Heavy metals are a hot ticket in alternative medicine.
It is true, high levels of different metals can be found in very sick people. Seems like a good idea that if someone has high metals then we should give them something to get rid of them. Right?
Not necessarily.
What people absolutely need to understand is that every human has mechanisms in the body for getting rid of toxins, including metals. So if we just give you something to get rid of metals then we really aren’t finding the cause. The advantage of alternative medicine is that you find the cause and fix it. If you don’t find the cause then alternative medicine loses its edge.
First, we need to figure out where you are being exposed to these metals and how do we prevent that from happening? If we find it, and we remove the exposure, you might still have too much pollution for your system to remove. So now we need to find out why you’re not detoxing. If you’re not in an environment full of mercury and lead and you’re not eating a ton of tuna then why can’t your body get rid of the mercury and lead? We need to look at the liver and help support it in its job of detoxifying the harmful chemicals in the body.
If we fix the liver and we fix the environment, and you still have large amounts of metals then maybe we do need to start a program to get rid of them. But we can’t do that until we know your kidneys are doing well. We can’t mobilize a lot of metals without your kidneys being ready or else they can get extensively damaged.
Once all of the above has been taken care of, we can actually start to take care of the metals…..IF THERE’S ANY LEFT! Most people don’t ever need to get to this step. Removing the exposure, fixing the liver, and supporting the kidneys typically puts your body in the position to have a low enough toxic load to not have effects. Remember, we all have a little bit of toxicity in us, even the people who are feeling good. If you want to get to the cause of your toxicity problem, be sure to work with a practitioner who understands what we’re talking about here and doesn’t just want to jump to giving expensive and possibly unnecessary heavy metal treatment.
