Heavy Metals and the link to infertility
by Carmen Mair, certified Nutrition and Health Coach
Heavy metals are more commonly found in a body than you think but often go overlooked, and their effects on fertility are devastating.
What Are Heavy Metals?
Heavy metals are naturally found within the earth. Some heavy metals are essential for human health but others can be toxic depending on their quantity or form.
Heavy metals important for biological processes within the body:
- Chromium (glucose utilization)
- Cobalt (cellular metabolism)
- Iron (oxygen transport and energy production)
- Selenium (antioxidant and hormone production)
Heavy metals potentially harmful to the body:
- Arsenic
- Cadmium
- Lead
- Mercury
A deficiency in essential heavy metals may increase your risk of chronic disease in addition to increasing your susceptibility to toxicity of the more harmful heavy metals.
How Do Heavy Metals Get Into Your Body?
Potential sources of heavy metals include mining, industrial waste, agricultural runoff, aging water supply systems, occupational exposure, paints, and treated timber, etc.
Over time, we might ingest small amounts of heavy metals through food, water, air, and commercial products. Once in the body, heavy metals are not easily excreted. They can accumulate in our organs including the ovaries and testes.
Because of their inability to be easily metabolized and excreted they tend to accumulate further and further causing metabolic disruptions and a whole range of health problems including infertility.
Top 3 Toxic Heavy Metals For Reproductive Health
Mercury
Mercury occurs naturally in the environment but it's also released as a byproduct of industrial processes like burning of coal, burning waste, and even oil and wood as fuel can cause mercury to become airborne.
When mercury leaches into the water it accumulates in fish, especially larger species like tuna, swordfish, and shark. Eating fish with high levels of mercury is the primary source of exposure in humans.
Here are the fish with the highest amounts of mercury:
- Tilefish (Gulf of Mexico) – Containing a whopping average 219 micrograms of mercury, the tilefish native to the Gulf of Mexico, tops the list of mercury-tainted seafood.
- Shark – 151 micrograms of mercury
- Swordfish – 147 micrograms of mercury
- Mackerel King – 110 micrograms of mercury
- Orange Roughy – 80 micrograms of mercury
- Marlin – 69 micrograms of mercury
- Tuna (Bluefin, Bigeye, & Albacore) – 54 – 58 micrograms of mercury
Tuna (Canned White Albacore) – 40 micrograms of mercury
Tuna (Skipjack & Yellowfin) – 31 – 49 micrograms of mercury
Light Canned Tuna – 13 micrograms of mercury - American Lobster – 47 micrograms of mercury
- Cod (Atlantic & Pacific) – 14 micrograms of mercury
- Mackerel Spanish (Atlantic & Pacific) – 8 – 13 micrograms of mercury
High mercury exposure can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system. Because high levels of methylmercury in developing fetuses' may harm their developing nervous systems you should avoid larger species fish during pregnancy. (1)
As a neurotoxin, mercury is increasing the risk of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and other neurological conditions. Low levels of mercury in pregnant women have been associated with lower verbal IQ scores in children. (2) (3)
Mercury's Effect On The Reproductive System
The effects of mercury on the reproductive system are manifested in both genders. Mercury can alter the shape, movement of sperm and decrease its quantity and quality. In can lead to a reduction in erection and ejaculation. Research suggests that mercury influences the levels and function of estrogen and reduces fertility in women. Mercury exposure also has a relation with PCOS, PMS, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, premature menopause, endometriosis, benign breast disorders and abnormal lactation.
Lead
Lead is also naturally occurring and has accumulated in the environment around us because of its use in gas, paint, and water pipes prior to 1978.
If you are living in an older home you may be at high risk for lead poisoning, especially during a remodel or renovation. Older pipes also may contaminate your drinking water. Jewelry making and the use of imported cosmetics also may put you at higher risk.
Elevated levels of lead in a woman’s body are associated with gestational hypertension, preterm delivery, low birth weight, miscarriage, and birth defects. Exposure to lead when pregnant has also been linked with impaired intellectual development in children. (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)
Cadmium
Cadmium is highly toxic to our reproductive health.
Cadmium enters the environment through leaking sewage and can be found in shellfish, rice, and both leafy and root vegetables. It is found in rechargeable batteries, paint pigment, and plastic production, and cigarette smoke, including e-cigarettes.
Unfortunately, cadmium accumulates in reproductive tissues like a woman's ovaries and placenta and a man's testes.
In the placenta, cadmium toxicity can cause a decline in progesterone and hCG production. The purpose of hCG is to tell your body to continue to produce progesterone, which protects the endometrial uterine lining and your pregnancy.
Research indicates that increased cadmium levels are associated with decreased oocyte fertilization and decreased implantation rates. (13) (14)
Exposure to cadmium has been associated with premature birth as well as abnormal growth. (15) (16)
How To Know If Heavy Metals Are A Problem
The type, method, and amount of heavy metal exposure as well as other independent factors such as your age, health, and nutritional status determines if heavy metal exposure leads to poising.
Chronic heavy metal toxicity is hard to identify as it occurs slowly over time and symptoms are often non-specific and overlap with many other diseases.
Someone with healthy detoxification systems will have a higher tolerance and clearance of heavy metals, while someone with overburdened detoxification pathways may be very sensitive to even the tiniest exposure. Therefore, the symptoms vary in individuals depending on overall health.
Medical conditions increasing the risk of metal toxicity:
- Chronic infections like recurrent yeast infections
- Blood sugar imbalances like insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
- Micronutrient deficiencies like a lack of vitamin C
- Liver damage or poor liver function
Common symptoms of chronic heavy metal exposure:
- Chronic fatigue
- Anxiety, Depression
- Allergies
- Insomnia
- Poor memory and learning
- Skin irritations
- Digestive problems such as IBS
- Recurrent infections
- Infertility
- Autoimmune diseases
- Headaches
Reduce Your Heavy Metal Exposure
It's best to prevent further damage by reducing and preventing further exposure.
Here are some simple ways to prevent exposure to heavy metals:
- Avoid eating larger fish species
- Watch out for sources of lead that may be in your home such as paint, imported toys, or imported candies
- Make sure you do not bring any metal residue or powder home when working with metals and consider a change of clothes or showering before coming home.
- Watch out for possible sources close to your home such as chemical factories, automotive plants, fertilizer plants.
- Consider testing your drinking water for heavy metals and changing old pipes
Detoxing Heavy Metals
Either blood test, hair analysis or urine analysis may be a way to determine whether heavy metals have accumulated in your body. Unfortunately none of these tests is a 100% accurate. Heavy Metals can be seen when you have an acute exposure. If it is chronic the metals most likely have moved out of your blood stream and move into your cells and organs and are difficult to detect.
When a couple is facing infertility I recommend to detoxify heavy metals. There are two common ways of detoxification.
Chelation
Chelation therapy is a method for removing heavy metals, such as mercury or lead, from blood. It’s one of the standard treatments for many types of metal poisoning.
Chelators work by binding to metals in the bloodstream. They circulate through the blood, binding to metals. In this way, chelators collect all the heavy metals into a compound that’s filtered through the kidneys and released in urine.
Cilantro works as a detoxifying agent and has its own chelation benefits
Cilantro is best used in conjunction with chlorella, which is a kind of green algae and together they act as s perfect tool for body detoxification. The leaves of the cilantro plant have potent anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antifungal, antimicrobial, and significant chelating properties, that bind to heavy metals that are removed from the body through our excretory system. Chlorella with cilantro needs to be taken 3 times a day for up to 3 months.
According to various studies that heavy metal chelation using cilantro and chlorella can naturally remove an average of 87% of lead, 91% of mercury, and 74% of aluminum from the body within 45 days.
Add fresh cilantro to almost any food, both cooked and raw. Try blending together olive oil, fresh cilantro, and lime juice with some salt for a delicious, zingy dressing to cooked vegetables or salads. You can take chlorella in form of extracts only in consultation with a medical professional.
Zeolite Detoxification
Zeolite facilitates detoxification at the cellular level to attract, traps and removes heavy metals, toxins and other contaminants through the body’s natural detoxification process.
Your body has to work hard to neutralize and remove toxins, if it is able to remove them at all. As a person’s body becomes more overburdened with heavy metals, it becomes more difficult to remove them.
Zeolite facilitates your body’s ability to extract harmful toxins. Heavy metals, radioactive elements and other toxins are attracted to the cages-like structure of the zeolite molecules.
Personally, I used Advanced TRS to rid my body from heavy metals. It is a proprietary manufactured clinoptilolite formula. Over time, consistently taking the product will remove toxins safely and gently.
TRS uses nanotechnology to remove heavy metals like lead, mercury, aluminum and arsenic.* If you'd like to find out more click HERE to read FAQ's.
Disclaimer: I'm an affiliate. You can order HERE, send me an email (info@alternativf.com) for more information or join the Facebook Group with over 141,000 members (this number speaks for itself doesn't it...)
*THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE THERAPEUTIC GOODS ADMINISTARTION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
Where there is a will, there is a way.