I've been meaning to update you on my progress with my new nutritionist, and also some of the new things I've learned about detox. I've been with my nutritionist 18 months now (the same one you may have read about on my "update on my progress with nutritionist" page) and am seeing phenomenal results. What's so ironic is that this approach is the exact opposite of the normal "doctor" approach. Most doctors and even alternative practitioners look at detox as something they DO to you. My nutritionist looks at it as something that the body does for itself when you give the body the pieces and tools it needs. Who am I to say which is better?
I will say this though, in retrospect it is clear that I continued to go downhill with the detox my doctor was doing to me, despite the fact that all the detox procedures were so balanced and textbook perfect. I think this happened for a number of reasons (and this is not meant to be a thorough or exhaustive list). 1) I was not digesting well, so I could not UTILIZE the supplements my doc gave me to make the detox safe and replenish the minerals being stripped from me. He had absolutely NO knowledge of nutrition, despite the fact that he sold supplements, and did not seem to fathom that you could be swallowing a supplement and not actually be able to utilize it, thus having continued deficiency symptoms! It was the book "Self-Test Nutrition Guide" by Igram that finally convinced me that my doctor was cracked and his knowledge lacking. I was spending tons of money on supplements every month and yet had continued, moderate to severe deficiency symptoms in almost every category! That was the end of the line for me.
2) Another issue that factored into my continued demise was that the things pulled out by the chelators ended up simply dumping on my liver. So not only was I getting depleted, but my liver was getting dumped on! No wonder my chemical sensitivities got so severe! (your liver has to detox the chemicals you come in contact with)
3) My bowels weren't working. It took large amounts of bulking/stimulant supplements to convince my bowels to go, and even then only with difficulty. It took months and months and months with my nutritionist to get my bowels to where they would start to output what goes in. Your bowels are organs, so when your pituitary and control glands (thyroid, etc.) are functioning slowly, all the resulting organs slow down too... Taking the thyroid meds stimulates those organs, but because they are sluggish and depleted, they can't handle it and get all the more depleted! But that's another story. Suffice it to say I've been thyroid med-free for 16 months now and am loving it... But I digress. Because my bowels and elimination were not healthy and strong, I could not effectively eliminate the toxins that were being pulled out.
So what can I conclude about this? Would I do it again? Was the protocol good? Did it give me any benefit? I don't know. I do know this. In the long-run the detox protocol ended up making me even more sick because I was sick to start off with. I couldn't utilize the supplements (which he was too unknowledgable and I too dumb to realize) and I got dumped on. We did the best we could. Would it do it to you? I don't know. I've met lots of sick people, and they're all different with different mixes of problems. I will say this. My nutritionist put me on some particular foods (which I won't name because I don't want you to try them) to pull out some stuff from my liver like heavy metals, and let's just say within a few hours I was just as sick as I got with the DMPS IV's! Pretty powerful stuff that food! Needless to say we discontinued it and reapproached it a year later when I was stronger and better able to handle it. So I'm pretty disgusted that I spend thousands of dollars doing what my nutritionist could do with $4 worth of a particular food... LOL.
Well, I'm out of time and maybe I can come back and update more later. As far as "recommending" aggressive chelation with drugs like DMPS, etc. for heavy metals, that's a hard thing. There are so many ways to do things. I would say that you want to be very careful to watch out for warning signs and make sure that you are staying well and not experiencing symptoms of nutrient depletion or getting dumped on. Better to take it slow. I think the thing I have learned most in the past year and a half is that sometimes the thing we THINK is causing our symptoms is sometimes the least influential in the problem.
Best wishes in your quest for health. I'll try to come back later and update some more! Elizabeth
