Part I: Are you tired and foggy and your doctor has no answers? Could it be heavy metal toxicity?

By Emil Haldey, PharmD

You haven't quite felt like yourself for a while now, but you can't explain exactly what's going on. You've seen your primary care doctor, and maybe even some specialists, but they couldn't figure out what's wrong either. Despite this, they still prescribed medications, likely to treat your symptoms. Not only did these medications fail to help, but they made things worse.

So, what do you do now? Where do you go from here?

Have you or your doctors considered heavy metal toxicity? Probably not. But why shouldn't you?

The real question is: why not?

Let's reason through this.

It's no secret that we live in a far more polluted environment than our ancestors did two hundred years ago. This is a reality we've created for ourselves.

Heavy metals and various toxic chemicals contaminate our environment—the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the clothing we wear, the furniture we touch at home and work, the technical devices we use, and more. The list goes on. Almost everything around us has some sort of negative impact on our health, most of it long-term. So, many things you don't see, smell, taste, touch, or feel may still be affecting you. The harmful effects are cumulative and synergistic. So, no matter how clean we try to live, our contamination and toxicity levels are rapidly increasing.

Among the heavy metals, the most toxic is mercury. It affects almost every cell in our body and can mimic a myriad of chronic conditions.

Whatever heavy metal or toxic chemical is outside our body will eventually find its way inside.

For example, if you or your mother has been exposed to mercury, you likely have a certain level of mercury toxicity as well. A comprehensive medical history can reasonably predict mercury toxicity and even indicate which parts of the body are affected.

The most common forms of mercury exposure are:

- Metallic mercury and its vapor through amalgam fillings

- Organic mercury, such as methylmercury, from contaminated fish consumption

The number of amalgam fillings may predict the body's mercury burden but not the severity of symptoms or where the mercury is stored in the body. Once the mercury vapor from amalgams passes through the mucous membranes of the mouth and respiratory tract, most of it gets oxidized and binds to other elements in the body, eventually depositing in tissues with a greater blood supply.

A mercury-toxic mother may pass some of her mercury load to her first baby, making the child more sensitive to its effects.

The same goes for mercury toxicity from consuming substantial amounts of mercury-contaminated fish. The situation can become even more serious when someone is exposed to both forms of mercury.

This is just a brief introduction to why one should consider heavy metal toxicity as a root cause of ill health. It takes a well-educated patient and a highly trained practitioner to determine if this is the case and take the necessary next steps.

We'll continue in the next episode with more on this topic.

Thank you for reading.