• Environmental exposure: Known or suspected exposure to heavy metals through work, hobbies or living environment.
• Lifestyle factors: Current or past smoking history.
• Dietary exposure: Regular intake of fish, seafood or rice with potential metal exposure.
• Dental history: Presence of dental fillings or recent dental work.
• Thyroid health: Thyroid-related health concerns requiring nutritional context.
• Fatigue: Unexplained or persistent fatigue.
• Cognitive symptoms: Brain fog or reduced mental clarity.
• Musculoskeletal symptoms: Joint pain without a clear cause.
• Complex presentations: Unexplained or multi-system symptoms where elemental status may be relevant.
• Preventive screening: Proactive assessment of toxic and essential element balance.

Overview

Comprehensive Toxic & Essential Elements (Z) measures a panel of toxic and essential elements using dried blood spot and dried urine samples. Blood spot analysis includes selenium, lithium, magnesium, copper, zinc, cadmium and mercury, while dried urine analysis includes iodine, bromine, selenium, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, adjusted for creatinine.

This test may be clinically useful when exploring potential environmental exposures, nutritional imbalances or unexplained symptom patterns. It provides practitioners with insight into both toxic element burden and essential element status, supporting a more complete biochemical overview across multiple body systems.

Practitioners typically interpret results alongside dietary intake, environmental history, lifestyle factors and other laboratory findings. Timing, occupational exposure, water source and supplement use are often considered to provide practical context when reviewing results with clients.

Practical

Sample required:

Dried bloodspot sample (DBS)

(Only requires a shallow finger prick)

Urine - dried urine

Average processing time:

21 days