The ZRT Laboratory Blog

Growing your own fruits and vegetables is both challenging and rewarding. Many people plant gardens with the expectation that they can control what goes into their food. Gardening, especially in urban areas, has grown in popularity, but unfortunately, it comes with some risks. Contamination with elements present in the air, soil, or groundwater is a concern in both urban and rural gardens, and…

Tags: Heavy Metals, Essential Elements, Elements Testing, Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Thallium, Mercury, Zinc, Copper

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Lead is everywhere. It was commonly used in paint, gasoline, plumbing pipes, jewelry, bullets, fishing weights, glazes, and cosmetics. Some regulations are now in place to eliminate lead’s incorporation into these products, but in many cases, it is still being used. I watched a special on wine in Washington State, and the host explained why leaded crystal glasses are ideal for tasting because of…

Tags: Heavy Metals, Lead

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A couple years back, I wrote a blog about iodine deficiency in athletes resulting from excessive sweat loss. Later, while studying the kinetics of the iodine loading test which involves taking a 50-mg dose of iodine and collecting urine for 24 hours, I investigated the excretion of iodine in sweat along with urine. Surprisingly iodine levels in sweat tracked urine iodine excretion over a period of…

Tags: Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury

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Lead is an incredibly dangerous heavy metal with no known beneficial use in the body. It mimics calcium, affecting all calcium-dependent biological processes, and is known to disturb the cardiovascular, renal, endocrine, and nervous systems. In children, the brain is the most sensitive target, as the blood brain barrier is less effective in children than in adults, potentially causing…

Tags: Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Lead

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Is there anything more endearing than the photographs of your baby eating his or her first foods? Their faces squish-up, they are covered from head to toe, their tongues protrude to catch every bite or more often to try to get the revolting taste out of their mouths. Now, we parents are the ones squishing up our faces and showing huge grimaces of disgust at the latest report that our baby food is…

Tags: Toxins, Heavy Metals, Lead, Arsenic, Cadmium

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A recent news story reports that the Clean Label Project, a non-profit organization focused on health and transparency in consumer product labeling, tested 530 baby food products for toxic elements and chemicals. The results were not good. Sixty-five percent of products tested "positive" for arsenic, 36% for lead, 58% for cadmium, and the tests even showed high levels of BPA in “BPA Free”…

Tags: Toxins, Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury

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What if there was a safe, effective, inexpensive, and simple way to help treat one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood? Health care professionals often overlook nutrients; yet imbalances in many minerals are frequently seen in medical disorders including ADHD. Fortunately, replenishing nutrients with an integrative treatment plan has proven to be an effective treatment for…

Tags: Elements Testing, Neurotransmitters, Magnesium, Lead, Mineral Imbalances, ADD and ADHD

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A recent study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that people following a gluten-free diet have significantly higher arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury levels in urine and blood than those not following a gluten-free diet. Another similar study in 2006 revealed that vegans and vegetarians have an increased…

Tags: Toxins, Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury

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As a hormone testing lab, ZRT understands the importance of a well-balanced endocrine system in maintaining overall health. Hormone balance is achieved through multiple feedback mechanisms, and when any part of the system is thrown out of whack by forces beyond its control, there is a knock-on effect on the rest of the body systems that are under endocrine control. Such forces can include extreme or…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Xenoestrogens, Heavy Metals, Toxins, BPA, Lead, Mercury, Cadmium

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2017 has arrived, and with it comes new opportunity to understand the role of hormone balance in our overall health. Before getting started, we wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on the top stories of 2016 that captured your attention on the ZRT Blog. Following is a round-up of 2016's most popular posts for patients. For millions of women the world…

Tags: Hormone Balance, Thyroid Health, Lead, Heavy Metals, Breast Cancer

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