Could You Have Heavy Metal Poisoning and Not Know It?

With all of the toxins in our world today, heavy metal toxicity seems to be an epidemic. This post is our story about how we learned that we seemed to have heavy metal poisoning and what we did about it.

One thing I never really thought I would deal with is Heavy Metal Poisoning.

We've dealt with a bunch of health issues in our family from autism to candida to thyroid disease to adrenal fatigue.

Just the concept of heavy metal toxicity sounds alarmist, doesn't it?

I almost can't believe myself that I am writing that title.

But then–life has a way of teaching us lessons that we really didn't want to learn.

Metal poisoning is one of them for me.

I Was Wrong

In my younger, more naive days, I used to think things like:

• life threatening food allergies were all in someone's head
• autism and Asperger's were just being over-diagnosed
• heavy metal poisoning  or chronic fatigue was an excuse for someone who just was feeling tired and didn't eat well or something and really had something else wrong with them

It's hard for me to admit that, but it's true.

There's something about those younger, full of energy years that makes one think that these things just aren't real.

But they are.

I found out the hard way when they hit our home.

But heavy metal toxicity?  That's just a little too weird to be true, right?

Well, I'm going to share with you just a little bit today about our path with heavy metals, with more to come.

When my oldest son was born, we knew he was very sensitive.  His poor little body was covered (literally) with horrible eczema at 3 months.

I went to great lengths to continue to breastfeed, including doing trials to figure out what he was allergic to and adjusting my diet accordingly.

But when his health took another big downturn at age 6, we knew our work with him needed to go beyond food elimination.

Heavy Metal Toxicity in Our Family: The Beginning

My son was super anxious and had obsessive behaviors that were almost impossible to handle.

Basically, we were trapped in our home for a year.  And mom went into overdrive trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

Finally, we arrived at a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism) for my son, and I ended up with candida and adrenal burnout.

That's when the visits with alternative practitioners and the heavy metal questions began.

There's a lot of info about heavy metals and health issues on the internet.

Some of them are fascinating.

Did you know, for example, that:

• Babies with autism have less mercury in their hair than neuro-typical babies.  This seems to be due to the fact that babies with autism don't detox the mercury so it stays in their bodies (source).
• Aluminum is used in medicine in many ways, typically as a preservative 

Anyway, we worked with a number of practitioners, and over and over, the issue of mercury and metal toxicity came up.

Possible Results of Heavy Metal Toxicity

According to the CDC and WHO, there are many reasons to be concerned about exposure to heavy metals. Following are some possible health concerns that can result:

• reproductive issues like miscarriage, stillbirth, etc. (source)
• learning disabilities (source)
• decreased birth height and weight (source and source)
• and more

Honestly, I really didn't want to talk about metals, mostly because I didn't know what to do about it and I wasn't too keen on the chelation protocols that I'd read about and the risk factors involved with them.  I never felt good about using an IV or suppositories to yank the metals out of my or my son's bodies.

Well, something really bizarre happened to me that changed my mind completely about metal toxicity and made me realize that I really needed to do something about it.

Our Heavy Metal Poisoning Evidence

When I was starting my health path, I started talking with a man who had overcome mercury poisoning.  I considered doing chelation therapy but was concerned about the health problems that I had heard could be connected to this.

He recommended several immune-boosting supplements as well as liquid zeolite (a supplement that makes a small cage to trap toxins and heavy metals and release them in your urine) to remove toxins and metals from my body.

So, on his recommendation, I tried some of these things in addition to purified liquid zeolite drops in my water as a detox supplement.

What happened to me was very interesting.

This might qualify as the current expression “TMI” for “too much information”, but in the interest of sharing what I think is important health information with my readers, here goes.

I first tried a normal dose of zeolite in each glass of water, but it was too much for me, apparently. I had fatigue that was like a cloud in my brain.

So, assuming I was having a Herxheimer reaction/die-off (detox symptoms such as flu-like symptoms, fatigue, headache, or uneasiness, that occur when toxins are flooding your body faster than you can deal with them), I cut back to 1 drop per glass of water.

I tolerated that dose.  And my urine smelled.  

Like metal.  For over 2 months.

Now I had to rethink what I originally thought about heavy metal poisoning.

My husband started taking the liquid zeolite as well.

As for his urine–well–he now describes it as “glow-in-the-dark Mountain Dew” (not that we ever drink that stuff, mind you.

At that point, I was introduced to a Nutritional Balancing practitioner whom I mentioned in my post on Adrenal Fatigue.

We didn't get much progress with this method or this practitioner, but this particular situation was very interesting.

I mentioned my husband's urine color to her and she replied that cadmium is bright yellow, but she said that it was uncommon for cadmium to be released this easily.

However, months later when we had my whole family's hair tested, guess what came up on my husband's hair test?

That's right: CADMIUM!

I was a believer.  The metals were there and they needed to come out. We literally had heavy metal toxicity.  I was shocked!

I'll share more later about zeolite, what it is and how I use it now.  Also, I'll share about other metals that have impacted our family.

Metal toxicity, along with many other toxic concerns, is a huge problem in today's world.

Detoxing from Heavy Metals

The CDC discusses the chelation of heavy metals if there is a toxicity issue (source). However, this should be done with caution as there can be a removal of minerals as well that can lead to health complications (source).

There are many things that have been used to support the body in excreting heavy metals including:

• antioxidants
• taurine
• NAC
• lipoic acid
• liposomal glutathione
• EDTA
• DMSA
• sweating (source)

Current Thoughts on Heavy Metal Detox

There are so many different thoughts on how to detox from Heavy Metals. Some sources think that it's not important to do so; that your liver, etc just naturally do this for you.

Some natural practitioners do IV chelation (I have a lot of concerns about that) and others use prescription meds. Most mainstream sources would say that one doesn't need to do this unless facing a very serious situation.

Personally, I have tried a variety of zeolites on and off to basically continue to keep toxins out of my body. Some say that Diatomaceous Earth can be used for this.

There are other ways that one might consider addressing heavy metals in the body including some food sources (source).

Natural vs Synthetic/Man-made Zeolite

I get questions now and then about what brand of zeolite to use.

TRS is one very popular brand, but that one is synthetic.

Think about that. In what situation would you prefer to use something synthetic rather than natural in your body?

There is a study using synthetic zeolite on chickens and the results were not encouraging–reduced chicken weight and reduced bone ash, egg weight, egg production, and more. We aren’t chickens, but natural is typically better (source).

In addition, I have heard about and personally communicated with people whose kids have regressed and even gotten much worse after using TRS zeolite.

I've heard recently that another zeolite on the market is synthetic as well. So it's important to do your research!

What I'm Doing Now

Since publishing this post I have continued to work on my health.

I didn't do a follow-up post to this since things changed and I didn't feel my practitioner at the time could handle other issues that showed up. I needed other answers.

I have looked at many zeolite companies and products and have spent many hours on the phone with CEOs, owners, and other officers of zeolite companies. It's been exhausting but also very eye-opening.

I've even encountered massive lies, lack of ethics about products, concentrations, educational background (seriously, who lies about this?), and more. It's not an easy industry to navigate.

Where to Get Zeolite

Omica

Omica's liquid zeolite is great and much higher quality than the others on the market since they have ingredients in it that work synergistically and there is a lot of zeolite in there, as you can see by the color of the product. Think about it: if a liquid zeolite is clear, how much zeolite (which is basically a clay-like substance) can there really be in there?

Omica also has capsules with a similar formulation.

Using my link gets a 10% discount.

Anovite

This product has clinoptilolite zeolite along with other ingredients that work synergistically with the zeolite to help your body remove toxins. I really like this product. The combination of active ingredients is unique and highly beneficial.

It's free to sign up to get wholesale pricing and there's no monthly autoship required. We use their colostrum daily and love it.

Another Option for Detoxing Heavy Metals

Chlorella is another substance that's used by many to address heavy metals.

This is the brand that we use and trust. Code WNM gets 10% off your order and most of the time they have discounts if you purchase 3 or more and those deals are stackable.

I plan to make a list of all the therapies and supplements that have helped us and are supporting us going forward. You can read more about our health journey and stay in touch by signing up for updates here or subscribe here.

So–have you thought about heavy metal toxicity before?
What are your thoughts?

Sources: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654245/

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=1203&toxid=22#:~:text=Chelation%20therapy%20should%20be%20considered,or%20during%20ongoing%20lead%20exposure.