An Update of My Condition

March 30, 2003

I was mercury poisoned in August 2001. I had mercury safely removed from my teeth during November and December of 2001. I started detoxing or chelating (key'-la-ting) mercury from my body with DMSA in March 2002. So that means I have been using DMSA for a year now. Please read my protocol for taking DMSA before you continue.

Last month I started having severe pain in my brain, especially near the brain stem. I also felt like my eyes were inflamed or that the mercury was back in my eyes again. So I went off DMSA for a short period of time. I started taking the herbs boswellian, curcumin (tumeric), and devil's claw that was recommended by my doctor in a product by AMNI called Infla-Guard. These herbs are anti-inflammatory herbs and my doctor said they were good for inflammation, and without the side effects of some other prescription drugs. I notice that Dr. Andrew Weil also recommends a product that contains tumeric and ginger for inflammation. Dr. Weil states that anti-inflammatory herbs are good for the brain. Dr. Andrew Weil says that if one would control the inflammation in the brain that some diseases such as Alzheimer's would be less likely. I also started cutting back on foods that cause inflammation in the body, such as milk products, eggs, and beef.

During this time I ordered a natural mercury detoxing product called NDF that contains cilantro, chlorella and probiotics. I took the recommended dose of 6 drops and the first time I took this product, my brain felt better. However, for the second and third dose, I felt like my brain was stopping up and not releasing the mercury. So I stopped taking NDF for now.

I went back to 200 mg of DMSA, and am now only taking it 3 times a day. I believe the reason I was having pain in my brain was because I was probably pulling out too much mercury with the DMSA and it was more than my body was able to get rid of.

I returned to my doctor's office last week and he recommended that I take a Meyer's Cocktail. A Meyer's Cocktail is an intravenous infusion of magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, Vitamin B complex and maybe other nutrients. Different doctors use different nutrients. When a person takes oral supplements, they are not as effective as the vitamins pumped directly into one's bloodstream. The Meyer's Cocktail pushes the vitamins into the cells. It took ten minutes to administer this cocktail and it made my body burn and feel warn while it was going in. I have felt much better since then. It has helped clear out my brain of toxins and my energy level has improved tremendously.

My doctor recommended that I also start going to the sauna to sweat the mercury out of my body, so I have joined the health club in Vinton. My doctor told me to make sure that I wiped off the sweat with a towel so that the mercury would not go back into my body. I work out for 30 minutes on the treadmill first to get my circulation going; then I go to the sauna for 50 to 60 minutes. I take several breaks while in the sauna and briefly drink some well water I take with me in a Mason jar. I don't want to drink flouride and chemicals in the Vinton municipal water. (If you ever see a woman in a restaurant in Roanoke with a Mason jar full of water on the table, wearing a teeshirt that says, "Did you know your silver fillings were 50% mercury?" and the back of the teeshirt saying, "Say No to Silver Amalgam Fillings," then you will know that you have met me in person! Please say hello.) One restaurant owner in Wytheville accused me of bringing moonshine into his restaurant! I am trying to stay away from plastic water bottles also because we are contaminated from plastics because of all the food sources that are packaged in plastics.

My doctor said that if I went to the sauna more than two times a week I should use Tri-Salts to replenish my body of the salts that the sweat is pulling out of my body. The sauna is making my body feel better.

However, according to the website for Genung Dentistry at www.toothwisdom.net, one should "never enter a sauna with mercury fillings in your teeth since the elevated temperature of the sauna radically increases the rate at which mercury escapes from the fillings and you get poisoned faster. Anything you do to heat the fillings causes more mercury to come out. This includes consuming hot liquids and foods as well as any activity that increases the temperature of the fillings such as gritting or grinding your teeth, having fillings polished, chewing gum or even brushing your teeth can add frictional heat to them and thus release mercury more rapidly. Smoking also has the same affect."

One of the best remedies for mercury poisoning is prayer. Betty Lester, my partner in ministry, has been faithful to pray for me during all my trying times. Psalm 103:2-5 says:

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits,
Who pardons all your iniquities;
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit (grave);
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Please don't become mercury poisoned from going to your dentist. It takes a lot of WORK and TIME and PRAYER and MONEY to get well.



May 31, 2003

Since my last report I have been experiencing other symptoms. It feels to me now that the DMSA is "pulling" mercury out of my brain stem area. A couple nights ago I woke up and I felt a "knot" in my brain stem, right in the base of the skull between the two bony areas at the base of the skull. It felt like I could actually feel where the spinal column went into my brain. That is where the knot was. The knot burned, stung and ached. Then my whole left arm went numb and it had severe pain like my arm was tingling from "being asleep." I could feel the pain in the brain stem area and I could feel the corresponding reactions in the left arm. I quickly took some DMSA and in a few minutes the pain and numbness stopped.

I notice strange sensations more in my body when I am lying still in my bed at night. Sometimes my feet start burning and then the burning feeling starts going up my legs. But it is always when I am feeling pressure or pain in my brain. Anti-oxidants and chelators like Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA), high doses of CoEnzyme Q-10, and Vitamin C, also help the symptoms. Anything that is an antioxidant helps cut down on toxicity in the brain.

I used to never feel anything in the brain stem area, except when I was first poisoned. On the 9th day after exposure to mercury vapor in my dentist's office is when the mercury hit the brain stem area, causing the electrical surges from the brain stem throughout my body. Neurologists call this L'hermitte's Sign. Up until now I have just felt the "pulling" from the DMSA in areas of my brain that were in my head area. Now I can also feel a "pulling" sensation in the lower part of my neck near the spinal column area. So I suppose the mercury is being "pulled" out of this area now also. The bones at the base of my skull ache sometimes. When I take DMSA to remove mercury, I know it is working because I can feel definitely feel it "pulling."

So I will just keep on taking DMSA to pull the mercury out of my brain. And the mercury poisoning dentists in VA will just go on poisoning patients and we will never recoop our money for the medications or for the suffering. Dentists in VA have a license to poison patients and the patients can do nothing about it. After all IT IS THE NORMAL STANDARDS OF CARE OF DENTISTRY IN VA FOR MOST DENTISTS TO EXPOSE PATIENTS TO MERCURY VAPOR! If the dentist does not violate the normal standards of care, then the patient cannot sue. And the VA state dental board says mercury is no problem and they don't have a safe protocol in place to properly protect patients. So dentists just practice what they learned in dental school, which is not much, not when it comes to safe removal techniques.

But I do thank God for the mercury free dentist who are refusing to place mercury in people's mouths. Some of them may be using a safe removal protocol in VA but only the ones who have their name on the DAMS list or the IAOMT (www.iaomt.org)list are the ones I know about. Mercury free dentists do not use mercury, but some of them let the mercury fly while removing it! Those who want to be known as using safe techniques for removal usually sign up with DAMS or other holistic dental referral groups.

And I thank God twice for the biological dentists who have been scorned and intimidated by the pro amalgam dental organizations. Some of the biological dentists have been poisoned themselves, and they have put their profession on the line to offer the safest care to patients.

So if you go to one of these mercury poisoning dentists after what you read on this website, well enjoy being poisoned!!

Does your dentist use a safe mercury removal protocol? Click here. This is the website of Dr. David Kennedy, DDS and his Preventative Dental Health Association website. His main page is http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/PDHA.




July 16, 2003

I have cut back more on the DMSA since I was having detox side effects such as feeling more toxic, tired, and increased tingling and burning in my feet and legs. (I attribute these symptoms to taking too much DMSA.) I am now taking only 200 mg of DMSA a day and sometimes 400 mg. When I feel I need to take more I take alpha lipoic acid instead. I started out with 50 mg of ALA and now am taking it in doses of 100 mg. Andy Cutler suggests that you take it every 3 hours and then go off it for rest periods of several days after taking it for several days. But what do I do for pain when I go off DMSA and ALA completely? I don't have an answer to that question. So I take as little as possible that I can get by on without pain.

Andy Cutler has a book you can buy online called Amalgam Illness. Many people follow his protocol for mercury detoxification. I follow a little of Andy's advice, a little of my doctor's advice and a little of my own advice, and just adjust to what my body can stand as I go along. This is very scientific isn't it? Don't get poisoned and you won't have to be choosing between all these wonderful detox options. Stay away from mercury poisoning dentists.

My new yellow poster board in the back window of my car now reads:

"WARNING: YOUR DENTIST MAY BE
HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH!

WWW.MERCURYPOISONED.COM

Isn't that a wonderful conversation starter?




August 2, 2003

I am finally figuring out this detox. Now I feel mercury being "pulled" out of my muscles in my neck. When I wake up in the morning and it is time to take my DMSA, I can feel the muscles aching in my neck. When I take the DMSA I can feel it "pulling" the muscles in the neck. So it seems to me the mercury is being pulled out of my body as it is working its way down my body. I also feel it "pulling" at the base of the brain at those two bones at the bottom of my head. Those bones ache when it is time to take DMSA and they ache when I take DMSA and it is "pulling" the mercury out of that bony area.




August 20, 2003

I felt the knot again the the base of my brain last night while I was trying to sleep. This knot appears between the two bony areas at the base of the skullbones. There is a hollow spot between these bones and that is where I feel the knot appear. When I feel this knot in that location is when my left arm goes numb. It went numb again last night. When my arm goes numb, the arm also feels like it is asleeep and very tingly. It hurts!

When I take the DMSA I can feel it pulling and burning in the knot area. Also recently I have started experiencing my right ear burning. My neck will burn, and the burning sensation will spread out to the right ear. I also now feel the pulling sensation when I take DMSA in my spinal column further on down my back. So the DMSA is pulling the mercury out of my spinal fluid in my spinal column!




October 29, 2003

Several days ago I felt like the mercury had returned to my right eye. It was not floaters like I had experienced at the beginning, but there was pain in the eye like there was something in it. I started taking rutin, a herb for the eyes.

I have also changed my protocol for DMSA again. I am trying to find out what causes the least amount of side effects and symptoms. I take an empty glass orange juice bottle that I bought at a convenience store that comes in the individual serving 10 oz size. I dump the contents of a 200 mg of DMSA into the bottle, mix it with a small amount of water and shake. Then I fill the bottle half way with *grapefruit juice* (see caution below) and then fill to the top with water. Then I sip on the DMSA cocktail throughout the day. I also take 50 mg of alpha lipoic acid (ALA) several times a day. (Andy Cutler recommends ALA every 3 hours.) This seems to help bring the best benefits without side effects. However, I don't rest between rounds of DMSA as many, including Andy Cutler suggest. It just hurts my brain when I go off the DMSA!

**CAUTION (March 2006) I would not now recommend using grapefruit juice to mix DMSA. A reader of my website contacted me saying that he was reading in an encyclopedia that grapefruit juice reduces the liver's ability to detoxify itself by around 40%. All toxins depend on the liver for detoxification, so one doesn't need to impair the body's ability to excrete mercury. Also Dr. Patricia Kane in her book, Detoxx Book, does not recommend grapefruit juice while detoxing the body. Grapefruit juice also interacts with many other drugs.

My brother found this out the hard way. For years he mixed his vodka with grapefruit juice. Thank God, he now has found the Lord and become a tee-totaler, but he has liver problems. The alcohol has to detox through the liver, and the grapefruit juice reduced its ability to detoxify. So the effects of the overuse of alchohol did greater harm to his liver because of his cutting the vodka with the grapefruit juice.


December 15, 2003

I am feeling better overall. I have not had the "knot" in my brainstem area for some time now. However, this morning I awoke at 4 AM feeling like I had a chunk of glass in my left eyeball. My eye started tearing and it was very painful to keep it open. I took some Alpha lipoic acid, a very powerful antioxidant, and apple pectin and rutin, which is listed in Prescription for Nutritional Healing as supplements that can remove mercury from the eyes. Today, is the 16th and I feel some heavy sensations in both eyes today, but it is not as painful as yesterday.

My memory seems to be better, and the burning sensations in my feet and legs have lessened. For a while I thought I was getting much better, but then there comes along a reoccurrence of old symptoms. What a shame that the dental profession is so incompetent and causes such pain to an uninformed and trusting public. For infomation from compentent dentists, please check out the website of The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology at www.iaomt.org.


November 12, 2004

It has been almost a year since I posted an update to my condition. I just returned from a nineteen day trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA. My husband did lots of fishing, but I am afraid to eat the fish. I did eat some oysters, a few fish, and felt great on the trip as I did lots of walking and stayed away from the computer for awhile. I think long exposures to the electrical currents from the computer does make me feel less well.

My diet is not very great lately, as I have backslid and am eating some sugar, and pork. I have been eating country ham, and some say that pork is very bad for the mercury poisoned since pork has some mercury in the meat. I haven't really researched this, but just thought I would pass it along so you can research it.


Marie standing at the base of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in Buxton, NC


I am not tired now, and I can think pretty clearly except for remembering names. I am not as fast thinking as I used to be, and mercury has definitely damaged my thinking, but I am almost back to normal. I am not allergic to food and my allergies to chemicals have lessened, though I still try to avoid them, so my body doesn't have to work so hard to detox chemicals. I can stand perfume now but I still move away from people at church if they have a specific strong odor. Some perfume seems to be worse than others. I do try to not get in a closed environment with perfume and try to avoid cigarette smoke. I turn my nose away while pumping gas. I was concerned that the propane smell would bother me while cooking in my RV on vacation, but I always opened a window and it didn't make me sick.



Outgassing from new carpet makes my brain really painful. My daughter Beth and son-in-law Stephen from Virginia Beach just installed new carpet in their home. In September I planned to spend the night with them on my way home from picketing the Virginia Dental Association in Norfolk. After three hours I could no longer stay in their house because my neck glands were swelling up and my brain had pressure and pain and I felt like I was being poisoned all over again.They had not aired out the house since they were still using their air conditioner.

In mid November I went into a Penny's department store in Roanoke and the same thing occurred. When I went into the shoe department where they had installed new carpet, I had a painful headache within five minutes, and my glands started swelling. I contacted the management there and tried to explain to them about sick building syndrome and how these toxins from carpet outgassing was harmful to their employees. When I did research on outgassing I found that carpet could outgas for a year or more unless the carpet is cleaned or treated with special agents to get rid of the toxins. If the problem is coming from the glue, then I suppose the carpet would have to be removed.

My eyes seem to be okay, but my muscles in my back that were damaged by a whiplash injury in the 90's are still somewhat tender at times. Mercury seems to settle in areas of the body that are the already compromised.

I can go for days without significant brain pain (if I stay away from toxins), but I still need the DMSA and the alpha lipoic acid as well as my regular supplements. I still feel sensations in my brain every day, but they are not as bad as when I was first poisoned. I find that when I am busy on vacation or working or keeping busy with my mind off of mercury, I seem to have less pain. I have always felt more weird symptoms in my body when I would lie down and be still.

I need to get back to my regular sauna detoxification now that I am home. I am very blessed that I now have my own sauna in my basement. I need to find a way to walk now that the weather in Virginia has turned cold.

www.dams.cc
toxicteeth.org For the latest political information concerning mercury
amalgam.org

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Disclaimer:
This information is provided for educational purposes only, and does not replace a personal consultation with the health care professional of your choice.

© by Marie Flowers March 2003