Arsenic Detoxification: Do It Correctly (Naturally)

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Last Updated on March 15, 2024

There have been a lot of questions about how to remove heavy metals from the body. After reading through different sources on the subject this post is designed to give several ideas for diet and supplements that will help specifically with the detoxification of arsenic.  Different heavy metals are bound by different substances making them easy for the body to excrete.

For any detoxification is important to eat a diet rich in organically produced foods including meats, vegetables, and fruits.  This is an essential component of any detoxification program because it limits the number of new toxins coming into the body.  Arsenic specifically is used in a number of herbicides and pesticides.

Related: Arsenic Exposure

Foods to Eat to Support Natural Arsenic Detoxification

By making some adjustments to your diet, you can add in different foods that bind to heavy metals like arsenic to remove them during the digestion process. Eating foods that have higher amounts of vitamins and minerals has proactive effects for people that need help during arsenic detoxification. These foods include,

Lemon: Drinking lemon water throughout the day will increase the alkalinity of the body and help the body detox heavy metals by unbinding minerals.

Dark Leafy Greens: Spinach, kale, and collard-type plants supply the body with organic and easily absorbed minerals essential to detoxification.

High Fiber Foods: Apples, lentils, pears, and raw nuts are all high in fiber. A high fiber diet helps keep the bowels unblocked and bids toxins in the colon.

B Vitamins: A balanced B vitamin supplement will supply all of the B vitamins essential to methylation of arsenic.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C can actually act as a chelating agent and help remove arsenic directly from the bloodstream.

Vitamin B and C  deficiencies have been linked to poor tolerance of heavy metals, making it easier for a person to have higher levels of toxicity.

Related: Cilantro for Detoxification

Foods to Avoid for Arsenic Detoxification

An effective arsenic detox includes more than incorporating healthy foods and vitamins into your diet. To help minimize the effects of arsenic, you’ll also want to eliminate some of the foods you eat. This is especially true for foods that are processed or contain excess fat—these foods usually don’t have significant nutritional value, and they can slow down the arsenic detox process. Foods that contain excess fats tend to soak up the heavy metals that you want to remove. For arsenic detoxification, you should eliminate or reduce:

Brussel Sprouts: While Brussel sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables are among the most healthy, arsenic that exists in the soil is attracted to the sulfur compounds that they contain.

Dark-Meat Fish: All seafood tends to be high in arsenic since it naturally exists in seawater, but dark-meat fish like salmon and tuna contain higher levels than others.

Rice: Rice is another food that contains high levels of arsenic. While white rice contains higher-than-usual levels, brown rice contains even more.

Poultry: Poultry birds typically eat feed that contains arsenic-based drugs, leading to elevated levels in the meat. Organic poultry, on the other hand, is not raised with those arsenic feed additives.

Alcohol: Beer and wine also contain arsenic. It can either be from the water used to brew the drink, but producers also use diatomaceous earth as a filtration material, which harbors arsenic.

There are no magic bullets, but by eating a healthy diet and limiting exposure to arsenic compounds, we can do our best to eliminate as much harmful arsenic as possible.

There are no magic bullets, but by eating a healthy diet and limiting exposure to arsenic compounds, we can do our best to eliminate as much harmful arsenic as possible.

Related: MediClear Detoxification

Portlanders have recently become aware that arsenic, cadmium, and chromium is contaminating our community. The source of the pollution is turned off for now and we are learning about how to clean our bodies, homes, and yards. This article is concerning the nature of arsenic and the risks associated with exposure. Future articles will explore how to get these chemicals out of our bodies. 

Inorganic vs. Organic Arsenic

Arsenic is a trace mineral found naturally on the planet.  There are two forms of arsenic and this distinction is important.  The organic form is found naturally in our environment at low levels and is either non-toxic or slightly toxic to humans. Organic arsenic naturally enters our diets in very small amounts through a number of foods including seafood, mushrooms, rice, and poultry.

Inorganic arsenic is highly toxic to humans. Inorganic arsenic enters our environment through a number of human activities such as manufacturing, use of pesticides and herbicides, weed killers, and smoking.  Here in Portland, the local glass factories were emitting high levels of inorganic arsenic into the air from the dyes they were used to color glass.

Risks of Inorganic Arsenic Exposure

Exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic can lead to diarrhea, vomiting, delirium, shock, dehydration, and death

Long-term exposure to lower levers of inorganic arsenic can lead to skin changes, sensory and motor nerve defects, decreased kidney and liver function. It is associated with the development of several types of cancers including, bladder, kidney, lung, and skin.

Do you have digestive issues stemming from arsenic or heavy metal levels? See how Inner Gate’s acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine experts can help!

20 thoughts on “Arsenic Detoxification: Do It Correctly (Naturally)”

  1. I know that arsenic isn’t Mercury but I had Mercury poisoning in the past. I was lucky enough to find out that Manayupa, Flor de Arena and Hercampuri (Ancient Inca’s medicines) can do wonders in this respect. I know it first hand.

    1. I have been being poisoned with arsenic going on close to four years now and no one will help me. I tried to go to sanctuary for women but because I’m not being beaten by a man they said I’m not in immediate danger. The police basically asked if I have family or anyone elsewhere I could go because if they don’t know who’s doing it there’s nothing they can do. I have a five year old little girl to raise and have no family to help.

      1. I too was poisoned by my husband. Get a heavy metal hair/urine test and take it to your doctor for diagnosing. Once you have the DX, take it to the police for prosecution as that is what I have been told to do by a DA. My poisoning was a low dose for two years and then one massive dose in April. The police have done nothing so far as a doctor has to DX you with arsenic poisoning first.

  2. Please tell me, does Panda Express brown rice contain arsenic? Also, if it does, is it at a level where it’s cancer causing. What can be done to reduce the arsenic levels in purchased cooked brown rice? Thanks.

    1. I forget the exact figure, but I believe it is from a Japanese Ministry of Agriculture test data, but if you eat one cup of white or brown rice a day, 200-300 grams, you will be below the allowable daily intake of arsenic.

    2. You could ask the manager of a Panda Express where they get their rice and what type it is. My family used to eat a lot of brown rice, until we learned about the issues with arsenic. The arsenic is generally coming from fertilizers and pesticides. Switching to organic rice helps a lot, but even organically grown rice can contain arsenic because it lingers in the soil for a long time. If it was grown on a farm that wasn’t always organic, the soil may still have elevated levels of arsenic because of conventional farming practices from many years ago, before the farm became an organic one.

  3. ,Both my wife and I have been diagnosed (via 24-hour urine tests) that we have 3 x normal level (0-9 ug/l) of arsenic in our bodies. Mine is 29; my wife’s 35 ug/l.
    Since diagnosis, we’ve stopped using bottled, spring water, and have only used 5-stage water filter system, and using filtered water from our refrigerator to hopefully minimize, or eliminate further contamination.
    Just recently, we invited EPB to come and test our yard soils, which revealed only minor amounts of arsenic. However, the agents also tested our dishware and discovered via XRF (x-ray device) that our English dishes contained 9,000-10,000+ ppm arsenic, with some as high as 250k+. Germany-manufactured dishes and other clear dishes tested safe. We’re going to have further tests on our dishes, but for time are stopping use of these suspect dishes.

    1. Mahatma basmati white rice is from Pakistan, affordable and least in arsenic (like rice from CA and India) if you need to eat rice. 1/2 cup uncooked, twice/wk is recommended to keep adult toxic level points below 7.

      1. I haven’t read much info on rice from Pakistan. I know that rice from California has lower levels of arsenic than rice from Texas.

    2. Hi Fred,

      I live in London, UK. Me and my brother have had the same exact Arsenic diagnosis. We live in the same house and eat and do the same things. My brother was 39 ug/l, and I was 32 ug/l. We’re trying to figure out why this is happening as all other metals in our bodies are very low.

      Did you ever find out what exactly was causing your high Arsenic level? I use Steelite brand dishes and we both wash the dishes with Fairy liquid.

      We also consume a lot of bottled spring water and quite a lot of white basmati rice, but not crazy amounts. We are suspecting it could be to do with one of these, but there are so many other things it can be. We looked into heavy metals testing because both of our thyroid blood tests were coming back with some strange results and I know that Arsenic in an endocrine disruptor.

      I appreciate your help very much with any of your findings.

      Thank you!

  4. Matthew D Sacher

    I would love to see the studies showing vitamin C, Greens, fiber remove aresenic from the body… I dont belive it, these are no, recomended is the currently recommended treatment of 2-3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonate (DMPS) or meso 2, 3-dimer-captosuccinic acid (DMSA. On the other hand, the body eliminates aresnic naturally. Vitamin-E ..MAY help with excretion. What is listed above as suggested.. fiber, dark greens etc is dangerous.

  5. Val I’m not a doctor but if you look it up brown rice and other ‘healthy’ foods have arsenic in the brown husk so actually white rice is healthier. It’s also in lots of seeds. I don’t know which ones. I just got interested in health after eating like a fool all my life till I had fatty liver and getting hepatitis from a gov vaccine. Since then I’ve studied more medecine especially nutrition based than I did in nursing school. Hope thst helps.

  6. Bonita danilson

    Yes I have sane prob as the lady above except I have three catsbwho arenlike my children and have been subjected to this for a long time prob 6 to 8 yrs and dontbthinknthatbwe have much time left either we trying to move out today I have no money I’m leavin all behind to try to start over cuz it’s all contaminated

  7. Hello yall im here to give a brief testimony of myself here. This might be very beneficial to some of you here and it might put an end to your ordeal. I was once a HERPES patient. I contracted the deadly virus about 8 years ago, since then, the stigma and shame has not been easy for me to bear. All this while, I have been living on normal drugs to suppress the virus to help me live my normal life, two years ago I came across a herbalist online called Dr Okosun, I contacted him and I got some herbal medications from him which I used as he instructed, just after 4 weeks, indeed, I was treated and I tested negative after taking his herbal medicine.

  8. I am a part-time caretaker for a woman in her 80s who is pretty disabled with many health problems . She eats healthy, etc. I started having health problems after being at her house.

    Her house is like a natural history museum. She has at least 20, maybe more, taxidermy mounts. I looked it up, and sure enough, the animals are or were preserved with an arsenic containing glue, which breaks down and sheds with time. Do you think that this damage to our health can be reversed?

  9. Eating fiber and dark greens is dangerous???? EDTA helps. DMPS and DMSA can be too strong. Fiber foods (whole fruits, veggies) naturally pull out arsenic

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