You’re regularly exposed to toxins and heavy metals throughout your daily life. Food, water, pollution, pesticides, and other sources have the potential to expose your body to heavy metal toxins.
While the human body needs heavy metals such as zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and manganese to survive, high doses can cause serious medical issues.
Signs and Symptoms of Heavy Metal Poisoning
When exposed to lower levels of heavy metals over time, you may develop symptoms slowly, making them harder to diagnose. These include:
- Headaches
- Weakness
- Fatigue
- Muscle pain
- Joint pain
- Constipation
While heavy metal poisoning is rare, it’s also challenging to diagnose since the symptoms are similar to many other health conditions.
Heavy Metals and Chronic Diseases
Toxic metals in the body may contribute to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. Further medical issues may occur as the toxins deplete antioxidant protection and create free-radical damage. In addition, oxidative stress from toxic metals leaves cells more vulnerable to membrane damage and chronic disease.
Researchers believe heavy metals may trigger autoimmune conditions, kidney disease, memory issues, and thyroid disorders. While most studies focus on the toxic effect of heavy metal exposure in acute, extreme cases, researchers are still learning about the low-level impacts of long-term exposure.
Additionally, studies are now exploring significant connections between toxic metals like lead and mercury and Alzheimer’s disease, along with other forms of dementia.
Chelation Therapy for Heavy Metal Poisoning
Chelation therapy is a treatment to remove the metals in the body that may cause heavy metal poisoning. Typically performed intravenously, chelation therapy introduces certain drugs to your bloodstream. Those drugs then work their way through your bloodstream, binding to heavy metals and removing them through your urine.
Chelation therapy primarily removes lead, mercury, and arsenic. It has proven benefits in treating heavy metal toxicity and is one of the standard treatments for many types of heavy metal poisoning.
Some common chelating agent drugs include:
- Dimercaprol
- Calcium disodium EDTA
- Penicillamine
The benefits of chelation therapy contribute to its continued use as a treatment for metal toxicity, though it’s often considered an alternative procedure rather than a traditional medical treatment.
Benefits of Chelation Therapy
Chelation therapy is a proven, effective treatment for lead poisoning. Additionally, it may help lower the levels of other metals and minerals in the body, such as mercury, copper, iron, arsenic, aluminum, and calcium.
Due to these potential benefits, some practitioners recommend chelation therapy to cleanse the body of toxins and boost overall health. In addition, patients experiencing symptoms similar to those of low, long-term heavy metal poisoning may benefit from chelation therapy as a treatment to detoxify their bodies.
This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine. Regenerative medicine has the natural potential to help improve symptoms sometimes lost from the progression of many conditions. Click here to learn more.