brain mercury removal
http://onibasu.com/archives/am/1432.html
DMSA is known to not cross the blood brain barrier and to not only not remove mercury FROM the brain, but to actually concentrate mercury INTO the brain if it is used improperly.
I'm generally going to ignore the pointless forwarding of argument from other listservers but this is an important point - and one of the few in the whole mercury arena that is not opinion but scientific fact.
The more obscure part of this "factoid" that may be overlooked if we get too bombastic in debate is that DMSA DOES remove the synergistic toxin lead (which comes out of the brain on its own) and also that BODY mercury impairs the metabolism in such a way as to cause a lot of brain symptoms. Thus using DMSA may well improve or cure even children who do in fact have high mercury levels despite the fact it won't reduce their brain mercury levels at all.
Another thing that gets lost in bombastic argument is that there are very well established pharmacokinetic methods for determining the appropriate dosing frequency for a medication, and when one uses them for DMSA one gets every 4 hours, not every other day. If you stick with every 4 hours you avoid any risk of adverse reaction due to blood level fluctuations of DMSA. If you choose to use a longer dosing interval there is some risk, but as in most cases of risk you will often get away with it. It is up to you how much further risk to expose your child to.
So the scientific facts to keep in mind about DMSA are:
It does indeed cure or improve a lot of children,
it is safe from redistribution effects if given every 4 hours, and
it does not remove significant amounts of mercury from the brain.
People who aren't busy being bombastic about this issue will quickly see from this that there is no reason NOT to try DMSA and see if it helps. If DMSA doesn't help enough it is time to move on to a chelator like lipoic acid that does indeed remove mercury from the brain. Since LA is an excellent chelator in its own right and will also clear the body - and does not require a prescriiption - some people may choose to start with it. This is a matter of personal choice, not something where facts are compelling either way.
Andy Cutler