Heavy Metal and Me

The elements, not the music.
So, I got some med lab results back today. It turns out I'm pretty loaded with toxic heavy metals: mercury, lead, arsenic (! I associate arsenic with poisoning people....), and gadolinium (yeah, I hadn't heard of that last one either). The reason I got tested in the first place was because my doctor was concerned that the benefits of my current protocol had hit a plateau way before she expected them to. The metals I tested high in can cause (I'm only listing the things that are issues for me, there's a much longer list of general complaints they can cause!) weight gain, fatigue, depression, lack of motivation, thyroid problems, vitamin D deficiency, increased perspiration (ok, I don't know if I really do sweat too much, but I do sweat a lot), insomnia, gingivitis, and metabolic problems.
So, here's what I'm doing about it:
Right now I'm on a detox called The Master Cleanse. I'm currently on day 7 out of... well, out of who knows how many. After consulting with my doctor this morning, I/we have decided to possibly go longer than my original 10 day goal. On this cleanse, your tongue develops a white coating as your body detoxes. This is kind of an indicator for the rest of your body. As the toxins clear up and stop leaving the body, your tongue goes back to its natural pink color. So the idea now is to stick to my current detox until my tongue loses its toxic coat. If this extends beyond 14 days I will add all-natural fruit and vegetable juices to my detox plan, to make sure I don't go too long without too many nutrients
.When I am off the Master Cleanse and eating normally again, I will have a week of rest, detox-wise. In other words, I will just eat healthy, live foods and not work on clearing anything out of my body.
After that week, I will begin chelation. Chelation is the process of ridding the body of heavy metals. The way I will be doing it is my taking a pill called DMSA. Basically it is a substance that attracts and binds to heavy metals, so they can be excreted from the body. A lot of people do chelation with an IV medication, sometimes including a hospital visit. I won't be doing any of that. I will do about 6 rounds of a 2-week protocol of DMSA. Each 2-week round consists of 3 or 4 "cleanse days"; that is, days of actively removing toxins with the DMSA and then  9 or 10 "recovery days" in which I will be taking a lot of supplements and eating specific foods that build up some of the minerals and nutrients my body will have lost. DMSA doesn't bond to only toxic things, some needed things will bond ot it as well, so it's important to make sure you are building those things back up in your body.
Theoretically I will also be looking into getting my silver amalgam fillings redone. The amalgam contains mercury. While it is not usually a major cause of mercury in the body after a few days, it can still build up over time. And I still have a fair number of silver fillings in my molars. However. I totally hate the dentist. With a passion. So we'll see what happens on this front, lol!