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No, that’s not the title of a forthcoming Metallica album. At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains the links between heavy metals and heart disease. He writes:
According to research1 published in 1999, people with severe heart failure have 12,000-fold more antimony in their myocytes (the heart muscle cells responsible for contraction) than healthy controls. They also have 22,000-fold more mercury.
Mercury is a highly toxic metal that causes oxidative stress, weakening of the antioxidant defense system, enzyme inactivation and increased oxidative damage, all of which contribute to the deterioration of heart function.2 Long-term exposure to antimony has also been linked to cardiovascular problems. Antimony also has estrogenic activity, which drives many chronic diseases, including cancer.
The oxidative stress caused by heavy metals is one of the primary ways in which they destroy your mitochondrial function. Some heavy metals, including mercury, cadmium and copper, also interfere directly with the mitochondrial electron transport chain,3 leading to reduced ATP production, which is crucial for cellular energy.
Mercury’s interaction with mitochondrial enzymes and membranes further amplifies oxidative damage, impairs cellular respiration, and can trigger cell death.
High Concentrations of Heavy Metals Are Nearly Always Present in Failing Hearts
In a November 2023 article,4 Dr. Thomas Levy, contributing editor for the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, pointed out that the heart is “the preferred collection site” for most heavy metals, and as such, heavy metal toxicity is a common contributor to, and sometimes direct cause of, heart failure.
Various toxins, especially heavy metals like lead, copper, iron, mercury, aluminum, cadmium and others, can accumulate in heart tissue, contributing significantly to heart failure by directly damaging heart muscle cells and affecting their function. As reported by Levy:5
“Many different toxins, including many heavy metals, have been either linked to heart failure or clearly shown to be the direct cause. Furthermore, one or more of these toxins is nearly always present in high concentrations in the affected heart muscle. A partial list of such agents includes the following:
- Lead
- Copper
- Iron
- Mercury
- Aluminum
- Cobalt/Chromium
- Cadmium
- Gold/Silver
- Chemotherapy
- COVID spike protein”
Levy cites studies showing how each of these toxic agents damage your heart and deteriorate cardiac function. Lead, for example, is linked to acute heart failure and myocarditis; copper toxicity to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; iron to congestive heart failure; and mercury to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM).
Recognizing and treating heavy metal toxicity can dramatically improve heart function, Levy notes, adding that chelation therapy has shown promise in reversing toxicity-related heart damage.
Read more here.
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