How Do Imbalances in Essential Elements and Heavy Metals Affect Your Health?

When we don’t feel good, we often don’t realize that nutrient deficiencies may be responsible for the decline in the biochemical processes that should keep us functional on a daily basis. We also neglect to make the connection between our declining health and heavy metal toxicity. Our exposure to essential and toxic elements depends on our diet, where we live, and our lifestyle choices. We are exposed to toxic elements through environmental pollution in the air we breathe and through our skin. Our exposure is also impacted by levels in the soil or irrigation water used to grow the foods we eat, the supplements we take, and the water we drink.


Many elements are considered nutrients and are essential for the proper functioning of the body. They are divided into macrominerals (calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium) and trace minerals (boron, molybdenum, selenium, iodine). Conversely, there are a number of elements that are toxic to the human body and can interfere with its functioning and undermine health — these include mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum, and arsenic. These toxic metals have no known physiological functions. They can be toxic to organ systems and may disrupt the balance of essential nutrients.

Essential elements play an important role in our overall health and well-being. These help mediate a number of biochemical processes such as metabolism and the transport of oxygen through the blood. They are considered essential because the body would break down and illness would occur without them. They:

+ support cellular metabolism

+ support the nervous system

+ activate hormones

+ facilitate replication and transcription
of nucleic acids

+ produce hemoglobin

+ make neurotransmitters, and

+ support antioxidant enzymes.

Essential elements are only conducive to optimal health when they are within optimal ranges. Imbalances, where levels are too high or too low, can have detrimental effects on health. Copper and zinc are essential micronutrients — they are needed in very small quantities in the diet, but are toxic at higher concentrations. Small amounts of zinc help ensure a proper immune response and healthy nervous system. Zinc also regulates the function of some genes, enables many proteins to carry out their vital roles, and helps speed the chemical reactions that keep us alive. On the flip side, an imbalance of zinc has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, and seizures. Copper, when out of balance, can lead to weak limbs, seizures, brittle hair, liver damage, kidney failure, coma, and death. Magnesium is an essential element with a significant role in cellular metabolism and protein synthesis, and its deficiency causes problems ranging from muscle weakness to cardiac arrhythmias.

Iodine and selenium are essential elements that can be either beneficial or toxic depending on their levels. Severe iodine deficiency and extreme excesses cause thyroid deficiency and goiter. The same is true for selenium. A severe deficiency impairs the enzymes necessary for anti-oxidant actions and thyroid activity that convert T4 to bioactive T3. In contrast, an excess of selenium can cause death.

Excessive bromine, in the same chemical family as iodine, competes with iodine in the thyroid. This becomes problematic when iodine levels are borderline low, or lower, and bromine is high. Lithium is important for brain health in trace amounts but is toxic when used in excessive amounts pharmacologically.

Heavy metals exist in our environment both naturally and from pollution. Arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead are toxic heavy metals with no known nutritional benefits in the human body. Common sources for high exposure to arsenic include soil, rocks, and water in or near hazardous waste sites. Cadmium is among the most toxic of all heavy metals. It is often found in cigarette smoke and is used in batteries, metal coatings, and plastics. Cadmium enters the environment through mining operations. Mercury is present in gold and silver mining operations and in seafood. Lead is responsible for the highest incidence of heavy metals overexposure, most commonly from exposure to lead dust inside a home when lead paint is scraped, sanded, or disturbed during home remodeling.

High levels of these heavy metals can damage proteins, lipids, and DNA, leading to decreased thyroid function, weight gain, infertility, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, dementia, and cancers. These toxic metals can also damage the liver, kidneys, brain, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, and nervous system. Symptoms of chronic heavy metal toxicity include headache, brain fog, weakness, muscle and joint pain, constipation, and chronic fatigue.

Lead, mercury, and cadmium are retained in the body; their toxic effects are cumulative and more pronounced with aging. Very little lead is excreted in urine, but it is readily taken up by red blood cells, where it forms a tight complex with hemoglobin. For this reason whole blood, and not serum or urine, is used to monitor exposure to lead. Arsenic is only measured in urine because it is rapidly cleared from the bloodstream after exposure, and would therefore only be detected in blood if testing was done immediately after exposure.

Toxic metals and essential element status can be assessed in urine, blood, feces, and hair. Because they are best tested for in different ways, there is no single test that gives the best measurements for all heavy metals. Testing provides an excellent assessment of overall body burden for these toxic elements and is also a good indicator of excessive or inadequate supplementation with nutritional essential elements.

Because heavy metals are all around us, it is normal for us to have some in our bodies. Whether heavy metals in your body are causing health problems is a different question, and must be further determined through testing, through an evaluation of your symptoms and medical history, and through a consideration of your lifestyle and work environment. If you are having unexplained chronic health symptoms and suspect possible nutritional imbalances or toxic heavy metal burdens, be in the know and get tested. We provide essential elements and heavy metal testing at TLC Pharmacy and can provide you with a comprehensive test results evaluation and assessment. Through detection and a thought-out comprehensive health plan, you can start to find your way back to health.

Picture of Zoom H. Heaton

Zoom H. Heaton

TLC Medical Centre pharmacy is a traditional pharmacy offering specialized services such as medical equipment, compression stocking fittings, diabetic shoes fitting with shoe selection on site, vaccinations throughout the year and medical compounding (our compounding lab is located inside TLC called Custom Prescription Compounders, LLC). Our compounding pharmacist Zoom H. Heaton is also board certified in Anti-aging, Metabolic and Functional medicine. She works with patients needing help with various medical needs such as bio-identical hormone management, adrenal and thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, weight management, pain management compounding, nutritional guidance using specialized testing and much much more. If you feel that your health needs a change for the better, call us at 803.648.7800 extension 200 and make an appointment. The first 15 minutes of your consultation with Zoom is free.
Picture of Zoom H. Heaton

Zoom H. Heaton

TLC Medical Centre pharmacy is a traditional pharmacy offering specialized services such as medical equipment, compression stocking fittings, diabetic shoes fitting with shoe selection on site, vaccinations throughout the year and medical compounding (our compounding lab is located inside TLC called Custom Prescription Compounders, LLC). Our compounding pharmacist Zoom H. Heaton is also board certified in Anti-aging, Metabolic and Functional medicine. She works with patients needing help with various medical needs such as bio-identical hormone management, adrenal and thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, weight management, pain management compounding, nutritional guidance using specialized testing and much much more. If you feel that your health needs a change for the better, call us at 803.648.7800 extension 200 and make an appointment. The first 15 minutes of your consultation with Zoom is free.

In the know

Related Stories

New Beginnings and Your Baby's Health | Palmetto Bella

New Beginnings and Your Baby’s Health

Infant nutrition is critical for ensuring proper development, maximizing learning capacity, and preventing illness. At no other time in life is nutrition so important. But which foods are best? Breastfeeding has proven to be best for infants for at least the first 3 – 6 months if mom is healthy and eating a nutrient-dense diet. Breastfed babies tend to be more robust, intelligent, and free of allergies and other complaints like intestinal difficulties. Other studies have shown that breastfed infants have reduced rates of respiratory illnesses and ear infections. Some researchers believe breastfed infants have greater academic potential than formula-fed infants; this is thought to be due to the fatty

Read More »
Online Personal Fitness Coaching: Can It Work for You? | Palmetto Bella

Online Personal Fitness Coaching: Can It Work for You?

Almost out of nowhere, COVID-19 happened upon us and the world has had to learn to pivot. Fast. And here we are, a year later, continuing to learn how to embrace a number of lifestyle modifications. Home-based fitness regimens have become a viable, if not a necessary, option.  Many people claim that having a gym membership keeps them accountable for working out once they have committed to sign-up fees and membership dues.  And some folks feel that having a workout destination motivates them to get out the door.  These are, of course, fair and valid reasons.  But times are changing, and many individuals are reconsidering how to navigate the fitness

Read More »
Traditions in the Time of Covid | Palmetto Bella

Traditions in the Time of Covid

Every family has traditions that mark special occasions, and how families handle them builds connections. We humans are amazing creatures of habit. We love the predictable and seek routine even though we frequently complain about being in a rut. We go on vacation only to long for home to sleep in our own beds, see our friends and family, and re-engage in our lives. Every nation, tribe, culture, and subculture establishes rituals and traditions that are unique and help define its individual, family, and group identity. Every family has traditions that mark special occasions, and how families handle them builds connections. One of the many casualties of the COVID restrictions

Read More »
Healing Water for My Soul | Palmetto Bella

Healing Water for My Soul

My love for healing water is the whole point for so many of the stories I tell and that I’ve told on the pages of Bella Magazine this year. The drops of healing water in my life are the moments of loving connection with others where I get the opportunity to share life with them, and they with me, with no strings attached. Some of these encounters this year have been a brief passing moment as I exchanged glances and a smile with someone, and other encounters have been for long chapters of my life that continue. There are so many times in this chaotic year when I have felt

Read More »