Natural Chelation: Food-Based Interventions & Why I (Personally) Don’t use Supplements (Also: Can you remove Lead from the body?)
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the news coverage of our work, linked here.
Published: February 6, 2019
Edited only slightly: September 21, 2024
Below is an e-mail I sent to a family
I recently had a home visit with.
When we met you asked about ways to get the Lead out of blood (and out of the body) if kiddos test positive.
In my documentary film’s interview with Dr. Bruce Lanphear he states that 90% of the Lead that your body has ever been exposed to is still in your body (absorbed by your soft tissue and your bones and recirculated [and then reabsorbed] with injury or other major physical events — like pregnancy.)
That said, based on the personal research I have done (and my interest in removing as much Lead as possible from my children’s bodies), I chose to do whole food-based chelation for my sons. What this means is focusing on dietary changes that emphasize foods (or whole food-based supplements) that have been scientifically proven to eliminate Lead from the body.
Natural chelation is controversial (at best) but given it is a non-medical intervention and can include simple things like increasing the amount of garlic you add to the diet, I don’t personally believe there is the potential for food-based interventions to be harmful.
While I am not a doctor (I think I have to say that!) I have written a few articles about this on my website based on my personal experience with my children and the research I have done in an effort to help my own family. Please take a look at the following links to start and share them with your wife if you think they might be helpful:
My main concern about doing anything beyond food-based interventions is that a lot of supplements actually may contain unsafe levels of Lead. Supplements that I have learned might contain unsafe levels of Lead (but that are sold with accompanying marketing materials and testimonies stating they help the body to eliminate Lead) include modified citrus pectin, bentonite clay, and any (and possibly all) calcium supplements. The article linked here provides some context as it talks about one supplement that people often take because they have been told it eliminates Lead, when in fact it has the potential to poison the user: https://tamararubin.com/2017/12/very-well-written-article-surprising-danger-of-bentonite-clay/
For some background:
Food and beverages are considered toxic when they have measurable Lead in the parts per billion (ppb) range (between 1 and 100 ppb for most foods or beverages, depending on the item and the intended consumer), you can read more about that at the following links on our website:
- https://tamararubin.com/2017/10/foodfda/
- https://tamararubin.com/2018/08/do-crayola-crayons-have-lead-2018/
- https://tamararubin.com/2018/11/2018-lead-levels-in-portland-public-schools-sellwood-middle-school-are-not-protective-of-childrens-health/
- https://tamararubin.com/2018/08/asktamara-are-my-kids-crayons-toxic-which-brand-of-crayons-is-safe/
- https://tamararubin.com/2017/03/food/
Parts Per Million vs. Parts Per Billion
Most supplement manufacturers only test their products down to low thresholds in the single digit parts per million (ppm) range — whereas, as supported by all current food-based standards, toxicity for any products or substances intended for direct human ingestion (food, beverages, supplements, etc.) should always be evaluated, measured, and expressed in parts per billion (typically in the one or two digit range of parts per billion for Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic). Unfortunately almost every supplement info sheet/ COA I have seen has said something along the lines of “product is negative for Lead, to levels below ‘5 ppm'” (or “1 ppm”, etc). One ppm is equal to 1,000 parts per billion.
This level of specificity (or lack of specificity) could still mean (if, for example their threshold is 5 ppm) their product is positive for as much as 4 ppm Lead, which is 4,000 ppb (parts per billion) Lead — and definitely not considered a safe level of Lead for daily human consumption. Even supplements that test down to one part per million (1 ppm) could still test positive for unsafe levels of Lead in the range of 800 or 900 parts per billion (both levels that are less than 1 part per million). Food and supplement testing for toxicants (Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic) needs to be done down to low thresholds of detection at least in the range of one or two digit parts per billion, or the data is not useful / not protective of human health.
The reason supplements often have unsafe levels of Lead is two-fold:
1) If they are made of a substance that purports to “naturally bind” to Lead (to help eliminate it from the body) then it is likely they have also concentrated Lead in their source form. For example, calcium: Lead bio-mimics calcium. Many doctors prescribe calcium supplements to people who have tested positive for Lead. The claim is that “if there is sufficient calcium in the body then the body will not absorb the lead in the place of calcium”. However, because Lead bio-mimics calcium, the natural sources of calcium that are often used for supplements (bone calcium, coral calcium, or even plant-based calcium) might also be high in Lead themselves, and concentrating those sources to make a supplement may concentrate the Lead in those sources as well as the calcium, causing a lead-exposure risk from the supplement itself.
2) Supplements are highly processed foods. In fact, they could be considered a type of UPF (“Ultra Processed Food”). This means they are most often made on machines with moving parts and made of many ingredients combined together. Machines with moving parts almost always have high-Lead brass components that wear (or Cadmium-plated components for which the plating wears off over time with use). When these high-Lead brass components (or Cadmium-plated components) wear, the “trace levels” of heavy metals that wear off of the machinery often end up in the product they are processing — the supplements (or foods). This is true of nearly all highly processed foods, including protein powder drinks, chocolate, packaged juices and other similar highly processed foods that purport to confer various health benefits!
- Across the board I have not yet (still, as of updating this in September 2024) found any supplements that are guaranteed to be truly Lead-free (as tested and confirmed by independent, third-party labs) and I expect nearly all supplements will test positive for some amount of Lead as the industry is not appropriately regulated (to address these lower levels of contamination that are concerning for children’s health even though they are below the low threshold of detection for the testing done on most supplements).
- I suggest that parents always ask for the “white paper” or COA (certificate of analysis) from the manufacturer for any supplements that they are considering giving their children.
- Specifically, when requesting this information ask for any toxicity testing that has been done (for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic and other metals).
- Ask for both the “low threshold of detection” (hopefully it will be in single or double digit ppbs)
- and the “margin of error” for the testing that was done.
- If the low threshold of detection is in parts per million (ppm), showing a result like “<1 ppm,” the testing that has been done on that product was not to a sufficiently low threshold of detection to determine safety (as far as heavy metals content is concerned).
- We (the Lead Safe Mama Community) are testing a lot of supplements now (in 2024/25) and if we find any to test “non-detect” for Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, and Mercury, we will add them to this article (link) and encourage you to bookmark it to check back periodically.
Some supplement manufacturers will readily provide their COA/ lab reports with their test results for their product; others might claim it is “proprietary.” What you are specifically looking for is independent, third-party testing of supplements (ideally testing not conducted by or paid for by the company in question) to help confirm they have the lowest possible levels of Lead and other toxicants (before choosing to give them to your children or before choosing to take them if you are a pregnant adult).
Because supplement manufacturers are not manufacturing products that are tested to levels considered “food-safe” for Lead, I generally limit any supplements I give to my children. Specifically I don’t give them any supplements — unless they are sick, and there is prescription supplement that a trusted healthcare provider recommends for helping them with their healing process, where the potential benefit outweighs any potential risk. If your doctor does tell you that you need supplements, prescription (pharmaceutical grade) supplements are typically a better/ cleaner option as they are normally tested for purity down to PPT (part per trillion) levels, so ask your doctor if a prescription supplement is available. If a doctor has not recommended that you take a supplement, you might want to have a conversation with your doctor about any supplements you are considering taking in order to determine if they are actually necessary.
It is important to remember that the over-the-counter supplement industry is an INDUSTRY. Most industries are (by definition) money-making machines. They are in this business to make money and they will often put their bottom line above your health, especially if the industry is not appropriately regulated (as the supplement and food industries are not at this current time). The current popular subscription models for supplement purchasing (where you pay monthly and they send you a container each month) is an especially predatory model for a business to engage in, as it captures your money first and foremost and we have not yet found any of the subscription model supplement companies to have truly clean products (from a toxicant perspective specifically).
When we met, I mentioned that the parent-run “The Lead Poisoning Prevention with Lead Safe Mama” Group on Facebook has several parents who have taken it upon themselves to do extensive research on specific supplements before deciding to use them for their children. These parents have posted a lot of the results of their research in the group. I encourage you to join the group to check out that information and connect with other parents on this concern (as my personal approach — not giving supplements to my children because these products are not sufficiently tested for Lead and not proven to be Lead-free — may seem a bit “extreme” to some). In this way, you can collect information on products of interest and read the conclusions of a larger set of folks who are wrestling with these same questions, evaluating their various findings, choices, and recommendations for yourself. Here’s the link to that group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeadSafe/
As always, please let me know if you have any questions about this. (I’m also going to share this e-mail on my website!) 😉
#ThingsIHaveBeenMeaningToWriteForAWhile
Tamara E. Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
#LeadSafeMama
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I was looking at the book “Detox Your Home” by Christine Dimmick for the first time a few days ago, and to my surprise, I saw Tamara’s name in there! I was not expecting that! It’s on page 143, and there’s a link to her website.
I read the paragraph on lead in calcium supplements on page 138 of the book Getting The Lead Out, and page 120 of the book Lead Is A Silent Hazard. I got a pamphlet on the calcium supplement “AlgaeCal” from a health food store, and I’m guessing that those two books don’t address Calcareas.sp (I think the .sp stands for “species”) as a source of calcium. It’s from algae collected wild from the oceans of South America, and is the size of a golf ball. It does say on the pamphlet that it contains .082 ppm nickel and different numbers, all in the ppm, of various other elements, but no mention of lead, arsenic, mercury, or cadmium in that list in the pamphlet I pickedup. I am curious how much lead and other nasties AlgaeCal has, if any, in the parts per billion? If it’s low, then I’ll consider buying some.
https://www.algaecal.com/research/#Safety-Study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20528255
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/15376516.2010.490966?scroll=top&needAccess=true (this is the same study about the safety of AlgaeCal)
The cost of the above scientific journal article is $54 USD! Yikes! I don’t want to pay for it. Maybe someone in one of your Facebook groups would be willing to pay for it.
I would also be interested in knowing if the raised white pain and light green paint on the outside of the brown glass Saje brand essential oil bottles contain lead or other nasties. I’m also interested in the following, if you’re wondering what your readership is most interested in seeing more of:
Perfume bottles, such as popular ones like Chanel Chance, White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Paul Gauthier, The Body Shop’s mango perfume oil, etc. Planters, toothbrush colored bristles (I saw your post on Nimbus), empty spritzer bottles you can buy at dollar stores, plant misters/sprayers, dumbbells, ankle weights, wristwatches, the enamel inside a clothes dryer and washing machine, or any other part that would touch your clothes. The prongs inside a dishwasher, that touch the goblets. Orthopedic and podiatric (if that’s a word!) devices. Toaster buttons and knobs. Buttons on surgical microscopes. Buttons on estheticians’ machines (their circle magnifier lamp, their microdermabrasion machine, laser machines, etc), wax pot lid knobs, etc.). The colorful silicone petals of the Forb flower baby bottle brush by Boon (I saw your post on Munchkin). Other brushes and sponges that are used to clean kitchens. Buttons, attachments, and handles of vacuum cleaners. Calculators. Wetsuits and Kokatat drysuits. Kayak paddles. Swimmer’s noseplugs and earplugs. Prescription eyeglasses (I saw your post about the red sunglasses). Computer printer buttons. Binders, rulers, duotangs, the writing on the sides of pens and pencils. Bedside alarm clocks and wall clocks. Tennis racket grips. Soccer cleats. Shin pads. Maybe some estheticians or plastic surgeons would be interested in having you test their offices.
Forgive me if you’ve covered some of those already, but I did search for some of them.
Hi! I was wondering if you have tested calcium glycerophosphate? I use a small amount of a flouride free toothpaste for my daughter who cannot spit yet (brand name “hello”). This is one of the ingredients.
There is a supplement by the name of “Curcumin Turmeric Root Extract 95%” by the Oregon company “PureBulk” that was manufactured January 2nd, 2019 and tested June 27th, 2019, and was found to have:
Lead: 0.0166
Cadmium: <0.01 ppm
Arsenic: <0.02 ppm
Mercury: <0.01 ppm
There wasn't a unit of measurement beside "Lead", but I'm just going to assume they mean ppm. I know how you talk about food and supplements needing to be measured in the parts per billion range and not parts per million. So are these results good or bad? Should I avoid taking this supplement? https://i.imgur.com/GftnaSe.png
Tamara I stumbled upon an article I wanted to share with you:
https://news.stanford.edu/2019/09/24/lead-found-turmeric/ After just eating turmeric, I’m perturbed. I think the video of lead being poured into the spices will bother you as much as it did me. Please advice as to your opinion on spices in the U.S. I found an article stating that the FDA, “has no limit to the amount of lead and heavy metals in spices.” Would this ever be an article topic for you? I’d love to read it. Kind regards and the best to your family.
Came upon this article related to lead poising in the NYC area during work research (unrelated) and that’s where the lead concern started for me https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/hazardous-foods-spices.page. Had to call family members and go through my own spice rack and toss anything questionable.
Just sending a link, before they remove it of a major ‘well-trusted’ natural supplement company (Megafood) admitting on their site…. complete with pics of what you referenced in this blog about machinery…. they’re using 1940s tablet presses with chipping layers of paint (being touched by the operator who will then handle the tablets) and who knows what kind of materials (lead) in the actual metal that’s doing the pressing of the pills!
https://www.megafood.com/category/transparency/tablet-press.html
do you recommend any prenatals?
I’ve been obsessively researching this topic in the last few weeks (since I learned about lead toxicity) and discovering that I have a 1.66 mcg/dL of lead in my blood – which is not much but also not little. I am a medical researcher and have access to scientific publications (happy to send by email articles that you may want). People who are calcium deficient absorb more lead – this seems to be as much a fact as the fact that lead is bad for children’s IQ. When lead is in calcium supplements it tends to increase blood lead levels (BLL).
There is a study that actually gave lead in calcium carbonate to subjects and found that some of the lead in calcium carbonate was absorbed but not the lead in the calcium carbonate/citrate/phosphate composition. Surprisingly blood lead levels did not increase – i.e. the absorbed lead from calcium carbonate crowded out some other lead. They know it was absorbed because they measured isotopes. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11333190/ (free article)
Consumerlabs tests supplements for heavy metals (Pb, As, Cd) and if the dose is below Prop 65 per serving they mark the supplements as ‘passed’ – their levels are max of 0.5mcg per serving. They do not report the level itself unless the supplement does not pass the heavy metals test at which point they do. They also 3rd party certify supplements. You can get their iron + multivitamin tests for free for 24 hrs but not the other ones. Their subscription fees are not cheap and they test some strange vitamins rather than more common ones for some reason. CVS is supposed to 3rd party test all the supplements they sell for lead as well but it is unclear what max allowable levels they use.
Research also shows that if someone is low in iron and calcium they absorb more lead from their diet. If they are not deficient, adding extra calcium may not help lead absorption. [As Tamara stated above you also absorb more on an empty stomach].
In terms of pregnancy and lactation, calcium supplementation (or adequate dietary intake) prevents the lead stored in bone from being released into the blood because the baby’s bones require calcium while being formed and that comes from the mother’s diet and if that is not enough – then from the mother’s bones. When such bone resorption happens, that means that lead is released from the bones as well. Adequate calcium intake during pregnancy (and iron) basically prevents blood levels of lead from going up and the fetus being lead poisoned. One way to get calcium is from the diet and another is from supplements. While supplements can have some lead, dietary calcium can come with lead as well – cows milk, bone broth etc., almonds, spinach. 0.5mcg of lead from a calcium supplement MAY in some cases be much less than if getting that calcium from the diet.
Another issue is that many middle aged people still have legacy lead burdens from when lead was used in gasoline. (Some of that lead is still available on our streets – https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/224474/lead-from-leaded-petrol-persists-london/). That lead is stored in our bones. Bone lead has a half life of 30-40 years. From my reading of the literature chelating that bone lead actually releases it into the blood which makes it available for it to be deposited into soft tissue – including brain and kidneys which is worse than it staying in the bones. Proper medical chelation where the blood lead is bound to the chelator and taken out into the urine is probably better but studies show that it does not necessarily improve outcomes on IQ and is quite risky and should be done under the observation of a medical professional in a hospital. I personally would be scared of IV infusion booths in malls. So, to lower BLL you need to 1 ) keep bone resorption as low as possible 2) prevent new lead from being absorbed from the environment. Calcium helps with both of those. However, I haven’t been able to ascertain whether calcium supplementation also helps prevent lead absorption from the air. Makes sense for ingested lead but don’t have enough info for lead that is breathed in.
Menopause, pregnancy, lactation, breaking bones, immobility or anything that increases the risk of bone resorption (think osteoporosis risks) increases the risk of that lead being released into the blood. So does inadequate calcium and iron intake. There is a wonderful study done in Australia showing that calcium supplementation does lower maternal bone lead resorption. Some lead is still resorbed but later, presumably when the baby is less fragile. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15531434/
Lactation increases bone resorption even more but luckily mother’s milk does not contain as much lead (formula can contain more in some instances) but can be tested if the mother has had heavy lead exposure. So the recommendation is to keep nursing if BLL are below 5mcg/dL. If you have lived in a city, next to a lead smelting plant, have had blood poisoning, you have an internal source of lead from the cumulative exposure. Adequate calcium keeps it there – sort of like a topcoat of non-lead paint on top of lead paint which is often the best short term remedy.
Have you read Dr. Rabito’s work? She’s in my film. She found that the average BLL for an adult woman of childbearing ages is 0.43, thus your BLL is actually quite high. She’s a professor at Tulane. I’ve written about each of the points you raise in various different articles. Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive comment.
I haven’t looked at her work specifically, I just do a PubMed search. You are right that a lower BLL would be helpful but it is hard to achieve in my case (though I am making changes based on your wonderful recommendations – I have changed china/cooking methods/salt, got a water filter, lowered chocolate consumption/eliminated canned foods etc. and will eventually move to a newer house). But I lived in an active lead smelter town ages 13-20 and so will have a significant background exposure from my own bones, never got tested but I suspect regularly had BLLs of more than 10mcg/dL during that time period – which was not unusual in those times anyway – average adult BLLs were over 15mcg/DL in the 1970-80s. I also live in a big city so the air and street dust has legacy contamination. Less than 0.5 mcg/dl BLL may be achievable in other places but would be harder in London – 1.66 mcg/dL also seems slightly below average for Europe – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36041540/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24095590/. For myself I need to evaluate the extra benefit from further lowering against the increase in other risks – including the risk of developing a full blown lead OCD 🙂 While there is no safe level of lead in the blood, the correlations become more tenuous at very, very low levels (less than 1.5mcg/dL) and a bigger gain can be probably made in lowering cardiovascular disease risk by losing a few pounds or lowering stress than by trying to lower the last blood mcg of lead with extreme measures such as moving away from civilization. All the studies on adults are at quite high doses – though the IQ correlation in kids seems higher at lower doses – i.e. more IQ points are lost in going from 1 to 3 than in going from 11-13 mcg/dl of BLL.
Basically, I am trying to keep sane 🙂
Thank you for providing such an amazing resource to make this research easier.
Also, update on the consumerlabs testing – my previous post was not entirely accurate – they make some allowances above California limits for supplements:
https://www.consumerlab.com/methods/bone-supplements-calcium-with-vitamin-d-k-magnesium/calcium/
“Lead: Not exceed the following limits for elemental lead:
Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California’s Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
Products with a single serving weight of less than 5 grams which are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California’s Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more of whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance will not exceed 2 mcg.
Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.”
I’m so grateful to Tamara for this work and for everyone’s attention to this topic. Starting with Deborah Dadd’s book Non-Toxic and Natural so many years ago, I’ve made every effort I can do keep my environment clean inside my home – and out.
Sad to say, but I am also greatly concerned about that which is raining down upon us from the sky . The geoengineering that’s happening is endangering all of life.
If you need more information on this topic, Dane Wigington’s website is a well-documented source.
I pray that humanity makes the effort to look up and see what’s happening in our skies and take a stand on behalf of all that is precious to us.
May all beings be happy and healthy.
If you don’t take supplements how do you get B12 though? Poisoning from a lack of B12 is way worse than maybe getting a microscopic amount of lead from one of the more reputable supplement brands. If you’re getting it from meat, the way animals get B12 is they’re supplemented with it, or they’re supplemented with chromium and stuff if they’re ruminants but those are also often supplemented with B12, so you’re basically getting way more byproducts that way. “Let’s get our B12 from munching on a steak and following the Jordan Peterson all-beef diet!” has never convinced me.
I eat a varied whole-foods diet (mostly raw) and have never been diagnosed with a B-12 deficiency.
How do you know those foods aren’t contaminated with lead (or other nasties)? Especially for meat (unless you’re vegan).
Have you tested any electrolyte mixes? I’m curious to see what type of lead content they contain. My son and I tested positive and I’ve been going through everything we eat/drink and the electrolytes is one of the things we both do. We have reverse osmosis water, live in a new house, eat organic, so I’m trying to wrap my brain around what it could possibly be. We’ve also stopped with the Redmonds Salt just in case also.
Have you read this article yet?
https://tamararubin.com/2023/03/ive-been-helping-a-mama-whose-doctor-had-unknowingly-put-her-on-a-high-lead-diet-that-poisoned-both-her-her-breast-fed-baby/
And this one?
https://tamararubin.com/2024/03/lead-safe-mama-llc-tested-baby-foods-one-clean-label-project-purity-award-recipient-tested-positive-for-lead-mercury-cadmium-arsenic/
And this one:
https://tamararubin.com/2019/07/click-the-link-to-learn-more-wait-what-is-this-click-bait-what-are-you-selling/
Yes, I’ve been binge reading your content since we found out. I’ve been going through our diets and cutting anything out that would be considered high in lead content based on your info. Our doctor did say to use chlorophyll and I’ve seen today where you stated it could actually raise levels. We eat lots of organic citrus, veggies, and even garlic like you say; but have cut supplements since finding out. Just trying to think of where it started and what we had in common and an electrolyte mix was one.
Any powdered processed food or beverage substance could be high lead. Have you seen my film? Watch my film (especially the final scene in the credits):
https://tamararubin.com/2023/01/a-link-to-my-film/
If some of your children do not eat dairy, where do they get enough calcium from food sources, especially if leafy greens are discouraged due to lead?
Thank you in advance,
Joanne
Here’s a company that claims to have each prenatal batch tested and results confirmed by a third party lab. Is anyone familiar with this company? I sent them an email requesting the original copy of the certificate and per Tamara’s suggestion “Specifically, when requesting this information ask for any toxicity testing that has been done (for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic and other metals) — and both the “low threshold of detection”, and the “margin of error” for the testing that was done.”
https://fullwellfertility.com/cdn/shop/files/Women_s_Prenatal_Test_Results_Lot_W0038290_2.pdf?v=14824688749238217228
I was taking the healthybaby prenatals and now I might be pregnant. Needed a refill and noticed a reviewer mentioned that they requested the testing results and were denied, so naturally I’m opting out.
Very grateful to Tamara for all that she does for all of us. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this.
T
Curious what you think of Fullwell’s report: https://fullwellfertility.com/cdn/shop/files/Women_s_Prenatal_Test_Results_Lot_W0038290_2.pdf?v=14824688749238217228
The company sent me the certificate. The only notable difference from the link above is they include the lot, batch, manufacture date and method used for testing. The method used for heavy metal tests was ICP-MS. Now I’m not a scientist to know if this method produces accurate results. If anyone does, please chime in.
Used to use Garden Of Life prenatals with my previous pregnancy 4 years ago, but the company has been bought out so formula will change, not going to trust that. Just angry and disappointed at these companies trying to make a buck at human cost. A friends husband who’s a chemist and works with pharma companies enlightened me that supplements are not regulated, so anyone can produce whatever and say it’s great for you, my mind was blown.
Is anyone familiar with Premier Research Labs? I’ve take their folate when I was pregnant. They claim to do rigorous testing. It appears they also use the ICP-MS method for testing. They offer multi-vitamin.
I check all of my supplements at ConsumerLabs.com for heavy metal contamination as well as to confirm they contain the levels of supplements they claim they do. It has been a great resource for us in shopping for supplements!
But it’s not free – right? It’s behind a paywall? And what is the low threshold of detection they are using for metals?
Yes, it runs $5/month. We do pay for it, because it’s worth it to us to do so primarily because I have a nickel allergy and am always watching for it. They cover their testing methodology at their website under https://www.consumerlab.com/methods, it appears to vary depending on the individual supplement.
An example for cocoa powder provided below. I find they often list the total amount detected even if below the threshold.
Hopefully copy and paste won’t mess up the formatting much.
“Heavy metals: Products must not exceed the following limits:
Lead: Not exceed the following limits for elemental lead:
Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California’s Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium. In addition, any type of chocolate bar likely to be consumed frequently by children may not exceed 0.1 mcg per gram (FDA limit for lead in candy, including dark chocolate, likely to be consumed frequently by children).
Products with a single serving weights of less than 5 grams which are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California’s Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more of whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance will not exceed 2 mcg.
Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving or 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
Cadmium:
If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on (Canada’s limit for a child weighing 75 lbs.) If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California’s Prop 65 limit).
Arsenic:
Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic (EPA limit and state of New Jersey limits — based on 1 liter of water) and no more than 2.1 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (Canada’s limit in natural health products).”
Testing Methods:
Cocoa products were tested in one or more independent laboratories for the following:
Identification and quantification of the flavanol monomers catechin and epicatechin and their polymer procyanidins (PACs) as a predefined molecular degree of polymerization (DP) of 1-7 by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methodology (AOAC 2020.05). An older modified version of this method, AOAC 2012.24, which quantifies PACs with a DP of 1-10 was used for products added during or before 12/2020.
Identification and quantification of the xanthine alkaloids theobromine and caffeine by HPLC for all products. In 2019, all bars and any product claiming an amount of theobromine or caffeine.
Quantitative analyses for lead, cadmium and arsenic by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
Testing was performed by one or more independent laboratories. Any product that did not initially pass (below) was sent to another independent laboratory to repeat testing for the criterion on which it did not pass.
ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.
Identities of the products were not disclosed to laboratories performing the testing.
Thank you for sharing this. Do they share the actual lab reports with members?
T
Good question! I found this online: https://www.consumerlab.com/about but do not see where to access copies of the lab results. I have sent an email request to find out whether or not customers have access to view the documentation upon request. Curious to see how they respond!!
Hi AB. Did you find out if customers get access to the documentation? I am considering paying for access. Thanks
For those of us that are deficient in vitamins like b12, d3, etc. what can we do? I haven’t seen you suggest any other solutions besides (perhaps) avoiding supplements. -which, speaking for myself, hasn’t been entirely helpful. And in case you didn’t know, you can still be deficient in v. b12 even if you eat meat and you can still be deficient in v. d3 even if you live somewhere that gets a lot of Sun year round.
For anything you medically need, ask your doctor for a recommended product and then ask the company to see their Certificate of Analysis.
You can try bitter foods or herbs with B12 rich foods to maximise absorption. These include apple cider vinegar in water before meals, rocket (greens, or arugula), and lemon juice in warm water (warm water is better for absorption). There are also herbal bitters. There would be a reason you arent absorbing B12, is it stress, or anti-parietal cell antibodies? any time you treat ongoing deficiencies you need to know why. Many allied and natural health practitioners can help you with this. For Vitamin D, you need to expose the parts of your skin not otherwise exposed to the sun to maximise vitamin D synthesis. You may have SNPs in things like the FU2 gene which is needed for B12 absorption. You are right, people can be deficient even if they eat and do the things you have outlined and sometimes not supplementing is an option. Certain nutrient pairings (from food or supplements – m mostly supplements to restore deficiencies that are very low) can increase vitamin D and B12 absorption. Same goes for other nutrients.
Thankyou for your work tamara – this is both shocking and enlightening.
sometimes not supplementing is not*** an option.