My name is Rebecca Lee and I cowrote the book, The Mercury Detoxification Manual, with Andy Cutler, PhD. In it, we explain how to detox your body from heavy metals, particularly mercury, using the frequent low dose oral chelation protocol that Andy figured out. This protocol mainly uses alpha lipoic acid, an over-the-counter supplement that is sold as an antioxidant. Its manufacturers seem “blithely unaware,” (as Andy put it) that it is also a chelator and as such should be taken on its half-life or not at all. We also counsel on how to use the prescription chelators, DMSA and DMPS. Andy called these “accessory chelators” as they do not cross the fatty barriers such as the blood brain barrier and the cell walls. (DMSA, however, is the only chelator we recommend for chelating lead.)
Andy’s protocol, as I said, uses lipoic acid. This agent, alas, must be taken every three or four hours for a minimum number of days. People must get up in the night, and nobody likes that. They kick against the traces at having to do this for several years and the faith and patience that requires.
So, they look around for something hopefully faster and better to solve their problems. Enter OSR, aka Emeramide, aka NBMI. This is a new chelator being developed by Dr. Boyd Hayley of the University of Kentucky. It is currently undergoing clinical trials.
OSR is not available yet other than bulk purchase of a product from China. People get together to purchase this to keep the cost down. (I guess it is quite expensive.) This product is not approved for human use, and we are not quite sure what it is.
The OSR proponents claim that OSR forms a permanent bond with mercury, and it is okay to take once a day instead of on its half life, (which as yet seems unknown.). They also claim that you can take it without removing your mercury fillings. The dental work required to follow the Cutler protocol is a huge barrier for many people so this last would be very appealing.
Andy Cutler had quite a lot to say about OSR, but it is summed up in these 4 statements:
He said he thought it was safer than Russian Roulette, but that is about it.
That it seemed to be almost certainly not as good a chelator as lipoic acid.
That it will likely bother people with chemical sensitivities.
That the instructions that you can take it on any old schedule are unlikely to be correct. That Dr. Haley does not have the relevant background for deciding the necessary administration frequency of pharmacologic agents.
Finally he says, “I have heard many bad stories. No good ones.”
In 2010 there was a back and forth between Andy and Dr. Hayley titled: "Response to Dr. Boyd Haley's response to my discussions of OSR." Andy got what was supposedly an open letter and replied to it by inserting comments.
He emphasized that he considered this a courteous discourse between scientists and that there should be no “ad hominem” aspect to the discussion. He really liked Dr. Hayley. I really like Dr. Hayley. Dr. Hayley was one of the first people I read to inform myself about why I was so sick. Dr. Hayley has taken risks to tell the truth. This is something to admire indeed! Especially now, in 2023, when we see how craven academics can be!
Andy proceeds with a long scientific analysis of Dr. Hayley’s claims about OSR, about Hayley’s theories about how to use it, and his calculations as to its half-life. He talks about fast and slow cycling compounds and the unlikelihood of a permanent bond. He talks about first and second order kinetics. I would like to figure out what he is saying and explain it here, but I do not have the background to grasp these things in an even elementary way. If you do, I have put the link to the discussion here. http://onibasu.com/archives/am/273252.html
Andy argued that he was unusual in his knowledge and expertise, and he did not think that Dr. Hayley possessed the specific, specialized knowledge to evaluate how to use OSR. He claimed that he did have that specialized knowledge and that it is an unusual sort of expertise. “Kinetics is not a common thing for chemists to know,” he explained, “and the relevant part of kinetics here actually is considered chemical engineering - but a chemical engineer would never have known enough descriptive chemistry to figure the rest of the relevant material out.”
He emphasized, however, that both he and Dr. Hayley wish nothing more than for all the autistic children to return to normal neurological development and for all the adults poisoned by their dental work and other exposures to return to a normal state of health. He pointed out that he had no skin in this game. He didn't make any money selling lipoic acid, and If OSR turned out to be a better chelator, he could just modify his books to reflect that new reality and sell a ton of new additions.
He said that he does not want Dr. Hayley to feel “attacked, belittled or just bad.” His interest was in people not hurting themselves or their children, or doctors hurting their patients. He commented that Dr. Hayley should review the relevant material, brush up on kinetics and pharmacology, and start offering accurate information. “Accurate information is what will let people figure out how to use OSR properly, and when to use it.”
The upshot is that Dr. Hayley, at least in 2010, did not provide enough information to indicate how to take OSR and whether it is safe and effective. Andy did not think at that time, that a “reasonable person in possession of the facts, would be wise to use OSR as it is risky.” It does not have a solidly determined half-life and many other relevant factors are left unanswered. It is not as though there are not any other chelators, either, he said. Alpha lipoic acid has been used for 20 plus years and has a proven clinical track record. Even cilantro, which nobody knows now to use properly, would be safer to figure out than using this.
This analysis was written more than a decade ago, and perhaps there is more information to be had about OSR/Emeramide than there was back then. Perhaps the product that Dr. Hayley is experimenting on in his lab is different from the product from China. I don’t know what Dr. Hayley is saying now about the half-life of the product, or even if he considers the half-life to be important. I do know that the people who are intruding on our support group are saying that this chelator can be taken any old way you want. I know that Andy would totally disagree and warn people against doing that.
The admins and moderators in our support group have become allergic to discussions of OSR. Personally, I wonder, does OSR make people mentally ill or is it mentally ill and delusional people who are attracted to it? People from the OSR groups direct message struggling members of our group saying that we are pushing ACC to make money (somehow) and that we all secretly use OSR and are lying about it. This seems delusional and is why I have wondered if the product makes people mentally ill. We have gotten entirely fed up with the irrational batshit quality of attacks from the OSR proponents. Now, if anyone even mentions the stuff they get thrown out of the group.
Our support group is about using alpha lipoic acid and we barely have time or energy to stay on topic for what we are already doing. We are not qualified to discuss problems people may have chelating with OSR, either. We don’t know anything about it other than what Andy had to say, which was it is probably a bit safer than Russian roulette.