I have seen a recent increase in the number of patients who have tested positive for both lead and arsenic. And, it is very common for me to see elevated levels of mercury in patients. This is especially true for those with silver-amalgam fillings. I thought it might be important to let you know that you can easily test yourself and your loved ones to find out if there is a problem with heavy metal exposure.

Heavy metals wreak havoc inside your body. Mercury, lead, and aluminum cause neurological symptoms that can cause serious health problems. These include loss of mental capability, dementia, Alzhiemer’s, Parkinson’s, loss of feeling in the extremities and face, crushing fatigue, headaches and many others. Arsenic can cause organ failure and significantly increased cancer risks. The problem is that you may have elevated amounts of these heavy metals for many years prior to the development of disease. Heavy metals may be quietly, or not so quietly, reducing the quality of your long-term health.

So, how do you tell if you may have elevated levels of these metals in your body? The only heavy metal that can be accurately tested in blood is lead, since it can concentrate in bone marrow (which makes your blood cells). The other heavy metals concentrate inside tissue (like your brain) where they are not readily available to the blood. Thus, measuring them in the blood is not a good idea.

There are two good and relatively easy ways to measure your body’s load for heavy metals. The first is Hair Analysis which costs around $75. You simply harvest a small sample of hair from the back of your head which is then sent to the lab for analysis. If you have elevated levels of heavy metals in your hair, you can be pretty confident that you have high levels in your body. There are a couple of limitations with this test. First, you have to have enough hair to test. You do not need a lot of hair, but those with a buzz-cut will not be able to use this test. The other is that you do not want to do this test if you have colored your hair recently and you are instructed not to use hair products for a couple of days prior to taking the test. For some, this will be impossible.

The other option is to perform a Challenge Urine Test which costs around $110. This test requires the taking of an oral agent that binds heavy metals and brings them out in the urine. I use the FDA approved chelator of lead: DMSA. After taking the dose, you collect all of your urine over the next 6 hours. A sample is then sent to the lab for analysis. The amount of heavy metals found in the sample is then reported. Again, if you have elevated amounts found in your urine, you can be fairly confident that you have high levels in your body.

What does it mean if you test positive for heavy metals?

It is important for you to know that neither of these tests will answer the question of whether the heavy metals found in your body are causing health problems. The exception to this is if the levels come back as “off the charts.” What the tests do divulge is whether you have heavy metals in your body and at what levels compared to normal values. Depending upon your values, you may or may not want to take action. For example, if you have no real symptoms of note and your levels of, let’s say, mercury come back as present but within typical values; you may not want to do anything. And this is what I would more than likely suggest. However, if you suffer from headaches, brain fog, and fatigue and have the same level you may want to take action.

The reason is that each of us is a different bag of chemistry and your body may be very sensitive to even small amounts of mercury, whereas another’s may not. That is why two people can walk into a room that has been sprayed with an air freshener and one will be fine while the other may begin to cough. One person may take a drug and have no side-effects while another takes the same drug and gets a side-effect even at a lower dose. Thus, these tests will tell you if you have an expected amount of heavy metals, more than expected, or much higher than expected. The only result that will necessitate immediate action is the “much higher than expected.”

What action do I take to get rid of heavy metals?

The process of binding heavy metals and ridding them from your body is called chelation. There are two major ways to chelate heavy metals from your body. The first is through I.V. therapy and the second is orally. Either can be very effective but oral chelation is much easier to perform since your regular daily activities are not disrupted by having to sit in a chair with a needle in your arm for hours a week. Both processes need to be supervised by a health professional who is experienced in the chelation of heavy metals. Although safe when done correctly, unsupervised chelation can become dangerous.

The Bottom Line:

It is not a bad idea to test yourself and your family members for heavy metal exposure. The tests are easy to perform and the results may give you some important insights into the state of your future health. Contact me if you are interested and I can send you a kit to perform the test. If you find that you have levels of heavy metals in your body and you want to get out “the lead out”, email me for chelation guidance.