Heavy metals are a natural part of one’s diet, but if you’re experiencing chronic exposure to the wrong type of metal you could be in trouble. While essential elements like zinc, selenium, and copper are an important part of your diet, other toxic metals, like lead, methylmercury, cadmium, thallium, and mercury, can cause severe health problems like lead poisoning and cadmium exposure.
Toxic elements have been linked to negative health effects, such as Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, and even cancer. Since high levels of heavy metals are commonly used in many industries, these environmental toxins are frequently found in the natural world as well. Through your food and your drinking water, you may be taking in an abnormally high level of heavy metals. Catching this early is vital for minimizing the negative health effects of these potentially toxic elements.
So if you’re afraid that you may be exposed to unhealthy levels of heavy metals, it’s important that you test for heavy metal toxicity. This will allow you to make the lifestyle adjustments necessary to help eliminate these toxic elements from your body. To guide you along in your quest for better health and a cleaner body, we gathered the top five heavy metals tests that you can take at home.
Why Take an At-Home Heavy Metals Test
Some major reasons that you should consider taking a heavy metals test include:
- Starting a family - Heavy metals such as mercury and methylmercury can be devastating for a fetus. So before you decide to start your family it’s a good idea to make sure you don’t have elevated levels of this toxic metal.
- Showing heavy metals poisoning symptoms - Elevated levels of certain heavy metals can cause a range of uncomfortable symptoms, including diarrhea, weight loss, tingling in your hands and feet, weakness, chills, nausea, and abdominal pain. So if you’re showing symptoms of lead poisoning, cadmium exposure, high mercury levels, thallium exposure, or arsenic poisoning, you need to get tested and possibly visit your healthcare provider.
- Eat lots of seafood - Certain types of seafood can contain high levels of mercury and methylmercury, so if you’re a fan of fish you may want to get tested.
- Low sodium diet - Iodine is an important part of your diet, and most dietary iodine is found in table salt. To make sure you’re not deficient in this important thyroid regulating mineral, you can take one of these tests.
Our Top Picks
ZRT Laboratory offers a heavy metals blood test that’s ideal if you’re experiencing any heavy metal toxicity symptoms from a recent exposure. Their test results includes a heavy metals panel that will tell you exactly how high your selenium, copper, cadmium, lead, zinc, magnesium, and mercury levels are.
While you’re supposed to have some zinc, copper, and selenium in your system, having too high of a concentration of these metals is potentially toxic. And any level of cadmium, arsenic, lead, and mercury exposure is toxic. Chronic exposure to these metals can lead to dangerous conditions such as lead poisoning and arsenic poisoning.
Key Features:
- Heavy metals panel includes levels of mercury, lead, selenium, cadmium, copper, magnesium, and zinc is in your blood
- Finger lancet for submitting a blood sample
- No shipping or lab fees
- Test results in five to seven business days
Simply by using a blood sample, MyLab is able to test for some of the most commonly occurring heavy metals found in the environment. Their Heavy Metals Screening kit will check your blood sample for lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium, all of which can lead to health problems after chronic exposure.
The heavy metal blood test panel you’ll receive lays out the concentration of these potentially toxic elements in your blood. Once identified, you can narrow down if these chemicals are entering your system through your food, drinking water, or from environmental toxins, and take steps to lessen your exposure to them. This at-home heavy metal blood test costs less than most of the competition’s laboratory tests as well.
Key Features:
- Test for four different heavy metals — cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and lead
- Laboratory test results in as little as two to five days
- Free return shipping
- Take in five minutes or less
Rather than using your blood, 5Strands Metals & Mineral test can check your reactivity to up to 60 different heavy metals and minerals simply by analyzing a few strands of hair. Your test results will show you which metals/minerals are potentially responsible for imbalances within your body.
Unlike the heavy metal blood tests, 5Strands hair test doesn’t tell you how much of these toxic metals are in your body, but rather how your body reacts to these substances. So if you suspect that you’re sensitive to a mineral or heavy metal that’s in your diet, this test will tell you what the potential culprits may be.
Key Features:
- Pain-free test using strands of hair
- Detects your reaction to up to 60 different heavy metals and minerals
- Test results includes the heavy metals and minerals that your body struggles to eliminate
- Bio-resonance technology used to analyze your sample
- Test for everything from aluminum to zinc
Doctor Data’s Heavy Metals Toxicity test will check your body for chronic exposure to things like arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxins by using a strand of your hair. The test can tell if you’ve been exposed to 31 different toxins, from recent exposures to up to six months after.
The kit comes with everything you need to collect and return your sample, including a prepaid return envelope. Your test results will let you know how much of these toxins are present in your sample, presenting their quantity in the gram and microgram levels.
Key Features:
- Test for 31 different heavy metals/toxins
- CLIA Accredited Lab test
- Pain-free test using strands of hair
- Results available in seven to ten business days
Gadolinium is a heavy metal that doctors use when performing an MRI scan. While the chemical is highly toxic, the compound used in MRIs is chelated, making it safe for most patients.
That being said, if you recently went to a healthcare professional for an MRI you may still have some of this toxic substance inside you. Fortunately, with this simple urine collection test, you can quickly identify the heavy metal toxicity levels of gadolinium in your body.
Key Features:
- Test the levels of gadolinium inside you
- Access your test results through HealthConfirm’s web portal
- Pain-free urine collection
- Test results in as little as three to five business days
FAQs
Below, we’ll answer some of the more common questions we get regarding at home heavy metal tests:
Does insurance cover heavy metal testing?
No, most insurance plans will not cover at-home heavy metal tests.
How to test for heavy metal toxicity?
All of the above tests involve the same basic steps: first, you order your test, then collect a sample, next return your sample to the company, and finally wait for your results. The main difference is the type of sample the tests will require — either blood, hair, or urine.
Does medicare cover heavy metal testing?
Medicare will not cover most at-home heavy metal tests.
How much does heavy metal testing cost?
Most heavy metal test kits are priced between $50 to $100, with the exception of ZRT Laboratory’s slightly more expensive test ($159.99).
Choosing the Best Test for You
While all of the tests listed above will give you accurate and easy to follow results, depending on what you’re looking for, some of these tests may be better suited to your needs than others. Even though all these tests check for heavy metals, they’re not all looking for the same data.
For example, ZRT Laboratory’s and MyLAB’s tests check for how much of each heavy metal is inside you, making it ideal if you’re concerned about chronic or recent exposure to these toxins. But the 5Strands test is more focused on your reaction to these substances, so you’ll know which heavy metals you’re more — or less — sensitive to. However, HealthConfirm’s test is focused on one particular chemical — gadolinium — making it ideal if you’ve recently taken an MRI scan.
