Highly Recommended: The first thing we recommend for anyone who is experiencing symptoms of heavy metal poisoning toxicity, is to have a hair mineral analysis test done. A hair analysis can determine which heavy metals are overloading your body and measure the levels of each toxic metal as illustrated in a simple bar graph showing acceptable and unacceptable reference ranges.

The hair analysis also tells you which essential minerals your body is lacking, which it has too much of, and which important mineral ratios are imbalanced due to heavy metals and other nutritional deficiencies. It also provides valuable insight into your metaoblism and what dietary changes might be most helpful.

We suggest you do a hair analysis before you embark on any type of heavy metal cleansing or detoxification program so that you have a clear baseline to compare results with later on.

For more information on the hair tissue mineral analysis, scoll down the page or click here.

The most common heavy metal chelators prescribed by the medical profession are EDTA, DMPS, and DMSA. These chelators are life-saving drugs in cases of acute metal poisoning. Of these, the DMSA and DMPS especially carry risks of harm, and should only be used as a last resort.

EDTA is usually given intravenously, though it has recently become available in pill form. Typically, twenty to thirty or even more IV treatments are needed to eliminate toxins from the body, and the sessions last anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours. Side effects may include dizziness, headache, mild nausea, or irritation at the IV site.

Oral EDTA given in pill form is easier and more convenient than the IV version, but large mounts must be taken for it to have a beneficial effect. Unfortunately, taking these large amounts can cause side effects in sensitive individuals, so it needs to be used with caution, and should only be used for a prescribed period of time. For the most part, oral chelation products with EDTA are designed to remove cholesterol and calcium deposits in the arteries. The removal of toxic metals is a secondary function.

DMPS can also be taken orally, intravenously, or as a suppository, though it is most commonly given as an infusion or injection. It is an experimental drug, and has NOT been approved by the FDA. Its primary usefulness is for severe metal poisoning when all other detoxification methods have been exhausted.

There have been reports of serious and devastating side effects with DMPS, since it works quite rapidly at excreting the toxic metals from the organs into the bloodstream and from the bloodstream into the kidneys.

Some scientists believe that the severe side effects experienced by some people are the result of too much mercury or other metals being dumped into the bloodstream at once, which overwhelms the organs of excretion, namely the liver and kidneys. Instead of being properly excreted, these toxic metals are redistributed and reabsorbed by the vital organs, where they poison the immune system and central nervous system.

Side effects in people who have generally tolerated DMPS include dizziness and weakness, the lowering of blood pressure, and flu-like symptoms.

It is NOT RECOMMENDED for people who still have their amalgam fillings, as DMPS can quickly enter the saliva and begin to dissolve the metals in the mouth, resulting in acute poisoning.

For an excellent commentary on DMPS and other chelating agents, please visit this web site at: www.dmpsbackfire.com

DMSA comes in capsule or suppository form, and is considered to be much safer than DMPS. In research studies, DMSA was proven to be three times less toxic than DMPS.

DMSA is commonly prescribed orally. Oral administration is generally safer, because a patient can monitor the dose and test for side effects. The side effects of DMSA include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, appetite loss and rashes. As with other chelating drugs, kidney and liver function needs to be closely monitored.

For more information on DMSA and how it works, click here.

These most commonly known chelators need to be taken in fairly high doses to be truly effective. Because of this, side effects are virtually unavoidable. Accordingly, these potent pharmaceuticals cannot be taken for an extended period of time (Goodman & Gilman).

As well, because of the high doses needed with these chelators, essential minerals are almost always chelated out of the body as well. Minerals most commonly lost include zinc, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, and selenium, which then need to be replaced.

Toxic metals are often stored in the brain, and none of the above-mentioned chelators cross the blood/brain barrier.

And last but not least, there has been concern that the metals loosened by the chelating agents are not always properly excreted. Instead, they may be reabsorbed in different parts of the body, causing more damage to the immune system and vital organs. This is why some individuals can remain just as sick after chelation as before, sometimes for years after their "detoxing".

When you mix bentonite clay with water, it creates a large negatively charged surface area. When the body is in a tub of warm water, the warm water opens up the pores of the skin, and the positively charged toxic particles are drawn through the pores of the skin, to be absorbed by the clay.

Most chemical and metal toxins have a postive charge, whereas the clay has a negative charge. Thus, the toxins cannot resist being drawn towards the clay. Bentonite clay has a great capacity for absorbing many times its own weight in toxins. In other words, clay baths have been shown to literally pull pollutants out through the skin, getting rid of many months and years of toxic accumulations.

It is important that you find a clay that has been purified, so it contains no mold, yeast, bacteria or fungus. Also, it helps to use a clay that mixes well and disperses easily with warm water to get maximum effectiveness. Some clays do not mix well in the tub, leaving you with a cumbersome and messy clean-up.

Glutathione is a short string of amino acids called a peptide. It is composed of three amino acids: glycine, glutamine and cysteine.

Glutathione is a major player in detoxifying the body of many toxic pollutants, including toxic metals and chemicals. Glutathione deficiency impairs the body's ability to get rid of toxins whether they are environmental or the by-products of cellular metabolism.

If we have low glutathione levels we slowly become toxic, storing away poisons in our tissues, organs, muscles and brain. We simply cannot detoxify effectively if our glutathione levels are too low, no matter what form of detoxification we undertake.

Glutathione is made by all the cells in the body, and is the body’s master antioxidant and detoxifying agent. In one review, almost 80% of people with chronic ailments were found to be deficient in glutathione. In fact, low levels of glutathione are involved in all disease states.

Why? – because the heavier the cumulative toxic burden on the body, the greater this depletes supplies of glutathione. For example: One molecule of mercury uses up one molecule of glutathione. Since all chronic, degenerative disorders are triggered, in part, by the toxic load, it is small wonder to see why glutathione levels are such an important marker.

Glutathione is a supplement that is extremely difficult to absorb.  Most oral supplements are worthless, because the digestive tract destroys the nutrient before it can be absorbed. 

Supplements such as NAC can help your body make more glutathione, but the effect is mild. This is why intravenous therapy was once considered to be the only therapy that really works.

According to Dr. Marcus Laux, it is important to find an oral glutathione supplement that your body can truly absorb.  It survives the trip through your intestines because the glutathione is contained in microscopic little pouches called liposomes. Thus, the glutathione enters your bloodstream intact.  According to Dr. Laux, liposomes were recently tested in rigorous scientific studies, and were found to have an amazing 90% absorption rate.  That’s comparable to intravenous glutathione therapy, for a fraction of the cost. 

A cell culture study was conducted on glutathione at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School by Gail Zeevalk, PhD. The study showed the neuro-protective nature of the glutathione from damage due to the known neuro-toxicants maneb (fungicide) and paraquat (herbicide).

Tests that help to diagnose metal and chemical toxicity include blood tests, urine tests, and the analysis of hair, nails or other tissues. The most accurate of these are a chelation challenge test or a hair analysis.

Regular blood tests and urine tests are not accurate in diagnosing heavy metal toxicity, as they only tend to show what is happening in the body at that brief moment in time, and do not give the long-term picture.

This makes sense since the body works hard to keep the levels of nutrients in the bloodstream within fairly tight limits. If large fluctuations in mineral levels occurred, serious illness or even death would result.

A chelation challenge test needs to be performed by a doctor who specializes in chelation therapy. The patient is given a chelating drug, commonly DMPS or DMSA (discussed above), and the patient's urine is collected and analyzed over a 24 hour period. This test is a highly accurate way of knowing just what heavy metals are present in the body.

The drawbacks to this method are that it requires a visit to a health care professional's office, it is expensive, and there is a possibility of side effects to the chelating drugs.

A hair mineral analysis is an excellent alternative way of determining what toxic metals are present in the body. In addition, it also measures the levels of essential minerals in the body, such as calcium, magnesium and zinc, and toxic metal and mineral ratios. This test can provide you with much-needed information about mineral deficiencies and imbalances in your body, especially if you're suffering from symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.

A tissue mineral analysis or hair analysis provides a unique reading of heavy metal and mineral levels in the cells over a two to three month period. It takes into consideration that toxins are stored in the tissues of the body, not in the blood. For instance, you can have normal copper levels in the blood, but high copper levels in the tissues.

The reason hair is used for testing mineral status and metabolic activity is because of it very nature. Our hair is formed from clusters of specialized cells that make up the hair follicle. During the growth phase, the hair is exposed to the interal environment such as blood, lymph and extra-cellular fluids.

As the hair continues to grow and reaches the surface of the skin, its outer layers harden, locking in the metabolic products accumulated during the period of formation. This biological processs provides a blueprint and lasting record of metal content and nutritional metabolic activity that has occured during this time.

The precise analytical method of determining the levels of minerals in the hair is a highly sophisticated technique: when performed to exacting standards and interpreted correctly, it may be used as a screening aid for determining mineral deficiencies, excesses, and/or imbalances. HTMA provides you and your healthcare professional with an economical and sensitive indicator of the long-term effects of diet, stress, toxic metal exposure and their effects on your mineral balance that is difficult to obtain through other clinical tests.

It is important for the attending healthcare professional to determine your mineral status as minerals are absolutely critical for life and abundant health. They are involved in and are necessary for cellular metabolism, structural support, nerve conduction, muscular activity, immune functions, anti-oxidant and endocrine activity, enzyme functions, water and acid/alkaline balance and even DNA function.

Many factors can affect mineral nutrition, such as: food preparation, dietary habits, genetic and metabolic disorders, disease, medications, stress, environmental factors, as well as exposure to heavy metals. Rarely does a single nutrient deficiency exist in a person today. Multiple nutritional imbalances however are quite common, contributing to an increased incidence of adverse health conditions. In fact, it is estimated that mild and sub-clinical nutritional imbalances are up to ten times more common than nutritional deficiency alone.

To get an idea of how helpful a hair tissue analysis can be, think about this: Researchers using tissue mineral analysis determined, more than 100 years after Napoloen Bonaparte's death, that he had been poisoned by arsenic. Even though his hair sample was tested more than a century after his death, it still revealed pathological amounts of arsenic that had gradually proved fatal.

A hair analysis usually needs to be obtained through a health care professional (which can be expensive). However, we offer a service that allows you to get a comprehensive hair tissue mineral analysis from a federally licensed laboratory called Trace Elements, Inc.

Each (Profile 2) hair analysis contains a detailed 10-15 page report from the laboratory itself, which shows bar graph readings indicating high, low and reference range levels for toxic metals, essential minerals and significant mineral ratios.

Unlike some labs that test hair tissue analysis, Trace Elements, Inc. does not wash the hair at the lab. Washing the hair removes some of the loosely bound minerals and can reduce some mineral readings by 50 percent or more. The hair sample is prepared in their licensed clinical laboratory by using a series of chemical and high temperature digestive procedures. Testing is then performed using highly sophisticated detection equipment and methods to achieve the most accurate and precise results.

The comprehensive Hair Tissue Analysis report details graph results for 8 toxic heavy metals/elements, 15 nutritional minerals/elements, 15 additional elements, 7 significant mineral ratios, and 9 toxic metal ratios.

Once you purchase the hair analysis from us, we send you a hair sample kit with instructions on how to take the hair sample.

Nutritional Elements: Extensively studied, the nutrient elements have been well defined and are considered essential for many biological functions in the human body. They play key roles in such metabolic processes such as muscular activity, endocrine function, reproduction, skeletal integrity, and overall development.

Toxic Elements: The toxic elements or "heavy metals" are well-known for their interference upon normal biochemical function. They are commonly found in the environment and therefore are present to some degree, in all biological systems. However, these metals clearly pose a concern for toxicity when accumulation occurs to excess.

Additional Elements: These elements are considered as possibly essential by the human body. Additional studies are being conducted to better define their requirements.

Significant Ratios: If the synergistic relationship (or ratio) between certain minerals in the body is disturbed, studies show that normal biological functions and metabolic activity can be adversely affected. Even at extremely low concentrations, the synergistic and/or antagonistic relationships between minerals still exist, which can indirectly affect metabolism.

Toxic Ratios: It is important to note that individuals with elevated toxic levels may not always exhibit clinical symptoms associated with those particular toxic minerals. However, research has shown that toxic minerals/metals can also produce an antagonistic effeect on various essential minerals, eventually leading to distrubances in their metabolic utilization.

For a list of FAQ’s about hair analysis, please click here.

For a complete overview of the various sections covered in the Comprehensive Hair Analysis Report, please click here.

To view details of the elements measured and to order the comprehensive Hair Mineral Analysis, please click here.

Once you purchase the hair analysis from us, we send you a hair sample kit with instructions on how to take the hair sample. You then send the hair sample to the Trace Elements lab, and the lab sends us the detailed report/results, which we then mail to you. (Please note: international customers outside of the United States will be instructed to send the hair sample to us, not directly to the lab).

Signs and Symptoms of Metal Toxicity
The two major symptoms of chemical & heavy metal toxicity are the breakdown of the immune system and diseases of the organs and central nervous system. 
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Mercury Poisoning
Read this informative report by Dr. Thomas Nissen, an environmental toxicologist, on the effects of mercury poisoning in the body.
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The Most Common Sources of Metal and Chemical Toxicity
The heavy metals that most commonly cause poisoning are iron, lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, antimony, chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, selenium, tin, thallium, and uranium. Toxic chemicals include formaldehyde, benzene, hexane toluene. 
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