When I was mercury toxic, my doctor prescribed 100 mg caps of a commonly recommended chelator to take four times daily. He told me this was considered a low dose. A chelator is used to ‘draw out’ heavy metals that get stored inside the body’s cells (intracellularly) including the brain cells.
Less than an hour after swallowing my first cap, I abruptly began to hyperventilate. My entire body was soon shaking profusely and I had excruciating head pain and pressure. Two minutes later, my speech was impaired. Severe fear and panic emerged. Due to sudden dizziness, I fell to the floor on my hands and knees. Drooling, I went into a seizure-convulsive type of attack.
My Heavy Metal Chelation Treatments Were Like Walking into A Torture Chamber
This began my long and horrific living nightmare of trying to remove the mercury from my body [My Story]. I consulted with dozens of other doctors and made numerous attempts to chelate with lower doses of a commonly recommended oral chelator as well as a commonly recommended intravenous chelator (Google does not allow me to name these drugs). With every chelation treatment I felt as though I was walking into a torture chamber, literally not knowing if I would live through the after-effects and certainly not wanting to.
Severe intensified symptoms went on for weeks or months – literally – following each chelation treatment. I had hundreds of vitamin C and glutathione IV’s with no improvement. Only the mercury toxic who chelate too much too quickly or before properly preparing their body could ever understand this kind of debilitating physical and mental pain and suffering. I was constantly feeling suicidal and when I look back at this, I simply don’t know how I stayed with it. Emergency room visits were of NO HELP and all of my doctors told me these chelators were the only way to rid my body of the mercury.
The one doctor who ended up helping me so much and ultimately, saved my life had a patient waiting list of 1½-2 years. On my very first visit, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt MD, Phd¹ told me, “you cannot tolerate these forms of sulfur compounds, Connie. You are way too mercury toxic to handle these chelators, MSM, NAC or chlorella. Your methylation is too impaired and you have too many bad bugs [pathogens]”. And he stated it so simply, as if 1+1 equals two. Of course! After four years of inconceivable torture from chelation, the most baffling mystery of my life was solved.
I never again took these chelators [or MSM, NAC or chlorella]. Mild mercury toxic cases can sometimes tolerate these chelators for a period of time. Moderate to severely toxic cases often times CANNOT. They need to first prepare their body for the safe and effective removal of metals, which includes:
- Repairing their leaky gut condition
- Improving assimilation and methylation
- Reducing mast cell histamine release, cellular inflammation and a hypersensitive immune response
- Restoring nutritional deficiencies
- Repairing cellular damage from the metals, pathogens and nutritional deficiencies
- Resolving the overgrowth of pathogens
Suicide by Heavy Metal Chelation
Sadly, my story is far from rare. Nearly every single day I hear from other people who also had severe adverse reactions to these commonly recommended two chelators. I have also heard of some who committed suicide days after a chelation treatment. Of course, the true cause of their death was never revealed. Paraphrasing, Dr. Klinghardt once told me he believed that at least 90% of patients in mental institutions are likely there as a result of being mercury toxic.
The majority of my clients are moderate to severely toxic cases and they are able to fully detoxify and recover as I did – without the further use of these chelators to remove the metals. However, some others began their heavy metal detox program as mildly toxic cases. After repeated chelation treatments with these two chelators, they suddenly developed severe symptoms, advancing to a dangerously acute and fragile state with gut pain, severely weak digestion, anxiety, nerve pain/neuropathy, severe depression with crying spells, hypervigilance, busyness of the mind, fearfulness and panic attacks just to name a few of the common side effects.
The reason for this is because the chelators are highly toxic drugs and put a huge hardship on the liver and kidneys. They also bind to food nutrients, ‘stealing’ them from the body’s cells. The chelation had caused severe nutritional depletion, dehydration and excessive cellular damage, mainly to nerve cells, organs and glands, including the intestinal tract and brain. So, these clients came to me as mildly heavy metal toxic, yet they had caused moderate to severe symptoms from the damaging effects of these harsh synthetic chelators.
Heavy Metal Detoxifiers
Natural detoxifiers can effectively extract metals as chelators do, but are not toxic and do not bind to food nutrients, robbing you of the vital nutrients the mercury toxic so desperately need. There is no need to take a poisonous substance to remove another poisonous substance!
DovePress Medical Journal, who independently reports scientific and medical research states that, “effective treatment of chronic illness resulting from the long-term buildup of heavy metals in the body, such as chelation therapy (using these two chelators), presents numerous clinical challenges, including undesirable side effects and unpredictable efficacy” ².
The American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology recommend against chelation therapy, stating that chelation therapy can artificially elevate the level of heavy metals in the urine, and that these two chelating drugs may have significant side effects, including dehydration, hypocalcemia, kidney injury, liver enzyme elevations, hypotension, allergic reactions and mineral deficiencies. They also state that when administered inappropriately, chelation therapy brings the risk of cancer, neurodevelopmental disorder, and death³.
Best-selling author and detoxification expert, Dr. Mark Sircus states that studies have shown that up to 30% of patients have severe negative side effects as a result of these synthetic chelating agents, which may develop after a single dose⁴.
And, Nissen Medica Environmental Health Company discloses from their medical research that, “a fast mobilization [of heavy metals] by chelators can cause considerable side effects”⁵.
The intravenous chelator is not an approved drug by the FDA and the oral chelator is approved only for the removal of lead, not any other metals⁶.
If you’re still influenced by some practitioners who swear that you can’t remove the metals without chelators, so you still want to go the chelation route, please know there is a much safer way to do it! On occasion, I do have a client who wants to incorporate chelators in their detox protocol. If you first properly prepare the body and talk to your doctor about taking lower doses, as well as taking more days off in between chelation rounds to restore cells, it may be a much safer process.
Your leaky gut protocol and nutritional and nutraceutical program is also of the utmost importance. It is imperative to give the body ample amounts of what it needs to protect, repair and restore cells until fully detoxified and recovered.
Heavy Metal Detox Specialist, Connie Fox, HHP, CHC, AADP www.FreedomFromMetals.com
¹ Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt M.D. Ph.D., world-renowned as the #1 top doctor for the treatment of mercury toxicity and its related health conditions. He is the one doctor out of 97 doctors throughout the U.S. and Europe I consulted with that knew what to do to stop the mercury madness torture and save my life.
⁴ Dr. Sircus, Mark. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy. Chandelor: Phaelos, 2007. Print.
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The content in this article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, cure, diagnose or prevent any disease, illness or physical or mental health condition. Discuss health or nutrition related matters with your physician.