GDD is not ALS... But are many cases of ALS, GDD or another treatable heavy metal toxicity?

Over the years a significant number of individuals with GDD have asked me, often frightened: "is this ALS?" or "My doctor tells me I have ALS". So my response has typically been: "your symptoms came on right after getting a GBCA injection, so it is GDD and not ALS. You can survive this with chelation". What I had not thought about till recently is: but what about the reverse question: "Could ALS be GDD?" But more rationally: "How many cases of ALS are actually GDD?" but more broadly, and accurately "How many cases of ALS are actually heavy metal toxicity?" .

Of all the toxicities in the modern age, the one category of toxicity that is fundamentally treatable for near cure, are heavy metal toxicities. We have learned recently that microplastics are now in our brains, and now more commonly and in greater amounts than even 10 or 20 years ago. PFAs, glysophates, now we add the pesticide dacthal to the list. The best we can do with these to counteract them, is use the other two branches of therapy: avoidance and detoxification, but only the heavy metals have the third branch: removal. And this third branch is fundamentally the more curative of the two treatment related branches (the second is detoxification). Avoidance is a preventive arm of therapy

ALS has a symptom complex very similar to many of the symptoms of GDD. Often starting peripherally with muscle weakness, nerve conduction issues, and imbalance, then moving more centrally with swallowing difficulty, then respiratory difficulty (because of chest wall muscle weakness). Death is often by pneumonia, which is the final cause of death for many illnesses including cancer. True GDD does not result in this level of central deficit (in the great, great majority). Much of the testing in ALS is to exclude other disease states, such as spinal tap to exclude meningitis or encephalitis from infective or other inflammatory causes. So most often ALS is diagnosed by exclusion of other diseases

Receiving a GBCA and then getting symptoms the disease is GDD and not ALS. But what about looking at it from the other direction: if you have the diagnosis of ALS, how often is it a heavy metal toxicity? GDD (one possibility), but something else like lead or mercury,,, or cadmium, etc. In the description of ALS's underlying causes, heavy metal toxicity is mentioned prominently. A better way to think of it is: in a number of cases, ALS is a misdiagnosis, and the individual actually has a heavy metal toxicity. The critical importance is that at present ALS is a death sentence with no cure. It may be a death sentence that takes a relatively long time to achieve the end, but an incurable death sentence none the less, but there are some drugs that may help a little. Heavy metal toxicities are treatbel to near cure. As mentioned in prior blogs the two key aspects of a chelator are: :1) stability constant with the metal in question and 2) demonstration of removal in vivo in humans

It is also interesting that all the recommendations that I use for GDD are also recommended for ALS (and I have only recently read the recommendations for ALS). I think an early starting point for these, and everything else are: healthy diet with broad range of anti-oxidant property foods, and restoring the microbiome of the digestive system.

My opinion is that all patients with the diagnosis of ALS should be tested for metal toxicity. What we have developed for Gd is optimal for lead as well, essentially always, and for many with mercury toxicity (and to a lesser extent other heavy metals):

24 hr urine for heavy metals., chelation with 5 ml iv Ca-DTPA. 24 hour urine for heavy metals beginning after the first urination post chelation. Gd and lead will always show increased urine content post chelation. Critically they will also show the combination of early Heavy metal removal Flare, and later onset re-equilibrium Flare (most often with onset 3 weeks post chelation. I often leave out mentioning the one thing that sufferers benefit from symptom improvement, that generally begins one week after chelation, and with subsequent chelations the intensity and duration of improvement expand.

I have earlier posted the same recommendation for individuals with weird chronic diseases like stiff person syndrome, chronic inflammatory syndrome, cytokine release syndrome, etc.

More work is needed to elucidate chelators for other heavy metals. HOPO apparently has a broader range of effective heavy metal chelation than DTPA. To repeat from above: optimal chelator is also easy (relatively) to determine: the two properties: 1. high stability constant with the metal, 2. demonstration of in vivo removal in humans (documented by 24 hr urine studies, on occasion supplemented by comparable stool analysis)

At the present time, our approach with iv DTPA and concurrent steroids/antihistamines is highly effective for Gd (and almost certainly) Lead, with very high near cure rate.

Maybe you don't have ALS but a treatable heavy metal toxicity. The case for intelligently thought out chelation.

Richard Semelka, MD