In the last article, we talked about what I’ve learned so far on the search for what’s causing my symptoms, with the most recent topic on heavy metals. (If you haven’t read it yet, you can read it here.) In this article, we’re going to talk about how toxic heavy metals in the body can cause major damage.
What are Heavy Metals and Which Ones are Toxic?
“Heavy metals” is a controversial term today. It’s controversial mostly because there is a growing movement against the presence of heavy metals in the body. This is confusing because not all heavy metals are dangerous. Some heavy metals, like iron, copper, and zinc, are actually essential. If you have too little of these “essential” heavy metals, the body will not be able to complete some of its tasks. This, in turn, can make the body vulnerable to disease.
On the other hand, there are heavy metals, like arsenic, cadmium, and lead, that are not essential to the body. These “non-essential” heavy metals are actually toxic to the body. The reason I am addressing this is to differentiate between “essential” heavy metals and “non-essential” heavy metals. So, when I talk about heavy metals being dangerous, know that I’m most likely talking about “non-essential” heavy metals that are toxic to the body.
How Toxic Heavy Metals Get Inside the Body
Your gut health plays a huge role in whether or not your body can defend itself against “non-essential” heavy metals. Unfortunately, you’re constantly exposed to all kinds of heavy metals. You can even be exposed to “essential” heavy metals in toxic amounts. So, whether you have “non-essential” heavy metals or “essential” heavy metals in too high amounts in your body or not depends on if your body can keep them out.
This is where the bacteria in your gut comes in. Once your gut bacteria gets imbalanced, the lining of your gut weakens. If the lining weakens too much, it can lead to what’s known as leaky gut. Leaky gut is when undigested food, parasites or other harmful microbes, toxic chemicals, and toxic heavy metals (to name a few) can sneak into your body.
Once Inside the Body
Toxic heavy metals are dangerous because once they get into your bloodstream, they can travel to any organ. Once toxic heavy metals reach an organ, they can damage that organ and prevent it from working correctly.
Thankfully, your body is designed to protect you from toxic heavy metals. When these toxic heavy metals are in your body, they are often stored in fat. Fat keeps metals from traveling around in your blood and damaging your organs. However, that means when your body breaks down fat, it may also release these metals into your bloodstream.
Symptoms of Heavy Metal Toxicity
It is difficult to tell whether or not you have “non-essential” heavy metals in your body. However, over time some symptoms of heavy metal toxicity may begin to appear. Here are a few of the main symptoms to look out for:
- Mood swings
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Irritability
- Changes in personality (like excessive shyness)
- Hormone imbalances
- Insomnia
- Restless sleep
- Short-term memory loss
- Brain fog
- Chronic fatigue
- Infertility
- Sudden weight gain
- Weight loss resistance
Because the body is complicated and health problems are often connected, you may have several of these symptoms and not have too high levels of “essential” or “non-essential” heavy metals. Or, you may have none of these symptoms, yet have high levels of these heavy metals.
There are tests you can do through Functional Doctors that specialize in detoxing to help you find out if your body is struggling with heavy metal toxicity. Check out this blog article to learn more about heavy metal testing.
Where You’re Exposed to Heavy Metals
If you said yes to 3+ symptoms above, there is a good chance that your body is overloaded with toxic heavy metals. Another factor to consider is whether or not you have been exposed to toxic levels of heavy metals.
Here are some top ways you can be exposed to toxic levels of heavy metals:
- Metals are passed to you from your mother when in the womb (i.e. lead can be passed down for 4 generations)
- Smog
- Vaccines
- Mercury or silver amalgams or fillings (or a permanent metal retainer like I have)
- Live near farms that spray pesticides and/or herbicides
- Live near an abandoned mine
- Smoke (whether you smoke or someone you live with does)
- Perfumes, anti-perspirants, red lipstick (lead is used to get the red color), coal or petroleum-based eye make-up
Here are four more sources of heavy metals but at lower amounts:
Tap or municipal water Diet high in non-organic rice, wheat, and/or other non-organic grains
Any food or food item made with foods grown in soil contaminated with heavy metals (i.e. rice absorbs a lot of arsenic, and, thus, rice products may have high arsenic) Seafood
These are only some of the sources of heavy metals you can get exposed to. If you have been exposed to toxic levels of heavy metals, there is a good chance you may have heavy metals stored in your body. If you haven’t been exposed to any of the sources of heavy metals on the toxic list but have been exposed to sources with lower amounts, you might be ok.
There are some research studies coming out to show that exposure to low amounts of toxic heavy metals over a long period of time may cause just as much damage as exposure to a high amount at one time.
What Can You Do about “Non-Essential” Heavy Metals?
This is not to scare you. My goal is to make you aware of what may be the root cause of your health problems.
I, personally, have been dealing with short-term memory loss, chronic fatigue, and brain fog. I’ve been praying and searching for answers to why I’m having more symptoms now that we’ve been eating healthier. It just doesn’t make sense, unless toxic heavy metals are part of the root cause of my symptoms.
If you can relate to my story and have been experiencing similar symptoms like the ones listed above, then you’re probably wondering what you can do to get heavy metals out. Or, you may not be experiencing symptoms but want to know how to prevent toxic heavy metals from getting in your body.
In my next article, I will talk about some basic things you can do now to get and keep toxic heavy metals out of your body. All this knowledge is great, but if you can’t apply it then it’s worthless. You can read the next article in this series here.