Packing my chelators tonight was a breeze because I have finally graduated to 50mg doses of ALA. For the next few weeks, I will be taking one 25mg DMSA capsule and two 25mg ALA capsules every three-hours. No need to pull out the scale and capsule filling devices. I now only need to remember how many of each full capsules I must take when it’s time.

To make matters even better, it appears Kirman Labs also has ALA in 50mg capsules, and they are only 23% more than their 25mg counterpart. It’s like a double-bonus. It’s easier to take (less capsules to count) and is 62% less expensive. Once I run out of my current ALA (three-round) supply, I will switch to the 50mg capsules.

Here are the numbers for the last round where I prepared ALA:

Tonight’s numbers are:

Considering it has been over two-and-a-half months since the last time I packed ALA, I am not surprised it took me longer than it used to. What can I say? I am rusty and out of tune. The good news is that after nine-weeks on the same strength, I am ready to titrate my ALA up to 50mg. It’s just one more step along this long, winding path.

I am also roughly halfway through David Hammond’s book Mercury Poisoning: The Undiagnosed Epidemic. The book is a good read and I plan to publish my own review once I complete it, but if you can’t wait for that post, please check out the review Eric wrote over at How I Recovered. And while you’re there, check out all of his posts—a lot of good information can be found.

Here are the numbers for the previous week, round 19:

And tonight’s numbers:

This week threw me a curve ball, as I had to open four new bottles of supplements. I am starting to wonder if those seals that declare “sealed for your safety” are there to protect you from the bottle’s contents. All kidding aside, this should be the last time I have to pack chelator capsules, at least for four-weeks. Starting next week I up my ALA dose to 25mg, which as luck would have it, is the same strength my capsules come in today.

Here are the numbers for the previous week, round 18:

And tonight’s numbers:

Whatever time I saved while packing supplements was absorbed by ALA preparations. Too bad I had to open a (almost impossible to open) bottle of ALA half-way through the capsules packing process. I may have actually bested my overall time from last week.

I just finished my 18^th Sunday night ritual. As I always do, here are the numbers for the previous week, round 17:

And here are tonight’s delightful numbers:

I wasn’t expecting such an improvement in my ALA preparation time. Sure, I would’ve been happy with shaving off a minute or two, but a 33% reduction is amazing.

It’s round 17, so time to post another time-fest for preparations. Here were the numbers for round 16:

And here are tonight’s delightful numbers:

You’ll notice that improvements were found in both preparations. The minute saved while preparing the supplements (I could only guess) comes from the fact that I only needed to open one new bottle tonight. As for the 10-minute shaving from my ALA / DMSA preparations, I believe that has to do with two things:

• I titrated up to 18.75 mg, which in turn means that I take 1/4 from each of three full capsules and and drop it in a new capsule. I then close the three capsules with 3/4 of the content remaining. This means I only have to create six-new capsules, with the remaining 18 coming from the 3/4 full capsules I closed back up
• The capsules could barely hold 25 mg of DMSA plus 12.5 mg of ALA. With the increase of ALA I could no longer combine the chelators into a single capsule. This means I don’t have to also add the DMSA to each capsule. Big time saver.

I have four-weeks of this routine before I attempt to titrate my ALA up to 25 mg. Once I successfully move up my ALA strength I will no longer need to create my own capsules for at least four more weeks, when I again attempt to titrate up my ALA to 37.5 mg.

Last time we met, I was posting about the preparation time for round 15:

Without further ado, here are tonight’s numbers:

I find it quite interesting how the same amount of overall time was spent for both preparations, yet the individual times do no match up. I was fortunate this week to not have to open new supplements, but that gain was lost when I ventured downstairs to find a new bottle of DMSA. Once I found it, I was greeted by super-glue level adhesive blocking me from accessing the capsules.

Next week I titrate the ALA up to 18.75 mg per dose instead of 12.5 mg. While I am looking forward to the next increase, I am trying to determine how I can fit 25 mg of DMSA and 18.75 mg of ALA in the same capsule. I may need to just accept the fact that I will need to start taking two capsules every four-hours.

As I do (almost) every week, I’ll first start off with the times for the previous round preparation, round 14:

And here are tonight’s numbers:

The increase of three-minutes for the supplements preparation can be attributed to the fact that I exhausted six different supplements mid-fill and had to open new bottles. An average of 30-seconds per bottle isn’t bad, considering the manufacturer makes them more than merely tamper proof. I swear, they use super glue on these things.

I am happy to shave six-minutes (~21%) off of my ALA / DMSA preparation time. The quick reference matrix is really paying off. While I would like to relish this small victory, I have to be realistic and realize that any further improvements for this specific dosage won’t come anywhere close to this. I would not be surprised if I am now over the hump and fighting against the law of diminishing returns.

Par for the course, first off are the times for round 13:

And here are tonight’s numbers:

Looks like I made positive strides for both preparation regimens. The biggest surprise was the two-minute (or 18%) improvement in the supplements preparation time. I figured that would’ve stayed at ~10-minutes, so a reduction of two is a pleasant surprise. The ALA / DMSA preparation time was something I expected to improve this round, seeing as I created a matrix to help improve my efficiency from last week. What I didn’t take into account was the need to modify a tool I use, so I believe that next week’s results should show additional improvement.

Round 13 has brought another change to my regimen, the introduction of Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA). With this change comes the need to once again pack my own capsules, since I need to start with 12.5mg of ALA per dose, yet the capsules come in 25mg. It’s been a while since I recorded my preparation times, so here are the times for round 9:

Since I no longer needed to split DMSA capsules the time dropped from 11-minutes to one. This, of course changed when I started splitting ALA capsules. Here are tonight’s numbers:

Yes, you read that correctly, it took me 41-minutes to pack my ALA/DMSA capsules. This is in large part to having to do math for each capsule weight, leading to an insane amount of time in between each two capsules being filled. I plan on creating a matrix (much like I have done for DMSA) to alleviate this slowdown and get it back (hopefully) to where I once was.