These toxic elements can significantly increase our risk of developing conditions like dementia, infertility, diabetes and cancer. They are also known to cause damage to the liver, kidneys and brain, as well as the cardiovascular, nervous and endocrine systems.
Essential elements are only healthy when they are within optimal ranges. Nutrients like lead, aluminum, arsenic, copper, cadmium, chromium, iodine, magnesium, selenium and zinc critical for enzymes.
- Smoke
- Are concerned about heavy metals in foods like vegetables, rice, and seafood
- Have mercury dental work
- Live in an older home or near an industrial area
- Have thyroid-related health issues
- Has or has had exposure to MRI contrast agents
To screen for, detect, and monitor excessive exposure to specific heavy metals.
Periodically when you work with heavy metals, or when a healthcare practitioner suspects that you may have been exposed to one or more heavy metals.
A blood sample drawn from a vein in your arm.
You should not eat seafood for 48 hours before sample collection. If you have had a procedure in which either gadolinium- or iodine-containing contrast media has been administered, wait 96 hours before sample collection.
A heavy metals panel is a group of tests that detects and measures specific potentially toxic metals in the blood. A laboratory may offer several different heavy metals panels as well as individual tests for metals. The most common combination includes:
- Lead
- Mercury
- Arsenic
- Thallium
Other panels may include one or more additional metals, such as cadmium, copper, or zinc….
Arsenic and other heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, and mercury are all considered toxic and have adverse health effects in human metabolism. Accumulation of heavy metals in the food can occur by bio-concentration from water or the food source. Main intake sources of heavy metals are fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, nuts and cereals. In the case of lead, drinking water is also of major importance.
- Lead has a very low acute toxicity. Most essential long-term effects are its neurotoxicity for infants and its effects on the cardiovascular tissue of adults.
- Cadmium is primarily nephrotoxic and may cause bone demineralisation.
- Mercury mainly occurs as methyl mercury in fish and seafood, and is extremely toxic on the nervous system.
- Arsenic also occurs in organic and inorganic compounds, more toxic and may cause cancer of skin, lungs and the urinary tract.
Regulatory bodies around the world have set maximum limits for lead, cadmium and mercury in different food groups such as meat, fish, seafood, cereals, vegetables, fruits and products thereof, fats and oils, milk, baby food and infant formulae.