Toxins
Disclaimer. This web site is for research and educational purposes only. The information given in this site is not intended to replace a therapeutic practitioner relationship.
Sadly, often the modern world is a toxic world. Many toxins we find in the body are hard to track down to their source and some are quite unexpected. Common sources are poorly filtered or non-filtered tap water, aquatic foods (toxic wastes tend to accumulate in aquatic food chains), mining areas, industrial areas, personal care products and fumes from major roadways. Heavy metals can accumulate in the body over time and cause adverse health outcomes (Sears ME, Chelation: Harnessing and Enhancing Heavy Metal Detoxification—A Review, Scientific World Journal. 2013; 2013: 219840)
In my opinion a reasonably good marker of pollution exposure is the assessment of toxic metals such as: Aluminium, Arsenic, Thallium, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Beryllium, Antimony, Uranium, Barium, Tin, Copper (in excess) and Nickel. In my opinion, the two best ways to assess exposure are through doing a hair mineral analysis (HMA) or a provocative urinary excretion profile (PUEP). A PUEP is a comprehenive urinary elements profile (CUEP) that is done after taking an oral dose or intravenous dose of chelated agent. A PUEP should be done under the supervision of a clinician familiar with toxicity issues.
You can get a HMA done privately through Nutripath in Australia. However, a better option is to arrange one through a practitioner with Interclinical Laboratories who ship the sample over to Trace Minerals Inc. in the USA. A main issue with HMA is that interpretation of results can be tricky and you really need the help of someone experienced in evaluating ratios between toxic metals and nutritional or neutral metals. For example, the amount of thallium may be reported as the minimum recordable amount. But if potassium or rubidium levels are really low then potassium/thallium and rubidium/thallium ratios will reveal thallium toxicity. This is because thallium is displacing potassium or rubidium in your system.
Different metals require different agents to remove them and also different nutritional minerals to support your system.
There are some substances that have a very broad range of detoxification activity that can be used quite safely in cases where a person does not have good practitioner access and/or is having difficulty interpreting results and is suspicious of chronic poisoning. Such products include modified citrus pectin (also called fractionated pectin), zeolite mineral powder, bentonite clay and activated charcoal. These substances can remove not only a wide range of heavy metals but also other environmental toxins. If you are going to use them, get informed and start gently. Make sure you take them away from pharmaceuticals as they are likely to absorb medications and stop them working. Take them at least two hours away. Don't take them every single day or near supplements as they may possibly also absorb some nutritional compounds.
Another way that metals may cause fatigue or fibromyalgia symptoms is by causing an allergic reaction. This is different from metal toxicity. For example, you can have mercury or aluminium toxicity from too much of these metals in your system. But you can also have small amounts of these metals in your body that you have developed an allergy to. Or you can become allergic to these metals in your environment. This allergy can then cause the symptoms. You can get allergies to less toxic metals too, like titanium. Nickel allergy is the commonest metal allergy and many persons can get skin rashes from wearing jewelery that has nickel in it. The real problem occurs when you have an implant or dental prosthesis that you have become allergic to. How do you test for metal allergy? The only test that I have heard of is called a MELISA test. We used to be able to do this test in Australia, but currently it is not available. The test was invented in Sweden and you can get information from <www.melisa.org>. If a metal allergy is found, ideally you need to avoid this metal completely for about six months. If you already have for example a titanium implant that you are allergic to and it cannot be removed then the only option is to take medications or supplements to reduce the allergic reaction.
Regarding toxin exposure, here are some scenarios that I have come across:
Mercury and tin poisoning from regularly eating salmon farmed in an estuary downstream from an old tin mine.
Copper toxicity from drinking and cooking in tap water in a house with leaching copper pipes.
Aluminium toxicity from having a course of desensitising injections to treat an allergy such as severe hay fever. Aluminium is used in the desensitising injections.
Bismuth poisoning from regularly using make-up containing large amounts of bismuth.
Mercury toxicity from having lots of dental amalgams removed from the mouth.
Arsenic poisoning from regularly eating non-organic chicken. Yes, arsenic is used in some chicken foods.
Thallium poisoning from being exposed to exhaust fumes or food grown near exhaust fumes. Thallium is a component of fossil fuels.
Mercury poisoning from regularly eating tinned tuna.
Aluminium toxicity from drinking lots of tap water that has had alum (aluminium) added as a sediment remover.
If you are deficient in particular nutritional elements it can make certain other toxic elements even more toxic. For example, if you have excess copper, but low molybdenum and zinc then the copper will be more toxic than if the molybdenum and zinc were at a healthy level. Also, if you have mercury problems and also low selenium and zinc then it will make the mercury more toxic. Unfortunately, due to modern farming techniques, many foods are low in nutritional minerals.
In my opinion a reasonably good marker of pollution exposure is the assessment of toxic metals such as: Aluminium, Arsenic, Thallium, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Beryllium, Antimony, Uranium, Barium, Tin, Copper (in excess) and Nickel. In my opinion, the two best ways to assess exposure are through doing a hair mineral analysis (HMA) or a provocative urinary excretion profile (PUEP). A PUEP is a comprehenive urinary elements profile (CUEP) that is done after taking an oral dose or intravenous dose of chelated agent. A PUEP should be done under the supervision of a clinician familiar with toxicity issues.
You can get a HMA done privately through Nutripath in Australia. However, a better option is to arrange one through a practitioner with Interclinical Laboratories who ship the sample over to Trace Minerals Inc. in the USA. A main issue with HMA is that interpretation of results can be tricky and you really need the help of someone experienced in evaluating ratios between toxic metals and nutritional or neutral metals. For example, the amount of thallium may be reported as the minimum recordable amount. But if potassium or rubidium levels are really low then potassium/thallium and rubidium/thallium ratios will reveal thallium toxicity. This is because thallium is displacing potassium or rubidium in your system.
Different metals require different agents to remove them and also different nutritional minerals to support your system.
There are some substances that have a very broad range of detoxification activity that can be used quite safely in cases where a person does not have good practitioner access and/or is having difficulty interpreting results and is suspicious of chronic poisoning. Such products include modified citrus pectin (also called fractionated pectin), zeolite mineral powder, bentonite clay and activated charcoal. These substances can remove not only a wide range of heavy metals but also other environmental toxins. If you are going to use them, get informed and start gently. Make sure you take them away from pharmaceuticals as they are likely to absorb medications and stop them working. Take them at least two hours away. Don't take them every single day or near supplements as they may possibly also absorb some nutritional compounds.
Another way that metals may cause fatigue or fibromyalgia symptoms is by causing an allergic reaction. This is different from metal toxicity. For example, you can have mercury or aluminium toxicity from too much of these metals in your system. But you can also have small amounts of these metals in your body that you have developed an allergy to. Or you can become allergic to these metals in your environment. This allergy can then cause the symptoms. You can get allergies to less toxic metals too, like titanium. Nickel allergy is the commonest metal allergy and many persons can get skin rashes from wearing jewelery that has nickel in it. The real problem occurs when you have an implant or dental prosthesis that you have become allergic to. How do you test for metal allergy? The only test that I have heard of is called a MELISA test. We used to be able to do this test in Australia, but currently it is not available. The test was invented in Sweden and you can get information from <www.melisa.org>. If a metal allergy is found, ideally you need to avoid this metal completely for about six months. If you already have for example a titanium implant that you are allergic to and it cannot be removed then the only option is to take medications or supplements to reduce the allergic reaction.
Regarding toxin exposure, here are some scenarios that I have come across:
Mercury and tin poisoning from regularly eating salmon farmed in an estuary downstream from an old tin mine.
Copper toxicity from drinking and cooking in tap water in a house with leaching copper pipes.
Aluminium toxicity from having a course of desensitising injections to treat an allergy such as severe hay fever. Aluminium is used in the desensitising injections.
Bismuth poisoning from regularly using make-up containing large amounts of bismuth.
Mercury toxicity from having lots of dental amalgams removed from the mouth.
Arsenic poisoning from regularly eating non-organic chicken. Yes, arsenic is used in some chicken foods.
Thallium poisoning from being exposed to exhaust fumes or food grown near exhaust fumes. Thallium is a component of fossil fuels.
Mercury poisoning from regularly eating tinned tuna.
Aluminium toxicity from drinking lots of tap water that has had alum (aluminium) added as a sediment remover.
If you are deficient in particular nutritional elements it can make certain other toxic elements even more toxic. For example, if you have excess copper, but low molybdenum and zinc then the copper will be more toxic than if the molybdenum and zinc were at a healthy level. Also, if you have mercury problems and also low selenium and zinc then it will make the mercury more toxic. Unfortunately, due to modern farming techniques, many foods are low in nutritional minerals.
Images and content © D. Bird 2017