I have intestinal candidiasis and also suffer from chronic fatigue, insomnia and depression. A couple of months ago I had two Amalgams removed (with safe protocols), and since then my insomnia (early wakening) has been consistently worse.

I assume that removing the Amalgams resulted in some mercury being swallowed, and perhaps some mercury vapor inhaled. I am thinking maybe the Candida in my intestines has tranformed some of this inorganic mercury to methyl mercury, which has crossed into my brain causing neurotoxicity and insomnia.

I have recently trialled both selenium and zinc. The selenium caused immediate insomnia. I wonder if this was caused by the selenium chelating mercury from my tissues, which my Candida turned to methyl mercury, ultimately causing neurotoxicity and insomnia.

My experience with zinc continues to confound me. I have taken it for 3 weeks now. At first I experienced typical yeast die-off symptoms. Zinc is known to kill Candida and boost the immune response to fight Candida. Mercury is also known to suppress zinc in various organs in the body, and it is entirely possible that mercury was suppressing zinc in my intestinal mucosa, reducing my body's ability to ward off Candida. Taking supplemental zinc may well have replaced the missing zinc and 'kick-started' an immune response against Candida in my bowels, explaining the die-off symptoms.

Where it has taken a disturbing turn is that I am now experiencing a further deterioration in my insomnia, after 2-3 weeks of zinc. Note that zinc had no effect on my sleep for the first week or two. I am wondering what is going on. Have my levels of zinc increased to the point that it is chelating mercury from my organs, leading to insomnia via the process described above?

I have also read that it has been proven in a scientific trial that zinc mediates (facilitates) mercury neurotoxicity, and further, that chelating zinc from the body improves the symptoms of mercury toxicity. If true, then this might be the cause of my zinc related insomnia. This suggests I should avoid zinc supplementation completely until such time as I have chelated most of the mercury from my brain.

The way I see it at the moment, it is a bit of a Catch 22. One of the reasons I have candidiasis is because my cell mediated immunity is compromised by mercury induced zinc deficiency. Yet taking zinc releases mercury, which Candida changes to methyl mercury, which poisons my brain, and by a separate and additional process, zinc within the brain also worsens existing mercury neurotoxicity.

This is all a bit much for me right now. It is doing my head in. Does anyone understand what I'm saying and have any advice?

Maybe I should take some algae, like spirulina or chlorella. I don't want to stir up any mercury though until I get rid of the Candida in my gut.