The Toxic Metal Solution

In this modern day and age it is extremely unfortunate that toxic metals and chemicals of all sorts have become the significant problem that they are today. Some of the more significant are mercury, lead, aluminium, copper and cadmium.

The intent of writing this is not to convince anyone that a problem exists. The scientific literature is quite definitive about this. The intent is to illustrate how sneaky and insidious the metals are and what we can do about detecting and treating this issue.

What are they?

Toxic metals are minerals that do not have any known biological functions and are considered poisonous to the biological system. They are often referred to as heavy metals due to their high atomic weights and they tend to displace the lighter nutritional metals, such as zinc, calcium, iron, etc. They have become a major cause for birth defects, ADHD, autism, disability, aging, mental illness, divorce, criminality and all the killer diseases of our day. All of the toxic metals are extremely acid-forming, physically toxic and neurotoxic. Human hair has been accepted as an effective tissue for biological monitoring of toxic heavy metals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is being used for this purpose throughout the world.

Where are they?

Toxic metals are present in our food, air and water. In short they are everywhere and there is no way a person can completely avoid them in the modern world. A few examples for illustration. Lead in Mt. Isa is creating massive issue. The current lawsuit for the poisoning of a little girl now living in Townsville is merely a scratch on the surface of the problem. Mercury is in our seafood (yes, sorry to say all our seafood) as well as our silver amalgam fillings which are usually about 50% mercury. Aluminium is in our cans, anti-perspirants, municipal water supply and in many other common products. Copper is in our water pipes, foods from pesticides and retained in the body when estrogens are high. Arsenic is in treated wood, drinking water and many foods. Cadmium was found in McDonalds Shrek drinking cups a couple of years ago in the coloured dyes. Children's plastic toys often have cadmium in, as do many foods due to cadmium being present in NPK fertilizer.

How do they get in?

From the few short examples above you can imagine how they get in our system. They hitch a ride with a nutrient. They come in with the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. These are the most common ways but there are many ways these damaging metals enter our body and they are all usually without our knowledge.

What do they do?

In short they block the ability of our body to use nutrients. That's right they block nutrients. If you have mercury on your cell it will stop upwards of 1000 zinc from working properly. Stop and think what this means. You would need to be consuming 1000 times the recommended amount of zinc just to function. Clearly this is impossible and the logical conclusion from this is that diet and supplements alone will not fix this problem.

They also replace preferred minerals. Calcium is the preferred mineral for bone formation, however if calcium is not adequate in the diet and lead is available the lead will replace the calcium in the bone. This lead is then serving an actually purpose in the body and is doing a job. The problem is that it is doing the job very poorly and it is weakening the bone making it more susceptible to osteoporosis amongst other issues into the future.

These metals are also virtually all neurotoxins. They have a tendency to "short-circuit" and otherwise damage the brain and nervous system in many ways, leading to most mental and neurological disorders. The mad hatters of Alice in Wonderland were real. They went mad from using mercury to treat the material they were making hats from.

How do we detect them?

This is the really interesting part. I advocate hair tissue mineral analysis. However in painting a complete picture we need to consider that every test has its' limitations. You wouldn't get a blood test if you broke a bone would you? With toxic metal exposure blood tests are not usually the best testing medium. Let's explore.

In blood testings defence, it will show immediate high dose toxic exposures. If you swallow a large amount of lead this will show in the blood. However, the body will do its best to clear this lead out of the blood as quickly as possible due to it toxic nature. It will do this by trying to eliminate it or store it (like in the bones explained above) Once it is out of the blood it won't be detected even though it is still in the body!

The question to ask is what about chronic ongoing LOW levels of exposure?

Hair analysis studies have shown it to be an excellent tissue to monitor toxic metal exposure in humans and animals. For example, animals receiving 300 parts per million of cadmium in drinking water had an average intake of 4.5 milligrams over 12 weeks. Peak levels were reached in the liver, kidneys and hair in 4 weeks. In animals exposed to lesser amounts, a peak was reached at 7 weeks in the kidneys, and 9 weeks in the liver and hair. Blood levels during this time remained consistently low despite continuous exposure and did not correlate with kidney or liver concentrations. However, the HAIR cadmium levels did correlate with kidney and liver concentrations. It has been concluded by this and many other studies that hair can be used as an indicator of whole-body accumulation and that blood is not a good indicator of accumulation.

Finally and perhaps most importantly the hair tissue analysis helps to monitor the elimination of toxic metals. As you get healthier you will start to dump toxic metals from their storage places and this will be recorded in the hair. Without this tool it is difficult to monitor progress.

How do we get rid of toxic metals?

Contrary to what I hear some of my patients say, you can eliminate toxic metals from the body. However, you must do this in a safe, controlled and supervised way. Using synthetic chelators to rip out toxins is, in our experience, not the best way to go about dealing with these issues and can at times make things worse.

Nutritional Balancing (as explained fully in the website and videos) accomplishes true elimination and much more. It helps to restore normal functioning of the body. This is the key. Built into every Nutritional Balancing program are seven different methods to eliminate toxic metals that are used simultaneously. They are:

• Improve your energy level
• Provide support for the organs of elimination
• Inhibit the sympathetic nervous system
• Reduce exposure
• Supplement with heavy metal antagonists
• Supplement with natural heavy metal chelators
• Other natural detoxification methods, specifically infrared saunas

In summary, enhancing energy production, inhibiting the sympathetic nervous system, assisting the organs of elimination and reducing exposure to all toxins greatly assists the removal of toxic chemicals from the body. The unique value of hair mineral tissue analysis is not just detecting toxic metals but guiding the balancing of body chemistry to assure their safe and swift removal. When the seven methods are combined, the metals will be removed without the need for synthetic chelators. Toxic metals are often layered deep within body tissues. The recommended diet, supplement, lifestyle and detoxification program will slowly release layer after layer. Hidden metals will often be revealed on future mineral tests as they are eliminated through the hair, skin and through other routes.

It all starts with a simple hair tissue mineral analysis. If you are concerned at all about toxic chemicals and metals specifically I would strongly recommended getting this inexpensive test done as soon as possible. For more information or to get a test done please take some time to fully explore our website or check us out on facebook.