Magnesium & Heavy Metal Chelation

What are the most common heavy metals?
- Aluminum
- Cadmium
- Arsenic
- Lead
- Mercury
- Tin 
- Barium
- Antimony
- Beryllium 

Understanding that its near impossible to avoid coming into contact with these metals from our food supply, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the things we put on our skin - we should come to accept that we need to stay actively chelating these metals. 

This brings an entirely new element of importance to the consistent and adequate use of Magnesium. 

Why?

One major important thing to note about heavy metals and metal chelation, is the concept of mineral-metal antagonism.

We know that even essential minerals can compete for the same enzymes to be absorbed in the body. Examples such as: excess Zinc (Zn) inhibiting Copper (Cu) absorption, or excess Phosphorous (P) inhibiting Calcium (Ca) absorption. 

This means that certain heavy metals can compete for the same binding sites in the body (tissues, cells, etc) as essential mineral and trace minerals.


When this happens in the favour of heavy metals, it creates dysfunction, symptoms, or disease conditions. When it happens in the favour of the proper minerals, the heavy metals are displaced, and liberated into the blood where they can be carried to the liver, the kidneys, and excreted.

Many people like to focus on 'binders', but without displacing the actual metals with the right minerals that should be in our cells and tissues, the binding is less effective.

Magnesium is protective against aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic beryllium and nickel, and is shown to reduce blood, bone, and organ levels of these metals. (Bulat et al, 2012).



Therefore, the first step in any chelation protocol or process should be to remineralize the body with all of the most essential electrolytes and trace minerals. Creating a healthy cell with the proper mineral intake is the key to maintaining its structure, function, and ability to reject heavy metals.

References & Significant Quotes:

1. POLLUTION BY METALS: IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP IN GLYCEMIC CONTROL?
https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.etap.2016.06.023

"Environmental pollution is an important problem in big cities. Recently, air pollution has been associated as a risk factor for Diabetes Mellitus and obesity, mainly because their ability to cause oxidative stress and inflammation that leads to lipogenesis, adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance (Rao et al, 2015; Janghorbani et al, 2014). Air pollution is an important source of metals attached to particulate matter. Metals are pollutants with historical relevance because of the effects reported on population’s health." 

"Metals are known to affect mitochondrial mechanisms and increase the production of free radicals leading to oxidative stress and inflammation, both of these conditions, could play a role in metabolic disorders as diabetes or obesity."


2. Intake of Magnesium and Toxicity of Lead: An Experimental Model
https://sci-hub.st/10.1080/00039896.1979.10667391

"In these experiments, the urinary excretion of Pb was significantly higher (P < .01) in Mg-fed rats compared to the rats fed only Pb. This indicates that either more Pb is absorbed in Mg-fed rats, thereby causing increases in excretion, or the amount of Pb absorbed may be less or the same, but the amount retained is less in the rats fed Mg. The second possibility appears more likely in view of the fact that blood lead content was significantly lower (P < .05 and P < .01) in Mg-fed rats 15 and 30 days after initiation of Pb feeding" 

"At 62 days, the brain, heart, spleen, and lung contained significantly higher amount of Pb in Mg-fed rats, whereas femur and humerus contained significantly lower amounts of Pb. These results clearly suggest that the elevated blood levels specifically related to the mobilization of Pb from bone and that this mobilization also caused transcient increases in Pb content of certain soft tissues"


3. Decreased thiamine and magnesium levels in the potentiation of the neurotoxicity of lead in occupational lead exposure
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02685917

"This study has shown that relatively low BPb levels can enhance Pb absorption and also potentiate Pb neurotoxicity in the presence of decreased serum thiamine and Mg levels."


4. Inhibition by Magnesium and Calcium Acetates of Lead Subacetate- and Nickel Acetate-induced Lung Tumors in Strain A Mice
https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/44/4/1520.long

"The lead and nickel salts, administered alone, each produced a significant increase in the observed number of lung adenomas per mouse. When administered with any of the doses of calcium acetate or magnesium acetate tested, neither lead subacetate nor nickel acetate showed any significant tumorigenic activity. Calcium acetate alone (total dose,11 mmol/kg of body weight) appeared to yield a significant rise in lung adenomas observed. The results indicate an antagonism between magnesium and calcium and the tumorigenic metals nickel and lead."

5. Contribution to interaction between magnesium and toxic metals: the effect of prolonged cadmium intoxication on magnesium metabolism in rabbits
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9884986/

"Magnesium content was determined in blood, urine, soft tissues and bones by the AAS method. Under the experimental conditions, Cd lead to statistically significant decrease of blood Mg (p < 0.001 after day 16) which was associated with increased Mg elimination via urine (p < 0.01)."


6. Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on the Distribution Patterns of Zinc, Copper, and Magnesium in Rabbits Exposed to Prolonged Cadmium Intoxication

"Magnesium reduced Cd concentration and lipid peroxidation and had even protective effect against carcinogenicity and teratogenicity of Cd in experimental animals as reviewed by Matovic et al."

"Besides mechanisms of Cd toxicity which include induction of oxidative stress and apoptosis, aberrant gene expression, altered DNA structure, and inhibition of ATP production in mitochondria [1–4], Cd toxicity can be also explained by disturbed homeostasis of bioelements [5–7]. The increasing environmental cadmium exposure, on one hand, and the wide-spread bioelements deficiency in the world mainly due to nutritional factors but also as a result of cadmium exposure, on the other hand, clearly indicate the relevance of Cd bioelements interactions"

"Our recent studies have 2 The Scientific World Journal shown that supplementation with Mg significantly reduces Cd concentration in the blood, kidney, spleen, and bone of rabbits exposed to prolonged Cd intoxication [15] and has beneficial effect on Cd levels in kidney, lungs, testis, and spleen, as well as kidney glutathione (GSH) concentration in mice exposed to subacute intoxication [20–22]"

"Cadmium intoxication induced significant decrease of blood Mg levels from the 22nd day till the end of experiment (Figure 1(c)). Magnesium administration managed to prevent Cd-induced changes in blood Mg concentrations that were significantly higher"