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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Mercury is one of the most toxic heavy metals. There are numerous natural and man-made sources of mercury, but the most concerning are the ones we are exposed to daily. Mercury is known to affect the nervous, circulatory, immune, reproductive, and digestive systems, along with organs such as the kidneys, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. Mercury primarily targets sulfhydryl groups (sulfur) and…

Tags: Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Mercury, Blood Spot Testing

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Influenced by our environment, we are constantly being exposed to elements, whether nutritional or toxic. They are a big contribution to the yin yang dualism of health and disease. With heavy metals, contamination is so extensive nowadays that it is no longer a question of whether exposure took place, but rather what the level of exposure was or continues to be. Toxicity from low levels of exposure…

Tags: Neurotransmitters, Mental Health, Heavy Metals, Elements Testing, Toxins, Arsenic, Mercury, Cadmium

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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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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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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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Studies have found toxic heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum, mercury and other toxins deemed hazardous by the CDC in a random sampling of lip products used by women of all ages. For millions of women the world over, this casts a pall on the transformative promise of cosmetics to make us look and feel more beautiful.…

Tags: Patient Education, Heavy Metals, Toxins, Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury

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Urine, serum, plasma, whole blood, red blood cells, feces, hair, fingernails…the list goes on. How do you decide what biological sample(s) to use for element analysis? Can results be compared to scientific literature or do they have clinical significance? Is it possible for values to be elevated or low in one sample type and normal in another? Do test results indicate recent intake, body burden,…

Tags: Elements Testing, Heavy Metals, Dried Urine Testing, Blood Spot Testing, Iodine, Selenium, Bromine, Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury, Magnesium

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Bioaccumulation is the concentration of toxic substances by an organism over an extended period of time. This occurs in all species, and is magnified progressively up the food chain. Toxic elements we consume in liquids and foods, breathe in from the air, or absorb through our skin are retained in the body for different durations, depending on their chemical properties. The amount of time it takes…

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

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