Here are just a few of the places you're exposed to toxic metals:

• the air you breathe;  
• the chemical 'fertilizers' on the fields that grow your food;  
• the amalgam fillings used to fill your teeth;  
• the fish you eat from the streams and ocean;  
• the clothes you wear;  
• paints that outgas from your walls;  
• some vaccinations you receive.  

And, you're not exposed to just one metal. Your greatest toxic metal exposure comes from mercury, but you're also exposed to lead, aluminum, cadmium, even arsenic.

You might think you'd know when you're getting contaminated with toxic metals when it happens, but quite the reverse is true.  You don't know because the effects of toxic metals build up slowly over time, quite out of your awareness.

Here's an example: a young woman with a toxic metals burden may not be symptomatic - at least at a level sufficient to rouse her suspicions. She may explain her fatigue as not getting enough sleep and may attribute more difficulty learning to 'just not being as smart as others'. Or she may not have symptoms at all!

But here's the kicker: the single most effective force for removing those toxic metals from her body will be her unborn baby!    Yes, to the extent that her body is contaminated, the little baby growing inside her will concentrate those toxic metals in its little body, and be born with a toxic metal burden before it even draws its first breath!

And if its toxic metal burden is sufficient, the baby may be described as 'irritable'. It may be developmentally delayed, have trouble walking, talking, coordinating - in fact doing any kind of learning. And if she does what she's told is the 'right' thing, and gets all the recommended vaccinations for her child, she's having her child injected with more toxic metals from the vaccine!

Of course, pregnant women and their children are not the only ones that pay dearly for carrying a toxic metal burden.

Many young children in school now are fighting to stay awake, fighting to retain their lessons, remember what they've learned, to build a second lesson on the first when they can't even remember what they had for breakfast, or whether they had breakfast.

They're told over and over to sit down, sit still, when their nervous systems are so short circuited from toxic metal exposure that all they can do, quite involuntarily, is jump around, flitting from one thing to the next without purpose or engagement in their world.

If their behavior is problematic enough for the school, they are labeled with a medical or psychiatric diagnosis and prescribed toxic medication on top of the toxic metal burden they're already carrying. (And the medication might even contain toxic metals - especially if it is a generic manufactured in China!)

Or think of the man who goes to work every day and comes home in a black mood that seems like emotional poison to his family. Here he's worked hard all day and comes home to find his family members subtly (or not so subtlety) avoiding him.

Maybe he even feels he can't blame them, for he knows he's always negative, highly irritable. So he tries to control it somehow, and likely adds to the problem. He may take up smoking (thus adding cadmium, arsenic and lead to the exposure he's getting through his work.)

Or he may take up or increase alcohol consumption, particularly if his toxic metal burden has caused his hands to be shaky and his coordination to diminish. He may even develop BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) if the metals have deposited in his prostate.

Then there is the plight of older people. How they (well, we, actually!) rail against becoming more forgetful, having more and more difficulty concentrating. Many even suffer gradual deterioration of their neurological functioning to the point where they're not safe to drive, until they can't even function independently anymore.

In short, no matter what your age or stage of life, it's entirely appropriate for you to be concerned about your toxic metal burden.

Are your symptoms a result of heavy metal overload? You can do your own, quick self-assessment with this Toxic Metals Checklist.   (It's free.)