If you don’t smoke and you lead a relatively healthy life, it’s easy fall into the perception that your body is not burdened by any health problems. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for most people. Due to the nature of our food system and the polluted state of our environment, heavy metals can easily sneak into the body and cause unrealized health consequences. From lead and mercury to cadmium and metalloid arsenic, the heavy metals in your body could be dragging you down.
What You Should Know About Heavy Metals
Heavy metals by definition are at least five times denser than water and have a high atomic weight. Industrial, agricultural, and technological changes have caused heavy metals like lead, aluminum, nickel, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic to become more prevalent in the environment and thus more commonly found in the human body. The problem has become so bad that babies are born with heavy metal toxicity due to the high saturation of toxins in their mother’s bodies.
When heavy metals take hold of your body, you will first feel the short term effects like dizziness, headaches, tingling of the hands or feet, fatigue, and digestive problems. Depression, aching joints, fertility problems, and impaired blood sugar control are also connected to toxic metal exposure, but these problems are so common that many people fail to connect them back to heavy metals. Unfortunately, the long term impacts of heavy metal toxicity are much harder to predict but are believed to include Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological disorders.
How to Save Yourself From Heavy Metals
A holistic primary care doctor will be able to complete heavy metal toxicity bloodwork, urinalysis, and even hair samples if necessary. While bloodwork is the more affordable option, a urinalysis is more efficient. Based on the results of your metal levels, your doctor can provide you with a program to detoxify and push the dangerous metals out of your body. It’s also important to evaluate the source of the metals found in your body so that you can avoid them in the future. Lead pipes, old lead paint, canned food, dental fillings, and fish are the most common culprits.
Though heavy metal poisoning is not a common explanation for chronic health problems, it is often truly responsible, and you are likely to be shocked by the improvement in your health and wellness after detoxification.
