Testing Your Copper Levels: What you need to know!

Copper has been a hot topic in the wellness world lately & I’m seeing a lot of people promote very high copper foods & supplements to the masses. I fell for it too- taking the “recommended dose” of daily beef liver & unknowingly increasing my anxiety and mental health issues in the process.

Copper is a necessary element to our bodies (the RDA is 900mcg - 2mg/day) but are we making sure the amounts of this metal/mineral in foods match up to our own biological needs at a cellular level?

Foods like beef liver or animal organ blends have been highly glamorized as an “ancestral” food that is high in vitamins/minerals. While I do believe our ancestors ate organ meats, I’m not so sure they were taking several a day in capsules for months & years on end like many now are doing…. Doing anything in abundance is going to throw homeostasis off. Many are overloading on this.

In my practice, I’ve seen a trend of taking these things long term & resulting in it being retained at high levels in the tissues (brain, liver, adrenals, uterus etc). Add in the fact that we’re also eating lots of “superfoods” (like avocado, cacao, teas, leafy greens) & many are eating soy or going vegetarian/vegan- which are high copper diets.

Food is one area of exposure but so are copper pipes (drinking water), copper IUD & birth control use, organic produce sprays & swimming pool chemicals.

Understanding your copper utilization is an essential aspect of the health of your hormonal, mental, emotional & skin systems.

Mentally: Symptoms of high copper in the brain are anxiety, racing mind, rage, depression, moodiness, insomnia, brain fog, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, excessive weepiness, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, Autism, ADHD, insomnia, OCD, etc.

Hormonally: Symptoms include fibroids, PMS, abnormal menstrual cycles, PMDD, migraines, infertility, estrogen dominance, endometriosis, PCOS, progesterone deficiency, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, etc.

Physically: Symptoms can show up as nausea, fatigue, tumor formation, cancer, chronic fight/flight response, cellular oxidation & methylation problems, weight gain, migraines, jaundice, fatty liver, panic attacks, bloating, prostatitis, tinnitus, heart palpitations, hypertension, anorexia, ovarian cysts, miscarriage, hair loss, skin problems, yeast infections, joint aches/pains, etc.

Test, Don’t Guess

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis

Testing the hair is a useful tool in examining what is being excreted from the body. It’s the least invasive & gives you a tracking of what is happening in your system of the past 3-4 months.  At times, when metabolism is low and the body is exhausted, excess copper (like other metals) won't show up in a hair test (though other indirect indicators can at least be used in the HTMA to determine the copper status). This needs to be utilized with bloodwork to get a full picture of your body utilization & status.

Blood Testing: Extracellular

The bloodwork you’re used to doing with a doctor tests for what is happening outside of your cells (extracellularly) & is currently being transported through your body. See my post on Free Copper Percentage to learn more about utilizing this tool.

Blood Testing: Intracellular

One of my favorite types of bloodwork is specific to looking at what is happening inside the cell. This checks your status over the past 4-6 months. Is it getting through the cell membrane to do it’s job? Is it in balance with the other Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids & Antioxidants? Let’s find out!

Restoring The Body From High Free Copper

Copper “detox” is not a do-it-yourself solution & is honestly needs to be a gentler, longer-term process based on balancing other organ systems & balancing other deficiencies or overloads.

If you do struggle with high free copper, the first step is to assess & know your numbers. I prefer to have both an intracellular view & extracellular view. Balancing all the other cofactor micronutrients is vitally important to balancing the full mineral & cellular metabolism.

To get one-on-one help, check out my Health Freedom Blueprint to see how to restore the full body in a customized & strategic way.