Heavy Metals Test
Know Your Gut
This product may only be ordered via a Physician mediated process. Please login into the Sun Genomics portal or contact your health practitioner to order this test. For all other inquires please email customerservice@sungenomics.com
Heavy Metals Test Flyer
order your kit
complete sample
analyze sample
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You will complete the stool sample collection following the instructions provided on the collection kit and making sure to fill up to the fill line marked on the tube. After collection, the sample will be sent to our lab in San Diego. The kit comes with simple instructions on how to collect a sample, as well as a pre-paid return mailer.
Once you return your sample to our lab, we can begin the process of heavy metal testing. You’ll then receive an analysis report in our mobile app and online web portal. Upon registration, you will fill out a required intake form so our on-staff doctor can approve the test orders. Alternatively, your doctors may submit a test order form to customerservice@sungenomics.com. Once the intake form has been completed and received, you will receive your results within 5 business days.
Aluminum
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. It is found in combination with other elements, such as oxygen, silicon, and fluorine. It is lightweight and silvery-white in appearance. The average adult in the US eats about 7-9 mg aluminum per day.
- Ingestion of aluminum affects the regulation of permeability, microbiome, and immune function of the intestine.
- Breathing in aluminum dust or fumes can lead to coughing or abnormal chest X-rays and may affect nervous system function.
- Some people with kidney disease store aluminum in their bodies and sometimes develop bone or brain diseases.
- Food, beverages, dust in air and soil contain some amount aluminum
- Alums in water-treatment
- Alumina in abrasives and furnace linings
- Antacids or when eating or drinking citrus products
- Living in areas where aluminum is mined or processed
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element that naturally occurs in the earth’s mineral deposits usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the gray form, which has a metallic appearance, is important to industry.
- Arsenic poisoning can present symptoms similar to IBS, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- People are exposed to elevated levels of inorganic arsenic through drinking contaminated water, using contaminated water in food preparation and irrigation of food crops
- Industrial processes
- Eating contaminated food and smoking tobacco
Cadmium
Cadmium is a naturally occurring element, but is rarely found in its pure form. Most soil rocks, coal, and mineral fertilizers contain some amounts of cadmium.
- Acute exposure via diet
- Stomach irritation
- Vomiting and diarrhea
- Extended exposure
- Kidney disease
- Fragile bones (musculoskeletal diseases)
- CVDs
- Artherosclerosis
- Cancer (Cadmium is considered carcinogenic, Group 1 carcinogen)
- Diet – cereals and cereal products, vegetables, nuts, starchy roots, potatoes, mushrooms, meat, mollusks, and crustaceans
- Cigarette smoke, forest fires, volcanoes
- Workplace – battery manufacturing, metal working, etc.
Lead
Lead (Pb) is considered an important toxic heavy metal. This blue-gray metal is found in nature as lead compounds.
- Lead poisoning causes a variety of symptoms, including abnormal behavior which varies from person to person, while time of exposure plays an important role.
- Short term intense exposure leads to acute symptoms that affects the central nervous system and neuromuscular, while gastrointestinal signs of exposure is a result of exposure over longer periods of time
- The variety of symptoms include: loss of short-term memory or concentration, depression, nausea, loss of coordination, numbness and tingling in the extremities, fatigue, problems with sleep, headaches, slurred speech, anemia, and abdominal pain.
- Sources of Exposureinclude – plumbing, certain surgical equipment, developing dental X-ray films, fetal monitors, circuit boards, jet engines, ceramic glazes, radiation shields, and ammunition.
Mercury
Mercury is an element that exists in three forms – elemental, inorganic, and organic compounds. Mercury is a metal that is found in air, water, and soil.
- Mercury exposure may lead to GI symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and indigestion. Mercury poisoning may present similar to IBS or IBD.
- Other symptoms include changes in vision and coordination.
- Fish and shellfish
- Mercury vapors from sone industrial or dental processes
Thallium
Thallium is bluish-white metal that turns gray with exposure to air. It is tasteless and odorless and not found free in nature. When isolated, thallium resembles tin, but discolors when exposed to air.
- Common symptoms caused by thallium is mainly nervous system associated such as vision and coordination impair-numbness of fingers and toes.
- Common GI symptoms caused by thallium include vomiting and diarrhea.
- Thallium can be released into indoor air as fine particles (aerosol).
- Ingestion is an important route of exposure from contaminated foods.
The Floré Heavy Metals test is a chemical analysis test intended for the quantitative measurement of a variety of metals that may cause symptoms ranging from gastrointestinal distress, changes in coordination or vision, or fatigue.
Heavy metal toxicity due to industry released chemicals and pollution can cause threat to our health. High levels of toxic metals deposited in body tissues and subsequently in the brain may cause significant developmental and neurological damage especially in children.