town was set up...no middle school) and lost my friends for various reasons and never recovered my self-esteem fully. My sleep cycles got completely screwed up. I lost all coloring in my skin and became pale and sickly looking. The list goes on.
Today, my main complaint is fatigue. It's so bad I can't even exercise. Because of this and the fact that I'm only 23 and feel the best years of my life are dwindling away, I feel depressed. My thoughts are slow and I feel lazy. My periods are hell, and so is my PMS. Unlike people with traditional depression, I KNOW what's causing it, and it's my fatigue.
Anyway, I've tried so hard to remember all the things that happened around the time I started feeling bad at age 12 and have drudged up a few memories that may or may not have any significance. No one should have to dwell on health so much, but every single dr. I've seen has treated me in a condescending manner and thrown drugs at me, all of which I put my faith in and all of which failed. Here's what I can remember about the time in my life that this started and the possible causes of my poor health:
*got my first flu shot and continued getting them for 3 years in a row
*had multiple amalgams fall out in food and gum, probably even swallowed some
*Got sick multiple times with respiratory illnesses
*Stress started at school and worsened at home
*Went through puberty
*Head trauma (dropped in cheerleading, hit with bat in softball)
*Hurt my neck and pinched a nerve
*Got Hep A and B shots (in about the 10th-11th grade)
*Took birth control pills and antibiotics on and off
*Drank tap water despite high nitrate warning
*Exposed to mold in basement and house

Because I don't know what's wrong with me and am not excluding psychosomatic illnesses, I cannot leave out the many stresses I endured on a mental level. When I get nervous, I get instant diarrhea, nausea, and adrenaline rushes. My heart pounds and my breathing speeds up. I sometimes sit over the toilet with dry heaves after an attack of anxiety...it's pretty severe, especially when my phobia is provoked (someone around me is sick).

Anyway, I guess what I'm after here is, I just want to know what you guys think the possibilities are. What could be wrong? What can I do to help myself feel better physically so I can improve mentally? Please, if you feel I'm just overly sensitive or am being a hypochondriac, tell me so. It won't hurt my feelings, because that's all I've been told in the past. I don't think it's normal for a 23 year old who's graduated college, fallen in love, and obtained the perfect job to feel so tired and miserable all the time, but maybe it is. Maybe everyone feels this way and I'm just overly alert about it. I honestly don't know anymore.

Thanks so much for listening. I usually don't ramble on so, but feel the need to get it all out so maybe someone can help. Thanks again!

Tracii, it looks like you've done a lot of research. I wish that I had known what you know when I was 23. I've experienced many of the same problems that you have and I suspect that I'm on the low end of the autism spectrum even though I've been diagnosed with ADD, depression, OCD, and other things.

The first thing that I think you should try is a gluten free/casein free (no wheat or dairy) diet. That's what I'm doing now and it has helped some. For more information on how food intolerances can cause health problems see www.dogtorj.net .

Some other good sources of health information are www.corepsychblog.com and www.mercola.com .

Hi and Welcome to the forum Tracii.

That is one mighty long list of troubles you have there. and it deserves a mighty long reply.

I remember typing up my own long list of troubles some time ago and trying to get help from somewhere, anywhere, trying to find some answers.

Well just to make you feel at home I have the following (taken from your list) problems myself:-

PHYSICAL
*Constant fatigue
*Food sensitivities
*Bloating– I had this but I sorted it out! I used to have heartburn 24/7
*Tingly in hands/arms/legs
*Joints that periodically make a "popping" sound upon movt.
*Allergies,
*Constipation – ok, not anymore, but I used to
*Scoliosis in lower spine – don’t know what that is but my spine is funked too
*Cold hands and feet
*Low blood calcium/magnesium levels
*Acidic body Ph – I had this but I sorted it out!
*"Sluggish" liver, trouble converting T4 to T3 (or whatever)

MENTAL:
*Need for alone time, music, and writing everyday/avoidance of social contact
*Limited diet
-my mermory is in fact not too bad, just my short term memory is not doing what it should, like forgetting simple words like …..shoe…..
-I am nowhere near my usual old self, menatally or physically.

and I have plenty of other problems and some “blokes” symptoms too. I just found out my adrenals and thyroids don’t do what they should. don’t think my list was ever as long as yours, but whats a couple of symptoms between friends eh?

All of your troubles are shared by others on this forum.

I’m sure you realise that your situation has been going on for a long time now, so you likely DO have lots of different of things wrong with you…..but……but….but…. it’s the root cause that you can’t find out, right? Why? Why is everything so funked up? Why is yr liver sluggish? Why can’t you heal after trying so many bloody pills, diets, exercises and anything else you can think of? Why why why?

I too aksed myself why? Why me? Why don’t I heal. So I too started searching. Like you, I read a lot of books and they all seemed to point at me.

Long long long story short, I figured out I might be mercury toxic. I read up about it, you can self diagnose mercury toxicity (in the book below) and I ticked all the boxes. My history also ticked all the boxes. I did a hair test and that also ticked all the boxes on that too. Upon removing each amalam I got real sick, that’s a box ticked too.
Upon starting metal detox I got a load of side effects that basically confirms I am mercury toxic.

You had a load of mmr jabs, flu jabs and countless other things that potentially have mercury in it. Do u have amalgams too?

I bet you $5 bucks right now that you are mercury toxic. Your terrible list of troubles looks like it to me.

Mercury is a massive root cause to so many problems, once you start researching, reading and then understanding mercury some more, you will see what a terrible curse this dreadful metal has done to us.

“ took psychiatric meds for the following 6 years. Prozac, Cymbalta, Luvox, Anafranil, Elavil, Risperdal, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Lexapro, Modafinil, you name it, I've taken it.” – nasty list that is. I never had that many, but I had a lot, I have given up all but one OTC drug, and all prescription drugs up too.
I do take multiple supplements but very very limited patented drugs, I don’t think I should pay for the privileged of the side effects, thanks very much.
I am considerably better for this change over.

” but every single dr. I've seen has treated me in a condescending manner and thrown drugs at me, all of which I put my faith in and all of which failed.”
-that really pissed me off too. All that trust! All those drugs! All wrong! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! This makes me mad, I get real angry when I think of all the ….anyway….yeah…..chill……..moving on

“Anyway, I guess what I'm after here is, I just want to know what you guys think the possibilities are. What could be wrong?” - as I said, I bet u $5 you have a mercury problem. All those nasty little bit of mercury clogging me up, maybe you too.

“What can I do to help myself feel better physically so I can improve mentally?
Read this book “Amalgam illness” by Andy Cutler. You can preview it here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZG...&sig=EADlKYoDRdIG_N0R9oIa9oK5ckc

Even if u don’t have mercury poisoning the amount of information in it is wonderful and you cannot fail to learn from that book.

You can buy on this forum.

Also check out
http://www.noamalgam.com/


“Please, if you feel I'm just overly sensitive or am being a hypochondriac, tell me so.” You are not overly sensitive. You are not hypochondriac. You are sick. Once you figure out the root cause, you can take measures to fix it and start healing.

“Maybe everyone feels this way and I'm just overly alert about it. I honestly don't know anymore.” – it is not normal.

“I usually don't ramble on so, but feel the need to get it all out so maybe someone can help.” – no no, I love rambling on.

Couple of things…….don’t rush out and start heavy metal detoxing. Do NOT take lots of different herbs, pills and whatnot that you might hear around and especially not from any bloody doctors. (that incluses healers, NP or whoever) . Mercury is a tricky business and it needs to be tackled correctly. The only person that can do that is you. You cannot rely on anyone but yourself and the sooner that is understood the quicker you can start moving forwards. There is lots and lots of help available, but I have only found that in a few places, and only on-line. Here on herb allure is excellent to reconfirm that we are not going mad, it is great for support, curezone a little bit, but that’s a mad house and for mercury there are too many different stories going on, so I would avoid for mercury problems. There is a yahoo group too for technical support which is very good.

And…..the good news is that mercury illness is curable. It does however take a long time. I would call myself moderate toxic and I know I have minimum 1 year, probably 2 years of chelation(metal detox) ahead of me.

So, Tracii, welcome. Read, read and learn some more. Take care and ask lots of questions.

Hi Tracii, you like so many others have really been through total hell. I have had 20 years of it. You do not get an effect without a cause and unless you are ingesting some kind of toxin almost 24/7 to bring this on, you ought to consider mercury being involved here, at least to some degree, if not the entire cause.

Andrew Cutler who is a chemist and studied this for many years of his life, feels that mercury is responsible for so many things that it's a tragedy that people will waste years hunting down some "disease" that they have, when mercury should always be eliminated as a possible cause, because it is the most toxic metal known to metal, second only to plutonium in toxicity, is located in the worst possible place (the oral environment). Right below the nose and brain. Is constantly in your mouth 24/7, being further encouraged to vaporise by saliva, chewing and hot fluids. Has a way of chronically and slowly poisoning someone over years and yet so often never being considered.

My experience with mercury sounds so familiar to your symptoms that it's eerie reading this and others like it. I did all the running around after chronic fatigue syndrome, mental illnesses, candida, the whole shebang and kept going in circles and coming up with....well little to nothing.

Admittedly diet played a BIG role in controlling some symptoms and giving me a bit more strength, but it did not eradicate the underlying condition and for me it was a nightmare of confusion and suffering to find out what was doing this to me? I was eating healthy foods, yet displaying signs of toxicity from...where?

I had the swollen legs (particularly knees, just like you mentioned), puffy eyes, pale face, obssessive thoughts and ritualistic behaviours, becoming very easily infatuated, paranoid, fearful thoughts, becoming afraid to talk, uncontrollable blushing, blurred vision, hating the light and shutting curtains constantly, photosensivity, obession about my skin or appearance, insomnia, insane vivid dreaming, uncontrollable crying and salivating, nausea, tremor, bad circulation, blue nails, shivering spells, grey tattooing type discolouration in the private area (where it should be pink and interesting faded when I chelated mercury later on), metal taste in the mouth, swollen tongue, dents in the tongue from teeth (scalloped edges), sticky tacky nasal mucous with bloody crusts, thrush, bowel upsets (constipation/diarreah), brittle unhealthy hair that lost the strength of colour, hormonal imbalance, lack of concentration and mental abilities, sensation of sheer stupidity, excessive daydreaming/fantasy world, passive or aggressive behaviours, mood swings,extreme rage, low self esteem, blemished pimply skin, or excessive oil or then excessive dryness, social fear and withdrawal, adrenaline rushes, heart palpitations and the list goes on.

I am sure you can relate <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> And autism is now being considered in conjuction with mercury toxicity from vaccines. Many parents online are chelating their children and finding success with this. So there is an autistic compenent involved in mercury. Perhaps not all cases, but does it hurt to remove amalgams and chelate? Does it hurt to remove a neurotoxin from your mouth?

You are very young and for me wasting so much of my life swingiing from one diagnosis to another and finally winding up with the mercury one and finding out this was it, was kind of tragic when I consider how much sooner I could have found that out and it takes time to detox from it too.

I was recovering from all those things I mentioned, after amalgam removal and detox, but it was not easy. I am on here now, because I am chronically ill from a volatile bacteria/virus that I got in 2003. So I have post viral fatigue now, which is a little sad considering I had been recovering from years of mercury poisoning and doing well.

I hope that you will consider this toxin, because it would be tragic to ignore this, as it is responsible for so much and is so often overlooked. I know it is easy to blame mercury on evertyhing, but it is also easy to miss the obvious! It is just one more toxin that the body does NOT need.

I have been from one doctor to another and one psychologist to another, anxiety courses, medication, being told I needed mental help, having this having that, being told I was neurotic, the whole list goes on and nobody ever suspected I was being poisoned with a metal (and neither did I). I also had high candida which was hurting me alongside the mercury. Treating both can allow for dramatic improvements in this illness. It is worth doing. I find that treating candida, is a great help whilst one treats the mercury.

These links I feel are vital in anybody's quest for health.
http://www.westonaprice.org/splash_2.htm
http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/index.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/index.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/chronicdisease.html

don't be too overwhelmed by all the links, they all "link" to one main home page, but thought Id list them there for you, as I feel they are very important. You could save the home page to your computer so you can refer to any of these when you wish. This is what I've done.

I have not yet come across any better findings than the one of Dr Weston Price and what he has discovered after years of studying the worst and healthiest specimens around the world and what their diets and lifestyles were like. It is an eye opener for sure and I have applied his advice and I find it helps me more than any other!

Fits in with Hal Huggins, how important protein from meats, eggs are and healthy fats are in healing, as well as the obvious vegetables, nuts/seeds, and other foods. I know of a few biologic dentists who now apply this kind of dietry advice to their mercury toxic patients and how important it is for healing.

Wow, what amazing replies you guys are giving me! Thank you so much! It takes a lot of effort to type that much and I appreciate that you would do that for someone else.

As far as things I'm currently trying, I take garlic sometimes and am currently taking it in pills along with Black Walnut Hulls and clove tea in an attempt to cleanse the colon and rid myself of excess candida and possible parasites. I am on the gf/cf diet and am making strides to avoid all foods that my test showed me to be sensitive to. I don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, and try to do yoga whenever I have the energy. I've been off of psychiatric meds since last December as well and don't find that it's hurt my mental state at all. There are no amalgams in my mouth and I haven't had any since about 1997-98.

Of the many things I've tried, I found that zeolites from Waiora had the biggest impact of all. One day, after having NEVER eaten a single vegetable in my life due to texture sensitivities, pickiness, etc., I got a craving for salad. I began eating a variety of vegetables without feeling even slightly grossed out. For most, that's nothing, but for someone who literally GAGGED out any vegetable they'd ever tried to eat, it's huge. I didn't even make the connection that the zeolites had anything to do with it until my friend mentioned it. I also noticed that I can maintain eye contact for longer periods of time as well as being able to talk more in conversations with others. I'm still picky, still shy, but there have been noticeable improvements for me there. What this means, I don't know. I'm about to start another round of zeos pretty soon.

As for my physical health, I rarely if ever get viruses, colds, etc. that go around periodically but have horrible allergies. To me, that implies possible over-activity of my immune system or autoimmunity of some sort. If there's a speck of mold in the entire house, I am utterly exhausted and sleep for up to 24 hours straight. While living in a house that had visible mold on the walls, I did things like punching and spitting on my roommate in fits of rage during arguments I would start for no reason. I had big bruises all over my legs that I don't know what were from, and was spitting up black stuff every time I coughed. After moving out, I was a different person, which lead to my revelation that I'm extraordinarily sensitive to mold.

Well, anyway, thank you guys again for your kind replies. I'll definitely check out that book by Mr. Cutler that you suggested. Thanks!

Hi tracii and welcome, i think you found the answer here like many of us, when i go back in time, i had so many vaccines, ,more than other people i know, i went abroad alot to north africa, also i decided to get a tetanus shot just because i thought it would save me from tetanus if i stepped on a rusty nail, if only id known about it then, also amalgam of course.
i had my thyroid removed, i was very ill, it was very enlarged, it was after all the vaccines i had when i went abroad. also because i had severe acne i drank alot of water to try and flush out my system, (tap water) the dreaded fluoride kills the thyroid.
i nearly died as a baby following the smallpox vaccine, my mum said docs wouldnt give me any more shots, in photos i look like a hamster with full pouches with excema, i was like that for yrs and got bullied, i was also very shy and had no friends. i didnt learn much at school, but made up for it studying at home.
im glad you found us, we are all in this nightmare together, i have found so many kind people here who have saved my sanity.
Dawn.

Hi Tracii
Welcome to the forum. I believe you are in the right place too. Sunshine and Bex has said it all and I have so many of those same symptoms it really sucks but all is not lost. It does sound like mercury, all your symptoms lead right to it. It's hard and a bit overwhelming at first but take it one day at a time one step at a time and research and study. This forum has been the biggest help to me, every one on here is going through the same thing. Just searching for the answers that the docs can't answer. Hang in there and good luck.
Rachel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cycleaccident.gif" alt="" />

Hi Tracy and welcome,

I just wanted to add my two cents' worth. There's a lot of really good advice here.

I belong to a group where people go to get off and stay off psychiatric meds. It's run my a ND who has been helping people in this way for 20 years. Her top 2 healing methods are diet and supplements. I'm not sure what you mean by the gf/cf diet but I did pick up what you said about not having eaten hamburger or fruit. Do you eat meat? Do you have lots and lots of vegetables? Are you able to eat fruit at all? Do you also have healthy fats like fish oil, butter, coconut oil, olive oil? These are all the basis of a very healing diet.

Given the problems you have had for a number of years, and the meds you were on, it would also be important for you to be taking supplements. General advice would be a high-quality multivitamin -- make sure it contains lots of the B vitamins -- several grams of vitamin C a day, 800mg magnesium citrate in divided doses, and fish oil. You would probably benefit from others too but that's where my own expertise ends I'm afraid.

It's possible that you might not be able to take the full dosage of these things straight away, in which case you'd need to start with very small amounts and work your way up. Often if someone has a big reaction to a particular vitamin, it is the very thing their body is desperately needing.

I hope this helps. Others here can help you look at the mercury side of things; but again, diet and supplements are the things that will strengthen you and prepare you for any amalgam removal and chelation you might decide to do.

Best wishes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Linda.

Tracii,

Get on amazon and order Dr. Wilson's book-Adrenal Fatigue. He describes most if not all that you have experienced.

Then have the cortisol saliva test done so that you can see just how much help your adrenals need. The blood test are worthless.

Your mind cannot function properly without the proper nutrients so it is being effected too, but this doesn't mean that you are psychosimatic (sorry, my brain is effected and I just can't spell <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />).

last yaer about this time I had my saliva cortisol test done and it came back as very low ,but two months later my doc at the time had me do a 24 hour urine cortisol and a blood cortisol at the same time they both came back as very high almost cushing syndrome territory , which explains why when my doc put me on hydocortisone I felt very bad and had to stop taking it , I still don't understand why the test came back so different , then I repeated the tests again and they came back with the previous results ?

Hi Mikey. Did you take anti-depressants? They may screw up your cortisol.

yep 5 different types over a 2 year period , so you think that they screwed up my adrenals, all I know is that when I finally detoxed off of them , that is when I started feeling the mercury symtoms , my doc at the time put me on paxil for anxiety ,I had never experienced depression untill coming off anti-depressants

The mercury/candida problem gives a burden to your adrenals so you are too low on cortisol. The anti-depressants seem to attempt to fix this by increasing the cortisol. I hope you didn't take the cortisol along with some anti-depressant, or when you started going off the anti-depressants, that wouldn't have been a good idea.

no took them at different times and was only on hydocortisone for a few weeks before stopping because my cortisol levels were sky high , that was my first indication that my adrenals were involved , my doc at the time also mentioned the hypothalamus and pituatary which make alot of sense

I know I'm late on this thread, but from what I read and not sure if anothers mentioned this (cause I did not read all the replies)
But I would say get checked for lyme disease.
So many of these illnesses like lyme, MS and conditions like mercury have many of the same symptoms.
But since I have almost the exact same symptoms and since I have Lyme, I would say, get checked for lyme.
The neurological symptoms you have are a dead give away.
Just a thought..........

Traci,

If you are taking meds/supplements then you might try a test with a chelator/mobilizer. If you can get your condition as steady as possible for a week or so then just add one thing. For me it was Chlorella that showed me I could be normal again. It tipped me off that my CFS (with most of the symptoms you have) is probably mercury poisoning. All the other things go along with it.