Is mercury to blame for your healing plateau?

If you're a parent of a child on the autism spectrum you know that it can feel overwhelming. There are a million suggestions on dietary adjustments, supplements, and behavioural therapies. Often times on the GAPS diet, a child's cognitive function improves yet other behaviours seem to plateau or regress. That can be disheartening when it feels like you've spent 6 hours a day cooking the most perfect, nutrient dense foods for your loved one!As powerful as the GAPS diet is for autism, it's important to remember that it is a shell.  It is, in my experience, the best diet to support anyone on the spectrum, but there are often additional therapies that may accelerate recovery.  One of these is detoxification from heavy metals.Unless you live under a rock you have heard of the link between vaccines and autism. I'm not here to make any claims about that, but to help you notice if exposure to some of the common adjuvants like mercury may be to blame for a plateau in your GAPS journey.We have all had exposure to mercury, whether it is acute, like a fluorescent light bulb breaking, or chronic from years of mercury amalgams (silver fillings are 50% mercury) in our mouths. Unfortunately even the tiniest amount of mercury can make a difference in how our body operates and it can be passed down to our children during pregnancy! Mercury can bind to receptor sites in our important organs and glands (brain, thyroid etc.) where minerals are meant to be taken in. This can lead to hormonal and neurotransmitter dysfunction and mineral deficiencies!Symptoms of mercury toxicity:

• Headaches
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Parkinsons & MS
• Hormonal imbalances
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Depression, anxiety, insomnia
• Foggy thinking
• Unexplained pain
• Food sensitivity

A simple way to test if you may have mercury toxicity:I recommend most mothers of autistic children start by doing a thiol sensitivity test. This is something you can easily do at home and can save months of confusion later on. Thiols are a group of foods that are high in sulphur. They are powerful detoxification foods but in some situations they can give unwanted symptoms. They act by pulling mercury out of tissue and letting it go into the blood stream. This can basically cause continual acute mercury exposure and increase unwanted symptoms. Yes we want mercury removed, but it needs to be done with extreme caution! If thiol foods are problematic, there is a good chance, mercury toxicity is a root issue that should be addressed while on the GAPS protocol.What not to do!Please do not, under any circumstances attempt to chelate these metals on your own. Do not buy a heavy metal detox pack, don't start juicing cilantro and adding chlorella to everything. Do not be convinced to do an IV chelation as it can make you extremely sick! Vigorously check your supplements to make sure there is no added alpha lipoid acid, chlorella, cilantro (coriander) in them. These pull out mercury and also drop it in the blood stream, redistributing it in the body.High Thiol FoodsBegin by writing all of your symptoms and severity on a scale of 1-10. This is important because we can tend to focus on just one symptom which can be misleading. For 7 days avoid high thiol foods and supplements. Take notes on how you're feeling. This can be a reduction in a children self stimulation, better speech, sleeping through the night, or really any symptoms.Supplements to avoid include: Alpha lipoid Acid, Chlorella, Cystine, Bromelian, papain, Chondratin and Glucosamine, methionine, glutathione, Dimethylsulphoxide, N- Acetylcysteine, and Methylsulphonylmethane.If you suspect there is a correlation between the low thiol food exclusion and behaviour, mood or other symptoms talk to a qualified GAPS practitioner who is experienced in mercury detoxification. Please do not attempt anything on your own and by no means do IV chelation as it has been shown to be extremely dangerous!If nothing else, comes from this test, at least it will reassure you that mercury toxicity is not a root issue that needs to be dealt with!