How to Test & Detox Heavy Metals (my preferred method is the smoothie below)
We all have them. If you eat fish even once every couple of weeks, or ever did, especially sushi, or have metal fillings in your mouth, or tattoos, you should just assume you have high levels of heavy metals. In this case, I would just do the protocol to remove them and get tested afterward as the test is between $300 and $500.
The Tri Test
Chris Shade, Ph.D., is one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of heavy metal detoxification. He developed a patented liquid chromatographic mercury speciation technology that differentiates and identifies the exact source of your mercury — whether it’s from your dental amalgams, or from eating contaminated seafood for example.
The test he developed is called the Mercury Tri-Test, because it looks at three different kinds of samples: blood, hair, and urine. You always have more mercury in your tissues than in your blood, but there’s a steady state or ratio between what’s in your blood and what’s in your tissues.
The Mercury Tri-Test is the only clinical test out there that differentiates between the inorganic form of mercury (typically found in amalgam fillings) and organic mercury or methylmercury (from fish), allowing you to tailor the most ideal detox protocol for your situation.
Why are Most Tests Inaccurate?
All of the earlier testing methods offer an incomplete picture of your actual mercury load:
- Hair testing only shows organic (methyl) mercury load
- Urine testing only shows inorganic mercury load
- Blood testing for total mercury load really only gives you a measure of your mercury from fish consumption, while mercury from dental amalgams remains ‘hidden’
- Challenge testing can give false low readings if your kidneys are not functioning well, and each of the chelators are biased toward one form or mercury or the other, which can give you a misleading measurement of your mercury load
Detoxing Heavy Metals
My Favorite Detox for Heavy Metals is a Smoothie here
Next, Dr. Shade also helped to develop a new lipid-based delivery systems for nutraceuticals, including liposomes and micro-emulsion systems to address the need for effective and affordable detoxification.
These are listed here on his site as well as other supplements he suggests if you want to do it on your own or just for maintenance. They suggest that everyone does the “Push-Catch” program which will detox mold as well as heavy metals.
Here are a list of his Detoxing Supplements & Herbs with Links
* “Push-catch” $120 – General detox for all toxins, especially heavy metals and mold. (4 levels ) 1st step for detox
– Beneficial for everyone, and suggested that everyone should do this detox as least once in their life. (1-3 months) (The video just below is a detailed explaination of how the “push-catch” works.)
https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/pushcatch
Coupon Code for any of his products is “BILL5” For a 5% Discount
* Liposomal Glutathione – Another great detox supplement would be Glutathione and can be done at the same time as “push-catch” – https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/liposomal-glutathione
“Merprotect” – used before removing metal fillings – $135 (1 week) (specific for mercury) https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/merprotect
“The Black Box 2” – More powerful detox from Mold, plastics, and general toxins – $525 – https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/black-box-2
“The Detox Qube” – For serious Mercury toxicity – (Has to be ordered by doctor because it has a silica called IMD that removes major toxins) – $795 (3 months) –https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/the-detox-qube
Find a doctor with products to prescribe (put in zipcode at the bottom) – https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/
Alll Products – https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/all-products
5% Coupon Code “BILL5”
For Quicksilver Product Videos click here
How do you know if you have Heavy Metal Toxicity?
- If you have Chronic pain
- Brain fog
- Diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, heartburn,
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Mood swings, depression, and/or anxiety, irritability, anorexia
- Chronic Fatigue and or Insomnia
For More See Part 1 or Click this link for more on specific metals – https://www.sikhnet.com/news/heavy-metal-toxicity-signs-and-symptoms
How do People Typically Get Mercury Toxicity?
- Amalgam (silver) fillings
- Vaccines, particularly the ones that contain thimerosal
- Eating any seafood
Here is more information on how Dr. Shade recommends detoxing from heavy metals: (These steps are in his products above) – More Videos Below
Shade’s 3-step process for detoxing heavy metals
1.Cleanse and clear your GI tract of metals and toxins using a thiol-functionalized silica (Intestinal Metal Detox, or IMD) with a practitioner, or chlorella, plus charcoal and clay, which bind to all the other toxins. Herbs like dandelion and goldenrod are good for added liver and kidney support. Burdock and dandelion helps clear your blood. Be sure to drink extra water to flush the toxins out.
Remember, if you’re detoxing and feeling really unwell, you need to clear more toxins out of your GI tract and blood. When you do that, back off your Nrf2 upregulators, and instead take more GI binders, and more liver and kidney supporting herbs. Drink a lot of water. When you’re feeling clear again, restart the Nrf2 upregulators.
2.Glutathione optimization. Increase glutathione levels either by using precursors (such as N-acetylcysteine [NAC], or a liposomal glutathione formulation.
3.Nrf2 upregulation in the cells using R-lipoic acid, polyphenols, and sulfur-based compounds from cruciferous vegetables and alliums. The Ayurvedic herb haritaki is beneficial, as are sulforaphane (broccoli seed extract), and allicin and diallyl disulfide (garlic). All of these upregulate Nrf2 and aids detoxification.
Last but not least, remember that detoxing is a marathon, not a sprint. Start all your doses low and work your way up. Do not jump in and do too much all at once. Typically, detoxing will take anywhere from 3 to 12 months; sometimes longer. Also, pulse the treatment on and off, or else it will lose its effectiveness.
How Your Body Detoxifies Naturally
One problem in modern toxicology is the failure to understand the vast disparity in people’s ability to deal with and detoxify toxins. Exposure levels that will cripple one person may leave another seemingly unharmed. A major part of this is your body’s detoxification system. If your detoxification channels are working well, you will withstand higher levels of toxins without obvious symptoms of toxicity.
Dr. Shade says:
“The core of the detoxification system is the glutathione system,” Dr. Shade says.“Notice that I don’t say, ‘it’s glutathione.’ No, it’s the glutathione system.
Glutathione binds to metals and can move them out of your body, but it doesn’t do that alone. If we look at what the requirements for resistance to metals and effective detoxification (meaning not only the resistance but shuttling them out), you need healthy levels of glutathione in your cells. You [also] need activity of… a phase II detoxification enzyme called glutathione S-transferase. This is an enzyme that’s responsible for prying the mercury off the cellular proteins and linking it together with the glutathione. [Lets say] those two parts work: You have the glutathione; you have the glutathione S-transferase — now you have a mercury-glutathione conjugate in the cell. Now you’ve got to get it out of your body.
At the cell membrane, you’ve got active transport proteins, called multidrug resistance proteins, which pushes that mercury-glutathione complex out of the cell and into your blood. From there, you got another one at the liver… [which] pulls it from your blood into your liver; and another one that dumps it from your liver into your bile tract, to go into your small intestine. You have also got some of these transport proteins in your intestinal walls, pulling [toxins] from your blood into the intestines. And you have got them in your kidneys as well.
You have to have all parts of this going.”
If any one of these mechanisms is knocked out, your cells will lose their resistance to the metal, and bioaccumulation sets in. So in order to strengthen your detoxification system, you need to optimize the ENTIRE system from top to bottom within the transport chain, so that your body can pull the mercury away from the proteins it is bound to, and transport it out of your body.
Strategies for Optimizing Your Glutathione System
There are a few. Taking oral or intravenous glutathione can be both expensive and ineffective. A more efficient way to optimize your glutathione levels is to provide your body with the precursor to glutathione, cysteine, in the form of foods naturally high in it. – Whey protein, especially organic, grass-fed whey protein contains some of the highest levels of cysteine.
Dr. Shade says:
“Taking oral glutathione in a capsule is very inefficient, because your peptidases will break down the glutathione into its amino acids,” Dr. Shade explains. “… You’re left with precursors, or whey protein, which I think is probably the best precursor. Though, at the same time, you need to upregulate the activity of the synthesis enzymes that are making it from the precursors… [T]he other thing that we use a lot, which is a little bit more specialized, is liposomal delivery of glutathione…. At the same time, you’re also bringing in phosphatidylcholine, which has its own therapeutic benefits by helping to repair the cell membranes. The cell membranes are very highly damaged by metals and the free radical cascades that are catalyzed by them.
We use a lot of this liposomal glutathione. We have recently taken on the manufacturing of that that’s making a very small, high integrity liposome. But aside from liposomes, whey protein is my favorite way to get those precursors into the body.”
Whey Protein
This is the most all natural organic grass fed whey I’ve found. (click photo for link)
According to Dr. Shade, if your body is making glutathione well, then just taking whey protein should be sufficient. But if your detoxification system is severely compromised, the liposomal glutathione can serve an important function as it can offer immediate relief against the oxidative stress caused by the mercury. He typically recommends using both for people who are ill.
“Once you have repaired the system and you’re getting it working again, then the whey protein can sustain you,” he says.
But it’s important to remember that there’s more to your glutathione system than just glutathione. You also need the proper enzymes and proteins that work together with the glutathione to eliminate the mercury. These include:
- Glutathione S-transferase
- Glutathione synthetase
- Gamma-glutamylcysteine ligase
Phylogenomics — Gene Activation through Superfoods
Dr Shad says:
“This is a beautiful part of the science called phylogenomics, ‘phylo’ meaning plants, and ‘genomics’ meaning genes,” he says…
The main family of food chemicals that help your whole system to detox and utalize antioxidants are polyphenolic antioxidants like you would find in green tea extract or pine bark extract. The one we use the most is called Haritaki. We have a blend called Clear Way Cofactors, where we bring together what we think are the best polyphenolics for doing this. The other side of it is the sulfur-based chemicals.”
For this I use the powder, however it is possibly the most bitter, worse tasting herb I’ve ever tried and most people have a hard time swallowing it, so in this case I suggest the pill form, but click the photos for links of each.
The Importance of Sulfur Compounds for Your Detoxification System
One sulfur-based food is garlic, which is a good for mercury detoxification. As explained by Dr. Shade, garlic contains sulfur molecules that trigger the translocation of the Nrf2 proteins into your cells. Thus they trigger an upregulation of your glutathione system allowing it to do its job.
Dr. Shade says:
“You would want to use the whey protein in conjunction with some of these polyphenolic antioxidants, with the crucifer family, or garlic. Then you would get the enzyme up, as well as bringing in the precursors,” Dr. Shade says.
According to Dr. Shade, taking garlic oil capsules is just as good as eating raw garlic, maybe even better, for upregulating your glutathione system. Another important sulfur compound is lipoic acid, which helps regenerate vitamin C and E.
Shade goes on to say, “the use of vitamin C: constantly bringing electrons into the system, as well as its immune effects building up the immune system. Vitamin C is an integral part of that. But you’re not going to do vitamin C alone. That’s a very myopic scene. But it is a strong player. It’s always there. It should be one of your main pawns in this game.
Then you look at lipoic acid. Lipoic acid is a very potent upregulator of the glutathione system and specifically R-lipoate. So, without the lipoic acid, you have got two forms: You have S-lipoic acid and R-lipoic acid. These are like amino acids where you’ve got D amino acids and L amino acids.
L amino acid is the only one that fits into the biochemistry, and D does not. S-lipoic does not fit into the biochemistry. I mean, it can act as an antioxidant in the body. It can do some functions. But it can’t upregulate the glutathione system. Only the R-lipoate fits into this Nrf2 mechanism to upregulate the glutathione system. That’s why we have a liposome that’s a mixture of vitamin C and R-lipoic acid. You can take high doses of this without running into bowel intolerance and very effective delivery of that lipoic acid. That’s the common sulfur chemical that we use the most.”
These are the supplements I like that he’s suggested for longer term use after using his supplements particually his “push-catch” linked above:
Other Helpful Players
Astaxanthin is one of the best performers when it comes to protecting your ENTIRE cell from damage, and as such, it can be an important ingredient to help optimize your detoxification system as a whole. Dr. Shade agrees, stating:
“You got the cytosol, or cytoplasm, that’s water-soluble. Then you got the membranes that are fat-soluble. You need to take care of both the water side and the fat side. I think astaxanthin would be a great thing to incorporate into the systems.”
Another commonly used detoxification tool is chlorella, which will help detoxify your system via your gut. Chlorella is a binder, meaning that it binds to the heavy metals present in your gut, which serves two important functions as it:
- Prevents absorption and/or re-absorption (many metals can be excreted into your bile and then be re-absorbed), and
- Prevents the metals from irritating your intestines by holding them away from the epithelia of your intestinal wall. This helps prevent inflammation
Tri Test – More Information
Some states, such as Colorado, are so-called “direct access” states, in which you can buy a testing kit directly from Dr. Shade’s company, Quicksilver Scientific. Then all you have to do is get your blood drawn at a local lab, which sends it back to the company for analysis. In other states, you have to go through your primary care physician to get the mercury speciation test done. The test retails for about $350.
The sensitivity of the test is “unmatched,” according to Dr. Shade.
“We’re the only one in the world doing the speciation — the separation of the different forms of mercury. And we’re the only ones working at the low ranges than we are… We have a detection limit of 10 part per trillion. (compared) Lab Quest or Lab Corp; do a blood mercury for you, and their detection limit will either be one or 0.5 parts per billion. That’s 50 times higher, at the best, than what we’re running… we can see ALL the changes and the ambient profiles.
…I’ll tell you that I like people [to be] under 0.05 nanograms per milligram for the dental form of mercury. That’s when you know that you’re really cleaned up. For methylmercury, that number can be a little higher. Depending upon the state of their health, I like them down below 2 nanograms per liter, or if they have shown some sensitivity to mercury, then I like them under 1 nanogram per liter.”
For more details on a detox cleanse with diet and herbs – https://www.mercola.com/article/mercury/detox_protocol.htm
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/06/dr-shade-on-mercury-exposure.aspx
Disclaimer
By utilizing the information presented on this site, you agree to and understand that Bill Farr is not a doctor or any other type of certified health care professional, and his opinion is not a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your doctor or your other health care providers concerning your symptoms and medical requirements before following any of the remedies or other suggestions he offers. His opinion is based on his own research and is to be used for educational purposes only. Bill Farr’s wellness plans and advice are meant to be used in conjunction with standard allopathic or osteopathic medical treatment and care.
