Take Control of Your Health. Uncover Hidden Heavy Metal Toxicity with Our Test
Essential Nutrient and Toxic Elements Testing
Heavy metals can accumulate in the body and disrupt the balance of essential nutrients, and become toxic to organ systems. While certain elements are vital for proper body function, others such as mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum, and arsenic are toxic to the human body and interfere with its functioning. These toxic metals have no known physiological functions and can cause harm to organ systems.
- Urine
- Turnaround Time: 24hrs
Turnaround times are estimates.
What patients might benefit from Heavy Metals Testing?
Heavy metals can accumulate within the body after exposure, attaching to your cells preventing them from performing their functions, causing symptoms that could be life threatening without treatment.
Sign and symptoms vary for each type of metal and range in severity based on an individual’s exposure, symptoms could include:
- Alopecia
- Anemia
- Arrhythmia
- Chills Low Body Temperature
- Dehydration
- Dental Amalgams
- Difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Gastrointestinal Symptoms
- Hypertension
- Impaired Kidney Function
- Inflammation
- Memory loss
- Nausea or Vomiting
- Numbness or Prickly Sensation in Hands and Feet
- Parkinson’s-like Symptoms
- Risk of Developing Certain Types of Cancer
- Vision problems
- Weakness
Details
Analytes List
Sample Report
Test Prep and Instructions
Why Choose Hair
Details
Details
Urine element analysis has long been employed to assess exposure to potentially harmful elements and the excretion of essential nutrients. Moreover, the comparison of urine element levels before and after chelation therapy can provide an estimation of the net retention of toxic elements. Follow-up urine element testing after chelation therapy can be used to monitor the effectiveness of metal detoxification treatment. The results of the analysis can be presented as 24-hour excretion levels or normalized by creatinine concentration to account for variations in urine dilution.
Why choose urine?
Toxic metals can accumulate in the body over time, leading to adverse health effects and chronic disease. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the accumulation of toxic metals objectively. The analysis of urine element concentrations before and after administration of a metal detoxification agent can help estimate net retention of potentially toxic elements. The goal is to determine whether an individual’s net retention of metals exceeds physiological tolerance, as toxicity occurs when the rate of assimilation exceeds the rate of excretion.
Pharmaceutical metal detoxification agents like EDTA, DMSA or DMPS can sequester “hidden” metals from deep tissue stores and mobilize them to the kidneys for excretion in the urine. However, different compounds have different affinities for specific metals. To evaluate net retention, it’s important to perform both pre- and post-provocation urinalysis to distinguish between ongoing exposures to metals and net bodily retention.
It’s also useful to analyze essential element levels in urine to evaluate nutritional status and the efficacy of mineral supplementation during metal detoxification therapy. However, metal detoxification agents can increase the excretion of specific nutrient elements such as zinc, copper, manganese and molybdenum. Additionally, urinary wasting of essential elements such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium in an unprovoked urine specimen can indicate early renal dysfunction.
Since urine volume can vary significantly, urine elements are usually expressed per unit creatinine for timed collections to compensate for urine dilution variation. For 24-hour collections, elements are reported as both units per 24 hours and units per creatinine.
Analytes List
Analytes
Please refer to the table provided below to identify the metals that are contained in each type of sample:
Boron | x |
Calcium | x |
Chromium | x |
Cobalt | x |
Copper | x |
Iron | x |
Lithium | x |
Magnesium | x |
Manganese | x |
Molybdenum | x |
Phosphorus | x |
Potassium | x |
Rubidium | x |
Selenium | x |
Sodium | x |
Strontium | x |
Sulfur | x |
Vanadium | x |
Zinc | x |
Toxic | |
Aluminum | x |
Antimony | x |
Arsenic | x |
Barium | x |
Beryllium | x |
Bismuth | x |
Cadmium | x |
Cesium | x |
Gadolinium | x |
Lead | x |
Manganese | x |
Mercury | x |
Nickel | x |
Palladium | x |
Platinum | x |
Silver | x |
Tellurium | x |
Thallium | x |
Thorium | x |
Tin | x |
Tungsten | x |
Uranium | x |
Ratios |
|
Cal/Mag | x |
Sodium / Potassium | x |
Zinc / Copper | x |
Zinc / Cadmium | x |
Calcium / Phosphorus | x |
Sample Report
Sample Reports
The Metals test reports are useful resources for practitioners who want to gain valuable insights into heavy metals and mineral statuses.
Test Prep and Instructions
Test Prep and Instructions
MosaicDX offers patient-friendly sample collection kits that simplify testing. Our kits include visual, step-by-step instructions for test preparation and sample collection, personalized shipping cards, and pediatric collection bags if needed. With MosaicDX, patients can easily collect samples for testing with confidence and accuracy.
Heavy Metals Test – Urine Timed and 24-Hour Sample Collection Instructions
Why Choose Hair
Hair is primarily an excretory tissue in terms of its element content. By analyzing the elements present in hair, practitioners can identify physiological disorders associated with imbalances in essential and toxic elements, in conjunction with other laboratory values and symptoms.
During protein synthesis in the hair follicle, elements become permanently incorporated into the hair and do not equilibrate with other tissues. This makes hair an ideal tissue for detecting recent exposure to toxic elements such as arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, lead, antimony, and mercury, as these elements may be 200 to 300 times more concentrated in hair than in blood or urine. The CDC recognizes hair mercury levels as a useful marker for exposure to neurotoxic methylmercury from fish in both mothers and infants.
Nutrient elements, such as magnesium, chromium, zinc, copper, and selenium, are essential for the normal function of vitamins and hundreds of important enzymes, and the levels of these elements in hair are correlated with levels in other tissues and organs.
Advancements in technology, instrumentation, and scientific protocols have made hair element analysis a reliable tool for providing useful data to physicians and their patients. According to a recent report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if hair samples are collected, cleaned, and analyzed properly by experienced personnel in a reliable laboratory, the data are reliable. (U.S.E.P.A. 600/4-79-049 However, hair is susceptible to external contamination from shampoos, bleaches, dyes, and other hair treatments. Thus, ruling out external sources of contamination is the first step in interpreting a hair element report.
Hair element analysis is a useful and cost-effective screening tool to detect excess, deficiency, or uneven distribution of elements in the body. However, it should not be solely relied upon for diagnosing essential element function and should be used alongside other laboratory tests and patient symptoms
Heavy Metals Test
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
The ordering process for MosaicDX tests starts with your healthcare practitioner assessing your symptoms and recommending the most appropriate test.
Once a test has been recommended, collection kits can be conveniently ordered and delivered straight to your doorstep. If you already have a collection kit, you can register your test and begin the process at your convenience.
It is important to carefully follow the collection instructions and include all required information about yourself and your specimens when registering your test. When your specimens are collected, you can use the prepaid shipping materials provided in your kit to ship them to MosaicDX. Your results will be accessible online via the MosaicDX portal. We recommend scheduling an appointment with your healthcare practitioner to discuss your results and develop a plan for your healthcare
Patients with high toxic levels are at greater risk of concomitant exposure to all toxins. For patients with specific exposure history, practitioners can order individual panels or combine profiles to identify or more rapidly reduce or remove multiple sources of toxin exposure:
These tests can all be done from one urine sample:
The following tests provide valuable insight into metabolism, nutrient needs, food sensitivities and metal toxicity.
Yes, it is possible to conduct multiple urine tests using a single urine sample, provided that the volume requirement for each test is met. The urine collection container typically holds around 50 mL of urine. However, for timed and 24-hour urine tests, a specialized collection jug or bag is necessary.
To ensure optimal results, it is recommended to ship urine specimens to the laboratory immediately after collection as they start degrading in quality soon after. In case immediate shipping is not possible, here are some guidelines for specimen stability: Urine samples can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, and for extended periods in the freezer. This applies to all urine tests performed at MosaicDX, except for the Kryptopyrrole test, for which urine must be frozen immediately and received within 24 hours of collection for accurate results.
Please refer to your test’s specific Test Preparation and Instructions for more information regarding the potential effects of medications, foods, and supplements on this test.
You make also consult your healthcare provider prior to making any changes to your medications.
The Wellness Trinity offers written interpretations within test reports and complimentary consultations with our clinical educators for qualified practitioners. To schedule a consultation, simply sign up fora consultation for your Test results reading.
We encourage all patients to discuss results with your practitioner.
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