Heavy metals cause serious health effects, including reduced growth and development, cancer, organ damage, nervous system damage, and in extreme cases, death. Exposure to some metals, such as mercury and lead, may also cause the development of autoimmunity, in which a person’s immune system attacks its own cells.
This can lead to joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and diseases of the kidneys, circulatory system, and nervous system. Metals are particularly toxic to the sensitive rapidly developing systems of the fetus, infants, and young children.
Some metals, such as lead and mercury, easily cross the placenta and can damage the fetal brain. Childhood exposure to some metals can result in learning difficulties, memory impairment, damage to the nervous system, and behavioral problems such as aggressiveness and hyperactivity.
At higher doses, heavy metals can cause irreversible brain damage. Children may receive higher doses of metals from food than adults since they consume more food for their body weight than adults. Also, children absorb metals more readily through their intestinal tract than adults.
Sources of heavy metals include air emissions from coal-burning plants, smelters, and other industrial facilities (e.g., cadmium and arsenic); waste incinerators (mercury and cadmium); process wastes from mining and industry; pesticides and wood preservatives (e.g., arsenic and chromium); fertilizers (e.g., cadmium is found in phosphate fertilizers); and lead in household plumbing and old house paints.
While certain types of industrial facilities are required by the EPA to report their releases of some heavy metals to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), other major sources3/4including power plants and waste incinerators3/4are not. Consequently, the TRI may significantly under-report actual environmental releases of some metals.
Exposure to metals can occur through a variety of routes. Metals may be inhaled as dust or fume (tiny particulate matter, such as the lead oxide particles produced by the combustion of leaded gasoline). Some metals can be vaporized (e.g., mercury vapor in the manufacture of fluorescent lamps) and inhaled.
Metals may also be ingested involuntarily through food and drink. The amount that is actually absorbed from the digestive tract can vary widely, depending on the chemical form of the metal and the age and nutritional status of the individual. Once a metal is absorbed, it distributes in tissues and organs. Excretion typically occurs primarily through the kidneys and digestive tract, but metals tend to persist in some storage sites, like the liver, bones, and kidneys, for years or decades.
What can be done to help detox and protect our bodies? Detoxification is an important part of our Toxicologist treatment plan.
The first thing that can be done about heavy metal toxicity is to find out what your heavy metal levels are, this is accomplished by analyzing your Heavy Metals test results during a consultation period. Then The Toxicologist will advise what can be done about your Heavy Metals toxicity, including a proffered protocol for Removing Heavy Metals from your body.
Also, Dietary intake is looked at and diet teaching is done with supplements recommended
We believe that it is possible to recover when the right steps are taken toward good health.
Please send an email or call at (619) 567-2449 for fees tailored to meet your particular testing needs.