9 diseases that can indicate mineral toxicity

We all need vitamins and minerals to live…

There are macro minerals and trace minerals. The macro minerals are routinely measured on blood testing: sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus. The trace minerals are not so easily measured: chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc. All these serve as required co-factors for hundreds of vital enzyme processes and for normal vitamin functions.

Then there are toxic minerals…

These impair cellular processes and cause disease. They include aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury among a few others. You might expect your body to normally be able to eliminate these through your sweat, urine, or stool. However, if you are exposed long enough or your immune and elimination functions under-perform, you will become toxic.

How do you measure mineral toxicity?

Your blood is one way to test your mineral levels, but is a “snapshot” value. However, your hair can reveal recent exposure to toxic minerals because they concentrate in hair at 200 to 300 times what is measured in your blood or urine.

Consider how hair is different than blood: it reveals exposure to toxic elements without any “homeostasis” like blood. Blood must constantly keep all tissues optimally healthy and is under the continuous influence of feedback hormones that keep your entire system in balance. Not so with hair…it is an excretion product of skin. For example, patients with stage 4 cancer usually have perfectly normal blood chemistries values due to this homeostasis effect of blood.

A prominent online physician incorrectly wrote regarding hair analysis that:

“…the only way to [assess mineral levels in the body] is by measuring levels in blood.” He also states that “…normal ranges of minerals in hair have not been defined,” while pointing out variability of mineral hair analysis.

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On the contrary, hair analysis is a useful testing tool. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that “…if hair samples are properly collected and cleaned, and analyzed by the best analytic methods, using standards and blanks as required, in a clean and reliable laboratory by experienced personnel, the data are reliable.”

Labs use the same technology that is used for testing soil and rock samples for mineral levels. They also realize that hair minerals can be affected by shampoos, bleaches, dyes, and straightening treatments, and take this into consideration when interpreting results.

Therefore, if analyzed in conjunction with symptoms and other laboratory values, your hair can assist your doctor to screen for toxic metals that would help explain (but not necessarily “diagnose”) certain health conditions. Let’s look at these.

What signs indicate mineral toxicity?

Sometimes illness is the first sign of mineral toxicity. In fact, exposure to aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury are linked to many disease states.  Some of these include:

1. Alopecia (hair loss)
2. Alzheimer’s and memory loss
3. Depression
4. Fatigue
5. Glucose intolerance
6. Malabsorption and nutritional deficiency
7. Parkinson’s–like symptoms
8. Low testosterone production
9. Vision problems

Let’s first look closer at the most notorious toxic metal…

Mercury toxicity

Mercury is reported to degenerate sensory and motor nerves. The more common symptoms of this are paresthesia (tingling numbness or pain), sensory peripheral neuropathic pain and visual disturbances. Motor nerve problems from this include unsteady gait, weakness, falling, tremors and slurred speech. Headaches, emotional problems and rashes have also been reportedly correlated with mercury toxicity.

Moreover, mercury has been found to concentrate and impair function of the heart, thyroid, pituitary and adrenal glands.

How can you get mercury toxicity? It can come from dental amalgam (silver fillings), tuna fish, mercurial fungicides on treated seeds and vegetables, medications, occupational exposure or even maternal to infant via the placenta or breast milk.

Symptoms that could be related to mercury toxicity are many. Think of symptoms of dysfunction of the adrenal gland, brain and nerves (depression, memory loss, nervousness, neuropathies and muscle weakness) or skin (rashes, hair loss).

Sources:

1. Toxic Trace Metals In Mammalian Hair and Nails — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

2. Is Hair Analysis Worthwhile? — Andrew Weil, M.D.