Even though heavy metals are ubiquitous, having an excess number of heavy metals in the body can cause many symptoms that are difficult to diagnose. This is why a heavy metal detox is critically important to optimize health.
We are continuously getting heavy metals into our bodies from food, water, and the environment, so preventing their entry is very difficult in today’s world. Again, undergoing regular heavy metal detox is important to stay healthy and prevent chronic diseases from developing.
Heavy metal toxicity is the accumulation of heavy metals in the tissues of the body, and over time these will cause symptoms. There is only one way to offload these and that is to undergo a heavy metal detox on a regular basis.
Heavy metal toxicity is associated with many chronic symptoms and an increased risk of some diseases.
What are the Sources of Heavy Metals?
Heavy metals can be found in paint that contains lead, mercury cadmium, and antimony. Most exposure occurs during the stripping of old lead paint.
Children and babies touching and licking lead paint in old houses will become toxic with lead.
Another source of aluminium, another neurotoxin is cooking utensils, such as pots and pans, which can also contain copper. Other sources of mercury, copper, and arsenic would be household disinfectants and preservatives used in treated wood.
Insecticides and fungicides may contain arsenic, antimony, and cadmium. Rat poisons often contain salt of thallium. Thallium is a bluish-white metal that enters the atmosphere through coal plants, smelters, and mining.
It enters the food chain through plants and can also be present in fish and shellfish.
Cars and trucks release both manganese and cadmium from the catalytic converter and from tires and diesel exhaust contain high amounts of nickel and sulphur dioxide.
In industry, coal-burning power plants release mercury, antimony, arsenic, and thallium into the atmosphere. Steel and metal foundries release a variety of toxic metals including lead, arsenic, copper, aluminium, thallium, cobalt, and antimony, into the atmosphere.
Another hidden source of industrial toxin exposure is the use of industrial wastes containing zinc and iron to make fertilizers – these fertilizers usually contain arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, as well as highly toxic dioxins. Organic foods do not contain these toxic fertilizers, so is worth buying organic whenever possible.
Fish is becoming a significant source of methyl mercury, a serious neurotoxin, and larger fish at the top of the food chain are going to be even more toxic with mercury, such as tuna, swordfish, shark, marlin, sea bass and halibut, which should be eaten in limited quantities or not at all.
What are the Symptoms of Heavy Metal Toxicity?
Some commonly reported symptoms are:
- Poor concentration
- Headaches
- Fatigue and a general malaise
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Endocrine disturbances
- Autoimmune diseases
- Gastrointestinal complaints, such as diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, gas, heartburn, indigestion heartburn, and indigestion
- Nervous system malfunctions — burning extremities, numbness, tingling, paralysis, and/or an electrifying feeling throughout the body
- Chronic pain throughout the muscles and tendons or any soft tissues of the body
- High or low blood pressure
- Mood and behaviour changes, including depression and anxiety
- Joint pain
- Autoimmunity
What Heavy Metals Cause Symptoms?
Those are just a few of the symptoms, and symptoms vary depending on the type of metal that is causing the problem. Further research has shown:
- Farmers using pesticides or herbicides that are toxic with lead have a 50% relative increase in the risk of developing neurological disorders of Alzheimer’s disease or ALS/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
- Mercury dental amalgams may slightly increase the risk of multiple sclerosis.
- Low levels of exposure to arsenic, lead, cadmium, and copper were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.
- Exposure to cadmium showed a moderately increased risk of death from all causes.
- Heavy metal toxicity has been associated with an increased risk of some cancers, such as lung and kidney cancers.
Even very small doses over time will accumulate in the cells and organs of the body and disrupt their metabolic functioning.
How Can I Test My Heavy Metal Toxicity?
There are a number of tests such as urine and faeces tests that can be used to determine the level of toxic metals leaving the body.
Before collecting the samples, a doctor would normally inject a chelator into the body. This is generally expensive, and a snapshot of what metals are leaving the body at that moment in time.
A simpler test that can also give good results is the Tissue Hair Mineral Analysis, which is self-administered and very easy to conduct.
The HMD Hair Mineral Analysis And Toxic Metals Test is a real innovation in health testing, using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometers which are capable of detecting parts per billion levels. It tests the hair shaft for a variety of minerals, trace elements, and heavy metals are measured, such as the following:
- 8 toxic or heavy metals (antimony, arsenic, aluminium, beryllium, cadmium, lead, mercury, uranium)
- 29 minerals and trace elements (calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, iron, manganese, chromium, selenium, boron, cobalt, molybdenum, sulphur, germanium, barium, bismuth, rubidium, lithium, nickel, platinum, thallium, vanadium, strontium, tin, titanium, tungsten, zirconium)
- Ratios of minerals such as calcium/phosphorus, sodium/potassium, calcium/potassium, zinc/copper, sodium/magnesium, calcium/magnesium, iron/copper
- Ratios of toxic metals to minerals such as calcium/lead, iron/lead, iron/mercury, selenium/mercury, zinc/cadmium, zinc/mercury, sulphur/mercury, sulphur/cadmium, sulphur/lead.
Once the laboratory receives your hair sample and returns the results, we will send you a full personal report of your detailed test results (about 10 – 12 pages) so that you can improve your health status.
How Can I Eliminate Heavy Metals from My Body?
Avoid Sources of Toxins
The first law of toxicology is “eliminate the source of toxins.” So, begin making some lifestyle changes such as eating more organic foods, eliminating large fish full of mercury, stopping smoking loaded with cadmium, drinking clean water, exercising and sweating, and more.
Alkaline Detoxification Diet
Go for the 15-Day Alkaline Detox Diet – simply eat as much salad, steamed vegetables, soups, vegetable juices, stir-fry veggies, or baked in an oven, eat nuts and seeds and plenty of fruit including avocados and coconuts.
Drink Plenty of Water
Water is a solvent, and it dissolves toxins to help their elimination from the body.
Your heavy metal toxic load will increase If you do not drink enough water.
Plan on drinking at least 2 litres of mineral water daily. Never drink chlorinated water from the tap as chlorine is itself a toxin.
Eat Plenty of Detox Foods
Here are some important foods to add to your diet on a regular basis as they help eliminate toxic metals from the body:
- CILANTRO or Coriander (Coriander sativum) is a powerful heavy metal eliminator and is helpful in removing neurotoxins, such as mercury, from the body.
- BLUEBERRIES – consuming blueberry extract may help detox heavy metals from the brain’s lymphatics and detoxify the brain by inhibiting a particular protein that blocks the brain’s cleansing process.
- LEMONS – lemon juice is especially helpful in detoxing lead from the body. A daily dose of vitamin C can reduce blood lead levels.
- CHLORELLA – like cilantro, chlorella helps the body detox from neurotoxins such as mercury, lead, and cadmium.
- GARLIC – garlic and onions both contain sulphur, which helps in the detoxification pathways of the liver. It can help eliminate arsenic and lead from the body by boosting the production of glutathione, the body’s most powerful detoxification enzyme.
- BEETS – will help the liver to eliminate toxins. One study found that rats given beetroot juice saw an increase in liver detoxifying enzymes, such as glutathione, which are important for the body’s antioxidant defense.
- TURMERIC – The active compound of turmeric, curcumin, helps protect the body after mercury exposure when consumed regularly. Curcumin can also reduce the damage to the liver and the kidneys caused by mercury, while also increasing detoxifying liver enzymes such as glutathione levels.
Avoid Toxic Foods
Avoiding foods that tend to be high in heavy metals is another step to reducing your toxic load,
These foods would include:
- Rice contains arsenic with brown or organic rice that stores arsenic in the bran having twice the amount. Avoid feeding babies rice formula too.
- Large fish high up on the food chain contain more mercury than other fish – tuna, swordfish, bluefin tuna, and shark.
- Heavy metals are present in certain alcoholic drinks such as non-organic wines.
- Non-organic foods are likely to contain heavy metals from the pesticides, fungicides and artificial fertilizers used.
What Natural Heavy Metal Detox Supplements Really Work?
When in doubt, look at the science! Amongst the hundreds of different products sold online, literally none have any type of science to back their claims.
HMD, which stands for Heavy Metal Detox is one such natural supplement.
What is HMD?
HMD is a natural heavy metal detox supplement.
HMD effectively eliminated aluminium, arsenic, antimony, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, and uranium.
HMD has been scientifically tested with 350 people in double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.
