What are Heavy Metals and Chelation?

We will discuss chelation later in detail on this site,but first let's begin with the fact that we hear so much about the pollution today in our environment from the green house effect-global warming, smog-air pollution, water contamination, and on and on,that our minds tend to go numb and we often feel overwhelmed and helpless to be able to do anything about it.

This causes many of us to just totally ignore the whole subject and carry on life as usual, until we experience the effects personally, then we try to swing into action and do our best to reverse the situation or prevent future bad experiences that will effect us and our loved ones.

When it comes to the area of Toxic Heavy Metals most of us have never given this a second thought, in fact we might not even understand the term.

This page is designed to give you some insight on the topic and what you can do to protect you and your family from something that is found in every area of our daily lives.

That's right, from the air we breath to the water we drink, yes the food we consume and the products we put in and on our bodies even things we touch and handle on a daily basis there are certain compounds in the form of toxic metals that enter our bodies that can and do accumulate in high quantities to the detriment of our long term health,causing chronic disease, and maybe even our premature death.



When we look back through history we can see the terrible effects metals like lead, arsenic and mercury have had.

Remember Napoleon Bonaparte? Well back in 1961 the government of France dug up his body (he died in 1821) to determine the cause of death, and on performing an analysis of his hair, they found that he had 100 times more arsenic than normal. Well it would be easy to conclude the little corporal was poisoned, He was poisoned alright, but probably not from his enemies, the culprit was likely the environment in which he lived. The potential sources of arsenic could have come from seafood, well water, coal burning, wood preservatives, wine, wallpaper dye and many other pollutants of the day.

Another example is during the Roman empire lead was used in many areas of life such as wine making, using lead lined pots and copper kettles as well as water pipes, dishes, coins, cosmetics and even in some food recipes. Historians believe that lead poisoning may have been a major culprit in the downfall of the Roman Empire.

For a great in depth discussion of heavy metals click this link.

When it comes to toxic metals many of us can remember as children breaking open a thermometer and playing with that neat shinny stuff, well it wasn't until the 1970s-1980s that people realized they were handling one of the most toxic metals known to man-Mercury or quicksilver as it was called.

Mercury is found in many useful everyday items from alkaline batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, electrical switches, and medical devices, we even have allowed the dentist to use mercury in the amalgam fillings in our mouth for last 100 years.

These are but a few of the many examples of how we have lived with in the past and are living with today poisonous toxins that we take for granted are safe to use in everyday life

" Because of modern technology in the western world today it is estimated that we are more than a thousand times more polluted with heavy metals than when Christ walked the earth."

Dr. Morton Walker, DPM

There are 22 damaging toxic metals to the human body, plus aluminum which is toxic but not considered a heavy metal with a specific gravity of 2.7, ( hopefully you are not cooking with aluminum cookware)

Six of these toxic metals are entering our environment everyday in ever increasing amounts: mercury, cadmium, lead, aluminum, arsenic and nickel.

These are poisonous to both internal and external body processes and in addition to exposure from our air, water, food and work environment and having them implanted by our health professionals,for example;

dentist, cardiac surgeons, and orthopedists with the use of mercury, copper, palladium, tin, nickel, silver, and zinc.

Are you getting the Big Picture yet?These are all great reasons why people will need to know about chelation for toxic metals.

The ATSDR ToxFAQsTM is a series of summaries about hazardous substances developed by the ATSDR Division of Toxicology. Check out the links below and you will soon see why chelation may be of interest to you. chelation of Aluminum Antimony Arsenic Beryllium Cadmium Lead Mercury Thallium Thorium Uranium Nickel Silver Titanium Tin