Exposure to toxic metals is often behind some of today’s most common chronic conditions — and there’s one safe, proven, and effective way to rid the body of those metals.

So naturally, it’s coming under attack.

In a stunning display of ignorance, the American College of Medical Toxicology is urging doctors to reject time-tested chelation therapy. And at a recent conference hosted by the CDC, the group actually called on its members to report doctors who use it.

I’m not sure what they’re supposed to report, since chelation isn’t illegal. In fact, it’s the FDA-approved treatment for the removal of heavy metals such as lead from the body.

The fact that they want doctors to start tattling on other doctors who use this perfectly legal treatment is bad enough. But what makes this so much worse is the fact that the Federation of State Medical Boards sent representatives to the conference, according to a report from the Alliance for Natural Health.

That’s a sign that other states could soon follow Kentucky’s lead and put a backdoor ban on chelation therapy by forbidding doctors from discussing it with their patients.

In Kentucky, simply talking about this legal treatment can get your license yanked — so if you’re a patient who lives in that state and actually needs chelation, be prepared to drive a long way (or move).

What’s amazing about all this is that there isn’t a single doctor — mainstream or alternative — who will claim mercury, lead, arsenic, and more belong in the body.

There’s total agreement that they’re poisons.

The disagreement comes over what they do at what levels. The mainstream takes an all-or-nothing approach here, claiming that very high levels of metals are toxic and deadly and should be removed through chelation.

But lower levels — even levels just below that “poison” threshold — are perfectly safe and require nothing at all.

That’s what they say, anyway. But science (and common sense) tell us otherwise: A toxin dangerous enough to kill you at high levels could hurt you at lower ones, and studies have implicated even low levels of these metals in everything from osteoarthritis to heart disease to autism. And clinical experience tells me that everyone’s genetic ability to detoxify these metals varies greatly.

If you’re battling a chronic illness that your own physician hasn’t been able to solve, visit a holistic doctor who can test your levels of these metals.

You might be surprised by the results — and how quickly you can be cured. But you’d better hurry… this cure might not be around much longer.

For too many dentists, the X-ray machine is more like a cash machine.

They don’t use it when they absolutely need images to diagnose a problem in your mouth. They use it the moment your insurance company will allow them to make a new set of images.

It’s pretty easy money: Push button, cash check.

Meanwhile, you get exposed to radiation and all the risks that come with it — including brain tumors, as a new study finds that dental images can double your risk or more.

Researchers from Yale, Harvard, and several other institutions interviewed 1,433 people with a type of tumor called a meningioma as well as 1,350 people without the condition matched for age, gender, income, race, and more.

They found that people who had annual “bitewing X-rays” had double the tumor risk, while regular “panorex dental exams” starting before the age of 10 caused that risk to shoot up by 500 percent.

The panorex exam is when a single image of all teeth is taken from outside the mouth, and even starting after the age of 10 boosted the risk. In fact, patients of any age who received annual panorex exams had triple the risk of meningioma.

But is this really a surprise? A dental X-ray is basically a blast of radiation aimed right at your noggin — and while meningioma is still pretty rare and often non-fatal, you certainly don’t want to boost your odds of getting one.

Besides, the risks don’t end there — because dental X-rays can also increase your chance of getting thyroid cancer. A 2010 study, for example, found that people who have 10 or more dental X-rays over the course of a lifetime have 5.4 times the risk of thyroid cancer of people who’ve never been X-rayed.

Throw in the fact that many dentists still work with fluoride and mercury along with all that radiation, and your annual exam could quickly become one of the riskiest things you’ll ever do in the name of “health.”

I won’t say don’t ever visit the dentist. Clean teeth and gums are important to your overall health, and people with bad oral hygiene and gum disease have a higher risk of heart problems.

But when you do visit the dentist, set some ground rules: No fluoride… no mercury… and no X-rays unless they’re absolutely necessary and your dentist has a good reason.

Your best approach is to see a holistic dentist, sometimes referred to as a biological dentist, who is sensitive to these issues.

I’m not done with dental health yet — and if you or anyone you love wears dentures, keep reading for a warning you don’t want to miss.

Want a shock? Go get tested for heavy metals. Your jaw will drop when you see the results.

I know, because I see the reactions in my own clinic every single day.

The reality is, nearly everyone has way too much lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxic heavy metals inside them — and these metals are a major cause of supposedly incurable conditions.

I say “supposedly” because I often can cure or improve them, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know to get started on your own cure in a moment.

First, a new study confirms the role of toxic heavy metals in autoimmune disease — especially among women battling disorders such as thyroid disease, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and lupus.

Researchers examined data on 2,047 women who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and compared blood levels of mercury to the presence of the autoantibodies made by the thyroid in response to autoimmune diseases.

Sure enough, women with the highest blood levels of mercury were more than twice as likely to have high levels of the thyroglobulin antibody linked to those diseases.

Now, you’ve probably heard that we all get exposed to metals, and that’s true. It’s almost impossible to avoid them completely.

But you’ve probably also heard that the tiny levels we’re routinely exposed to — like the mercury in flu shots and amalgam dental fillings — are harmless, and that’s an out-and-out falsehood.

Want proof? Look no further than the same new study, because the “high” levels of mercury linked to those high levels of the thyroglobulin autoantibody weren’t high by current standards at all.

In fact, they were under 5 micrograms of mercury per liter — or well in line with what the mainstream considers “safe.”

You see, no amount of mercury, lead or other heavy metals is really safe. How do I know that? Simple: There’s no known healthy function in the human body for these metals!

If you suspect exposure to mercury or any other heavy metal, it’s not enough to find the source and eliminate it. Heavy metals don’t leave the body like other toxins. They accumulate — and the more they accumulate, the sicker you get.

The best way to rid your body of mercury and other toxic heavy metals is through chelation, but don’t try any of the do-it-yourself treatments that reach the market from time to time.

An experienced holistic doctor can test you for metals and provide you with the chelation therapy needed to remove anything that’s accumulated — and if you have thyroid disease, that’s another reason to get tested for these metals.

If you would like testing and treatment for these disease-causing metals, you can contact my Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine. You can find more information by visiting markstengler.com.

In the two decades since I opened my practice, I’ve seen a dramatic rise in the number of families with autistic children.

I’m not the only one.

The number of cases across the country has skyrocketed, up 78 percent between 2002 and 2008, according to new numbers from the CDC. Another way to put it: 1 in 88 kids now have the condition.

If this were any other disease, it would be considered an epidemic. If there was a drug on the market for it, you can bet there would be campaigns to get people to take it (and you can also bet those campaigns would be funded with tax money).

Instead, it just gets a ho-hum reaction from the mainstream — with even the CDC itself trying to pretend the increase isn’t real.

“There is the possibility that the increase in cases is entirely the result of better detection,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the agency, said at a briefing.

That’s right — Dr. Frieden wants you to think all those new cases of autism were there all along… you just didn’t notice them.

I say that’s a load of bunk — because while better detection is responsible for some of that increase, it doesn’t explain the vast majority of it. You can blame those squarely on all the toxins and other poisons kids are being exposed to at every turn, even starting in the womb.

Here’s an example: Children in homes with vinyl floors have double the risk of autism than kids in homes with wood floors, according to a 2009 study published in the journal Neurotoxicology.

That’s almost certainly because vinyl floors contain phthalates, a hormone-like chemical used in plastics.

And that’s just one example.

Other kids are getting extra hormones from the chemical BPA, which is used in food and drink packaging — and that’s another cause of autism.

Mercury exposure has also been linked to autism, and you’ll find that poison leeching into the water in many places, in amalgam fillings — and, despite what you may have heard, it’s still used in some vaccines.

And speaking of vaccines, there’s definitely a link between the condition and some common childhood shots, especially combination shots such as MMR.

Other kids are suffering from severe nutritional deficiencies thanks to the toxic modern diet, while still others can’t get the nutrients they need even if they do eat right thanks to genetic problems.

In short, there’s no single cause of autism. Genetics are a contributing factor, but environmental factors are the more obvious reason for the skyrocketing rates. Many of the causes simply didn’t exist years ago — or didn’t exist to the extent that they do today.

That’s not only the real reason for the increase… it’s also why you’ll continue to see the numbers skyrocket.

I’ve got more on BPA next.