Dr. Amy Nett: This is a great question. What we’re doing right now is we’re using Quicksilver Scientific. I think Chris is definitely going to do sort of one of these one-off or advanced courses on heavy metals testing. I will tell you right now we are still learning about this, so I don’t have a definitive answer, or this might change, at least, in the future.
What we’re doing is we’re primarily using Quicksilver Scientific right now. I wouldn’t recommend provoked metals testing. We just do blood testing for the heavy metals. Their Quicksilver Scientific heavy metals panel includes cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury, and cobalt. I think they recently took out aluminum and antimony because those were difficult to run. They include cobalt, silver, and strontium, and then they also include a section on nutrient elements, so you get a look at the copper-zinc ratio, which is potentially helpful since really high levels of copper can be associated with a synergistic toxicity with lead and mercury and cadmium, so it’s good to know the copper level as well. You also get a look at the selenium level, which is good because you need to keep selenium levels high, particularly if you’re doing a detoxification. You also get a look at magnesium, calcium, and a few other minerals there. If I’m worried about heavy metals, I will go through Quicksilver.
If a patient has dental fillings that are metallic in color, so silver or gold dental fillings, those generally have mercury in them, so then you’re worried about inorganic mercury. Inorganic mercury is toxic at much, much lower levels, so if they have any dental amalgams or have had previously, then run the Mercury Tri-Test through Quicksilver Scientific. The Tri-Test speciates out the organic and inorganic mercury. The reason you want to do that is because on the blood metals panel you’ll get a total mercury level. Let’s say you consider mercury toxic at maybe a ballpark 5. There’s some controversy—we won’t get into that now—but let’s say the patient comes back with a mercury level of 4. You might think, “Well, that’s OK. I probably don’t need to detox.” But inorganic mercury can be toxic at a level of something around 0.15 for some people, so you could have inorganic mercury hiding in that total mercury level that needs to be detoxed. That’s why if they have a risk factor for being exposed to inorganic mercury—which is namely amalgams—you need to speciate that out.
That’s what we’re doing for heavy metals testing. Stay tuned. That may change. We see some variability in those tests, so that’s why we’re questioning the reliability of heavy metals testing. It’ll be interesting to see where we go with that in the future. Doctor’s Data also does heavy metals testing. I haven’t used that one as much, so I don’t have as much experience with that test. It also seems like a reasonable option, but again, when you do the Doctor’s Data one, I think they still offer provoked metals testing. I don’t think that’s necessary, and I’ve seen some patients respond really poorly to taking the chelating agent that’s used for that, so I would recommend against that one.
So I think I answered Angel’s question about metals testing, and, Julie, hopefully we gave you a few places to go with your patient there.