The MetaTyping™ Nutrition Blog

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Are Toxic Chemicals Sabotaging Your Health? The Answer is On Top of Your Head!

From: The MetaTyping Nutrition Blog
Posted: Thursday February 15, 2007

Greetings -

Say the words "heavy metal" to most people – especially those under 50 years old - and they’ll immediately think of the loud rock music from the 1970’s and 1980’s.

But for those of us interested in health and longevity, "heavy metal" has an entirely different meaning.

Heavy metals are extremely dense chemical elements, such as cobalt, copper, zinc, arsenic, mercury, lead, and aluminum. These heavy metals usually enter our environments as air, soil, or water contaminants. From there, we assimilate them into our bodies - from the air we breathe, from our water taps and from liquid beverages, from food grown in contaminated soil, from the cookware we use, and even from the dental fillings in our mouth. Some even enters us directly through our skin in our daily environment.

Some heavy metals, like copper and zinc, are beneficial to our health in small amounts. Others, like arsenic and mercury, have no effect in small amounts. However all the heavy metals can cause serious illnesses if the amounts exceed certain levels.

These toxins affect your biochemistry by creating biochemical imbalance. Heavy metals may accumulate within vital tissues (brain, bone, liver, etc.), and can disrupt organ function, and can displace nutritional minerals from sites of biological activity. They also disrupt enzymatic activity needed for digestion.

The list of confirmed and/or suspected health problems from heavy metals grows. Especially "hard-to-diagnose" problems like chronic anemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, neuro-muscular disorders, Parkinson’s disease, kidney dysfunction, liver dysfunction, and certain internal organ cancers have been suspected of or confirmed to be heavy metal toxicity.

So if you are at all serious about living a long life, it’s important to know what your "heavy metal" levels are, and what to do to correct them.

One way to determine your heavy metal levels is through Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA). HTMA is a chemical analysis of a patient’s hair that looks for heavy metals. HTMA is used by many scientists and doctors, especially those in the occupational health field and in environmental health research.

Hair is an excellent medium for testing for the presence of heavy metals. As your hair grows, it is exposed to your internal environment, such as your blood, lymph and extra-cellular fluids. When the hairs reach the surface of the skin, the outer layers harden, locking in the chemical activity that occurred during the formation phase (growing underneath the skin). The hairs on your head hold the key to your mineral excesses, deficiencies, and/or imbalances. It can be an indicator of long-term effects of diet, stress, and toxic metal exposure which can impact health and well-being.

For HTMA, a sample of the patient's hair is usually taken from the back of the head and neck. It is sent to a lab where it is analyzed for mineral elements and heavy metal toxicities. Labs that perform this analysis use highly sophisticated "chemically reactive" techniques performed to exacting standards.

The result of the HTMA is a detailed report of all of the elemental levels, including the heavy metals, in your body. After a period of time following the nutritional diet plan that is right for your genetic type, a second HTMA is recommended as a follow-up. In this way, you should see the heavy metal levels improve as you continue following your genetic diet plan.

Unfortunately, some professionals use HTMA not just for heavy metal analysis, but for genetic typing for nutritional analysis as well. Unfortunately, this tool is only partially successful for this use. As a certified nutritional advisor, I use HTMA with clients, and I have seen HTMA that produced the incorrect nutritional advice for the client’s genetic type.

However, as a tool for determining heavy metal toxicity, HTMA is extremely valuable. It’s impossible to avoid heavy metals in our environment, but HTMA allows you to know if you have your levels under control. It’s another excellent tool for those of us who are serious about living long, healthy lives.

Wishing you the best in health and longevity,

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