How Heavy Metals Affect the Body and What You Can Do

August 28, 2025; By Benjamin Kosubevsky

Heavy metals surround you in ways you might not expect, such as in the water you drink, the food on your plate, and even everyday items in your home. Some of these metals, like zinc and copper, support bodily functions, but others, including lead, mercury, and cadmium, can harm your health when they build up. Knowing how heavy metals affect the body and what you can do to minimize exposure can protect your well-being.

What Are Heavy Metals, and How Does Exposure Occur?

Heavy metals are natural elements, such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Some, like zinc and copper, are essential in small amounts for biological processes. However, in large quantities, heavy metals become toxic, damaging organs and systems.

You interact with heavy metals daily, but exposure typically happens through specific channels. Drinking contaminated water is a major source, especially from older systems with lead pipes. Certain occupations, like mining, welding, and manufacturing, also expose workers to high levels of metals through airborne particles.

Additionally, consuming fish high in mercury or crops grown in polluted soil adds to the metal exposure problem. Others experience exposure via household products like paints, cosmetics, or unregulated medicines.

Heavy metals can infiltrate your body in three primary ways. You might inhale them as dust particles in polluted air, absorb them through the skin via direct contact, or ingest them by eating or drinking contaminated items. Once inside, your body struggles to filter heavy metals out completely.

Neurological Effects

Your nervous system bears the brunt of heavy metal exposure, with metals like mercury and lead known to target brain function and neural signaling. Prolonged contact with these toxins doesn’t just damage neurons; it compromises the delicate systems that regulate memory, movement, and emotion.

Mercury disrupts your brain’s wiring by interfering with neurotransmitter release and function. This disruption manifests as tremors, impaired coordination, and difficulty processing information. Consuming fish high in mercury, like shark or swordfish, introduces this neurotoxin into your body.

Mercury prefers fatty tissues, enabling it to accumulate and pass through the blood-brain barrier, where it directly damages brain cells. High exposure also diminishes your ability to regulate focus, worsening mood disorders and contributing to depressive symptoms.

Moreover, neurological symptoms like tingling extremities or persistent headaches often stem from the toxic metals slowing down neural transmission.

Cardiovascular Damage

Your cardiovascular system, vital for delivering oxygen and nutrients, becomes a prime target for heavy metal toxicity. Arsenic, cadmium, and lead introduce oxidative stress, inflaming blood vessels and damaging the heart.

Arsenic exposure, often through tainted groundwater, directly damages the endothelial cells that form the inner lining of blood vessels. Over time, these cells fail to expand and contract normally, leading to elevated blood pressure and reduced oxygen delivery to vital organs. Regular ingestion of even low levels of arsenic can also lead to peripheral artery disease, where narrowed arteries limit blood flow to limbs, causing pain or numbness.

Cadmium compounds the risk of cardiovascular diseases by promoting calcification within your arteries. This calcification, often found in those exposed to secondhand smoke or industrial fumes, hardens blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Cadmium also triggers the overproduction of reactive oxygen species, which damage cellular membranes and exacerbate plaque formation in arterial walls.

Lead exposure adversely affects your heart’s electrical rhythm, leading to an irregular heartbeat and increased blood pressure. By mimicking calcium, lead disrupts ion channels crucial for heart muscle contractions, jeopardizing functional blood flow. Workers exposed to lead in industries like battery production may face higher incidences of hypertension.

Renal System Problems

Your kidneys filter waste and toxins from your blood, but sustained exposure to heavy metals like cadmium and lead can severely hinder this process. These metals concentrate in kidney tissues, causing structural and functional damage that can escalate into chronic conditions if untreated.

Cadmium targets the kidneys, specifically the proximal tubules, which filter and reabsorb nutrients and water. Once cadmium accumulates, it disrupts the cellular structure of these tubules, leading to protein leakage, a condition termed proteinuria.

Proteins such as albumin escape into urine instead of remaining in the bloodstream. Over time, cadmium exposure also impairs the organ’s ability to manage toxins and reabsorb essential minerals like calcium and phosphorus. This imbalance contributes to progressive kidney deterioration, potentially culminating in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Further, lead exposure (even in minuscule doses), wreaks long-term havoc on your kidneys. Your body mistakes lead for calcium, allowing the metal to settle in kidney tissues. Once present, lead interferes with oxidative processes and damages mitochondria in kidney cells, reducing the organs’ efficiency.

Addressing Heavy Metal Exposure

Heavy metals affect the body through neurological, cardiovascular, and renal system disruptions. However, you can take several proactive steps to protect and improve your health. For starters, certain foods naturally support your body’s ability to eliminate heavy metals. Incorporate leafy greens like spinach, kale, and parsley, rich in chlorophyll, to neutralize toxins and promote detoxification.

Include more garlic and onions, which contain sulfur compounds that bind to metals, aiding in their removal. Pair these with fiber-rich foods such as oats, lentils, and flaxseeds to aid in moving toxins through the digestive system.

Replacing fish species known to have high mercury content, like swordfish and tilefish, with safer options like wild-caught salmon, sardines, or trout reduces mercury intake while still providing essential omega-3 fatty acids.

Water is one of the most common sources of heavy metal intake, but you can reduce your risk with the right filtration system. When selecting a filter, look for certified devices designed to eliminate lead, arsenic, and similar pollutants. Also, consider professional testing if you live in an area with outdated plumbing or a history of contamination.

Consider IV Chelation Therapy

If heavy metals are impacting your health, IV chelation therapy is worth exploring. This treatment uses chelating agents like ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), which is injected into your bloodstream to bind with toxic metals. Your kidneys then filter out these bonded compounds, allowing your body to expel them naturally through urine.

Along with detoxifying your body, IV chelation therapy provides additional benefits like clearer thinking and increased energy. Chelation can also improve heart health by reducing calcium buildup in arteries, enhancing blood flow and improving cardiovascular function.

The Longevity Center of FL, a leader in regenerative treatments in West Palm Beach, FL, offers personalized chelation plans. Our team evaluates key factors like kidney function and mineral balance for better safety and efficacy, guiding you toward better health and toxin-free living.