Heavy metals, like arsenic, lead, mercury, and others, are all around us. Increasing levels of pollution and use of chemicals in industry has caused a rise in heavy metal toxicity which is a growing threat to our health. Common sources include cigarettes, seafood, rice, well water, vaccinations & dental fillings.

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.

Our body has a natural way of eliminating these toxic elements, but if the individual’s net retention of metals exceeds physiological tolerance, adverse health effects occur. Signs and symptoms can be similar to other health conditions and may not be immediately recognized as due to heavy metal toxicity:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Abdominal pain
• Central nervous system dysfunction
• Heart problems
• Anemia

A diagnostic test is essential in determining the level of heavy metals and elements present in the body. Heavy metals and elements affect different systems of the body so the medium used to measure toxicity also varies. A health care practitioner may require either a blood test or a urine test, depending on the type of heavy metal or element being measured.

• Cadmium in urine is the best measure of accumulated exposure, while blood is recommended to assess a more recent exposure¹
• Arsenic in urine is the preferred measurement because most forms of arsenic is only available in blood for only a few hours¹
• Mercury in blood is the most appropriate medium to measure mercury because the most toxic forms of mercury are not usually eliminated in the urine¹
• Lead which is tightly bound to erythrocytes is also best measured in blood¹

MetaMetrics offers a comprehensive line of heavy metals and elements testing in both blood and urine using ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). ICPMS is considered the gold standard in heavy metals testing as it detects elements down to the parts-per-trillion level.

Heavy metals testing is a valuable tool for health care practitioners to identify toxic metals exposure to predisposed individuals so that appropriate treatment options can be done.