Using other protocols with higher doses (pulling more than the body can excrete)[/ALIGN]
and / or infrequent doses (not based half life) is likely to result in pulling mercury from various areas of the body and releasing it into the brain. A very scary thought.
What chelators are used?
The chelators used in Dr Cutler's protocol are ALA, DMSA and sometimes DMPS.
ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid - an antioxidant)[ul][li]Removes mercury & arsenic from the brain
[/li][li]Does not remove lead
[/li][li]Available over the counter
[/li][li]Must be given every
3 hours (may stretch to
4 hours overnight)
[/li][li]Not to be usedby anyone with mercury exposure in the past 3 months
[/li][/ul]
(including people who have received a flu shot, people who have beenexposed to a broken CFL bulb or have amalgam fillings.)
DMSA (Meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid)[ul][li]Removes Lead and mercury from organs other than the brain
[/li][li]Does not cross the blood brain barrier.
[/li][li]Available over the counter
[/li][li]Must be given every
4 hours (can give every 3 hrs with ALA for ease)
[/li][li]Known to cause more yeast issues than ALA alone
[/li][li]Used with ALA, speeds the excretion of metals
[/li][/ul]
DMPS (2,3-Dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid)[ul][li]Removes mercury & arsenic, not as good for Lead and not from the brain
[/li][li]Does not cross the blood brain barrier
[/li][li]Available only with a prescription
[/li][li]Must be given every
8 hours (or give with every other ALA dose)
[/li][li]Used with ALA, speeds the excretion of metals
[/li][/ul]
What is a "Round?"
The chelator(s) you select are administered for 72 hours around the clock;
according
to their half life. The 72 hour period is called a "round." Following a round, you take
at least an equal amount of time off and then repeat.
For example, people typically follow a 3 day on / 4 day off schedule, starting on Friday and continuing through Monday morning. The balance of the week there is no chelation. If your child is in school, you should determine the specific hours which will maximize the time you can chelate.
Rounds can be longer than 3 days, but you should take an equal amount of time off round as you spent on... so a 5 day round requires a 5 day break. Longer rounds tend to be harder on the adrenals, so watch for signs of
adrenal fatigue.
It's been estimated that a child with ASD needs between 100 and 300 rounds to recover.
GETTING STARTED...Deciding what chelator to begin with:
Often people do several rounds with DMSA initially, to lower the total body burden, and then add ALA. At least one round this way is recommended.
In our case, we did 2 rounds with DMPS and then added ALA, using them both together for 32 rounds. Then we switched to DMSA to remove more lead. Most of our rounds lately have been ALA only.
Determining the dose:
Begin with 1/8 mg/lb or less. For future, gradual increases, consult the RFA group files. Do not change the dose in the middle of a round. Max dosage is 1/2 mg/lb.
With Caroline, we began with 1/12th mg/lb which was 3mg. Even after 42 rounds, she is still only at 5mg.
Purchasing the Chelator:
ALA can be bought at any health food store. Do not use R-ALA, only ALA. The main issue is finding capsules small enough to divide into the dose you need. At a traditional store 100-200 mg capsules will be the smallest you'll find.
Kirkman Labs sells 25 and 50 mg capsules.
The 25 mg also comes flavored if you prefer. Caroline does not mind the unflavored.
Pure encapsulations sells 100 mg which is ideal if you are dividing it at home. See our
HOW TO MAKE CAPSULES blog
DMSA is best purchased from Vitamin Research Products
It's available in 25mg or 100mg
DMPS is available only with a prescription which you can get from a physician.
Dividing the Chelator:
If your dose doesn't match the capsule size you have, you'll have to divide them into proper dosages. But don't despair, it's not as daunting as it may seem!
I've read several methods for how people divide them, but I think the way I do it is the easiest (obviously). You're free to be creative.
I use two pill boxes and put the chelator into compartments. See photos at right
Caroline's dose is 5 mg, and I use a 50 mg capsule (because I want to give her as little filler as possible at night time).
To Administer the dose, I use a miniature oral syringe, see #3 at right for details.
Insuring you don't miss a dose:
The regular timer on your phone is good for a backup alarm, but it's annoying to have to keep setting it. I like the App
Simply Pill Alert because you can set it for an interval (such as every 3 hours) and when it beeps, you
"simply" click "I will take my pill now." it resets to alert you in another 3 hours. You can also set any interval, so if you need to do 2 hr 45 min all day to move up the bedtime doses, you can.
Making a schedule plan out your schedule is important for two reasons:1. You want to time the nighttime dose so you won't need to wake up more than once.2. If you stretch the nighttime dose of ALA to 4 hours, your following day's times will need to be adjusted to get the night doses back on track.
For example, here is our typical schedule with ALA every 3 hours (3hr 45min at night)
Day 1
8:30 am / 11:30 am / 2:30 pm / 5:30 pm /. 8:30 pm / 11:30 pm // 3:15 am
Day 2
7:00 am / 9:45 am / 12:30 pm / 3:15 pm / 6:00 pm / 8:45 pm / 11:30 pm // 3:15am
Day 3
7:00 am / 9:45 am / 12:30 pm / 3:15 pm / 6:00 pm / 8:45 pm / 11:30 pm // ....
Notice on days 2 & 3, the daytime doses are shortened to 2h 45 min to ensure that the nighttime doses don't get too late, causing multiple night awakenings.
Required Supplements:
Dr. Cutler strongly suggests you take certain supplements when chelating. They are:
Some additional recommended supplements are Vitamin A & D, B vitamins (especially mb-12 and methyl folate), Molybdenum & Milk Thistle.
Antifungals:
Because eliminating metals can flare yeast, many children also need an antifungal. There are many natural antifungals to choose from and
this page can help you select the right one for your child.
A fear of yeast should not stop you from chelating because metals suppress the immune system, causing fungal overgrowth in the first place. Yeast also binds to metals. Therefore, chelation is the one thing that can permanently end the battle with yeast. Parents often report that near round 50, yeast becomes significantly easier to control.
How do I get started?
If you're serious about starting AC chelation, I recommend joining the
Recovering Kids Facebook Group. There you can find help for many nuances and details specific to certain situations not covered here.
An example is the use of Adrenal
Cortex Extract (ACE). Children with low adrenal function will need to supplement it. I wrote about it here. The group has a file devoted to it.
.You can also buy Andy's book Amalgam Illness at
www.noamalgam.com
Heavy Metal Testing:
I'm inclined to say it's not critical. It's also not a requirement for the protocol. If you have a child with autism and a poor detox system (which goes hand-in-hand) and that child has been exposed to mercury, what are the chances he or she could benefit from chelation? Very likely -- and oftentimes one round will show results.
There are only two tests that will help you determine if you should chelate.1.
Urinary Porphyrin Test - Checks for abnormal levels of porphyrins in theurine, where different porphyrin levels correlate with body burden ofmercury, lead, or other toxic metals. Performed by a
French Lab. We did this test.
2.
Hair test - The recovering kids group can help you order and analyze. The problem is that the analysis is tricky and involves "counting rules," making it slightly more of an art than a science. There are many children who benefit from chelation who technically didn't meet the counting rules. We have a hair test and I never truly figured out if Caroline did or didn't meet them because it just did not matter since we were seeing good results from our rounds.
Note: Never a good idea to do a challenge test (administering large doses of chelator and testing urine for metals being excreted). It's dangerous and proves nothing. Who wouldn't excrete large amounts of metals after given high doses of
chelator? Doctors who do that test have gotten a bad name for a good reason.