As I was learning how to detox naturally with food, supplements, and a respect for nature, tuning into mercury finally allowed me to move forward.
This write-up is an attempt to summarize how I figured out how to go after mercury. But in a sense, everything I write and speak about goes towards mercury detox in some way.
We’re a biochemical machine
50 billion times a second, a process called methylation happens in various organs and tissue throughout our body, with 80% of it happening in our liver.
Methylation is the first biochemical process of our metabolism, It’s a chemical factory system that converts nutrients into life. Read or watch more about methylation here.
Various studies from Pubmed, universities etc, show the damage heavy metals and other toxins can cause to our systems. Over time and generations, my chemical pathways have become overloaded with substances that inhibit my cells’ natural abilities. As more of these pathways become clogged up, my ability to metabolize declines.
In order to get things running again, I have to absorb enough nutrients to clean out and rebuild my cells. This isn’t easy to do with poor digestion, toxic load, low energy, brain fog, my dogs barking, etc.. so I supplement nutrition in several ways.
I attempt explaining this overall situation in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXdKYGfdoIk
Welcome to my journey back to health
The following is my story about the information I’ve pulled together in order to understand how to do this for myself. I had a slightly rough experience with a heavy toxicity, which allowed me to figure out how my body does and doesn’t like to detox. I don’t suggest anyone try any of this, I’m just sharing my story.
I link to products I have used or still use to move forward with my healing. Some are affiliate links that pay me a small percentage per sale. By using these links anyone can help support the time I’ve put into sharing information, otherwise making note of their contents and comparing them to ones you preferred may or may not simulate the same experiences I had.
I don’t share this stuff to generate funds. I’m sharing what’s working for me and I’m also seeing work for others. But if you are anti-affiliate links, look at the ingredients of what I share even if its just to understand the sheer amount of nutrients. 9 times out of 10, the form of nutrients in the various products I mention are better for our endgame goal.
Digestion is key
Having proper stomach acid is extremely important for health. Without it, I cannot utilize various nutrients from my food. Stomach acid is required to digest protein, B12 and a handful of other nutrients. It’s also required in order to release bile which is needed for fat digestion.
If I’m not digesting fat well, I’m likely dumping oxalates into my bloodstream and tissues. Oxalates have connections to a lot of health issues, so I wanted to get my stomach acid and fat digestion in check before going further once I realized all of this.
A lot of people are skipping past stomach acid. If we don’t resolve this, we can end up in some very long drawn out circles. If we’re not able to get stomach acid back in check, we need to figure out why. If we continue to attempt driving our metabolism without properly resolving stomach acid or what is in it’s way, we may be piling additional stress on our system.
If my stomach acid isn’t correct, my food isn’t broken down all the way, and not only will I be missing some of those nutrients, I’ll send the incorrect form of food into my gut and offset my bacterial biome. If I do this for long enough, I offset my ability to easily correct the situation with just food and supplements. I might have to look into what’s called the stomach acid challenge where I take HCL pills with large protein meals and pay attention to any “heat” in my stomach. By learning more about this situation, I should be able to judge my stomach acid levels and possibly work on restoring them. My page about stomach acid sickoftired.com/stomach-acid is a very important page. I also summarize a very interesting situation about stomach acid on the homepage of this site.
Once stomach acid levels are in good range, I get into probiotics and fermented foods. I wrote about and created a 30 min video about How I make Sauerkraut on my iodine site.
If I shy away from fatty foods, or foods that have fat in a form that is harder to digest, it might be a sign that either my stomach acid is incorrect, or I am not creating proper enzymes and bile to digest my food. Probiotics and enzymes can help us start breaking down our food so our body can eventually get back to making all of this stuff on its own. Seeking Health has a handful of options for these. When limited on funds, I started with just the digestive enzymes.
- Probiotic that may avoid an intolerance to other probiotics https://bit.ly/2Ry95Sr
- Histamine balancing probiotics capsules https://bit.ly/2XyZbDU or powder https://bit.ly/2VrnAZm
- Digestive enzymes https://bit.ly/2VsJwD8
- Ox Bile https://bit.ly/34AfAZW
- Gallbladder support https://bit.ly/2K7JCuF
- Electrolytes https://bit.ly/2V6O3wg
Eating real food
If eating real food is new to someone, I think a great place to start is an eating plan called Whole 30, which is a 30 day diet similar to Paleo that has us remove several foods that commonly offset our natural digestion.
At the end of the 30 days we can start introducing some of the foods we regularly enjoyed before whole30, and judge if it’s worth continuing to consume them. I noticed several foods that caused my body a decent amount of discomfort as I reintroduced them.
I removed the offending foods that I wasn’t really a fan of, and kept one or two that I enjoyed, while also reducing how much and how often I had them. Over time I was able to find different brands or flavors that worked better with my body. I wrote a bit more about this on my iodine site http://whyiodine.com/how-to-detox/
I created a group on Facebook called Whole 30 for Beginners facebook.com/groups/30beginners
Protein Shakes, protein, fat and magnesium
After years of playing with almost $2k in supplements(I’m up to over $4k now. I “went pro” with this “hobby”), I found a set of nutrient powders that help me move forward much easier than handfuls of pills and a lot of time prepping food. Several years later I’ve invested even more into supplements and still use nutritional protein powders.
I don’t take any of this stuff every single day though. A very common question is how do I consume all this stuff without hurting myself. My answer is that I look at this stuff like any food. If I eat noodles for 6 months straight without paying attention to how I feel or how my digestion is working, I’m probably going to have problems. But if I mix the foods I’m eating and pay attention to what my body is craving, or what gives me more energy etc, I can provide my body with nutrients in some sort of balance.
Kicking metabolism into high gear
For close to 6 months, I used 2 daily shakes, various sources of animal protein and fat, and mainly magnesium, to kick my metabolism into crazy high gear and purge a ton of old cells and their toxins. We tend to assume this type of digestion is bad, but I’m using it to rapidly replace a ton of my cells.
But this is after years of going slow with iodine and supporting nutrients as well as all the various supplements I own.
The nutrient blend of these protein powders is supporting my base metabolism. I’ve done a bit of work to help build this system up before starting these shakes, but they likely would have helped me at any point. I still use supplements sparingly as I hunt for whichever nutrient my system is able to use to move it’s current roadblock.
I still cook some cabbage, onions and other fresh foods at times, but for the most part, it’s been just this combo due to what’s easy to stock. It may seem limited but its a ton of the base components of protein metabolism and it’s allowing my system to fly forward. My cells were set up for this though, not everyone is at this point or in this general balance of nutrients.
- Arbonne protein powder https://www.arbonne.com/us/en/arb/micahcoffey/shop-all/nutrition/feelfit-pea-protein-shake-simply1—chocolate-flavor/p/2059%20US Ingredients https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/arbonne/y0lxopi3mg/2069-2070_us_eng.pdf
- Body cleanse – this one was very helpful for me at first https://www.arbonne.com/us/en/arb/micahcoffey/shop-all/nutrition/cleanse-%26-detox/cleantox-gentle-cleanse/p/6103%20US
- Energy fizzy sticks to skip coffee https://www.arbonne.com/us/en/arb/micahcoffey/shop-all/nutrition/energyfizz-ginseng-fizz-sticks—watermelon-flavor/p/2112%20US
If you are interested in trying a nutrition package, please contact me and I will help you find the best things to try first and help answer any questions you have. It’s slightly confusing the first few times we order, and it seems expensive, but I actually use it to save money on my food bill..
I start my day with the protein powder, and either do another shake for lunch or cook some organic chicken or grass fed meat. I take a 250mg marine based magnesium which contains a small amount of calcium, I drink a lot of water and I try to get some type of physical activity in. If I can’t get outside and break a sweat in the garden, I do Dr. Mercola’s Nitric Oxide Release Workout. Most of the time, this combo of stuff will have me purging stuff.
If my system has enough protein and fat on hand, the shake might finally be what causes a purge. Sometimes it’s not till I get enough fat from something like MCT oil. Sometimes I’ll feel kind of bloated, yet once I get moving in the garden, I have to head back inside and purge.
The reason I have to run to the bathroom with what is considered diarrhea, is because I provided my cells with all of the nutrients they need, and worked up enough energy, hydration, rest and proper light for all of the processes to happen. If someone has done coffee enemas and felt a release happen 15 minutes or several hours later, this is likely a similar experience. Sometimes we just need the right nutrients on hand and enough time for our system to do various tasks required.
Staying in high gear
Sometimes this process will sort of stall out and I either have regular bowel movements each day, or even start to feel run down and foggy. That’s when I hunt around for a few nutrients and figure out what I’m low on.
A handful of times, it’s been magnesium, but sometimes taking some epsom salt internally will get things going again, if epsom salt works for me, I use an Arbonne body cleanse I linked above. This tends to cause a lot of gas and other digestive changes. I only notice benefits from these packets about once every 6 months now. I have a feeling it is helping balance my gut biome/pH a bit.
Sometimes MSM works instead of epsom salt, and sometimes MSM works so well that I move too quickly and become uncomfy. This is why I try to keep up on small amounts of everything possible without just taking a ton of stuff all the time without knowing if my body is using it.
Coffee enemas and Liver support
I spent a long time assuming I would never do a coffee enema. I kept reading people mention how much it helps them with general energy, or specific situations, but it just didn’t stand out to me as something I needed to do. Then I came across some info about it’s potential ability to increase glutathione production and realized it was something I should probably try before assuming I don’t need it.
I ended up gaining a ton of energy when I started doing coffee enemas, and eventually I seemed to unlock some old stuck potassium which allowed me to finally defeat some potassium related deficiencies. As I keep up on my shakes, protein and fat, I run into phases where I don’t seem to get too much benefit from CEs, so I slow down and only do them once a month or so depending how I feel.
Sometimes I’ll notice CEs becoming very productive and get into several rounds per day for several weeks at a time. Eventually I’ll notice it make me feel run down or stimulated, so I slow down or pause again depending how productive they are. I handle just about everything like this. I explain this a bit on my page whyiodine.com/pulse-dosing
Over time I’ve found several supplements or products that helped me support my liver.
- Digestive Bitters stimulate digestion https://amzn.to/3bixVgE
- D-Limonene supports liver enzymes https://amzn.to/2Xt0JiG
- Mannose Cranberry supports Urinary Tract https://amzn.to/2V33JRc
- Uva Ursi helps Urinary health as well https://amzn.to/2yfgcZe
- TMG(Betaine) https://amzn.to/46nhsEs
- Choline Bitartrate https://amzn.to/2VixI7E phosphatidylcholine is a better form, or we should go extremely slow with bitartrate
- NAC https://bit.ly/3fM3SAP
- Fish Oil https://bit.ly/3cVX9CD
- MCT Oil https://amzn.to/2TKBENF
- Herbal Detox Tea https://www.arbonne.com/us/en/arb/micahcoffey/shop-all/nutrition/cleanse-%26-detox/cleantox-herbal-detox-tea/p/2076%20US
- Coffee Enema Kit https://amzn.to/2zo3NCV
I’ve used TMG, Choline and NAC in the past, but once I learned how to support my main system, taking them again at one point sent me on a roller coaster of emotions. This slightly uncomfortable detox reaction allowed me to experience something rather interesting though. As I potentially balanced my SAMe vs SAH ratio with TMG and choline, I experienced an amazing feeling where I said to myself “so this is what people mean by high off of life”.
But then several hours later all of the new happy stuff I created needed to be cleaned up, which I didn’t have the resources for so I went from feeling high off of life to ..the opposite. Then as I introduced more NAC after this experience, I went through a similar reaction but not as strong. I think I originally made too many transmitters, and then eventually balanced things back out with glutathione which signaled for a bit more.
Overall it was a great phase of healing, but a little uncomfortable due too going too quickly. So now as I try anything I haven’t had in a while, I go very slow and see how my body reacts over the next few hours, or day or so.
To avoid these types of methylation imbalances, Dr. Ben Lynch suggests this multivitamin which is free of methylfolate, B12, copper and iron. If I were to start over, I would start with this multi, and stick with Arbonne’s body cleanse and some beets in my diet for betaine.
Several times while I’ve gone through various healing phases, I have noticed an uncomfortable sensation while urinating. A friend and I that discuss detox regularly and tend to have similar experiences, were calling it “nuclear pee”. Over time I realized that a few urinary support supplements like Uva Ursi and D-Mannose seemed to help clear something out which may have been related to kidney function, and reduce the nuclear pee issue.
Now for the part about Mercury
When I started my detox journey, I had no idea what I was doing and was still pretty new to the idea that nutrients could heal my body. I had already been eating real food for a bit and even fermented foods to help heal my gut. After very minor research into magnesium, unrefined salt, selenium etc, I started iodine. I felt amazing at first, and resolved a ton of symptoms that had crept up quickly over the past year or so. Best of all, the brain fog and feeling like I was going to have more seizures was gone. After a month or so, I was under the impression my body just needed iodine and now I was back in action. Then another month or so in when I was at about 30mg of iodine per day, the fog started returning, as well as the fatigue and anxiety.
Here I am, someone that knows very little about health at the time, taking some weird brown liquid, and starting to feel unwell again. What the heck do I do now? Unfortunately, this is where I lost a lot of faith in the iodine community, and have seen others run into a similar situation.
If someone goes into most of the iodine groups and says “I’ve been taking iodine for a few months, I was feeling great at first, but now I don’t feel so great, what should I do?”, most people say “take more iodine” and some people will say “take a lot more iodine”.
For some people that do not have a potent toxin like mercury tucked away, this may work out. But for people like myself that have some type of life-long toxin stored who-knows-where, and a clogged up methylation system, this can be rather dangerous or at least uncomfortable.
I didn’t have many options other than to try these magical higher doses in hopes that I would get around some debilitating brain fog etc. So I went from the 30-35mg per day, which is where I started running into trouble, and jumped to 50mg, and then added 50mg pretty much each day for about a week. I figure I consumed anywhere from 1500mg to 2000mg total within that week and finally decided to stop because I didn’t feel any benefits, and just felt more fog.
This is when things got really weird. Three days after I stopped high doses, I woke up one morning feeling like I was hit by a bus. Moving around to get out of bed was painful, and standing up hurt the bottom of my feet. I felt like I was hung over, I was in a bad mood and soon realized I could barely form words and sentences. I reached out to a few upperclassmen from a few groups in hopes they would have some type of feedback, any feedback.
It’s hard to figure out what’s while having brain fog so bad you can barely speak. The only advice I found was to try the ATP b2/b3 combo, which eased the situation a touch, but not much at all.
I spent the next week laying around on the couch having panic attacks and horrible anxiety. Sometimes it was so bad that I would feel emotional changes as the sun went behind some clouds and the room went dim, or if the washing machine finished it’s cycle and the noise stopped. This is where I started realizing not only what several autism symptoms were like, but the fact that I have been on the spectrum my whole life. Although I’ve never felt these emotions etc this strongly before, they were not unfamiliar.
This is where things start getting pretty neat. After about a week or so into this, I made my way to the fridge and found a plate of Deviled Eggs that my wife had made. I ate 12 of these, which is 6 hard-boiled eggs. The next morning I woke up and instantly realized I felt about 80% better. I still felt out of it but I wasn’t in pain and I was able to form words and all that fun stuff again.
At this point I have my brain back, so it was time to dig into what was going on. Over the next few weeks I dug into research with a much different mindset. I was finally doing this on my own terms since I’ve realized not many people seem to understand what’s going on with all of this stuff, which leaves me to figure it out on my own.
I somehow started catching onto eggs having a good bit of sulfur and zinc in them, and how both of these nutrients have a connection to mercury detox. Mercury had been making its way into my radar as I researched various topics and noticed more and more mercury toxicity symptoms being familiar.
What was very odd at the time and slowly started to make more sense, is the mercury toxicity symptoms were things I’ve dealt with my whole life, but much more so since my health crashed and I was learning how to detox.
Sulfur and Zinc
Don’t get too caught up in these two. There are tons of other nutrients required, but these were two that were huge for me.
Eggs were not helping me feel better anymore. So I started looking for sulfur and zinc from other sources. I started taking small amounts of epsom salt in water, and also loading my food with black sesame seeds.
Within a few days I was starting to notice my poop was burning as if I had been eating hot peppers all week, and that I was feeling a little less run down each day. Not long after, I realized I needed to back off the epsom and black sesame because the burning was becoming unbearable. Over the next month or so, I pushed as much of these two as possible without burning my butt off. As I continued through this, felt better than I have possibly ever in my life. My brain felt like a super computer and I had great energy.
- Epsom salt https://amzn.to/40lwBnB
- MSM Powder https://amzn.to/2ypy5o4
- Black Himalayan Salt https://amzn.to/3cA5Rph
- Broccoli sprout extract – sulforaphane https://amzn.to/2VG30nZ
- Onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts, kale, callaloo, spinach, asparagus, okra, lettuce, sweet corn, eggplant, beans, fruits, meats, eggs and nuts.
As I continued to research what was going on with sulfur and zinc, I happened to have a random flashback memory of my mom laughing when I was younger, and in this memory, I saw the mercury fillings in her teeth. I was already well aware of the potential for large amounts of mercury to be passed from a mom to her offspring, so this really stood out to me. I was able to confirm with her that she had the fillings for about 8 years before I was born, she had them while she had all 4 of her children, which stood out to me because of issues my siblings have had, mainly my brother passing away from leukemia in his 20s.
Although this seems like an unfortunate story, it has drastically changed my life for the better. This is where I really started progressing with detox and understanding what’s going on. Plus, realizing a potential reason my childhood was difficult, and why I had a hard time fitting in, makes the world a slightly less stressful place.
I expand on this a bit at whyiodine.com/low-and-slow
So how do I actually detox mercury though?
I use all of the above to give my body what it needs. Sometimes I can move forward with healing/detox by taking a nap, or going for a walk, or doing something I really enjoy. Finding the right nutrients to support our system is important, but there is more to this.
I researched iodine and it’s support nutrients for about almost a year before starting. Then I slowly spent months helping support my cells that way before getting into the ups and downs that helped me figure out what was even going on.
Before iodine and those base nutrients, my cells were broken and tucked away in nature’s attempt at keeping them running as long as possible. Dumping a ton of nutrients on my broken tucked away cells will likely waste most of them. So going slow and giving my system time will likely help in several ways.
Other important nutrients:
- Boron https://amzn.to/2Vj6SMW
- Vitamin K2 – MK-7 https://amzn.to/3asc4T7 fermented natto beans are a better source if available
- Colloidal Silver https://amzn.to/3ecs11E
Boron and K2 help calcium function properly, which is important. But calcium also depends on our electrolytes whyiodine.com/electrolytes
Boron and K2 have a lot of benefits but I have to go slow with them. Too much boron makes me grouchy and too much K2 seems to make me anxious and feel like my blood pressure is crazy even though it’s fine.
An interesting situation with b12
I had some lingering B vitamin deficiency symptoms after trying over a dozen types and forms of B vitamins. My methylated B-complex worked well in tiny amounts but a regular dose would make me very jittery and anxious etc. I finally came across some info about lithium helping B12 into our cells. I had tried a few lithium in the past and didn’t noticed much. I started taking it just about daily for a week or so and started noticing my B complex doing a little more. Then I came across glutathione being required for the same b12-into-the-cell process, and started noticing my B complex work even better when I added the glutathione. I get into more info about this at sickoftired.com/b12
- Lithium Orotate https://amzn.to/2RQRnJV
- Liposomal Glutathione Plus https://bit.ly/30BlM45
- Methyl free B-complex https://bit.ly/36sdGfN
Had I backed off iodine when it started pushing more mercury etc than my body was able to handle, I wouldn’t have pushed myself into the fog and a slightly dangerous episode of acute mercury poisoning. But this situation caused me to realize how mercury toxic I am as well as how my body functions.
As I have my body running on some kind of good nutrition, and I’m sleeping well, getting good sunlight, drinking good amounts of quality and possibly alkaline water, I push whatever seems to cause a purge. These purges happen when I finally get whatever the last item is that my body required. Sometimes it’s something simple like more magnesium or b vitamins, sometimes it’s fat, or water, or physical activity. Sometimes I need to get more sunlight or red light therapy for any of these to work. Within minutes of getting whatever the last item is, I get diarrhea and tend to feel better instantly. Sometimes I just get digestion noises for hours, or a lot of gas. Sometimes I can find a nutrient that turns that into a purge, but not always. I don’t think colloidal silver is something we should use all the time, but I have been able to move forward with a few small doses when I’ve detected infection symptoms.
I am able to move this stuff quickly via diarrhea because I have opened my cells to nutrition. Back when I started, I could have taken all of this same stuff and probably not noticed anything at all. Several times over the years, some of these things worked at times but not at others. Sometimes I would just feel digestive changes like gas or I’d get backed up a few days, and sometimes I would find something that would cause a purge out of nowhere that only lasted a short time.
I have a feeling most bloating and gas is some type of microbes being fed or killed off. There have been several times I’ve taken an activated charcoal pill or bentonite clay if the gas etc becomes uncomfortable, and I tend to have a really large bowel movement the next morning which is what makes me think microbe because when I start eating ferments again, I go through similar digestion and larger bowel movements. I only use binders when I suspect they will be able to grab something, like gas, or an uncomfortable detox phase.
Other aspects involved with healing
Part of detox is emotional. I am learning how to be myself, prioritize my time, and repair a lot of bottled-up emotions I created as I dealt with my brain being stressed out by this toxicity. Understanding these changes is as important as physically processing and removing toxins. If I don’t understand why things are changing, work with them and advance my life, my body will work to restore its old toxic self. I’m repairing and rebuilding an organic computer, it’s not going to be able to fix its toxic wiring without getting rid of the toxic mindsets and vice versa.
I cover this a bit in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6EQrpFa8WE
This emotional aspect helped solidify my dislike for chemical chelation. I’ve read a lot of horror stories of people having episodes while doing chemical chelation, whether supervised or not. I noticed that a lot of people’s episodes were very emotional and sometimes purely emotional. After experiencing this emotional healing myself with nutrients, I realized how horrible forced detox via chemical chelation might be.
Another difficult aspect of this type of detox is the stimulation these imbalances have been generating and influencing my body with. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to get mercury out of my body is due to its negative impact on my nervous system. But as it and its toxicity have been slowly causing their damage over time, I have been attempting to counter the symptoms with a crutch, like coffee, alcohol, or pot. Had I realized what was going on a long time ago, I would have rather detoxed this substance instead of using these band-aids to feel a little more normal.
As I clean my body out, I have less of a need or use for these substances, but I can’t put them down cold turkey all at once or I do not feel well. Not being able to quit cold turkey makes this a little more difficult, but I think this is a necessary phase in order to re-teach ourselves how to go about life without them. I still use them as a crutch and sometimes I stimulate my metabolism with them. Sometimes they have helped me understand my metabolism better.
I could go on about mercury forever
Detoxing mercury is not easy and can be very uncomfortable at times. But healing our body from mercury toxicity is pretty awesome. I had very little control over life before learning how to detox this stuff, and now I at least realize what I’m up against.
There is an interesting connection between mercury and alcohol. There is a good chance that a majority of alcohol dependency is due to mercury toxicity. 1
I think most people and families that are “a little out there” or maybe just extra energetic are experiencing some level of mercury toxicity. This toxicity is generations deep for some of us, and not all of us are aware of how much of this stuff is in our bloodline.
We started installing this stuff in people’s mouths in the 1830s and knew in the 1840s that this process is bad for us. It was used as medicine around the late 1800s and early 1900s. This actually helps show how medicine “works” in the same way we can smack an old TV to get it working a little longer.
The main thing I’m going for is supporting my ability to generate glutathione. There is much more to it but this 10 minute video helps highlight why some of these nutrients are so important https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5iFRtxPd8
If you have been studying MTHFR, SAMe, glutathione etc at all, this video will likely make you happy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzd4FUEJpIE
Footnotes
- FDA Panel Submission Mercury and Neurotoxicology – http://www.mercurypoisoned.com/FDA_hearings/FDAMercuryaNeurotoxin.pdf