If you try to follow the latest advice and trends in the health world then you won’t fail to have noticed the term ‘detox’ crops up an awful lot. So much so, it might be said to be something of a health buzzword. It means, of course, attempting to remove unhealthy foreign entities that are clogging up parts of your body – and can be undertaken in a variety of ways. Fasting, eating more greens, sipping apple cider and taking high-quality supplements; you name it, you truly can run the gamut in order to detox yourself. But detox yourself of what exactly? You may have heard people undergoing a detox to cleanse their intestines, livers and kidneys, but have you ever heard of someone detoxing heavy metals? It’s far from a bad idea, to say the least – and has absolutely nothing to do with avoiding listening to hard rock music.

 

What exactly are heavy metals?

Basically, heavy metals can be described as dense (semi-)metallic elements that occur naturally in the earth’s soil and find their way into water sources. That said; there are numerous man-made heavy metals too. It ought to be noted that certain heavy metals aren’t hazardous to the human body in small doses (in fact, within these terms, the body actually needs them), but truly hazardous examples like cadmium, lead and mercury can quite happily bioaccumulate; meaning they’re absorbed by the body faster than it can rid itself of them.

So, exactly which heavy metals are we talking about here and what sources do they come from; what modern materials/ foods/ products are responsible for giving rise to them…?

• aluminium (cookware and deodorants)
• arsenic (eggs and poultry)
• bismuth (make-up)
• cadmium (batteries, cigarettes, coffee and hydrogenated oils)
• lead (auto exhausts and building materials)
• mercury (contact lens solution, dental fillings and seafood)
• thallium (gasoline)

Evidently then, reducing your exposure to the likes of meats, low-quality seafood and hydrogenated oils and trying to use natural deodorants and beauty products will help you to avoid consuming these dangerous heavy metals. But what can you do if and when you do consume them? Well, first, let’s take a look at what they actually do in the body to understand why they should be avoided and a detox attempted…

 

What do heavy metals do in the body?

So, in simple terms, the 23 toxic heavy metals in existence, once inside the human body, are adept at interrupting normal cellular processes. They achieve this thanks to their uncanny ability to bind with protein sites, thus kicking out and replacing metals that naturally occur in our cells. What does this do? It inhibits mitochondria (the chemicals that are critical to making energy in cells), thus resulting in the likes of fatigue and far worse symptoms when heavy metal exposure is long-term. Not fun.

 

Heavy Metal toxicity symptoms

And. speaking of tell-take signs of heavy metal toxicity, there are a good many of them. Yet, while acute toxicity symptoms can be quite obvious to those in the know (breathing difficulties, impaired cognitive and motor skills, severe cramping, vertigo, vomiting and so on), signs of less severely affected health due to heavy metal exposure/ consumption are a more general – they include…

• aching joints
• acne
• bad digestion/ bloating/ gas
• difficulty digesting fats
• excess sweating
• fatigue
• headaches
• female health issues (involving hormones, infertility and pre-eclampsia)
• middle-of-the-night insomnia
• mood swings
• severe food cravings

Don’t doubt it, though; if not tackled, heavy metal toxicity can lead to the development of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and even cancer. So, clearly far from good news. Yet, it’s not all gloomy, of course; thanks to detoxing, the nasty things heavy metals get up to in our bodies can be checked via them being flushed out.

 

How to detox heavy metals naturally

Natural, fundamentally healthy and safe ways to detox your body of heavy metals include:

• Drinking generous amounts of filtered water
• Regular physical exercise that induces a sweat
• Maintaining a nourishing and anti-inflammatory diet to support your liver
• Consuming naturally-derived, high-quality supplements

 

Heavy metal supplements

Yes, as you may have guessed we would, we’ve finally got around to the benefits to be gleaned from well-reviewed, proven and reliably safe-to-consume naturally-derived supplements; those deliberately designed, of course, to help combat heavy metals and flush them out of the body. The following two are especially popular and impressive products (both of them available through us at The Finchley Clinic) that people particularly rate thanks to their unique silica Microcluster technology – which sees their little spheres of silica isolate and encapsulate the heavy metals all the way to their ejection from the body:

Crystal Energy – currently on special offer, this product (in addition to containing silica Microclusters) can instantly turn water into liquid crystals, thus helping to increase flow of water and nutrients across cell membranes to a rate more than two-and-a-half times faster than ordinary water, thereby increasing cell hydration and, in turn, heavy metal detoxification.

MegaHydrate – also on special offer, this supplement comprises silica Microclusters, which can increase hydration, improve cells’ zeta potential to clean the blood, alkalise blood and drive detoxification.