Necessary for the function of more than 300 different enzymes, zinc is “essential for virtually all processes in the human body.” But even though Mother Nature wisely put a little zinc into most foods, it’s still easy to come up short. Known as the cold-fighting mineral, zinc is needed for every aspect of immune function. Zinc is also used in the synthesis and function of DNA and RNA, making it essential for reproduction and growth. It’s needed for neurological, eye, and heart health, and for healthy bones and glucose metabolism. Vitamin A can’t function without it. Zinc reduces inflammation and oxidative stress, supports detoxification, and plays roles in digestion, metabolism and protein synthesis. But like other minerals, zinc is significantly depleted in US soils: A carrot today may have 95% less zinc than a carrot grown sixty years ago. Phosphate fertilizers and sewage sludge used in conventional agriculture are also highly contaminated with cadmium, which competes with zin…

Heavy metals, like lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, are one of our biggest health problems. Used to manufacture many common products, they’re now found throughout our air, water and food. Virtually all of us harbor toxic heavy metals in our bodies.Heavy metals bioaccumulate, so even small exposures add up over time, triggering problems like heart disease, thyroid disease, dementia, neurological disease and birth defects. Tiny amounts of mercury have been shown to damage the brain of a developing fetus or child.Heavy metals cause problems by displacing other minerals needed for essential body functions. For example, cadmium can replace zinc in key enzymes, causing those enzymes to malfunction so critical biological functions can’t be performed.Many physicians use chelation to remove heavy metals—a “chelating agent” is ingested that binds with heavy metals and carries them out of the body through urine and/or feces. Chelation therapy is especially recommended, and has often been a “m…