Chapter 17

Supplementation

The human body heals itself and nutrition provides the resources to accomplish the task.

Dr Roger Williams

We now know that detoxification is an entirely nutrient dependent process and given the nutrient deficient state of our foods and the extent of the toxic assault on our systems, supplementation is an essential part of any detoxification programme. The information presented in this chapter is not intended to replace the advice of a suitably qualified practitioner, but to act as a framework for those who cannot find or cannot afford such help. The recommendations are necessarily a ‘one size fits all’ programme which ideally require modifying to your unique and dynamic requirements as your needs change throughout treatment.

The Time Scale for Recovery

Typically, by the time you are suffering from FRS and have initiated treatment you will be trying to reverse decades of chronic mercury and toxin exposure. So be patient, it took you a long time to become so sick and you need to understand that it is going to take you quite a long time to get better. Unlike pharmaceuticals, most supplements exert a gentle supportive influence over a period of months and their beneficial effects may not be obvious to you for some time. Indeed, your health may improve so gradually that you may quickly forget how ill you were. For this reason, it is worth jotting down a dated list of symptoms and rating them for severity and then monitoring your progress in this way every few months. As your body becomes stronger and your organs of detoxification receive the support they need, your healing will gather pace. However, there is an upper limit to what the body can detoxify at any given time and there is definitely a limit to what you may be prepared to tolerate as you detoxify.

Attempts to accelerate treatment are often met with a reminder of just how noxious the toxins you are attempting to detoxify are and how much you need to be mindful of the processes involved.

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.

Dutch proverb

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what needs to occur, please refer to figure 23 which shows a very simplified version of just a few of the various body compartments that the body needs to detoxify. The body is constantly prioritizing which compartment to detoxify given the nutrients available at any particular moment, and be assured that whilst its priorities may not be the same as yours, it is working in your highest interests at all times and addressing the most life-threatening issues first. Toxins will be mobilized from the extracellular space first and then progressively from the intracellular cytosol and organelles and this creates a toxin gradient that encourages the deeper tissues to detoxify as shown in figure 24. A rough guide to the likely duration of treatment might be that for every year of determined detoxification you may be able to clear approximately a decade of accumulated toxins. The toxins will be stripped away in ‘layers’, so if you have any symptoms of very long standing (that possibly started in childhood), these will necessarily take longer to resolve than any symptoms that appeared later in life. So the treatment programme is for the long haul. As mentioned previously, once the detoxification starts in earnest, you may experience some (possibly very) unpleasant symptoms and chapter 19 explores this subject in detail.

About Supplements

There is an old saying that ‘You get what you pay for and pay for what you get’ and this is as true of supplements as of anything else. The quality of supplements that you buy is crucial and high quality will not be cheap. The cheaper products may contain nutrients that are not in their active form, that are less pure or even contaminated or contain so little active ingredient as to be worthless. These products may not be effective and this obviously represents a waste of money and effort, but perhaps more importantly steals more of your life and may crush your hopes of a recovery. Specific products are named where necessary, but an independent retailer will be able to advise you and you can order either online or over the telephone from most reputable companies.

If you have not taken supplements before, the amounts involved may seem excessive. However, remember that you are trying to eliminate one of the most potent toxins known to man from 100 trillion cells. It is also worth mentioning that the recommended daily allowances (RDA) of various nutrients vary enormously from one country to another and have been set at levels below which deficiency symptoms appear and bear no relation to optimal health. The amount of nutrients required will also vary greatly according to such factors as age, weight, gender and activity and so any recommendations are necessarily an average and most seriously ill people may require many multiples of the recommended amount of some nutrients. Any excess of water-soluble vitamins will be excreted in the urine, but you do need to be careful not to exceed the RDA of the fat-soluble vitamin A in particular.

If you are new to supplementation or if your health is extremely compromised and you know that you are likely to react poorly, start gently with very low doses, introducing one supplement at a time. If your digestion is seriously compromised you may also not be digesting or absorbing much of what you do take and using the digestive enzymes suggested or taking liquid or tincture forms may help with this. Also, because everyone is different, not all supplements agree with all people, so you may need to modify any recommendations to your unique biochemistry. There is almost no point starting the natural recovery plan if you are only likely to take one or two pots of each supplement or be erratic about supplementing. Ultimately, what counts is being consistent over time and for this reason it is worth buying ‘pill minder’ boxes and having a routine where you fill them every weekend. Some of these have removable strips which makes taking your supplements with you when you go out or to work easier and therefore more likely to occur. It is also worth establishing a convenient way of buying supplements by ordering online or over the telephone.

When it comes to determining which supplements are required and in what quantities, learning to dowse or muscle test will prove invaluable. Please refer to the Appendix for more details.

The Suggested Supplement Protocol

The suggested overall approach to supplementation is shown in figure 25 and involves primarily detoxifying via the bile and intestines. This is considered to be safer than attempting to detoxify via the urine. This is because the delicate structures in the kidneys cannot be replaced, whereas the intestinal lining is regenerated every few days. This method, however, does mean that the bowel flora is damaged and that diarrhoea or at least soft bowel movements may occur at times during the detoxification. The use of probiotics throughout the detoxification has not been specified because there is some concern that they contribute to the methylation of inorganic mercury. If you experience loose bowel movements, you may want to either test probiotics as suggested in the Appendix or experiment for yourself and see whether you feel better or worse for including them in the protocol and then act appropriately.

The approach to detoxification suggested here will work in the majority of cases irrespective of which particular toxic metals or microbes you may have been affected by. As the body is assisted to detoxify and excrete the toxic metals, various viruses and bacteria that have been stored in the cells but never fully eliminated will become active and an antimicrobial supplement (Samento tincture) is recommended to resolve this. There are usually several latent viruses or bacteria in total and these will surface one at a time throughout the detoxification and require eliminating as they appear. As toxicity is addressed, many of the other secondary issues, such as candidal or parasitic infections, will be resolved by the body with little or no further intervention as the general milieu and the immune system improve. In order to enjoy complete restoration of health, every last little bit of toxic metal and every microbe requires removal. Using this technique allows you to overcome rather than manage your FRS. The first half of the body burden of toxic metals are often detoxified and excreted relatively rapidly with the remaining half being released more slowly and possibly requiring the input of a professional experienced in these matters. Some issues are often resolved relatively early on in treatment including the overgrowth of Candida, however neurological symptoms, poor memory and introversion, for instance, may take longer to rectify.

The suggested protocol is shown in figure 26 and involves various phases lasting from a month to many months. To avoid confusion and keep the information targeted, only a handful of the many hundreds of supplements that might be of benefit to the FRS sufferer have been selected.

Important Considerations

This protocol is presented as a framework only and is not intended to replace the advice of a suitably qualified practitioner. Please also note that your blood cholesterol levels may temporarily increase while detoxifying mercury. Women of reproductive age should not undertake any form of detoxification if they are either pregnant, likely to become pregnant or are nursing. However, detoxifying before any attempt to become pregnant will help to prevent toxins being passed to your baby both in your womb and in your breast milk. This advice is intended for adults and detoxification of children and babies is approached in a different manner and is a specialist subject. The quantities of supplements suggested relate to most normal-weight adults, but should be modified for both the significantly under- or overweight. Please also read the notes pertaining to each supplement and particularly the special cautions that apply to the use of Samento and Cilantro tinctures.

Initial Phase

The suggested protocol starts with cleansing the colon first for four weeks and this is very necessary to prepare for efficient elimination and should not be omitted in your haste to get started. You can skip this phase if you have opted for a course of colonic hydrotherapy instead.

Colon Cleanse

The goals of this phase of treatment are to remove the deposits from the bowel walls that enable the overgrowth of fungi and parasites and prevent the absorption of nutrients and water. This also removes a major source of auto-toxicity, thus relieving the ongoing burden on the liver. When free of their deposits the bowel walls can also propel matter along more efficiently, enabling the rapid removal of toxic bile with little opportunity afforded for reabsorption. Although the colon cleanse should not be followed for more than four weeks at a time, you may choose to repeat this phase of treatment every six months or so. Please refer to figure 27 for details and to figure 28 for a summary.

Optional Liver Cleanse

Liver detoxification is always seriously compromised in all chronic illnesses and you may wish to do an initial liver cleanse after the colon cleanse and periodically throughout treatment. Products such as Metagenic’s Ultraclear Plus pH and Thorne’s Mediclear are available through your natural health practitioner and have been specifically formulated to boost liver detoxification in those whose health is seriously compromised. They are powders that are made up into drinks and whilst they can be of great benefit, if you are very fragile you will need to start extremely tentatively and increase the dose very gradually. However, if you find that you can tolerate these products or can work up to a reasonable dose, an occasional intensive week or few weeks of use every few months will accelerate treatment. Small daily doses can also be used throughout detoxification or for maintenance.

Detoxification Phase

Pre-Amalgam Removal

The supplement protocol outlined in figure 29 and summarized in figure 30 may need to be followed for a year or more. The aim of this phase of treatment is to generally reduce all the readily accessible mercury and toxin levels within the body. You are attempting to reduce the amounts of mercury in the intercellular matrix so that movement out of the cells can then be facilitated. If you have amalgam fillings, you should follow this protocol until you feel well enough to have them replaced. Rinsing after meals with Dentacare mouthwash may help to reduce mercury absorbtion into the tissues of the mouth in the interim. If you do not have amalgam fillings this part of the detoxification should be followed for a few months in order to generally decrease the accessible toxins before attempting to progress to the post-amalgam removal detoxification phase. You may or may not notice any immediate benefits of this part of treatment; however, it is a necessary precursor to the post-amalgam detoxification protocol which then seeks to draw toxins out of deep storage. Again, use your judgement and if you are very reactive, start with low doses of Chlorella and slowly introduce the other supplements one at a time, starting with the vitamin C and introducing the milk thistle and other supplements gradually. If you can only afford, or are only willing to take one supplement, then the Chlorella taken consistently over a year or two would be my choice – ideally combined with reasonable doses of vitamin C.

Additional Supplements

You may wish to include additional supplements to support specific issues either periodically or throughout your detoxification and these are detailed in the following tables. For additional support for emotional issues refer to figure 31; for support of detoxification see figure 32; for the physical symptoms of FRS see figure 33; for issues of an under-functioning immune system or fungal overgrowth see figure 34; and for endocrine support see figure 35. Additionally, if you have had occupational exposure to a particular toxin you may wish to take a product such as those formulated by Thorne Research which are toxin specific such as Formaldehyde relief, Solvent remover and Pesticide protector.

Amalgam Removal

Please see chapter 18 for the recommended supplement protocol and other important information. Once your tissues have been significantly detoxified and your amalgam fillings removed, then you can proceed to the post-amalgam removal detoxification protocol.

Post-Amalgam Removal

Three different post-amalgam removal protocols are offered. The first is an extension of the pre-amalgam removal detoxification protocol and is detailed in figure 36 and summarized in figure 37. The second uses Heavy Metal Detox (HMD) and is outlined in figure 38 and summarized in figure 39. The third and last uses the chemical chelator Meso-2, 3-Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) and is detailed in figure 40 and summarized in figure 41. Chelation (pronounced key-lay-shun) refers to the use of a synthetic substance (a chelator) that can enclose heavy metals within its ring-like structure, thus enabling excretion. You may wish to use all of the suggested protocols at different times for a period of weeks or months, because no one supplement or approach will work in all body compartments and on all forms of mercury. All these protocols involve mobilizing mercury out of the less accessible body compartments, including the cell organelles, the fatty tissue and the brain. It is important that the organs of excretion are supported during this phase to prevent retoxification. You may need to follow these protocols for one to two years until you actually feel fully well. It is this phase of treatment that should see a noticeable improvement in physical, mental and psychological well-being. Some feel that it is best to exhaust the natural options offered in protocols 1 and 2 before using synthetic chemicals to remove mercury. Also, both protocols 2 and 3 employ urinary excretion of mercury and are best avoided if there are any pre-existing bladder or kidney problems.

Whilst many of the symptoms of detoxification may be unwelcome (see chapter 19) they are a necessary part of recovery. However, there is absolutely no point in pulling more mercury out of storage than your body can detoxify and this only leads to retoxification (whereby toxins are redeposited) and may make you feel unwell – possibly for months at a time because of the long half-life of mercury in circulation. Particularly with the post-amalgam removal protocols, it is best to start tentatively with a fraction of the recommended doses and work upwards gradually until you find a level of detoxification that you can sustain over the long term.

If you cannot afford or cannot face having all your amalgam fillings replaced, then follow the pre-amalgam removal detoxification protocol for at least 8 months before switching to the post-amalgam removal detoxification protocols. This decreases the mercury in accessible compartments before further mobilizing mercury out of the tissues. In this instance, protocols 2 and 3 are to be preferred as the use of Cilantro tincture may mobilize mercury from the amalgam fillings into the tissues.

Repair and Maintenance

Finally, figure 42 suggests supplements for aiding repair of the gastrointestinal tract once the post-amalgam removal detoxification process is complete and figure 43 suggests a minimum maintenance protocol thereafter.

Vibrational Remedies

The use of vibrational remedies, such as Bach (pronounced ‘batch’) Flower Remedies, aids the gentle release of the emotions which have trapped metals and toxins within your system and their use is a great adjunct to treatment and is highly recommended throughout the entire course of treatment. These remedies exert a gentle effect over time (although this may not be immediately obvious to you) and they can also be taken to relieve an acute situation. Either seek the help of someone trained in this area or select the essence most appropriate to your emotional disposition at any given time. For instance, the Bach flower essence Olive aids feelings of exhaustion and Gentian helps with despair. Don’t be frightened of these remedies, since we all have a little of all these emotions; you can only benefit from using them. By gently releasing a variety of ‘historic’ emotions in this way, the toxins originally associated with these traumas are released and can be detoxified. A guide is available at www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com. Stockists will have a printed guide available and possibly a knowledgeable member of staff too. Muscle testing or dowsing can be used to determine the essence required and the dosage (see Appendix). Typical doses are four drops four times daily or you can dispense them into your water bottle to drink during the day. You can also mix these essences, although taking more than six vibrational remedies at any one time is best avoided.

Tinctures

The Bach Flower Remedies and many of the tinctures recommended are provided in an alcohol base. Some FRS sufferers who are very sensitive to even tiny amounts of alcohol can still use these essences and tinctures by dispensing them into hot (but not boiling) water and leaving for a few minutes for the alcohol to evaporate.