Toxic Heavy Metals Urine Test - Micro Trace Minerals

[shijing]

Thanks for sharing that Shijing. How much of the Chelex were you taking a day on the cycles?

I was taking one capsule -- when I first started toward the end of 2014 I was taking it in the morning, but when I started my second round last June I began taking it before bed, hoping that the majority of the chelation would take place during the night (I took chlorella tablets at the same time) since taking it in the morning often made me feel really run down throughout the rest of the day.

In the beginning, I wanted to take a double dose because I was fairly desperate at the time to mitigate the EMF symptoms I was experiencing (which I thought the heavy metal load might be exacerbating), but my doctor (probably wisely) warned me against that because of the potential strain on my kidneys. It took a few months, but the EMF symptoms did eventually start to decrease on the normal dose (I still have them, but they're something I can live with at this point).

As mentioned above, I did eventually start supplementing with extra EDTA on the on days because of the large amount of lead I'd accumulated -- this seemed to go OK, because EDTA doesn't affect me physically nearly as much as DMSA does.

 

[Z...]

Did you guys fast after taking DMSA?
This is what the German lab recommends, but in this paper http://www.microtraceminerals.com/fileadmin/uploads/pdf/en/Busch492013BJMMR6875_1.pdf I found the following regarding fasting:

"In adult human volunteers, the peak metal concentration occurred in 3.0+0.45h after 10 mg/kg dosing orally. DMSA has been found to be primarily albumin-bound in plasma through
a disulfide bond with cysteine with very little remaining unbound [28,29]. Like oral DMPS, the bioavailability for oral DMSA is at best 40% [30]. The oral bioavailability in fasted patients is
less, approximately 25%. Simultaneous administration of fat increases the oral bioavailability to approximately 40%. The majority of the elimination occurs within 24 hours and >90% is
excreted as DMSA-cysteine disulfide conjugates. Renal clearance is greater in healthy adults than in children [31]."

Therefore I am inclined to take my fatty breakfast as usual.

 

[Joe]

Did you guys fast after taking DMSA?
This is what the German lab recommends, but in this paper http://www.microtraceminerals.com/fileadmin/uploads/pdf/en/Busch492013BJMMR6875_1.pdf I found the following regarding fasting:

"In adult human volunteers, the peak metal concentration occurred in 3.0+0.45h after 10 mg/kg dosing orally. DMSA has been found to be primarily albumin-bound in plasma through
a disulfide bond with cysteine with very little remaining unbound [28,29]. Like oral DMPS, the bioavailability for oral DMSA is at best 40% [30]. The oral bioavailability in fasted patients is
less, approximately 25%. Simultaneous administration of fat increases the oral bioavailability to approximately 40%. The majority of the elimination occurs within 24 hours and >90% is
excreted as DMSA-cysteine disulfide conjugates. Renal clearance is greater in healthy adults than in children [31]."

Therefore I am inclined to take my fatty breakfast as usual.

No. No idea why anyone would fast before, after or during DMSA.

 

[shijing]

Did you guys fast after taking DMSA?

No. No idea why anyone would fast before, after or during DMSA.

I'm not sure what the benefit would be either. Some fasting happens naturally overnight if you take it before bedtime, but I didn't do that specifically to fast.

 

[nicklebleu]

Did you guys do a pre-chelation urin spot test as well (that's the recommendation of the lab I am in comtact with), or only the post-chelation urine sampling? Allegedly that way you can compare pre- with post-chelation results, but I'm not entirely sure what information might be gleaned from that.

Also, did you use DMSA or EDTA as chelating agent? The reason I'm asking is, that depending on chelating agent, the results may well be quite different. EDTA apparently is much more efficient binding heavy metals, but doesn't bind lead at all ...

 

[Joe]

Did you guys do a pre-chelation urin spot test as well (that's the recommendation of the lab I am in comtact with), or only the post-chelation urine sampling? Allegedly that way you can compare pre- with post-chelation results, but I'm not entirely sure what information might be gleaned from that.

Also, did you use DMSA or EDTA as chelating agent? The reason I'm asking is, that depending on chelating agent, the results may well be quite different. EDTA apparently is much more efficient binding heavy metals, but doesn't bind lead at all ...

They recommend a pre-chelation test, but we didn't do one. The idea is to test what you are normally expelling and then what you expell with chelation and compare the two for a more accurate load diagnosis. Basically, if you just chelate then the levels will be artificially elevated because your chelating. Supposedly if you do the pre-chelation test, then compare with the chelation, they can estimate your load. But we figured that if you just chelate and no mercury or other HMs show up, you have none. If they do show up, you have some, and need to get rid of it!

We used DMSA for mercury mainly, although it prolly pushes out other HMs. My understanding is that EDTA is better for lead, but the same applies: it'll do some other HMs too.

 

[nicklebleu]

We used DMSA for mercury mainly, although it prolly pushes out other HMs. My understanding is that EDTA is better for lead, but the same applies: it'll do some other HMs too.

Sorry, made a mixup: EDTA doesn't bind MERCURY very well ...

 

[shijing]

Did you guys do a pre-chelation urin spot test as well (that's the recommendation of the lab I am in comtact with), or only the post-chelation urine sampling? Allegedly that way you can compare pre- with post-chelation results, but I'm not entirely sure what information might be gleaned from that.

I did the pre-chelation test both times -- I've attached the results, and you can compare them to the post-chelation results I attached in my earlier post. The biggest benefits for doing this are (1) to see which metals your body tends to detox naturally on its own and (2) to see which heavy metals the chelator is drawing out preferentially. For example, when I took the DMSA it really accelerated my excretion of lead, mercury, antimony and thallium -- aluminum, barium, and tungsten, on the other hand, remained unaffected.

The way my doctor explained this at the time is that DMSA binds preferentially to some heavy metals more than others -- in my case, it was grabbing lead, mercury, antimony, etc but leaving others alone. She said that you need to bring down the levels of the preferred metals first before it will start to target the less preferred metals. That may be why my aluminum and antimony levels appear to go up between the two tests (11/14 and 6/15) -- by the latter test, the greater loads of things like lead and mercury had been reduced enough to start revealing the actual levels of some of the other metals which were hidden in the first.

Also, did you use DMSA or EDTA as chelating agent?

Since lead and mercury were my biggest concerns (especially since they work synergistically), I used a combination of EDTA and DMSA throughout the protocol, and will do so again once I resume.

 

[Z...]

So I finally did it. Swallowed whole 27 capsules of DMSA and nothing happened :)
In fact I've been feeling quite perky all day.

I also opted to submit one sample only (3.5 h post DMSA load) only because I understood that baseline sample testing would be another 116€.

 

[Laura]

So I finally did it. Swallowed whole 27 capsules of DMSA and nothing happened :)
In fact I've been feeling quite perky all day.

I also opted to submit one sample only (3.5 h post DMSA load) only because I understood that baseline sample testing would be another 116€.

That was our reason too: cost.

 

[shijing]

I also opted to submit one sample only (3.5 h post DMSA load) only because I understood that baseline sample testing would be another 116€.

That was our reason too: cost.

If there is a difference in cost, then the pre-chelation test isn't as important as the post-chelation one. When I did my tests, it was a package deal and I wasn't given the option of only doing the latter -- I was asked to pay one flat fee for a two-test kit. The extra data from the pre-chelation test is nice but not crucial; what's really important are the post-chelation results.

 

[Z...]

I am pretty convinced I have significant mercury load, since I took that mega dose of DMSA yesterday it feels like I did spring cleaning, could be just autosuggestion so will see what the test result shows....

In any case thank you for all this great information and pointers, upwards and onwards

 

[A Jay]

[quote author= link=topic=40814.msg630765#msg630765 date=1454621699]
For those in the states, I found this lab in New York that does heavy metal testing for $129.95, postage paid and they include the DMSA you need to take as well. http://www.dmsachelation.com/urine-test-for-heavy-metals/

The results look similar to Joe's test results. They test for 20 different metals. Seems like a pretty decent deal.

:D Thank you Lilou!
[/quote]

Thanks Lilou! I ordered a test from them and will report back once I get the test results.

 

[Gaby]

Attached are my results. I took 900mg of DMSA for this test, half of the recommended dose for the test. The results are discouraging, considering all the detox I have done. On the other hand, it makes me realize how much of a problem mercury is to me. I can check all the boxes for mercury toxicity symptoms and I know it favors stealth infections and autoimmune diseases.

Toxic elements in the severe range (in the high red end) were the following:

Mercury (normal <1): 21.303
Arsenic (normal <15): 91.529
Lead (normal <5): 11.833
Cesium (normal < 11): 17.679
Nickel (normal < 3): 6.216

On the upper normal limit was strontium.

My copper levels were in the red as well, but I don't take that supplement. High copper levels seem to indicate a zinc deficiency, which I don't take because it gives me stomach aches. I'll have to take zinc with foods in the morning.

I have a chrome deficiency, which I might supplement just in case.

It seems I'm taking enough boron, selenium and iodine as well.

Now I'm going to make a mercury detox plan with the DMSA since I tolerated a high dose relatively well. I'm going to wait for my allergy tests before I get chlorella or spirulina, just to make sure I'm not allergic to them.

 

[Z...]

Wow Gaby that's a lot of Arsenic and Mercury.

Did you ever have one or more amalgam fillings?

I was wondering about the arsenic, seeing that so many people have elevated levels. Apparently the biggest source of contamination is drinking water i.e soil.

There is also this:
"People who smoke tobacco can also be exposed to the natural inorganic arsenic content of tobacco because tobacco plants essentially take up arsenic naturally present in the soil."