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Best Heavy Metal/Copper Urine Test

Messages
94
Hi all,

I've been having good luck with Freddd's protocol and I suspect heavy metal toxicity (particularly Copper). Can anyone point me in the direction of a reliable 24 hour urine test to take? I've had serum levels tested but understand they may not be reliable. I've also read quite a bit that hair analysis may also be inaccurate.

Thanks!
 

caledonia

Senior Member
A serum test will only show a current exposure. After exposure, some of the metals will be detoxed out, but the rest will get squirreled away in your body tissues and fat. Then it's difficult to detect them.

It's not a good idea to do a provoked urine test as the provoking agent will cause metal redistribution and possibly even worse symptoms.

The best test is a hair metals + essential elements test interpreted with Andrew Cutler's counting rules, which look for deranged mineral transport, the tell tale sign of mercury toxicity. The actual levels of metals shown may or may not be accurate depending on various circumstances.

You can also go by symptoms. There are extensive symptom lists in Cutler's hair interpretation book, for mercury and all the other metals.

You can use the book to interpret the test or also get help from the Frequent Dose Chelation forum. Symptoms of mercury and copper toxicity are very similar.

See Cutler section in my signature link for more info.
 
Messages
94
Ah, okay. Thank you. So a "provoked urine test" is what is generally meant when people refer to 24 hour urine tests/urine tests in general?
 
Messages
94
Can either of you recommend a reliable hair metals + essential elements test that @caledonia mentioned? I've looked over many symptom lists but of course it is quite challenging to accurately match what is actually going on with what you suspect you may have. At this point, my main issues are mental - depression, apathy, brain fog, anxiety (particularly social).
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Can either of you recommend a reliable hair metals + essential elements test that @caledonia mentioned? I've looked over many symptom lists but of course it is quite challenging to accurately match what is actually going on with what you suspect you may have. At this point, my main issues are mental - depression, apathy, brain fog, anxiety (particularly social).

I have a link to the right test in my signature link. See the section on Cutler frequent dose chelation. Also info on how to get it interpreted correctly.
 
Messages
94
Hi again. I've gotten the Doctor's Data hair analysis and received the results. @caledonia, I will be submitting it to Yahoo's group shortly per your comments but figured I would post it here if anyone would be willing to help me interpret it. Thank you all in advance.
 

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caledonia

Senior Member
Hi again. I've gotten the Doctor's Data hair analysis and received the results. @caledonia, I will be submitting it to Yahoo's group shortly per your comments but figured I would post it here if anyone would be willing to help me interpret it. Thank you all in advance.

I'll print it out and try and take a crack at it. I've only ever interpreted one test, which is my own. The FDC group had quite a bit more information to tell me than I was able to get out of Cutler's book. So for whatever it's worth.

I can probably give you a yes or no on mercury, assuming it's not a borderline type test.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
@Tigger

Here's what I got from your test.

The test doesn't meet any of the counting rules, so it doesn't show the deranged mineral transport that you would see with mercury.

The first thing to check is if this is actually your test results - do the age and sex match you?

Assuming this is your test, then we can proceed.

Note that taking supplements can at least somewhat normalize the elements section of the test. I'm not sure if it can be completely normalized or not if mercury is present.

With a normal test, the toxic elements accurately reflect body stores. So mercury and copper are both low.
Cutler says the important ones are the ones in the red zone and in the high yellow zone. So that would mean Antimony, aluminum and nickel. It's possibly you might have "mixed metal toxicity" from these metals.

In the elements section, iodine is in the red. This is toxic. Cutler suggests to stop any source of iodine (iodized salt, seaweed, etc.) and get your thyroid checked.

Calcium/magnesium is lower than the sodium/potassium which is a sign of stress.
The magnesium is in the low yellow band so he suggests supplementing with magnesium and taurine.

In the ratio section at the bottom, the Ca/P is above .03 to .35, so that indicates a possibly thyroid issue.

=-==-=-=-
I assume you have ME/CFS or something serious, otherwise you wouldn't be on this board.

If so, a normal looking test isn't the end. In cases like this they may suggest doing a trial of a chelator and see if you feel better or worse (which means it's chelating something).

You can also go through Cutler's Amalgam Illness book and see how many symptoms of mercury you have. I have 58 out of 80 or so (but I also have an obviously deranged test). You can also look at Cutler's Hair Interpretation book and get the symptoms of the other metals. I have some other metals that obviously have more symptoms than most of them. Like 15 out of 20 vs. 3 or 4.

At any rate, this is only the second test I've interpreted and you have to jump all over the book to find this stuff, so I would defer to whatever the Frequent Dose Chelation group says. Be sure to fill out the background information section thoroughly, it will be helpful to them.
 
Messages
94
Thank you much @caledonia.

Yes, the age and sex are accurate.

It is relieving that Mercury is not an issue. I've tried ALA in the past using the proper dosing techniques. I felt okay throughout the days while taking it but felt low and slow following stopping. I'm assuming this was because of heavy metal redistribution. Is any response at all an indicator that it would be beneficial to continue a chelation protocol? I'm also assuming that by supporting methylation via methylfolate, methylb12, etc. that, in time, these metals should be excreted on their own. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Could high iodine simply indicate a more than necessary salt intake? I've had my thyroid checked before and it's in normal working order.

Thanks again for your help. I will be following up on Yahoo's group per your advice.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Thank you much @caledonia.

Yes, the age and sex are accurate.

It is relieving that Mercury is not an issue. I've tried ALA in the past using the proper dosing techniques. I felt okay throughout the days while taking it but felt low and slow following stopping. I'm assuming this was because of heavy metal redistribution. Is any response at all an indicator that it would be beneficial to continue a chelation protocol? I'm also assuming that by supporting methylation via methylfolate, methylb12, etc. that, in time, these metals should be excreted on their own. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Could high iodine simply indicate a more than necessary salt intake? I've had my thyroid checked before and it's in normal working order.

Thanks again for your help. I will be following up on Yahoo's group per your advice.

It does sound like you had a response to ALA, and that chelation might be beneficial.

If you supported methylation, that would help the metals out of your tissues, but not your brain. You need to do ALA to get it out of your brain. In addition the half life for the metals coming out is incredible. You might be dead before they're all out.

The high iodine could be too much iodized salt, if that's your only source of iodine.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
@Tigger

Hmmm, I just saw a thing in the Hair Interpretation book that says:

"Aluminum may become elevated due to mercury induced derangement of mineral transport before the test meets a counting rule. Some suspicion regarding the presence of mercury is appropriate in a test with elevated aluminum, especially if accompanied by one or more of antimony, nickel or titanium".

That sounds like your case. So it's possible you might have mercury after all.
 
Messages
94
So mb12 won't help with getting heavy metals out of the brain? I thought I had read that it was able to help in that regard.

And thank you again. I will pursue a low-dose ALA protocol adhering to Cutler's guidelines.