Mineral Toxicity and Chelation
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There are many toxic minerals such as mercury lead aluminum cadmium copper and arsenic that can cause very severe damage to the body or brain. To prevent this there is a sort of brain blood barrier that doesnt allow these toxic minerals to pass to the brain unless the liver is overloaded and the toxins overcome this barrier. Usually the liver removes these toxic minerals and stores them temporarily in itself and then gradually allows releasing them out into the bloodstream in small amounts to be stored in other areas or chelated and excreted.

If a chelating agent is present in the blood then it combines with all the minerals in the blood and is thus able to be excreted usually thru the kidney/urine passageway. Also small amounts of all minerals carried in the blood are excreted thru the skin (Perspiration) and stored in the hair cells and fingernails etc.

Heres the problem! If the blood is very low on chelation material such as vitamin C or glutathione then the liver cannot release much toxic material due to the possibility of brain damage. This means that all mineral measurements blood urine or hair may show very low relative readings as compared to nutritional minerals present normally. Since the toxicity is determined by the ratios of toxic minerals to normal nutritional ones in that individual.

It is literally impossible to measure the amount of minerals directly. We would have to biopsy the liver and all the other storage places in the body to do this expensive painful and inaccurate at best.

So we measure indirectly by three basic methods blood urine and hair. Blood only measures what is there at the time of measurement and this changes fairly fast. Urine (best done with a 24 hour collection) is better and more accurate. Hair analysis is usually most accurate as it measures the average over weeks or even months and compares to the overall minerals in the body that are excreted or stored naturally.

However to complicate further a complicated procedure some problems such as autism result in a lowering of natural chelation materials like vitamin C and glutathione. This deficiency distorts the toxic measurement simply because the liver wont release the toxins to the bloodstream if it cant be combined with a chelate for excretion. Thus ANY measurements are distorted or meaningless. If vitamin C is given for a week or so prior to any mineral test the results will be much more reliable.

The above information can be very confusing to a layperson (and even some MDs). Its important to understand how mineral toxicity and excretion works in order to understand how chelation works.

The word chelate means to grab onto or claw onto. There are some chemicals that are attracted to minerals in the blood. These chemicals attach themselves to all minerals in the bloodstream and take the combination out of the body usually by the kidney/urine excretion route.

What does this mean Well its the best way to rid your body of excess or toxic minerals. For example if you played with mercury as a child with your bare hands some mercury was absorbed into your body thru your skin. Once it gets into the body the body defense is to store it in order to get it out of the bloodstream and away from the brain where it can do damage. Or perhaps you have mercury in your tooth fillings that is gradually leached out into your bloodstream. This toxic mineral will be stored in your body and very gradually released over a long period (often years) in small amounts that will not damage you.

Actually since we evolved from the sea many millions of years ago our blood is very similar to the ocean saltwater. Of course it has evolved a lot in the meanwhile but the mineral composition is still very close. As a matter of fact seawater has been used for blood transfusions when there was no blood available.

Nature doesnt waste anything and so the minerals in your body all have some purpose. Calcium and magnesium supply the battery that keeps your heart beating and calcium is used in bones hair and fingernails. Magnesium is used in over 6000 enzymes as well.

Enzymes are the chemical catalysts that are used within the body to transform one chemical form into another. For example many many enzymes are needed to transform blood calcium into bone calcium.

Vitamins are also required for enzymes. Each enzyme requires at least one vitamin or mineral plus amino acids etc. This is why if you dont get enough vitamins and/or minerals in your food some enzymes arent made and some needed chemical transformations arent made.

One major problem with minerals. Unlike most vitamins many minerals MUST be somewhat balanced in their intake. It is not enough to just take all the minerals haphazardly. Standard testing of blood and urine doesnt reflect balance of minerals in body cells just in the blood or urine at the time of testing. Mineral analysis using hair is much better for determining balance of minerals. For more information on this see: Testing Body Mineral Balance/Toxicity by Hair Analysis.

So since it is probable that at sometime in your lifetime you will absorb too much of some mineral that may affect your health chelation is the best way to get rid of toxic levels of such minerals.

There are several modern chelators. The favorite of most MDs that specialize in chelation is EDTA. You sit in a clinic with a needle in your arm for about an hour or so putting this solution into your bloodstream. It mixes (claws onto) with the minerals in the blood stream and makes them water soluble and out the urine pathway.

The one I used successfully in my former practice was plain old vitamin C. For adults I used it in 12 gram doses or so split up into 6 doses at 4 hour intervals. Some skip the one after midnight. This has the benefit of not paying doctor

time and also confers some health extra benefits as well!

For a child scale down appropriately. Even most 3 year olds can tolerate 2000 mg in 500 mg doses every six hours. If not the only effect is diarrhea.

Now theres just one problem to using any chelators. It takes every mineral out of the bloodstream in effect (or at least as much as it can hold). This means that not only the bad mineral that were trying to get out is affected but all the good (and necessary) minerals as well. So whenever using any chelator or using large amounts of vitamin C BE SURE TO TAKE MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS TO REPLACE THESE GOOD AND NECESSARY MINERALS!

What other minerals might affect YOU Calcium comes to mind. With all the Madison Avenue ads about calcium you might believe that you can just take calcium and be OK. WRONG!

In order for the calcium you take to end up in bones etc. it requ