• Blood mercury reflects recent exposure and only shows up for a few months.

• Urine (with or without chelator): only gives information about extracellular mercury already on its way to be excreted. “Provoked urine tests” are uninformative and can cause side effects because of the bolus dose of chelators.

• Hair mineral analysis: A high mercury bar on an HTMA reflects a mercury burden. But often the mercury bar will be low because you are not excreting it. We look for unusual patterns in the essential elements that indicate that mercury is interfering with mineral transport across cell walls.

• Clinical judgment: There is no lab test that can tell you how much mercury you started with or how much you have got rid of. You must consider your history of exposure to evaluate how toxic you are, and your pattern of symptoms to judge your progress detoxing.

> Tip: In Amalgam Illness, Andy Cutler has a weighted checklist of symptoms that you or your doctor can use to diagnose mercury. There is also a list of anomalies that can show up on lab tests that a doctor might otherwise overlook. You may already have these tests in your medical files.

• Start taking: “The Core Four” which are vitamin C, magnesium, vitamin E and zinc. These should be taken by anybody who has a mercury problem.

• Pretty much everyone with mercury problems will also benefit from adrenal and liver support. The main supplements for this are adrenal cortex and milk thistle extract. Once again the information is here.

• Binders (fiber, pectin, charcoal) will not help with mercury excretion, but they are okay to use if they help with symptoms. - timing matters to avoid nutrient interference. Chlorella is harmful for mercury toxic people.

• ALA, DMSA, DMPS are actual chelators and ultimately must be used to get mercury out of the organs and cells.. They should be used only once you have the knowledge how to use them properly.

• For most people “ongoing exposure is their amalgam fillings. To replace these, choose a “biological dentist” trained in IAOMT/SMART‑style protocols (isolation, high‑volume suction, air filtration, oxygen, etc.). Avoid high-speed drilling by untrained providers, as this can spike exposure.

• Shift to low‑mercury seafood (salmon, sardines, anchovies, trout) and limit high‑mercury, large, predatory fish.

• Handle mercury‑containing items (CFL bulbs, old thermometers) with great care. Dispose of them properly per local guidance.

• Nutrition. What diet is appropriate depends on your personal physiology and individual symptoms. At the very least eat all organic to reduce your exposure to chemicals that your body may have difficulty dealing with.

• Sulfur‑rich foods. Some mercury toxic people react badly to thiols, which are a form of sulfur. Consider doing a thiol challenge test because if you are such a person, giving up thiols will help enormously with symptoms. You will need the book, The Mercury Detoxification Manual to learn about this test.

• Exercise. Although exercise is universally thought to be a good thing, toxic people often have “post exertional malaise” due to poor adrenal function. Be careful with exercise and don’t overdo it. Do not try and power through your symptoms. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

• Sleep & Stress: When you have chronic mercury, your adrenal system is invariably poisoned. Toxic people often have every form of insomnia that nature can think up. To sleep better at night, support your adrenals and avoid stress during the day. There are many supplements that help with sleep, and when one stops working (which it very well may) you can switch to another. Ultimately, it is chelating out enough mercury that will make you able to sleep properly again.

• Gut Problems. These are perennial with mercury toxic people. Mercury directly poisons the gut, and it also impairs those aspects of the immune system that control yeast overgrowth and parasites. Dysbiosis in toxic people is usually candida and people need to be on yeast killers alternated with probiotics. People with serious gut problems have found the GAPS or similar diets to be helpful.

• Environment: Check your environment for mold as toxic people are notoriously susceptible to mold poisoning. Run a good HEPA filter and be sure to change the filters on schedule. Toxic people are often environmentally sensitive so choose nontoxic personal care and cleaning products.

• Mercury is famous for causing mental health problems. The opening salvo from mercury, in fact, is usually anxiety and low mood and these can develop into more serious diagnoses. You may need to use anxiolytics or psychiatric drugs to control symptoms until you have detoxed enough that your mood stabilizes. There is no shame in using these medicines if they help and if you are committed to detoxing you won’t need them forever. Certainly pair medicines with mental health support such as: meditation or prayer, talk therapy, supportive communities, and creativity practices.

• As the mercury that is hurting you is stored in your brain and sensitive organs, there is unfortunately no lab test to measure before and after burden. You have to evaluate your progress by looking at symptoms.

• Keep a diary and track 3–5 core symptoms weekly as well as generally how you feel. We tend to forget bad symptoms as soon as they disappear so a journal is very useful to track progress.

• A journal is also useful to keep track of what supplements and meds you are using: when you started and when you stopped them.