I was very lucky when I got sick. Not lucky to get sick! That was a terrible experience! But I was lucky to have received exactly the right education before I needed it – a PhD in chemistry (Princeton, 1985) – close enough to medicine to be able to read physician’s textbooks, but not close enough to share all the myths and be sure of the things “everyone knows.” I was lucky to have had some business experience so I viewed physicians as professional service providers and knew how to get the services I needed from them. This made me comfortable enough to browbeat, wheedle, sweet talk, and cajole physicians into helping. I had the right political experience to realize I could get lots of valuable information by just talking to enough people and I learned lots from fellow patients. I also learned how much people suffer from this terrible condition. I learned how poor the understanding is of how to diagnose and treat chronic mercury poisoning. I wanted to write this book so that other people don’t have to do all their own detective work when they get sick. So that people could start with the best information I could find. So that future victims of mercury poisoning won’t have to suffer unnecessarily because nobody really knows what to do.
Thank you Andy (and now Joann) for your pioneering work and generous nature.
Many people are surprised about how little help I received from doctors during my recovery from lead toxicity. They should not be, nor should they expect mainstream doctors to be very helpful for their chronic heavy metal toxicity problems.
The most advantageous business situation for mainstream medicine is when there is no cure but just treatments that people need to take daily for a very long time. That produces valuable repeat business for the doctors, Big Pharma, etc.
Too many symptoms are greatly reduced or go away with safe heavy metal detox. Detox is bad for mainstream medicine’s bottom line.
Furthermore there are no big $100 million FDA studies on a particular detox method. This increases the risks when a doctor is sued and makes matters more difficult when a doctor has to defend a complaint by the medical board. Detox is not likely to be covered by medical insurance and current testing for long-term, chronic exposure is poor.
So it is not surprising that most doctors don’t go anywhere near heavy metal detox.
Andy’s education and experiences were excellent preparation for his work as an author and detox consultant. He had the knowledge from his PhD in Chemistry. He had his years working as a Chemical Engineer. He had the unfortunate experience to know first hand how it feels to get sick from heavy metals. Finally he had first hand experience successfully going through the detox process.
Finally he seemed to have a strong sense of ethics and decency, the type that used to be important to the medical community.
How many medical doctors can match Andy’s combination of traits and experiences?
Humanity should be grateful Andy did not become a medical doctor!