Nickel Episodes

After surviving breast cancer, Val Johnson believed she was finally moving into healing and recovery. Instead, what followed was years of escalating neurological symptoms, muscle spasms, severe pain, heart rhythm abnormalities, inflammation, weight loss, nervous system dysfunction, and repeated medical dismissal — all while breast and abdominal surgical clips and biopsy markers remained inside her body. In this deeply emotional and eye-opening episode of Heavily Metalled, Val shares her lifelong...

What happens when one of the world’s leading educators on metal hypersensitivity becomes the patient? In this deeply personal and groundbreaking episode, Dr. Scott Schroeder, DPM, FACFAS—an internationally recognized foot and ankle surgeon with over 30 years of experience—shares the journey that changed everything. After decades of observing unexplained post-surgical symptoms in his own patients, Dr. Schroeder began asking questions few were willing to explore. What he discovered would not only ...

Madelung’s deformity is a rare congenital condition affecting the forearm, often treated with surgical implants. But for some patients, implanted hardware can trigger far more than a structural issue. In this episode, I’m joined by Stacey Parkinson, a young woman from England who underwent arm and wrist surgery for Madelung’s deformity—and soon after developed a range of alarming symptoms, including severe eczema, heart rate irregularities, chest pain and blood pressure instability. Less than a ...

Welcome to our Heavily Metalled Season 3 Opener and a Heavily Metalled FIRST! In this episode the renowned metal allergy expert Dr. Scott Schroeder takes metal allergy questions, along with Linda Nelson, CEO of MELISA Diagnostics, on our first ever community Q&A recorded LIVE, along with many questions sent in by our Metalhead audience! We’ve got questions about implants, surgeries, testing, diet, pre-operative preparation and much, MUCH more! In this episode you will learn: How you can experien...

Our guest today, Barry Walsh, has an incredible story about allergies to an IV filter, as well as spinal fusion hardware implanted after a 40 foot fall at a construction site. Prior to surgery Barry was a wealthy & successful construction contractor in New York City to many big name celebrities and organizations. After his fall he became homeless, gaslit, dismissed by medical professionals, locked up in psych wards repeatedly and lived in his car until a hero surgeon believed him and started re...

Our guest today, Julene, joins us in the middle of her knee replacement journey.After going early on for a relatively routine meniscus repair, working through physical therapy and all the things to recover, she wound up in an extreme amount of pain that wasn’t normal. Saw a new doctor in follow-up who advised a total knee replacement. Julene received three surgical opinions and all were in agreement. Julene chose the surgeon that asked about prior reactions to metal. About a month after surgery ...

The Low Nickel Diet and template for eating well with metal allergies is quickly gaining popularity among those sensitive to metals. Join us today for this episode with Gilda Capraro, the brawn and brains behind the super-helpful Low Nickel Diet & Lifestyle Facebook group. This episode is jam-packed with information to help you with all things diet and lifestyle as you navigate your nickel allergy and all that goes with it. Much of this information will be applicable to those who are also cross-...

Emily is working on her Bachelor’s Degree in Nutritional Science and is looking forward to completing a PhD in the same field a few years after graduation. Emily has been sensitive to metals her whole life, starting with a severe allergy to earrings and other jewelry as a child. In early 2019 she was talked into getting her nose pierced by a friend and was SUPER excited. Even picking out cute nose rings. Within months of that nose piercing Emily developed multiple autoimmune diseases and suffere...

Maria Lappin, our guest from Michigan, is our incredible Season 2 opener. Her episode discusses a prominent lesion on the tip of her nose, diagnosed by multiple specialists, as aggressive metastatic melanoma. The lesion was, in fact, caused by a systemic reaction to surgical clips placed inside her body without her knowledge, her permission or being pre-screened for metal hypersensitivity, during surgery to remove her lymph nodes in conjunction with the Melanoma diagnoses. Her brave saga will le...

EP22 - Beyond the Metal: Holistic Dental Care with Dr. Michelle Jorgensen, DDS, FAGD, TNC, CNAS Dr. Michelle Jorgensen has a passion for not just the mouth but how it connects to the entire body, and beyond that, how the connects to the world! We discuss Dr. Michelle’s personal journey with metal toxicity to mercury amalgam, and how she almost became unable to practice dentistry, and had to put her practice up for sale. She tells us how she detoxed and how she uncovered her own MTHFR genetic mut...

OB/GYN Dr. Julio Novoa, who not only provides excellence in women’s health care but is renowned for his minimally invasive techniques, joins the HMP to discuss all things foreign body reactions, metal hypersensitivity, ASIA syndrome and beyond. Not only a OB/GYN, Dr. Novoa also specializes in cosmetic gynecology but might just shine as the brightest light in his concern for women’s safety and advocacy, who agrees more with a patient-centric model for healthcare as opposed to approaching medicine...

EP19 - Essure Sterilization: Life-Threatening Migration, Fatigue, Pain & Symptoms Our guest for this episode is a first for the Heavily Metalled Podcast….”Maria” is telling her story, choosing to remain anonymous, regarding almost a decade of pain, symptoms and difficulties surrounding the Essure permanent metal sterilization device, taken off the market in December of 2018 after a litany of deaths, adverse event reports and intense scrutiny. “Maria” was able to have her Essure removed via a ful...

Laura Duzett is a third-year medical student and survivor of a horrendous bout with dyshidrotic eczema. Soon-to-be Dr. Laura has just released an amazing and comprehensive new Low-Nickel Diet Cookbook that promises to be revolutionary. The cookbook features sections on breakfast, breads, poultry & seafood selections, desert and beverage options and more. The book was co-written with board certified physician and dermatologist Dr. Matthew Zirwas, author of over 195 peer-reviewed journal articles ...

Dr. Marco Caicedo is the Chief Operating Officer of Orthopedic Analysis, and an adjunct professor at Rush University Medical Center in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. Dr. Caicedo has dedicated his life and career to the study of immune reactions in regards to metal hypersensitivity and is the author of many published scholarly journal articles on the same. We discuss the early-on resistance of orthopedic surgeons, immunologists and other medical peers to the concept of reactivity to metal ...

Cheryl went in one way for routine gallbladder surgery and came out another. Prior to surgery Cheryl liked the simple things in life: Outdoor activities, board games, hanging with her kids and watching Netflix. Cheryl had a history of jewelry and other allergies, but didn’t think much about it, and especially when going in for emergency gallbladder surgery. The surgery went well, removing a gallbladder with 1500+ stones, but a week after surgery Cheryl found herself suddenly not able to breathe ...

MELISA® Diagnostics is one of the worldwide leaders in Blood LTT or LymphocyteTransformation Testing for metal allergies. In Part Two of this special 2-part episode, Podcaster Shari Guess walks listeners through the process of ordering their own MELISA test start to finish. The test became clinically validated after an independent lab in Germany conducted a 2003 study using 250 patients and various lymphocyte concentrations. In 2006, a follow-up study treated patients based on the MELISA test re...

MELISA® Diagnostics is one of the worldwide leaders in Blood LTT or Lymphocyte Transformation Testing for metal allergies. In Part One of this special 2 part episode, Linda Nelson, CEO for MELISA, shares how the MELISA test was developed, patented and clinically validated. First, Linda shares about her favorite heavy metal band, Metallica, and song, “Nothing Else Matters”. Shari reminisces about first meeting Metallica “back in the day”, before anyone knew who they were. Shari promises to post a...

EP07 - Metal Allergies & The Low-Nickel Diet: SHOCKING Before & After! Bethany had a normal childhood upbringing but realized early on that she was sensitive to the metal in earrings, jean buttons & bracelets. She didn’t really worry about it, because it was just where the metal contacted her body. She got braces as a teenager and aside from canker sores, didn’t seem to have much of a reaction, so the metal in the braces didn’t really throw any flags at this time. She also had a reaction to conc...

In this episode of the Heavily Metalled Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Scott Schroeder, a Doctor of Podiatry and a Fellow of the American College of Foot & Ankle Surgery. Dr. Schroeder is known and respected worldwide as an expert and lecturer on metal allergies, especially within the realm of surgical specialties. Dr. Schroeder was the treating surgeon who helped diagnose the baffling case of recurrent, full paralysis of our second podcast guest Dana Jeske, when even the Mayo Clinic wasn’t able to ...

Frances Scott, a mother of three and a former network news anchor in Raleigh, North Carolina, at a very young age, experienced nagging hip pain and after consulting with twelve different doctors in multiple states, decided to have both hips replaced in one surgery with the now off-market Johnson & Johnson-DePuy Metal-on-Metal Hips. Frances then experienced total & complete disability, along with the loss of her journalism career & upper middle-class social standing due to pain & metal toxicity f...

Metal allergies can be serious. It is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms and to discuss ANY prior metal sensitivities with healthcare providers prior to any medical procedure. In this episode of the Heavily Metalled Podcast, I’m joined by Lacee Johnsen, a Facebook friend who discovered an allergy to surgical clips, left behind without her knowledge during a routine surgery. Many have found out after the fact that leaving these clips and staples is common practice during routine sur...

Metal allergies are an often overlooked but serious health issue. In some cases, metal allergies can even cause paralysis. This was the case for my guest today Dana Jeske, a mechanical engineer from Washington State. At age 49, Dana woke up one morning and found he was paralyzed. He lost feeling from the bottom of his feet, to his hips and from his fingertips to his arms. He also lost feeling in his core and even his head. He was unable to feel anything, including heat or pain. Due to a fortunat...

In part 2 of my story, after being bedridden and in excruciating pain for years, I finally connect all the dots. After experiencing a full-blown meltdown, realizing I was reacting to recently implanted metal hardware that could not be removed and fearing a life-sentence imprisoned in pain, my pain management doctor suggested getting testing. I found Orthopedic Analysis, a company that provided Lymphocyte Transformation Testing. The results revealed a significant allergy to nickel, molybdenum, an...

Welcome to the very first episode of the Heavily Metalled podcast! I'm so excited to have you join me on this journey deep into the hot-button topic of metal allergies. In this episode, I’ll be sharing my journey uncovering the hidden dangers of implanted medical hardware. Metal allergies often fly under the radar of medical professionals and symptoms can include systemic pain, neurological issues, autoimmune diseases, and more. Metal hypersensitivity reactions are type IV, cell-mediated delayed...