heavy metal detox

I'm working on a project about heavy metal detoxification using a simple protocol using mainly cilantro and chlorella as chlating agents, and i'm looking for anyone who has tried out such a detox and might be willing to share with me the results, or anyone interested in doing such a detox and letting me know how it goes. 

i would be interested as well.  What is chlorella?

I've tried eating as much fresh cilantro on a regular basis as possible for my mercury detox, however, I'm sure there is a more regulated approach.

The cilantro is rumored to remove mercury from where it is stored in the body, and from there, it is dumped in the small intestine.  This is where the chlorella and seaweed come in; they bind to the heavy metals and carry them out of the body.  Mercury is the most common, and it is said that if the mercury is removed, it has an overall effect of relieving symptoms of other heavy metals, as well. 
A lot of the information I have is based on OPS- one person said- so, I’m interested in finding people with symptoms, who would be willing to follow a simple protocol and let me know how the symptoms changed or improved.  Unfortunately, testing for heavy metals, mercury in particular, is confusing, somewhat expensive, and not all that accurate.  I’m just going to have to settle for changes in reported symptoms.  Symptoms range from mood swings, depression, memory loss and/or impairment, gum disease, lethargy, inflammation, lowered immunity, and many more- they are ambiguous and common.  If I get some interested people, I’ll put together a little questionnaire, for before and after.  I'll do that, anyway, because I already have a few test subjects!  My goal is to satisfy myself that such a protocol would have a positive effect. 
I should say that I am a student of Chinese Medicine, studying acupuncture and Chinese herbs, and this is my senior project.  My hypothesis is that increased levels of heavy metals in the body may be a block to treatment with Chinese Medicine, and a person may need to undergo a detoxification before starting treatment, if certain criteria are met, or if they are not progressing well with treatment. 

anybody out there with reliable info on testing for heavy metals? 

intzi wrote:
Unfortunately, testing for heavy metals, mercury in particular, is confusing, somewhat expensive, and not all that accurate.

I think this sounds like a very strong statement. I agree with Dr. Mercola that it depends. It depends on the sample; it depends on the lab; it depends on the interpretation. 

I have worked in an office that took hair samples for heavy metal testing, and getting a good sample is not like getting a haircut in the barbershop.

1) You need clean hair (shampoo only, no conditioner, no products afterwards)
2) You need the hair closest to the scalp -- no further away than 1/2 (for the last month's growth) to 3/4 inch (6 week's growth). This is somewhat easier for men than for women, but it causes a bald patch for either sex. A man could go to the barber, get a hair cut (#3 clipper?) so the hair is 1/2 inch long and then immediately get a second hair cut (shave) to get the newest 1/2 inch. Save that part for testing. For women it's not quite so straight-forward. Perhaps there is some hair arrangement where the bald patch can be covered up until it grows out again, but ...
3) Send it to one of the good labs mentioned on this page.

This is not terribly expensive in my opinion ($40-$100). I knew one person who was tested, had his mercury fillings removed and was retested with results that matched his decrease in symptoms.

I plan to ask my accupuncturist (Ting Zhang), who learned Chinese medicine in China (about 5 years of the equivalent of medical school), about some of your statements the next time I see him, but that won't be until after Labor Day.

What I consider with any test is, what information is really given, and what I will do with that info.  I know very little about hair testing, but from what I know about heavy metals, they are stored in the body, and kept out of circulation as much as possible.  It stands to reason, that they would only show up in the hair if they are presently in circulation?  If the mercury is packed away in the nervous system, wreaking havoc, it may only show up in small amounts in the hair.  And it may depend on exposure, if someone is being constantly exposed because of their amalgam fillings, it will show up, but if they are suffering non-acute toxicity because of past exposure it might not show up at all.  The question then becomes, how tightly does the body hold onto the mercury?  That would vary from person to person, I would assume, as would the degree to which the mercury or other metals create symptoms, based on the persons overall health and sensitivity to mercury.  And, how accurate is the test, presumed it is preformed correctly?  Of all the methods I’ve looked at, hair testing seems the most accurate/reliable.  How much hair is involved, how large of a patch?  And i have to wonder, with the information recieved depending on the lab, the inerpertaion, and the sample,  how valuable the information really is.  I suppose that depends on who is useing it, and for what. 
And as far as someone getting their fillings out and then being retested, that tell me he has lowered the amount of mercury in circulation, but it tells me very little about his current stores of mercury.  Both of which are of concern. 

I would also like to say that I wouldn't recommend anyone loading up on cilantro, because it could be quite risky.  Any chelation process involves loosening up the heavy metals, and they may end up being redistributed in a worse location, and cause more problems than they were before, & this can happen with chemical chelators as well.  Heavy metal detox is a dangerous business. 

intzi wrote:
I know very little about hair testing, but from what I know about heavy metals, they are stored in the body, and kept out of circulation as much as possible.  It stands to reason, that they would only show up in the hair if they are presently in circulation?

I think a blood test for a heavy metal such as Iron or Lead will show you what is in the circulation. The hair will show you what is stored in the body tissues.

intzi wrote:
Of all the methods I’ve looked at, hair testing seems the most accurate/reliable.  How much hair is involved, how large of a patch?  And i have to wonder, with the information received depending on the lab, the interpretation, and the sample,  how valuable the information really is.  I suppose that depends on who is using it, and for what. 

How much ... It's been a few years... I believe it is measured in grams and typically required hair from 3 square inches or so ... depending on the thickness and density of hair on the scalp. If you get a good sample, a good lab with a good interpretation, I think it can be quite valuable. As with any lab test, the results are only as good as the sample. If you collect a poor sample (bleached or dyed hair, hair with mousse or hairspray, etc) or send it to the wrong lab, the results are worthless. You are correct. It depends.

I did some more looking around, and found out that hair analysis can be reliable if it is done correctly and interperted by someone who really knows what they are doing, it's complicated.  but thanks, Marylin, for your imput. 

If you have deer in your garden they will eat your plants, the symptoms will be missing plants. Any effective means of removing the deer will not replace the plants, anything that replaces the plants will not remove the deer. First you remove the deer, and test to see if you have removed the deer and kept them out, then you wait over time for the symptoms to improve.

Mercury does damage to your nervous system. Anything that removes the mercury will not reverse than damage. Anything that makes the symptoms go away right away will not remove the mercury. First a real mercury exposure needs to be treated by removing the mercury, any immediate improvement will be placebo effect (or your problem wasn't from mercury), it's only improvement over the time scale of months that you can rely on.

Chelation is dangerous, always, in any form. You can remove potassium from the blood and induce heart failure.

We worked with Dr Amy when we detoxed our children she is a great resource. One of our sons was autistic with her help you could not tell it today. If you want cleaned out start reading anything you need to know on detoxing heavy metals is there.

Don't really know anything about detoxes, but in my country the health authorities warn pregnany women from drinking green tea, if they didn't drink green tea before they got pregnant. It is because green tea  detoxes you from heavy metals, and you don't want your fetus to become exposed to them.
It they did drink green tea before the pregnancy they will already have been detoxed.
So: Green tea is very good for detoxing (oh, and white tea also).

I do not think that is accurate (about what green tea does, I absolutely believe that they discourage it for that "reason").

Chelation is a double-edged sword.

The idea is to speed up movement of heavy metals into the kidneys. In some cases, I've read that this can damage the kidneys, and do more harm than a slower, more natural clearance of heavy metals would have done.

Heavy metals are the majority of the periodic table. They're a frustratingly complicated topic, and I say this as someone inclined to rejoice in complexity. It's easy to do more harm to yourself through stress on this topic, than a typical person in an affluent country does by exposing themself to the metals themselves. It's also easy to take a few steps that reduce your exposure significantly below what is typical. It's impossible to reduce your exposure to zero, and it's very difficult to do good epidemiology on the relative risks of unusually low exposure vs. exposure even lower than that.

Generally, the more I learn about this topic, the less I know what to say about it.

My doctor had me tested for heavy metals and blood work showed elevated levels of Mercury.  I did have my mercury fillings taken out, and have had a little abatement of some of the symptoms, but not immediately.  I did take Cilantro for a while and did notice that if I didn't take pascalite clay (a type of bentonite) within 20 minutes of taking the Cilantro I became violently nauseated.  My husband warned me about that, as his research indicated that it can move it out of tissue and throw it into the kidneys or colon.  It reabsorbs in the colon if you don't take something to bind with it to help pull it out.  So the two things need to be done:  first, mobilize it to move it out, then second, take something to bind it so it doesn't reabsorb.  When I took the clay, I didn't have the nausea.  At least I'm not having seizures now, and the shooting nerve pain has subsided a little. 

I have a friend with a daughter who worked for many years in a dental office handling the amalgam fillings and preparing them.  She was exposed through breathing the dust over years, and still is.  She has severe symptoms of mercury poisoning and has frequent seizures.  I believe she was going through a chelation treatment but has run out of funds as it is very expensive.  She said it helped while she was getting it.  She also says she cannot afford to quit her job as she has a young child to raise alone, and she gets constant reexposure, so I know she feels very frustrated.

Personally, I believe a heavy metal detox is going to take a long time, perhaps years.  I'd really like to hear from someone who is a health care practitioner and knows the real protocol for doing the detox, other than just chelation which can be very draining to the body as it takes everything out.  I think it can, in itself, be dangerous due to this and needs to be monitored very closely by the physician doing it. 

I do have another friend, in her 70's, who did complete the chelation therapy and is much better today.  She was dying before and probably would not be alive today had she not done that.  To see her today, some 6 or so years after her treatment, you would not believe it was the same woman.  She is healthy for her age now, and looks and feels great.  She was very tired and washed out feeling during treatment as I'm sure it did wash out her potassium and other minerals as well.  She had to take large doses of supplements while doing the treatments to replenish what was being washed out. 

Yes, Mercury is demethylated by the liver and kicked out the bile duct, then remethylated by gut flora and reabsorbed through the large intestine. Methyl and inorganic mercury it not easy to get rid of. Only ethyl-mercury is cleared through the kidneys, and it is cleared pretty rapidly.

Cilantro and chlorella or spirulina are well-researched and effective. 

Also consider that the skin is the largest organ of detoxification.  Infrared sauna or sweat lodge will move a lot of toxins, but you need to replace electrolytes. 

But here is a big one I have just started researching:

PECTIN

It was used after Chernobyl to effectively chelate cesium from poisoned kids.  It's cheap, non-toxic and gently cleanses.  Easy to extract pectin at home from citrus peels. 

Or just make sure you always eat the white part of any citrus peel.  It is 30% pectin.  It isn't exotic or expensive, so you won't see much press on it.

yukkuri_kame wrote:
Cilantro and chlorella or spirulina are well-researched and effective. 

Also consider that the skin is the largest organ of detoxification.  Infrared sauna or sweat lodge will move a lot of toxins, but you need to replace electrolytes. 

But here is a big one I have just started researching:

PECTIN

It was used after Chernobyl to effectively chelate cesium from poisoned kids.  It's cheap, non-toxic and gently cleanses.  Easy to extract pectin at home from citrus peels. 

Or just make sure you always eat the white part of any citrus peel.  It is 30% pectin.  It isn't exotic or expensive, so you won't see much press on it.

'
Great info., just wanted to add my 2cents.  Another good source of pectin is the core of all apples, and you can also buy dried apple pectin wholesale online.  Or just eat the cores of the apples, daily, remove seeds first.  Sunflower seeds are another good source, and so easy to grow and they have a short growing season, about 60 days. 

When doing cilantro for heavy metal detox, remember to use a bentonite clay (about 1 tsp. in water), keep swishing it in the glass as it sinks to the bottom, and drink within 20 minutes of doing cilantro.  Cilantro mobilizes the heavy metal and you don't want it to reabsorb in the gut.  When I've done it I got very nauseated if I did not do the bentonite afterward.  Keep doing bentonite daily for at least a few days after doing cilantro. 

Shiitake is a blood thinner, and also helps remove heavy metal.   

When doing the sweat lodge or sauna, neutralize toxins which are coming out through the skin by rubbing yourself down with baking soda and then showering it off immediately.  (or rolling in the snow or jumping into the creek).   This prevents toxins from reabsorbing through the skin. 

Thanks RedCloud, great info. 

I am still wary about clay and zeolite minerals due to the high aluminum content. 

I have read some of the reasons why the body doesn't absorb the aluminum in bentonite or why it doesn't harm the body, but I am still skeptical.  I have gotten into particulars of research on that yet - if you have any specific info I would love to hear. 

Wife and I will be going to Japan this year, and possibly moving there, so this topic is of considerable concern to me. 

You asked if there was any reliable studies done on Heavy Metal detox.

My wife and I can across a site, and came across the following information about a clinically proven detox for heavy metals  which is 100% natural. It is the result of 3-year long clinical trials with 350 people that cost over $1 million.  The products name is called HMD for Heavey metal detox and has a patent pending.

My wife and I live in Southern Spain and we both took the product and both have felt more energetic and after we saw all the testimonials on the website, and having taking it ourselfs, we highly recommend it.  I believe there are several websites that offer this HMD product but one which you can try is  detox-heavymetal.com  Well best of luck and God bless   Tom

tomsspy wrote:
You asked if there was any reliable studies done on Heavy Metal detox.

My wife and I can across a site, and came across the following information about a clinically proven detox for heavy metals  which is 100% natural. It is the result of 3-year long clinical trials with 350 people that cost over $1 million.  The products name is called HMD for Heavey metal detox and has a patent pending.

Hmmm, call me a bit of a sceptic, but I get from the above that the manufacturer of this product paid for the study so that they could apply for the patent. I have rather a difficult time putting that and "reliable" together. My general rule: "follow the money" puts the likelihood of either a skewed test or skewed results or skewed interpretation too high. $1 million sounds low to me considering the cost of testing for heavy metals.

Having said all that...

My wife and I live in Southern Spain and we both took the product and both have felt more energetic and after we saw all the testimonials on the website, and having taking it ourselfs, we highly recommend it.  I believe there are several websites that offer this HMD product but one which you can try is  detox-heavymetal.com  Well best of luck and God bless   Tom

possibly it works, were you tested for heavy metals? Are you doing ongoing testing to see if they are going down? It is great that you are feeling better, but the question in my mind is why?

Everyone has a cocktail of heavy metals in their system...just a question of which ones in what concentrations.  Even if one isn't diagnosed with metal toxicity, they do have a cumulative effect on health, along with other toxins.  Since our load of cesium and strontium has just increased, we should all be aware of this info. 

Metals also have a negative synergy.  The dose of mercury that kills 1 out of 100 rats plus the lead that kills 1 out of 100 rats kills 100 out of 100 rats. 

I am skeptical of high-priced herbs and supplements - often there is something in your backyard, fridge or at your farmer's market that will do the job just as well for a lot less money. 

Studies with pectin done after chernobyl involved over a hundred thousand children.  Upwards of 40% reductions in cesium reduction, vastly outperforming a placebo.  Pectin's value has been upheld in research done at US universities, as well. 

There are forms of modified pectin that are supposedly more effective, but I have yet to see a study comparing modified pectin vs. unmodified. 

We consume the white pith of citrus fruits every day and have a wide variety of fruits & veggies and figure we get enough pectin as it is, though we might add some supplemental pectin when we visit Japan this fall. 

Here is Dr. Christopher's protocol for heavy mineral and metal detoxing.  He uses Bugleweed mainly, but the entire protocol needs to be looked at - and this program has been used with much success in the past:

http://herballegacy.com/Heavy_Metal_Poisoning.html
http://herballegacy.com/Bugleweed.html

This is one of the most informative pages on heavy metal detox I have come across...includes the science of it without being overwhelmingly technical:

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/9steps.htm

Selenium reduces the toxicity of Mercury.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20561558
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21675723

Many diets are rather low in selenium, and modest supplementation may make sense if a person is concerned with mercury exposure. Soils in humid regions tend to be depleted of selenium, while playas in arid areas sometimes have very high levels of selenium. The term 'loco weed' originally described a species of astragalus that grows in the desert southwest USA - it accumulates selenium and can cause horses to act crazy if they eat too much. Like zinc and iron, selenium is good in small amounts, but can become toxic at higher amounts.

Thanks for the links, JB.

Chlorella is a great source of selenium, perhaps part of the reason it is effective as a mercury chelator. 

Brazil nuts are very high in selenium - 1 nut per day is sufficient as a supplement, more than that on a regular basis risks toxicity.  Brazil nuts can also be contaminated with aflatoxin. 

My good friend is in a bit of a tough situation at the moment, as one of his teeth with a mercury amalgam filling has cracked, and he doesn't have any dental insurance or extra cash to go to a dentist with.

His right jaw has swollen, and his allergies (which give him uncomfortable hives) has heightened. He also gets painful cramps from gas/poor digestion.

a) Does anyone know of an alternative dental situation in the Missoula, MT area? (like dental students who volunteer service, etc)

b) Should he avoid chelators like cilantro/chlorella/pectin until he can have the tooth addressed?

c) Should he be consuming some sort of clay like bentonite?

d) What might alleviate mercury circulation in the short term?

ThankyouThankyouThankyou.

A lot of good information here, so I bookmarked it !

I'm Sure that many of the people who visited here are already aware that many plants are heavy metal collectors.

Do to the fiddlehead ferns affinity for heavy metals, i never pick them around an older house that may have had a lead based paint from years go , or close to the edge of a highway - lead in gasoline exhausted out on highways for decades.

-Just passing this out for people to take out of it what they will Be safe, keep Warm, Big Al

Dr Mike Godfrey from Tauranga, New Zealand is very good with heavy metal detox type things FWIW

I saw this is an old thread but maybe some of the info in my post will be helpful.

I had mercury fillings - quite a few. I don't know how many but I would guess at least 10. I had them removed the last 8 or so years but I should have seen a holistic dentist for some of those removals. I believe now that they were removed in a way that may have put more mercury in my body.

The last several years I've had a lot of fatigue. Last October it was so bad that I was taking as many as 3 naps a day.

I started doing hemp oil (by mouth). Helped a LOT with the chronic fatigue but I suspect that it detoxified my body and then it was reabsorbed because it wasn't leaving the body. But I have to say I can't believe how much better I felt after the hemp oil.

Once in a while I'd take activated charcoal, selenium, magnesium and a few other things and I would feel a bit better.

The company that has the hemp oil just came out with a detox. You take a liver serum and then 30 minutes later take the mega binder. I've been on it for 2 weeks and I feel so much better already. If I had the money for the tests, I'd see what was in my body as far as metals, etc.

Dr. Christopher Shade has amazing information on Quicksilver Scientific's website. The products on the website are meant to be used with a physician. He also makes products that are less expensive for the company that i buy from.  Also take a look at Dr. Shade on youtube. Lots of good info !

Sheri