Heavy Metals Lunch & Learn

Heavy metals are everywhere. From food and water to personal care products and environmental pollution, chronic low-level exposure is nearly unavoidable.

In this practitioner-focused training, we walk you through how heavy metals impact gut health, detoxification pathways, and systemic physiology—so you can recognize clinical patterns, interpret relevant markers, and build safe, gut-centered detoxification strategies.

What You'll Learn:

• What heavy metals are and the most common sources of chronic exposure

• The primary metals of clinical concern (lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum) and how they behave in the body

• How heavy metals disrupt gut barrier integrity and microbiome balance

• The relationship between heavy metals, inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction

• Common symptom patterns that may suggest heavy metal burden

• How to evaluate heavy metal exposure using functional and conventional lab markers

• Why gut health must be addressed before and during detoxification

• Foundational nutrition, lifestyle, and supplement strategies to support safe detox pathways

• How to apply a stepwise, organ-supported approach to heavy metal clearance

Who This Is For:

Health practitioners supporting patients with chronic or complex conditions

Providers seeing fatigue, neurological symptoms, digestive dysfunction, or inflammatory patterns

Practitioners who want a clear, conservative framework for heavy metal detoxification

Anyone looking to move beyond generic detox protocols and focus on physiology

What’s Included:

On-Demand Lunch & Learn Training Video (~90 minutes)

Downloadable lecture slides / reference materials

Lifetime access to the training

Meet Your Instructor

Dr. Lara Zakaria is a Pharmacist and Nutritionist with a focus in implementing solutions for Functional Medicine and personalized nutrition. A graduate of the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, at Rutgers University (BSpharm) and the University of Colorado Skaggs College Of Pharmacy (PharmD), she spent 20 years in community pharmacy practice. After developing an interest in nutrition, she earned a MS in Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport and subsequently qualified as a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) as well as an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP). Dr Zakaria’s practice focuses on a multi-disciplinary approach working both one-on-one with patients as well as creating implementation tools and systems for scale. She is also faculty at the Integrative Medicine program at George Washington University, as well as guest instructor for Functional Medicine at LECOM College of Pharmacy.. Lara is passionate about gut health and the prevention and reversal of metabolic, allergic, and autoimmune disease. There’s power in community, working with pharmacy professionals, nutritionists, and other clinicians to leverage their unique expertise to amplify the message of personalized nutrition and FxMed.

Your Next Step Toward Safer Detoxification

This training gives you the clinical foundation to recognize heavy metal burden, protect the gut, and support detoxification in a way that prioritizes safety, physiology, and long-term healing.