By William L. Wolcott, Author, "The Metabolic Typing Diet"

Heavy metals (a.k.a. toxic metals) are a scourge of modern living. Most of us who live in "civilized" societies are continuously exposed to high concentrations of them. Unfortunately, these toxic contaminants have become an integral part of our industrialized culture. Metals like aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury are commonly found in thousands of different food products, household products, personal products and untold numbers of industrial products and chemicals.

The really bad news is that soon after we’re exposed to them, the heavy metals are rapidly removed from blood circulation and shunted away to tissue storage sites in vital tissues where they disrupt our biological systems and wreak havoc on our health.

The presence of toxic metals in our systems is highly significant for they are capable of causing serious health problems through interfering with normal biological functioning. Although they can be found in high concentrations in the body, a number of these heavy metals (aluminum, beryllium, cadmium, lead and mercury) have no known biological function. Others (arsenic, copper, iron and nickel) are thought to be essential at low concentrations, but are toxic at high levels. Generally speaking, heavy metals disrupt metabolic function in two basic ways:

1. First, they accumulate and thereby disrupt function in vital organs and glands such as the heart, brain, kidneys, bone, liver, etc.

2. Second, they displace vital nutritional minerals from where they should be in the body to provide biological function. For example, enzymes are catalysts for virtually every biochemical reaction in all life-sustaining processes of metabolism. But instead of calcium being present in an enzyme reaction, lead or cadmium may be there in its place. Toxic metals can't fulfill the same role as the nutritional minerals, thus their presence becomes critically disruptive to enzyme activity.
   Because their impact is at such a foundational level, heavy metals can be causal factors in literally any health problem. This is graphically illustrated in the chart below, which summarizes the sources of each of the heavy metals as well as their adverse effects on the body.

If your job or living circumstances expose you to heavy metals, you would do well to minimize or eliminate your exposure as much as possible. Be aware that there are many ways these toxins can be absorbed into your body--through foods and beverages, skin exposure, and via the air you breathe. So, whenever possible, wear gloves, use protective breathing apparatuses, and be sure to obtain fresh air ventilation.

Avoiding Heavy Metal Exposure is Impossible

Such preventative measures are worthwhile and important , but ultimately futile. The inesacpable reality is that it is impossible in this day and age not to be exposed to heavy metals. It is only a matter of how much and how often. So what can we do to prevent their accumulation in our systems and rid ourselves of them if they’re already present? Fortunately, a solution is at hand. Eating right for your Metabolic Type can not only protect you from heavy metal accumulation, but can also empower your body to literally throw them out of your system for good.

Accumulation of toxins in the body is not normal. In fact, your body is designed to be healthy and function at peak performance. Every cell in your body knows exactly what to do and how to do it perfectly, whether a liver cell, a brain cell, a bone cell, etc. And along with this, detoxifying is part of the nature of every cell as well. If it wasn’t, cells would die from autointoxication from their own waste--produced from their own chemical activities.

The critical factor determining whether or not heavy metals are retained in the body is biochemical balance at the time of exposure (and during the period after accumulation). Remember that the body is designed to detoxify. Think of this natural capacity to detoxify as being like a computer program in every cell that is always trying to run. But the kicker is that cells need "the proper biochemical balance" in order to carry this through:

1. For proper chelating factors needed to pick up the heavy metals
2. For sufficient energy production to move waste out of the cell
3. For the proper selective membrane permeability to hold nutrients in and keep waste out.

It is the differences in the status of these factors between individuals that accounts for variability in toxic accumulation.

If the chemistry is properly balanced, meaning:

• If the cells can produce the energy to mobilize the heavy metals
• If the chelating factors are available in the cells to pick up the heavy metals
• If the cells can efficiently regulate selective membrane permeability

... then the cells will throw out the heavy metals as fast as they are taken in from exposure. Furthermore, as biochemical balance is restored at the cellular level, the innate capacity of the cells to detoxify kicks into gear and past accumulations are mobilized from storage sites for excretion.

But if the chemistry is not balanced, then the body's natural defense against heavy metals is undermined. Having no recourse against the heavy metals, the body is forced to store them away in its vital tissues, where, over time, they can do their insidious work, contributing to all manner of degenerative processes.

When you begin to properly balance body chemistry by addressing the needs of metabolic individuality through Metabolic Typing, the negative and health damaging process of heavy metal accumulation is reversed in a normal, natural way. Now every cell's natural capacity to detoxify is activated, unleashed, restored. As a result, the cells dutifully begin to mobilize the heavy metals if they have been stored and resist their accumulation when exposed.