MERCURY POISONING

Hello, in the past six months I have had severe muscle fasciculations all over my entire body.  I have had 2 clean EMGs, MRI, CT, and have seen a total of 3 neurologist and none of them can figure out what is wrong.  Recently the fasiculations have decreased but I do still get them.  I also have noticed significant hair loss, and now have numbness and tingling in BOTH hands.  I am an avid sushi eater and usually eat fish about 5-6 times per week (Tuna steak, sea bass, and salmon).  I have recently stopped eating fish due to the possibility of mercury poisoning. I have had a blood test to test my thyroid and mercury blood levels and all came back normal.  I have heard that a blood test for mercury is not very accurate because it binds heavily in the body and is hard to detect.  Could my symptoms be due to mercury?  How to test for mercury without taking a chelating agent like, DMPS or DMSA?  What is the best way to remove mercury from the body naturally without redistributing it throughout the body?  Thank you for your time

[caregiver222]

Yup. The tests for mercury are crummy. And I think your fish-eating days should be over.

Your concerns are well-justified. And your symptoms are typical of the victims of mercury toxicity according to the literature.

There is a protocol called "chelation" (with several options) you are apparently aware of that allegedly removes mercury.

There is another school of though that says the damage may be irreversible and it may be impossible to remove mercury that has deposited itself throughout the tissues.

I don't know the answer.

I would suggest you direct your question to the specialists who dealt with the wide-scale mercury poisoning problems several years ago in Japan.

[troubadour]

If you think it's mercury, you can do a hair mineral analysis (www.tracelements.com), it will show you the level of your TISSUE mercury, also in relationship to the other minerals.

From that point you have several options, chelation is not the only way to remove mercury, there are safer approaches (cilantro for mobilization, chlorella for binding the mercury in the gut and excreting it, etc.). I have used near infrared sauna myself when I was convinced that I had mercury poisoning, and it did work quite successfully (after a few months the mercury in the hair was gone, although most of my symptoms were still there, there probably was something else going on). You can build a cheap infrared sauna yourself (for less than about $200), see some additional info here: http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/sauna_therapy.htm.
(There's also a book by Dr. Wilson, "Sauna Therapy"). Be careful with saunas, though, you have to drink plenty of fluids, and supplement the minerals lost through perspiration.

Good luck!

[troubadour]

Sorry, the correct site for the hair analysis is:

http://www.traceelements.com/

You cannot go directly to them for analysis, but you can call them up and ask for a doctor/chiropractor in your area who has an active account with them, then go to that doctor and request the analysis (it costs about $70-$100, depending on the doctor).

Have fun!