Totally agree there is a gold mine of info on that Yahoo group, here is a copy of the email you receive when joining the group:
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My General Suggestions for starting oral chelation using Andy's Protocol

Start ROUND 1 of DMSA 12.5mg. Take 12.5mg or less every 4 hours [or more often] on the hour, including waking up at night!!!! If you miss a dose by an hour stop the round and wait at least as many days as you chelated before you start again. If there are any side effects monitor these and if too intolerable, stop. A round is 3 days ON and
3 days OFF initially (later you can increase the number of ON days).
A common chelating schedule for DMSA is 7am - 11am - 3pm - 7pm -11pm - 3am. You can also take longer breaks between rounds if necessary to recuperate.

If no side effects or mild manageable side effects occur then wait three days or more before you start ROUND 2 DMSA at 12.5mg.

If no side effects or mild manageable side effects occur then do another ROUND [3 days and 2 nights] of DMSA at 12.5mg. You can increase your round by a day or two if you are doing well. So on this round you could chelate for 4-5 days ON.

At this point you can continue for many more rounds of DMSA alone before adding ALA. This will reduce your body burden before you start taking mercury out the brain with ALA. This is often the best path to follow. If you choose to add ALA at this point then, Start ROUND 4 with 12.5mg DMSA and start ALA 12.5mg with each dose. Take both doses every 3 hours on the hour or more frequently, including waking up at night. You can stretch it to every 4 hours ONLY at night if it helps you get a little more sleep, but go back to every 3 hours during the day. Many people cannot do this as it redistributes too much Hg with the fluctuation in chelator blood concentration.

If you miss a dose by an hour stop the round and wait at least as many days that you chelated to start again. Your blood levels of the chelator will have dropped too much with the late dose. Monitor side effects especially after adding ALA, if un-manageable or intolerable stop the round and reduce dose of the next 3-4 rounds.

Or stop the ALA and continue with the DMSA for a day or two depending on side effects and how DMSA makes you feel on it's own.

[[[A second option at this point is to raise only the DMSA to 25mg for ROUND 4,5,6 and see how you do on the higher dose before adding the ALA. Sometimes the jump from 12.5mg to 25mg is too high and you may need to stick at about 17mg. Andy suggests you should never increase the dose by more than half of the current dose. Then add ALA in ROUND 7-8 possibly depending on how you do with the increased dosage. When using ALA and DMSA together you can continue DMSA alone for an extra day or more to remove the intracellular mercury that the ALA pulls to the extracellular spaces.]]]

If no side effects or few, do another round same dosage, ROUND 5 DMSA
12.5 and ALA at 12.5mg.

If no side effects or few, do another round same dosage, ROUND 6 DMSA
12.5 and ALA at 12.5mg.

If no problems start next round, ROUND 7, and increase ONLY DMSA from
12.5 to [18.5 - 25mg] and ALA 12.5mg. You must only increase one chelator at a time, so you know what causes what side effects if you have them.

If no problems do a few more rounds at this dosage, start next round, ROUND 10-11, DMSA 25mg and increase ALA also to 25mg. Also only increase the dose of one chelator at a time.

Do NOT increase both together or you won't know which is causing a problem.
If no problems arise, increase dosage gradually using the same process above until you find a dosage that is manageable and stick there for a long time. If problems occur then go back to the previous manageable dose and stick there for at least few more rounds.

You can also increase the number of days ON if side effects are stable, especially if you do well or better while chelating. It is ok to chelate for longer periods if your body can keep up with the side effects, then have the same time for rest periods. Most can't go for too long because of lack of sleep due to the interruption of it, but some can chelate continuously for longer periods. If you a lot feel better during the rounds you can extend it for a few more days and see how you do.

I recommend except for experienced persons that really know what they are doing and have done a lot of oral chelation following the protocol not to chelate continuously or for really long periods.
DMSA and ALA usually no more than 2 weeks max.

Longer rounds excrete more Mercury and cause less redistribution.
Longer rounds are advised only for those that actually do better while chelating - for those that have significant side effects while on round will you need to take as much time off as on. If you do better while chelating with the DMSA during those longer rounds and stop to take a break because of lack of sleep etc. then you should take some time off before starting again, I would suggest at least 4-
5 days.

Most can't do it for extra long periods. This especially true when you add ALA and are dosing every 3hrs or more often. But with DMPS, which is taken, every 8 hours (due to its longer half-life) people can chelate longer or even continuously with low dosages, as you don't have to wake up to take doses in the middle of the night.
ALA causes less copper to be released rounds causing problems in the long-term (especially for copper toxic people) so the off-days are very important to allow the balance to return to your system if you have problems with copper.

DMPS - Round one 5-10mg every 6-8hr around the clock for 3 days and nights, the other rules [missing dose etc] are the same as with DMSA and still apply.

Round 2 & 3 DMPS the same thing.

Round 4 DMPS if everything is going well and no intolerable or bad side effects increase dosage to 10-15mg.

Round 5,6,7 DMPS same as above.

Round 8 - DMPS & ALA - If at this point you are still doing well or better add 12.5mg ALA and do another 3-4 rounds.

Round 11,12,13 - DMPS & ALA - Increase DMPS if still doing well to 20mg if tollerated.

Round 14,15,16 - DMPS & ALA - increase ALA to 18-25mg and see how you do.
After this point increase dosages of chelators by weight [links section] and symptoms remembering not to increase by more than 50% of the dose you are taking.

If you cannot tolerate the ALA when you try to add it just continue with the DMPS alone, gradually increasing dosage over time and numbers of rounds to tolerance. If you happen to do better on round than off an option is to extend the round a few days 4-6 and see how you do. If you still do better on round at this point try a week or two, some people can chelate continuously with low doses of DMPS until they feel they are ready to add some ALA.

ALA Alone - use the same [dosage] as with the DMSA above every 3hr or more often.


I generally recommend that everyone get all basic labs done [metabolic,chemistry,urinealysis,lipid (VAP) etc. Many of us have thyroid and adrenal issues and they require supplementation. With proper testing and supplementation many people feel tremendously better with just this.

Please !! make sure you read through Moria's site and the rest of the links section for information -
http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/


Please remember everyone is different and not everything works the same for everyone. Also these are suggestions/recommendations for the protocol and not medical advice.