Urine Tests

Heavy Metals Screening

This simple in-house urine screening test allows your practitioner to assess the need to excrete heavy metals as part of your program.

These can impair the body’s ability to detox itself absorb nutrients and may be a contributing factor in inflammatory conditions and joint pain and may be a contributing factor to other symptoms.

Symptoms of Heavy metals may include:

cramping, nausea, and vomiting; pain; sweating; headaches; difficulty breathing; impaired cognitive, motor, and language skills; mania; and convulsions.

Beneficial Heavy Metals

In small quantities, certain heavy metals are nutritionally essential for a healthy life. Some of these are referred to as the trace elements (e.g., iron, copper, manganese, and zinc). These elements, or some form of them, are commonly found naturally in foodstuffs, in fruits and vegetables, and in commercially available multivitamin products (International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre 1999). Diagnostic medical applications include direct injection of gallium during radiological procedures, dosing with chromium in parenteral nutrition mixtures, and the use of lead as a radiation shield around x-ray equipment (Roberts 1999). Heavy metals are also common in industrial applications such as in the manufacture of pesticides, batteries, alloys, electroplated metal parts, textile dyes, steel, and so forth. (International Occupational Safety and Heath Information Centre 1999). Many of these products are in our homes and actually add to our quality of life when properly used.

Toxic Heavy Metals

Heavy metals become toxic when they are not metabolized by the body and accumulate in the soft tissues. Heavy metals may enter the human body through food, water, air, or absorption through the skin when they come in contact with humans in agriculture and in manufacturing, pharmaceutical, industrial, or residential settings. Industrial exposure accounts for a common route of exposure for adults. Ingestion is the most common route of exposure in children. Children may develop toxic levels from the normal hand-to-mouth activity of small children who come in contact with contaminated soil or by actually eating objects that are not food (dirt or paint chips).

Testing for Urinary pH

Why is Urinary pH Important?

Subtle changes to the pH of the body can have substantial impacts on a range of health conditions, including stress, bone density, pain, muscle mass and hormonal balance. Urinary pH is a good measure of the ‘acid-load’ within the body, and many Practitioners use urinary pH to tailor their treatment plans. Urinary pH ranges from 4.5 to 8.0 in extreme cases, and from 5.5 to 6.5 in the average patient.

Potassium Citrate at a Dose of 4.0 g Daily Has Been Shown to Reduce Acidity

The BetterHealth Clinic uses a practitioner only product that provides 4.0 g per day of potassium citrate, along with glutamine, to alkalise the body during stress. One of the other practitioner only products often used in our 2 week detoxification program provides 4.0 g per day of potassium citrate along with herbs and nutrients to enhance gut and kidney detoxification.