The functional medicine community swears by this test. I had a friend who had one of these done which allegedly showed off the chart mercury on his results. Naturally, his functional med doc wants to treat him with DMSA, which will allegedly “pull” out the metals? I’ve tried to read up on this and it’s above my mental comprehension. Please help so I can explain this to by buddy in a convincing manner!
In: Biology
This report (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846974/) summarizes the criticisms of provoked heavy metal testing, though it does so in a rather technical way.
To try to summarize it simply: the “provoked” part of the testing involves the administration of a substance that will temporarily increase the excretion of heavy metals, especially mercury, into the collected sample (remember, we all have at least a little mercury in us, but this is fine and natural). This provoked sample is then compared to a baseline sample. Naturally, the provoked sample will show elevated levels of mercury – that was the whole point of the provocation! Furthermore, the people who administer this test have not committed to any particular result as indicating actual heavy metal poisoning and typically set standards far below what the CDC recognizes as dangerously elevated levels. It’s as if the doctor painted one of your arms blue, then told you that the skin on the blue arm was diseased because it is more blue than the skin on your other arm.
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