How Heavy Metals Damage Immunity

Introduction and Wendy Myers' Background 0:00

Welcome back to the reverse Autoimmune Disease Summit series. Everyone. This is version 5.0. You're listening to the Healing the Energy Body Summit I'm really delighted to bring to you Doctor Wendy Myers, who is the naturopathy doctor and founder of Myers detox.com. So detox and bio energetics expert, as well as the number one bestselling author of Limitless Energy How to Detox Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue. Wendy's, the host of a top 100 rated podcast, the Myers Detox Podcast, about protecting your health with detoxification.

Welcome to the summit, Wendy. Thanks so much for having me. So, one of the things that I always like to start with is the personal journey that brought you to this. Like, how did you become interested in detoxification protocols? Well, you know, I had at some point in my life after I had my baby, I was 37 and I was just feeling terrible. And I had my child about this is about a year after. And I was having trouble losing weight. I was having brain fog. I was having bouts of anger, I just I wasn't sleeping well.

I just I just didn't feel like myself. I didn't recognize myself in the mirror. So I went to the doctor, check me, check everything that's going on with me. And I found out I had the hormone levels of a menopausal woman. I had thyroid issues. I had, low stress hormones and, and the doctor wanted to put me on the, you know, hormone replacement therapy for all of these things. And I just thought, that's just not how I really envision things in my life. So I decided to go on after Google and kind of figure out what was going on with me, you know, like, what causes all the things that cause low hormones, what causes adrenal fatigue and things of that nature?

And I kept hitting upon, heavy metals and chemicals. And so, I just started researching that further.

Heavy Metals, Autoimmunity, and Immune Dysfunction 2:06

And because I really want to get to that underlying root cause, like, why, why weren't my hormones being produced by my body, you know, like, what caused that? And how can I reverse that? Right. Versus just hormone replacement. So to me, that just seemed kind of a logical place to, to, you know, begin and but come to find out, all these heavy metals also interfere in your immune system functioning and interfere in every different aspect of your body. And I just became fascinated by this. And for me, I just lit this fire under me.

And I, started my website, Myers detox.com to to teach others about how heavy metals and chemicals are harming their health. A lot of, people that develop autoimmune disease, have heavy metals is one of the underlying causes. I call it like one of the four corner pieces of the puzzle. There's toxic load and burden. And then the other three pieces of that puzzle, the corner pieces are genetics, your gut health and trauma. And so, how how are heavy metals interfering with with the body's immune function?

Well, they do it in a couple different ways by directly impacting the immune system and the different, you know, immune systems, cells and negatively impacting them in various ways. And they also impact your, your gut bacteria and can promote leaky gut, which indirectly leads to autoimmunity, because you need to have leaky gut as a precursor to developing autoimmune, like, according to Doctor Rajdhani. And so when it comes to heavy metals. So the main metals involved in immune system malfunction are mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium.

And so these metals inhibit the function of macrophages. So they're really important cells of the immune system that are formed in response to an infection and or accumulating, you know, damaged or dead cells. And so they're they're really large, you know, specialized cells that recognize, engulf and target, cells. And then number two, neutrophils are, you know, negatively affected by metals as well. They're kind of the first responders when the body is invaded by bacteria and viruses. And and guided by chemical signaling, they travel to a little areas of infection and attack.

And neutrophils contain tiny compartments called granules in which they store toxic chemicals or, you know, kind of act as a weapons against, microorganisms. And so these are kind of are released in causes, swelling and inflammation. And it can cause pain when there's an injury or there's an infection. And, and also then there's, natural killer cells that are impaired. Cadmium is notorious for interfering in natural killer cells. And so these are, you know, specialized to kill certain types of disease cells as, like when they become cancerous or infected with the virus, etc..

And so that's really how, these metals can, you know, interfere in these cells, you know, going to an infection and engulfing that organism. But they also cause the immune system to just malfunction and a number of different ways. So, it's just that's kind of like, maybe a layperson's explanation of how they enter metals and repair the immune system. And they also affect the gut flora. Right? I always think about the gut flora, as in the movie Braveheart, when the when the Celts put their shields over the top of them like a whole group.

You know, I always think about that. Like the gut bugs will use the metals to hide, right? Yes, yes. And you know, and you know, we have to have a healthy gut to have a healthy immune system. So heavy metals, basically like mercury and lead, cause inhibition, hydrochloric acid. And so you need that to kill, you know, kind of to sterilize the food and break down and digest the food. Cadmium exposure results in a reduction in pancreatic and brush border enzyme production, which need to digest food.

Also, metals can impair, impair mitochondria functioning. So you need to have a lot of energy to digest food digestion takes up a lot of energy. So I talk a lot about how heavy metals interfere in mitochondrial functioning by poisoning enzymes that transport nutrient into the mitochondria needed to produce energy. So low energy equals poor digestion. And then there's, mercury and copper, which are antibacterials. If you have a lot of that in your food or in your body, it can kill beneficial bacteria.

While and that leads to increasing harmful bacteria. Copper and mercury can also fuel the overgrowth of certain yeasts like Candida and, a lot of other different ones as well. And, lead kamut, cadmium and mercury can lead to the overgrowth of parasitic organisms as well, like, Blastocysts Harmonists and other ones, and then heavy metals in general. Later, the overgrowth, the pathogenic bacteria. And so all of this dysbiosis, can lead to leaky gut, which leads to, you know, food sensitivities and autoimmune. Ehm,

Toxic Storage, Aging, and Testing for Metals 7:27

it also, you know, when we have all those metals on board, it causes free radical damage. And then that can impact how our genetics express themselves. Absolutely. Right. So if we have an already latent snip or two in our genetics like I do rheumatoid arthritis, my grandfather had it in my genes, right? I have a breast cancer in my genetics. And and so if I have that lying there and then, you know, the thing that comes along like heavy metals or dust, biotic, microbiome, all of these things can trigger those genetics to express them as a disease state instead of a healthy state.

So this is really an important piece of that puzzle. And then the body I just always think about the wisdom of the body and how it it doesn't like to have those metals just sitting out there. So so what does it do? Like I always call it cold storage. Right. So we we the body puts it into cold storage. And then as we're aging, especially women and their bones start to lose their density as we go through perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, then all of those metals are coming out of storage right?

Absolutely. And that's a such a good point because as our estrogen levels go down, you know, estrogen is very bone protective. Like the more estrogen that you have, the less bone cell turnover you have. So as the estrogen comes down, you start releasing more and more bone cells from these little garbage cans and our bodies known as our bones. And so our lead is stored in the bones, aluminum is stored in bones and other metals as well. But you know, when lead starts coming out, it starts interfering in energy production.

It can lead to cataracts. That's a big reason why, you know, older people can begin to get cataracts. Is the lead coming out of their bones? It's not just that they're getting older. Yeah. There's a lot of other reproductive issues or fatigue, just lots of different symptoms, including oral immunity, brain fog, cognitive decline, memory changes, like things that people think, oh, I'm just getting old and it's not that right. These heavy metals that were stored to stay away from your nervous system are now out right?

Yeah. It's a it's a big problem and it leads to people not feeling well. And in many, many, many, many different ways. So how what's the best way to assess for whether or not this is a problem for people. Yeah. So I love hair mineral analysis. Hair metal analysis is a good first start. And, it's something easy you can do at home. Or you can do it, just by clipping a little piece of your hair off the back of your head. So I know some women that kind of freak some out, but, it's really a very small amount of hair, so it's really tiny amount of hair. And.

Yeah, you can look at and do a little pads and then put that back down. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. It'll grow back. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And so that's a great first start. And you get your results back in a few weeks. And it gives a very accurate level of the tissue levels of metals that you have in your body. And it also tests your minerals as well, which is really important. And there's a lot of indirect clues in a hair mineral analysis as to what heavy metal toxicities you have that are not overtly obvious on the hair mineral analysis.

So we recommend getting a, you know, consult with a detox expert to review those. And we have a team of practitioners at Maya's Detox. But you can also do urine in stool as well, because there's no one test. That is a perfect heavy metals test that will tell you all the metals that you have in your body at a given time, because different metals have different exit routes in the body, some metals excrete very well on the hair, some metals come out in the urine, some metals show in the stool, and even some come out, you know, in your sweat when you're doing infrared sauna and what have you.

So we have a lot of different detox pathways and exit routes of toxins. So there's no one perfect test. In an ideal world, we want to do all three of those tests. But a hair metal analysis will give you a really good roadmap. Or show you what toxins you have and give you a good roadmap to detoxing what you have in your body, even if you're not aware of it. Because we don't test for chemicals. You know, people have on average, 5 to 700 chemicals in their body, and there's really no kind of economical test that will one test all of those.

And there's no point in testing because we already we know that people have tons of chemicals in their body. They just need to do the detox protocols like infrared saunas and footbal, ionic foot baths and things like that to facilitate removal of those things. So what, there are so many different ways of detoxing these things. One of the things I always say is you need to make sure you know that your, your adrenals are up for the job in your adrenals, and hormones are balanced before you go in

Detox Methods and Chelation Cautions 12:36

with all kinds of blazing, you know, because you can really get exhaust yourself doing a detox protocol for chelation. So what's your favorite? Detox protocol? Yeah. My favorite is ionic foot baths. And so these are very easy to do. You can do them while you're doing other things, like while you're working, while you're watching television or relaxing in there. Anyone can do them. So people that are very ill, people that are elderly, children, anyone can do these were with an infrared sauna. Even though I love infrared saunas.

Not everyone can tolerate the heat. Not everyone has room for them. They're. They're much more expensive than an ionic foot baths. Though I love them. I use them myself. They're just not an option for a lot of people. So people are very ill or elderly or children under the age of seven, whereas an ionic foot baths, they can do that. And so that when you're doing an ionic football, the toxins aren't coming out in the water necessarily, like what people think they get really like, you know, ooh, and all over the, the colors of the water and whatnot.

But it's really that you have an increased output of metals and chemicals in your urine and stool in the 2 to 3 days following, doing an infrared sauna or, I'm sorry, at following an ionic foot baths. And so that's where they're really working. Their magic is increasing, your body's urinary and stool output of metals. And there are so many different ways of, inviting these heavy metals out. So that's a really nice one that a lot of people don't know about. What's your opinion about Ivcc? Yeah. I mean, there's a place for ivcc that mean?

And, you know, I think it's not for me like the first the first step, I think there's, you know, there's more gentle ways to key late or to remove metals from the body. Healy. Just means I can grab on to you and remove them. But for some people, they can get very ill doing that. Many people need to really prepare the body for that. Taking minerals. And you know, they need to be fairly healthy, to do that. I think if people have a life threatening level of heavy metals, yes, by all means, they need to do that.

But if one does do it, it just needs to be done by a doctor that really knows what they're doing. And perhaps that's not their only method of heavy metal removal. It's like it's one thing that they're doing. But if you go to a practice and that's the only thing they do, I might be a little bit cautious. Because, you know, there's like a one trick pony or, you know, you just want someone that really knows what they're doing because some people can get very, very ill. And in the other problem I have with it is that you can't just go in and rip out all the metals from your body, like using ki lation.

The body isn't going to allow. The body is using some of these metals for different purposes. And so it's innately intelligent and won't the the heavy metal collision doesn't always allow for a deep detox. Like what can happen if you eat a diet conducive to detox, if you take supplements based on your genetics, if you replete minerals in your body and you do, different detox mechanisms, it's very slowly but surely coax the toxins out of the deeper parts of your your body, like in your bones, your, your brain and whatnot.

And that takes time. Detox isn't a race. It takes time to slowly but surely remove these toxins out, to remove them in a safe manner that doesn't derail you and derail your health. And so my problem with the evacuation, it can be very, very fast and just, doesn't work for some people, but it does have its place. That's exactly the conversation I wanted to have. I, I was board certified in heavy metal Pilates and years and years ago for, you know, all these different forms, including I.V. and what I witnessed in my own practice was there are much gentler ways of doing it.

And that by and large, you know, the risk benefit ratio aired on the side of too hard on the side of risk, you know, and in terms of the speed and, the side effects that can happen, other things are cleaned out of the body, you know, and just the imbalance and the depletion that, people are left with. So I appreciate that perspective. I think it's an important one. Yeah. Gentle, gentle.

Emotional Detox and Trauma Healing 17:27

It's not a race. Detox is not a race. Because, you know, we spent decades accumulating this stuff. It's. You're not going to get it out in a few months. It's just not going to have a detox is a lifestyle. So you need to think of it in that way with, you know, supplements, diet, rest, detox protocols and incorporating these on a, on a daily basis into your health regimen. That's the answer. Not, you know, a few months circulation. Right. I know you've been branching into emotional detox to to something I'm very passionate about.

Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Yes. Yeah. So, you know, I've worked with thousands of clients and I, you know, just learn. And even in my own health journey that you can do everything physically for your health, the diet and the supplements and exercise and stress reduction and things like that. And still not get well and still not feel good mentally. And in my own journey, I started on, you know, doing emotional detoxification about seven years ago, doing like a bio energetic program, called Nest Health and as health and just had profound, improvements, very, very in a very short period of time, I was really taken aback by it, really caught my attention for focusing on emotional detoxification, working on identifying and releasing the emotional traumas that I had even though I'd had ten years total of talk therapy.

You know, in my research, I therapy does not work. Everybody. Yes. Yeah. You can do that with your girlfriend. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And and to for free. Yeah. And so you know and it's very expensive the talking therapy that I spend I mean tens of thousands of dollars. And so one of the top researchers on emotional trauma in the world, Professor Bessel Barnacle. So that yapping doesn't work, because these emotional traumas that people have, they reside in this energy field. We have an energy field, you know, ten feet in diameter around our body.

And this is where a lot of information and communication in the body takes place. The physical body takes direction from this energy, this energy field. And when you have emotional traumas, it's like this, this interference in the coherence of your energy field. It's an interference in the function of your energy field. And so it creates, chaos. And it creates physical health issues, including autoimmunity, including cancers, including heart disease. And it affects it can affect every different organ system in the body.

And and you have to have an awareness of this. If you have any kind of physical health issue or psychological issue or you just want to feel better mentally, the research shows in the Aces study and in the the work of, Professor Bessel van der Kolk, he wrote the body keeps the score. They he he and this is a study have found and other researchers that over 65% of physical what we think are physical health issues are caused by emotional trauma. So only 20% is caused by diet and lifestyle. The other the the rest of the 15% are genetic issues.

So that's it's by and by in a way the number one cause of physical health issues. And so this can't be ignored if you're looking to address any kind of physical health issues, maybe you haven't been successful. Maybe, you know, you have a lot of emotional trauma from the past. You want to be looking at this, and I, I, have a new emotional detox program that's a 30 hour course that goes into everything. I just talked about the research. You know, the solutions using sound therapy and bioenergetics and many, many, many other aspects of, you know, addressing and reducing stress and releasing the emotional detox and releasing emotional trauma and trap negative emotions and things of that nature.

Beautiful. Yeah. This is this is, definitely where I have found the healing and is the most profound. Yeah. I mean, healing your emotional trauma affects how your genetics express themselves, how your gut heals back up. You know, the the live in your gut. It affects everything. So, yeah. And your permeability to toxins in the environment. Yeah. Doing emotional detox because that is a big physical detox as well. I think people might be surprised by you. Surprised, you know, by you know by releasing emotional trauma, it can open up your detox pathways and get your body just working better and functioning better.

And you the toxins are coming. Yeah. And or like, whoa. And but it's it's one of the best detoxes out there, you know, strangely enough. Yeah. So is there anything that we haven't covered that you really want to make sure our audience hears? Well, I mean, I would just that, you know, if you are, if you're looking for health answers, you've been dealing with a lot of health issues for many years, and you've just tried this and tried a bunch of different things. You know, I, I implore people to look at emotional detoxification, to working on their emotional trauma, because working on that level is going to relieve stress like stress is one of the number one killers.

On the planet. So you have to reduce stress. A lot of people have a very high stress set point where they just react quickly to stressors. They can't call themselves down. And, you know, we have what's called, you know, our heart rate variability, which is a measure of stress. And there was a really interesting study, by a guy named, who? Chiro. So I can't read it.

Stress, Heart Rate Variability, and Brain Fog 23:27

And so, in his research with his team of researchers, he found that, if you have a low heart rate variability, you have low stress, you have a dramatic increased. I'm sorry. That's high stress. You have a dramatic increase risk of all causes or of mortality. So it basically increases, if you having a low hrb or having high stress is a bigger indicator of mortality than having heart disease, smoking, taking medications, having high blood cholesterol and glucose levels, all cause mortality, is increased.

But if you have a low heart rate variability. So, you know, stress is a huge, huge factor in people getting ill. And so you, you want to remove that underlying root, big underlying root cause of stress, which is emotional trauma. Beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the time to spend with us, with sharing just even a little bit of your wisdom. I know you have a free gift for our audience. How? Heavy metals cause brain fog and poor brain performance. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? And.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's really interesting how I talked about how heavy metals impact your immune system, but they impact your brain as well. So they interfere in your neurotransmitter production. They interfere in nerve impulse transmission, which can slow your reaction times and your cognition and your processing of information. They can interfere. They can. Aluminum outright kills brain cells and contributes to many different forms of dementia. So I talk about all that and more in my free guide.

All right. Thanks so much, Wendy. Yeah, great. Thank you so much for having me. All right everybody, until next time, be well.