My blind trust in doctors had been severely violated long ago. Now that I knew about the mercury, I had to act. I found myself trusting a new set of doctors in a conditional way. Mercury testing, vitamins, chelation treatments, going slowly, and noticeable progress matured my faith in healers. Here is how my health was restored.

Today it is July 1996. There are no longer any mercury amalgam dental fillings in my mouth. I have been through 6 DMPS chelation treatments. Chelation treatment is a method of extracting mercury from human chemistry.

The procedure followed by the treating MD and clinic was to first analyze my blood chemistry, my kidney function, and to test my hair for mercury content. While we waited for lab results, it was recommended that I start taking 100 mcg daily of chromium picolinate (an inexpensive over the counter vitamin) to stabilize my metabolism.

The MD said prolonged yeast infection robs your body of this critical trace element. After a week of taking this vitamin I noticed my daily energy lows were not as extreme as usual. This new energy renewed my hopes for a cure, and increased my confidence in this latest "thing to try".

Up until then I had learned to be skeptical that any treatment would provide a real and lasting cure. My body chemistry proved to be systematically depleted for many vitamins and minerals. My hair showed more than 3 parts per million mercury, this exceeded the maximum amount of mercury the lab standard said a normal healthy person should have. My kidney function was determined to be excellent.

Next I was given a DMPS IV for a mercury "challenge". For 24 hours after the IV I saved my urine. The collected urine was sent to the same lab for testing. After a couple of days I was given a vitamin and mineral IV tailored to my deficiency profile.

The lab results from the DMPS "challenge" showed more than 6 times the maximum amount of mercury in urine a normal healthy person should have. About once a month, then every few months, I would have a DMPS chelation treatment. The early treatments were timed with amalgam filling removal.

DMPS chelation when not a "challenge" is a couple of shots in the hips followed by 1-3 days of diminished energy. At the end of the waiting period, you really want that vitamin and mineral IV that ends the treatment cycle. DMPS is not totally specific to mercury, it pulls many other minerals as well. It can really wipe you out, especially when you are already depleted from long term chronic fatigue.

About 3 days after the vitamin and mineral IV, and some extra refreshing sleep, I always bounced back to feeling noticeably better than before the treatment. It took about a year from the removal of all my fillings, with well spaced DMPS chelation treatments, to reach a state I consider sustained normal health. The measurable mercury in my system is now close to normal acceptable limits. In 1995 my body mercury levels measured by hair test and DMPS challenge were demonstrated at 3 and 6 times the acceptable limits. Who knows what the levels were 1983-1992 ?

My vitamin chemistry is in balance, the chronic yeast is gone. The yeast disappeared after the most recent chelation treatment. I no longer have to treat for yeast. Before my recovery, I had to drink a dose of nystatin daily. I can eat sweets. Ice cream doesn't ruin me for 3 days anymore. There is no food to which I am sensitive. My weight is back up to 185 pounds. I feel great !

Sleep is my friend, returning me to the land of the refreshed every morning. My mind is sharp, and my emotions are stable. I finally feel whole. I lost 11 of my best years to illness. I am thankful that the next years have a chance to be that normal happy life Carmen and I have always desired.

We have 2 daughters now, the second one came in 1995. Together, Carmen and I seem to have enough energy to make it all work.

Reflecting on My Experience and It's Ramifications

Ironically, the doctor in 1986 was right, it was all in my head, just not the way he was thinking. While my long time dentist and his colleague were willing to replace my exposed mercury amalgam fillings with porcelain, gold and composites, they remain skeptical. They and the ADA (American Dental Association) are in strong denial that the mercury in amalgam fillings has any ill affects on peoples health.

Everyone agrees that acute mercury poisoning exists, and is a serious health problem when it occurs. Somehow, the dental industry wants us all to believe that no one can get any poisoning from life long exposure to mercury amalgam dental fillings.

Mercury illness from "silver" dental fillings has recently been shown to be an immune mediated condition. With a subset of the population, perhaps as many as 1 in 5 developing mercury specific memory lymphocytes. The MELISA® test for metal allergy is a breakthrough both in diagnosing and demonstrating mercury as the root cause of this condition. CFS Nutrition has a page on the MELISA® test for metal allergy, and a description of a proposed metal immune pathology for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related autoimmune conditions.

I know for certain that in one case a number of large mercury amalgam dental fillings were drilled out and repacked with fresh amalgam in a 3 month time period. The person subsequently became chronically ill with CFS symptoms, developing a condition that seemed permanent, spanning more than a decade.

No known cause of illness was found after thorough examination by board certified MD's. The person demonstrated all the defining CFS symptoms for at least 11 years. The person demonstrated elevated levels of mercury through hair analysis and DMPS mercury "challenge".

In this one case, a recovery occurred one year after the amalgam fillings were removed. Accumulated mercury was removed from the body tissues by 6 separate DMPS chelation treatments. Treatment followed a specific protocol that included vitamin therapy. Treatments were spaced an average of 6 weeks apart.

It has been scientifically demonstrated multiple times with repeatable scientific experiments that mercury amalgam fillings continuously release mercury into the body as vapor, soluble ions, and abraded particles,

This mercury is shown to be absorbed into the body tissues and serum. Mercury is a known toxin. There is compelling data to believe amalgam mercury is transformed into methyl mercury by Candida albicans, a yeast, in the gut.

Further, there is no scientifically established safe limits for any mercury exposure according to the Centers for Disease Control, only estimates based on animal experiments. Case studies of proven mercury poisoning show wide variances in health responses among people with equal exposure.

While one will come close to death, another will hardly show symptoms. It stands to reason then that in a population of 100+ million mercury amalgam bearers, some portion (0.5%-10%) will have health that is ultra sensitive to the toxin.

As of yet, no one has demonstrated with repeatable scientific experiments that CFS is not caused by mercury, or mercury amalgam fillings, or that chronic mercury causes no specific health problems what so ever.

Chronic exposure to mercury has been shown by the CDC to cause very serious health problems in rodents! There is compelling evidence that mercury amalgam dental fillings release enough mercury to cause chronic illness.

My current doctors believe that the health of some people is simply more sensitive to the toxin mercury. It's been shown that oral cavity electro-galvanism and particular bacterial flora accelerate the release of mercury and facilitate the conversion of inorganic mercury (mercurial salts) to the much more poisonous organic forms (methyl mercury).

There are a significant number of people who have CFS according to Harvard researchers and the Centers for Disease Control. At least 500,000 people who meet the strictest definition of the condition, most also having histories with mercury amalgam fillings.

I hypothesize that for many of these CFS people there is a direct cause and effect relationship between their mercury amalgam and their illness. Others bear amalgams and may possess another root cause for their CFS.

I propose that the chronic mercury exposure from the amalgam is also aggravating and contributing to their illness due to their compromised immune and toxin excretion capabilities. Mercury detoxification and continuous immune reactions consume the body's stores of glutathione. Loss of glutathione is believed to be at the root of brain lesions and other resulting nerve problems. Adequate glutathione levels are essential to protect nerve tissue from damage caused by oxidation processes.

In my case, there is now a clear before and after story. I have wished for myself to be well for a long time, and have done many things over 8 years of treating Candida to become cured, and 11 years of illness without success.

To call my current good health a "placebo effect" is both frustrating and insulting. The "placebo effect" certainly didn't serve me during the 8 years when one by one I eagerly awaited good results from a long list of treatments for chronic yeast. If the "placebo effect" would have produced a long term restoration of health, I would have taken it. All I wanted was to be well. I didn't care what was to blame. I just wanted it gone and my full life back.

My frustration with disinformation on low level mercury poisoning stems from compassion for my fellow humans who are susceptible and ill from chronic mercury exposure from their dental fillings, and are only lacking knowledge and certainty to become well. This concern has led me to become an advocate on this issue.

The honest criticism of my experience is that it is but a single data point. A single data point is not statistically significant, and alone cannot prove cause in the general sense. One fact about general cause currently supported statistically and scientifically is "As many 99.5% of people with mercury amalgam fillings do not currently have full CFS". But the proof of cause is not going to be far away thanks to the MELISA® test.

This fact is no comfort to the 500,000 and more mercury amalgam patients that have full CFS or partial CFS, with no diagnosed cause of illness.

The ADA states "more than 100 million people in the US have amalgam fillings". Sam Ziff estimates more than 140 million in the U.S. have amalgam fillings. The CFS population estimates for people meeting the strictest definition I've found on the internet, produced by the CDC and Harvard Medical School, are between 250,000 and 500,000 people.

Further, the World Health Organization estimated in 1996 that 98% of the US population at that time between 35 and 44 had dental restorations. Every dentist that I have talked with believes virtually all of these peoples restorations include one or more mercury amalgam fillings.

By directing my efforts at removing the mercury amalgam fillings in my teeth, and by going through DMPS chelation to remove the accumulation of mercury in my body, I finally have a real solution for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.