“I’ve been where you are” is a truism with me.
Surprisingly, my journey into the very heart of functional medicine was not born from professional or academic pursuits — it was born from personal necessity.
This is my medical story.
As a matter of medical introductions, I am Dr. Mark Sylvester, MD, ABAM, and lifelong resident of Sarasota, Florida. I earned my MD credentials at the University of Miami and trained at the University of Florida College of Medicine with graduate education in Psychobiology and Neuropsychopharmacology. I’m board certified in Psychiatry & Neurology as well as Addiction Medicine, with a number of medical residency, faculty and director roles keeping my schedule extra full.
Evidence of my oral surgery to remove the source of metal toxicity: mercury in old amalgam fillings.
My Breaking Point
In my early 30s, my health began to deteriorate inexplicably. What started as intermittent fatigue escalated into profound exhaustion. Migraines, once rare, became routine. Then came the fasciculations—unexplained muscle twitches—and blackout spells that defied all standard diagnostics. My gut, too, seemed to betray me. I developed an array of food sensitivities, persistent bloating, and what I would later understand as leaky gut syndrome. The world began to look foggy and unfamiliar. At times, my energy plummeted so low that basic daily functions were a struggle.
Specialists gave me the usual suspects: stress, overwork, depression. Some suggested I consider seeing a psychiatrist. But then a series of MRIs revealed lesions in my brain, classic markers consistent with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). My labs matched the textbook profile. I had a family history, and they found clonal bands in my spinal fluid. The neurologists agreed: it was MS.
Still, something didn’t add up.
My symptoms kept expanding, often in ways not fully explained by MS. Traditional medicine offered a future of management, not recovery — and none of my traditional practitioners asked the question that haunted me: “Why?”
One of countless therapies I endured in search of the cause of my failed health.
The Traffic Jam Inside
Imagine the body as a freeway system. Each car on the road is a cell, each engine a mitochondrion — the powerhouse of the cell. When a few cars break down, traffic still flows. As more break down, traffic begins to slow. And eventually, the entire system gets gridlocked when too many cars are disabled.
This is what was happening inside of me. My cellular systems were grinding to a halt. Mitochondria — under immense oxidative stress — had switched into “safe mode,” barely functioning to keep me alive. The problem wasn’t that I was dying quickly, rather I was slowly fading.
In my own testing, I found mercury in troubling levels. Hair tests confirmed it, and muscle testing pointed toward amalgams in my teeth.
I learned that as a pervasive environmental toxin, mercury can wreak havoc across multiple systems. It displaces critical minerals like cobalt, chromium, selenium, and zinc. That’s why people with mercury toxicity may show B12 deficiencies, blood sugar instability, and adrenal burnout — even with good diets and supplementation. Suddenly, all my mysterious symptoms made sense.
Missteps and Meltdowns
With a new direction, I sought expert help. A trusted colleague referred me to a specialist who offered IV chelation and IV glutathione, treatments often hailed in functional circles. It felt promising — at first.
But that choice nearly destroyed me. After undergoing the IV protocols, I crashed. Hard.
Bedridden for three months, I was barely able to function. The problem wasn't detox — it was redistribution. The IV treatments had mobilized mercury without properly binding or eliminating it. The traffic jam in my body turned into a multi-car pileup, scattering burning vehicles across my biological interstate.
Worse was when I returned to the clinic and explained what happened, their response was dismissive. “We’ve never seen this reaction,” they said. “You must be sensitive.”
But I later learned that many patients had similar crashes. The providers had seen it — they just didn't understand it. I wasn’t medically gaslit out of malice — they genuinely didn’t know how to explain what went wrong.
So I pushed for answers on m own by digging deeper into the emerging world of low-dose, frequent chelation. It’s a method championed by Dr. Andrew Cutler and others, which emphasizes gentle, sustained removal of metals with close attention to timing, half-lives, and detox pathways.
I rebuilt my protocols from the ground up, focused on safety and precision. Chelators became my “tow trucks,” slowly and systematically removing the broken-down vehicles on the cellular freeway. The process took years, but it worked.
Weight loss and atrophy on clear display, while a host of invisible symptoms marked the lowest point in my life.
Still quite ill, this picture marked a turning point in which I gained strength through a recovery protocal rooted in chelation.
Bit by bit, my body came back online.
My eye floaters vanished. My seizures stopped. My ability to eat returned. Brain fog lifted. My gut healed. Sensitivities that had made daily life unbearable faded into the background. My MRI scans, once riddled with lesions, came back clean. No clonal bands. No symptoms.
I no longer met any diagnostic criteria for MS. To skeptics, this might sound like misdiagnosis. But my labs were definitive. My imaging was clear.
Today, I stand healthy and profoundly changed. My face, once drawn from adrenal exhaustion, is now bright. My energy is restored. My labs are pristine. But more than that, I carry the scars and wisdom of someone who survived grave and mysterious ailments caused by metal toxicity.
The silver lining is this program you’re considering, the Vesta Chelation System for others like you who are dealing with unexplained illness. My program is grounded in biology, mineral balance, mitochondrial repair, and chelation therapy. It’s not a guesswork protocol — it’s tried and true — built not just on science, but on lived experience, too.
Once found, metal toxicity requires extreme precision and scientific knowledge in its treatment. The half-life of chelators is important. Timing matters. Bindings must be complete. Detox pathways must be open. Redistribution must be avoided. This is a terrain correction, not a quick fix.
To patients across the globe, many of you who’ve been told it’s “all in your head” I have a different message, a different approach, and different outcomes. I say you're NOT crazy — you're toxic. And you’re not alone.
If you’ve been chasing the same illness for years without answers, there’s something deeper going on. Let’s find it. Let’s fix it. The body knows how to heal — if you let it.