If this process is too rapid, the levels of heavy metals in the blood supply can increase so rapidly that they become acute and toxic on their own. This danger is why any heavy metals detoxification program must be pursued under the guidance of a clinically qualified chelation expert, naturopathic physician, or other holistic practitioner with years of experience in removing heavy metals from the body.
If you are looking for a chelation expert, my recommendation is to contact the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating physicians and other health professionals about the efficacy of using integrative medicine, or medicine that treats the whole body, including the mind and spirit. ACAM’s healthcare model focuses primarily on preventing illness, rather than masking symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs. At Acam.org, you can locate a qualified heavy metals removal clinician in your area.
The topic of heavy metals removal from your body is covered in more detail in the sections on specific heavy metals. As you read through these sections, however, keep in mind that removing the sources of exposure is the single most important principle of detoxification. Failure to remove the sources of exposure—even while undergoing aggressive detoxification therapies—will net you very few overall gains.
Chelation strategies are based on a metal element’s natural affinity for molecules with a certain chemical charge. Chemical binding properties provide a pathway for removing damaging heavy metals from the body. Even the best chelators, however, are limited in their abilities. No chelation strategy offers 100 percent removal of any heavy metal from the body. Specifically, beware of dietary supplements that claim to rapidly pull heavy metals out of your brain or body tissues. Although certain supplements (such as oral ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid [EDTA]) may offer benefits if used over a very long period of time, many dietary supplements are presently sold with dubious detox claims backed by nothing other than wishful thinking. Some of them may even pose real dangers to your health.
In my view, no detox regimen should be pursued without first consulting with a naturopathic physician.
ZEOLITES AND HEAVY METALS
Beware of powdered zeolites sold alongside claims that they remove heavy metals from your body. All powdered zeolites contain very high concentrations of lead—typically 50,000 ppb and sometimes more—and their aluminum levels are many times higher. I recently discovered that powdered zeolites were being dishonestly marketed as a daily dietary supplement, pushed by unscrupulous companies that claimed you should “detox daily” by consuming these finely ground rocks containing very high levels of lead and aluminum. Remarkably, one of the primary claims of zeolite marketers was that it removed lead and aluminum from your body. To “prove” this, one of the companies commissioned a small-scale clinical trial in which the presence of toxic metals was measured in the urine of people consuming zeolites daily. Sure enough, people who consumed zeolites were found to urinate out higher levels of lead and aluminum (two elements found in powdered zeolites). From this, the study author “concluded” that zeolites remove heavy metals from the body.1
People who eat lead and aluminum, in other words, were found to urinate out lead and aluminum. Should we be surprised?
Talk about junk science!
In a clinical setting, common chelating agents for lead, arsenic, and other metals include meso-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), dimercaptopropanesulfonic acid (DMPS), and 2,3-dimercaprol (BAL).15 These chelates—termed after chela, or “claw,” a Greek-derived Latin word—are often used in combination with vitamins and other antioxidants structured to bind more effectively with the metal while enhancing metabolic pathways for the metals’ removal. While DMSA and DMPS are the most widely used chelates for lead and arsenic, studies have found them incompatible with mercury removal, where more custom chelates are typically used.16
There are many foods that naturally have some limited chelation properties. Cilantro,17 chlorella,18 and lemons19 have all been identified as agents with some effectiveness for reducing heavy metal toxicity, while foods like garlic20 can reduce levels of oxidative stress. It has also been found that citrate, cysteine, glutamate, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and yeast extract (particularly effective against copper toxicity) bind and remove certain metals.21 (Although it must be noted that yeast extract is a common form of MSG, an excitotoxin with its own health concerns.)
In research conducted in 2010, Taiwan researchers found that lemon and orange peel could aid in the removal of heavy metal ions, particularly copper and nickel, which highlights the importance of consuming fruits and vegetables daily, as their benefits are extraordinary. Activated carbon (charcoal) is also very effective at neutralizing and removing metal toxins.22
Lack of exercise and sweating causes heavy metals to accumulate over time
The body’s mechanisms for excretion also play an important role in detoxification; in studies, sweating in particular has been shown to remove heavy metals in vastly higher quantities than are expelled through urination. Endurance exercises and use of infrared saunas have been successfully used to sweat out toxins, in many cases surpassing the level of toxins removed through urination.23,24
The fact that more and more Americans pursue sedentary lifestyles lacking almost all vigorous exercise—and therefore lacking sweating—helps explain why metals so rapidly accumulate in the bodies of the obese. A 2014 study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and conducted at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health found that obese Americans spend less than one minute per day engaged in vigorous exercise.
Yes, that’s one minute per day. The study found that obese women were far worse off than men, engaging in less than one hour of vigorous exercise per year.25 With that near-zero level of exercise and sweat excretion of heavy metals, it’s only a matter of time before the accumulation of heavy metals reaches a crisis point in the body, contributing to dysfunction and symptoms that are often diagnosed as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Modern humans are, in a very real sense, walking time bombs of toxic metals and chemicals, all accumulated through the routine consumption of contaminated foods, personal care products, and environmental exposure. It is irrational to expect that a nation can protect the health of its people—or even control its health care costs—unless this trend is sharply reversed by cleaning up the food supply and reducing heavy metals in personal care products and dietary supplements.
The FDA, in other words, should be doing exactly what I’m doing here. A nationwide effort needs to be undertaken to test all the popular foods and other items that might contain toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Reasonable concentration limits need to be standardized at the national level, and the diligent efforts of people like myself and others who are attempting to lift the veil on food industry contamination should be celebrated, not vilified.
There aren’t many of us who genuinely care about the quality of food our fellow Americans are routinely swallowing. We, the few who dare to spend our time, money, and effort examining the food contamination that’s contributing to the disease epidemics now devastating our world, are the pioneers of the clean food movement. Through tools of modern science, we effectively give consumers a kind of X-ray vision into what they’re eating, drinking, and putting on their skin. It is precisely this clarity that the food industry fears, because the more closely people are allowed to look at what they’re really eating, the more persistently they may begin to ask the really important questions like, “Hey, why isn’t anybody testing these protein powders for lead?”
HEAVY METALS: INTERNATIONAL LIMITS CHART