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Get Your Heavy Metal Levels Tested! (Updated) |
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Written by Dr. Edward Zimmer
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There may be something sinister lurking around in your body. They are known as heavy metals and you should be concerned. Included are metals like Mercury, Lead, Aluminum, Arsenic, and many others. The list of potential health hazards associated with these heavy metals is staggering. They include common problems like fatigue, mental fog, tingling, numbness, colds, flu, sweating, headaches, high blood pressure, depression, and mood swings. More serious symptoms include dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Auto Immune disease, organ failure, cancer, and loss of senses.
Many of us have been exposed to these heavy metals and unexpectedly have high levels in our tissues. We get exposed to mercury through our older dental fillings, from playing with thermometers, through eating fish like tuna, and from vaccinations. Typical Aluminum exposures come from cookware and from underarm antiperspirants. Arsenic comes mainly from soil and water. Lead can be from old paint, dust, and soil.
Let me share a couple of stories with you about some patients I have treated who had high levels of heavy metals. One patient had long-term problems with fatigue, headaches, memory problems and depression. She had been to numerous doctors and when her blood tests came back as normal her doctors dismissed her symptoms as having been psychosomatic. In other words, her symptoms were all being made up in her head. No one tested her for heavy metal poisoning. Her levels of Mercury came back off the charts high. Reduction of these levels through chelation (metal binding) therapy resolved most of her symptoms.
Another interesting case involved a whole family. The mother insisted that I check her children for mercury exposure because she was convinced that they had high levels after she read an article on the web. I actually tried to talk her out of the test as I felt that she was wasting the $75 per child that it costs for the test. She insisted so I relented. I ended up being right about the Mercury. The kids had little to no mercury. However, they all tested extremely high for Arsenic! In fact, they were dangerously high. Again, we undertook a protocol to lower the children’s levels.
It makes sense to have your levels of heavy metals tested even if you are not experiencing symptoms at this time. The children in the above example were not showing any frank symptoms of Arsenic poisoning even though they clearly were poisoned. Since high levels of Arsenic can cause diseases like cancer, I thank God we found this out at an early age in these kids.
So, how do you get tested? The simplest method to screen for heavy metals is through hair analysis. You clip some hair and send it in for analysis of heavy metal content. The second method is through a urine analysis. You are given a capsule that contains an agent that binds metals and gets them out of your system through the urine. You then collect your urine for 6 hours and it is tested for heavy metal content. The tests are easy and relatively inexpensive. You can expect to pay around $75 for a test.
We have the kits in the clinic and can send them to you through the mail. Contact me through www.ZimmerNutrition.com if you are interested.
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