Toxins are unavoidable in our world of processed foods, high stress, and pollution. Toxins invade the body from three main sources: the environment, personal lifestyle choices, and the body’s own metabolic processes. This blog will explore the importance of heavy metal testing.
Significance of Heavy Metal Test
Toxic elements may be 200 to 300 times more highly concentrated in hair than in blood or urine. Therefore, hair is the tissue of choice for detection of recent exposure to elements such as arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, lead, antimony and mercury. The CDC acknowledges the value of hair mercury levels as a maternal and infant marker for exposure to neurotoxic methylmercury from fish.
Hair is essentially an excretory tissue rather than a functional tissue. As protein is synthesized in the hair follicle, elements are incorporated permanently into the hair. Scalp hair is easy to sample, and because it grows an average of one to two cm per month, it contains a “temporal record” of element metabolism and exposure to toxic elements. Hair samples provide important information which, in conjunction with symptoms and other laboratory values, can assist the physician with an information regarding recent and ongoing exposure to potentially toxic metals, especially methylmercury and arsenic, and time-averaged status of specific nutrient elements.
Health Problems Related to Toxic Elements
If a person has regular exposure to heavy metals and toxic elements in their body it may lead to several harmful health problems such as:
- Headaches
- ADD/ADHD
- Cancer
- Nervous System Disorder
- Fatigue
- Learning Deficits
A hair element analysis has become a valuable and inexpensive tool for providing dependable and useful data for physicians and their patients. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated in a recent report that “…if hair samples are properly collected and cleaned, and analyzed by the best analytic methods, using standards and blanks as required, in a clean and reliable laboratory by experienced personnel, the data are reliable.” (U.S.E.P.A. 600/4-79-049)
Hair element testing should not be considered a stand-alone diagnostic test for essential element function, and should be used in conjunction with patient symptoms and other laboratory tests. Science Based Wellness & Chiropractic offers a Hair Toxic and Essential Elements profile and a Hair Toxic Element Exposure profile containing an expanded lineup of toxic metals.
Where Can We Have a Heavy Metal Test?
Hair element testing should not be considered a stand-alone diagnostic test for essential element function, and should be used in conjunction with patient symptoms and other laboratory tests. Science Based Wellness & Chiropractic offers a Hair Toxic and Essential Elements profile and a Hair Toxic Element Exposure profile containing an expanded lineup of toxic metals.
For more information or questions regarding our Heavy Metals Test, please call our office at 904-834-2337.