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Hair Mineral Analysis

Elemental Analysis of Hair

The quantitative measurement of elements in biological samples such as blood, urine, and hair has been used clinically for decades. Historically, elemental analysis has been used primarily to determine whether a person has had excessive exposure to toxic elements such as lead, mercury or arsenic: the heavy metals that are known to cause serious health problems. Toxic elements concentrate in soft tissue rather than blood or urine, so hair analysis is uniquely suited for measuring toxic elements. Elemental analysis also provides information on the absorption and assimilation of nutritionally important elements (e.g. iron, copper), making it useful for assessing nutrient deficiencies and imbalances as well.

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Test Kit Contents

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Essential Element Distribution

A careful review of essential element distribution is crucial to the overall interpretation of hair element analysis. Andrew Hall Cutler PhD, in his book Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities, analyzed thousands of hair element analysis reports and concluded that the major cause of abnormal distribution of essential elements is toxic element accumulation. In other words, abnormal essential element distribution is symptomatic of a larger problem: disrupted transport of elements into hair from elevated levels of toxic elements in the body. Thus, an initial review of essential element distribution is important to interpreting the overall results.
 

Causes of Disrupted Essential Element Distribution

Understanding how essential element disruption occurs is vital to interpreting hair element analysis reports. Elements are transported into hair and other tissues via active transport systems. Active transport requires specific nutrients and essential elements as cofactors to produce energy to accomplish transport. Therefore, any disruption in the normal distribution of essential elements or nutrients can affect active transport and further alter the distribution of elements to hair and other tissues. In addition to toxic element accumulation, nutrient deficiency and/or genetic abnormalities can also affect element transport. Thus, disruption of essential element distribution can arise from any of the following:
 
  • inhibition or induction of active transport systems by toxic elements.
  • malabsorption of nutrients needed for active transport.
  • excesses or deficiencies of one or more elements diverting other elements out of, or into, targeted tissues or fluids (e.g. excess Fe displaces Cr causing increased hair Cr)
  • a genetic predisposition to accumulate or excrete more than usual amounts of specific elements.
  • disruption/alteration of bile flow leading to impaired excretion of heavy metals and thus an impaired essential element pattern.

 

Potential Sources of Element Exposure

In addition to intentional or inadvertent ingestion, there are a number of other potential sources of exposure to either essential or toxic elements. The following is a brief summary of some common exogenous sources of elements:
 

Lifestyle influences on element levels

  • Exercise increases sodium and potassium and lowers calcium and magnesium levels.
  • Medicated shampoos: anti-dandruff shampoos may contain zinc or selenium. Solutions used to hide gray hair may contain lead.
  • Daily swimming in chlorinated pools can raise copper and sodium levels.
  • Exposure to toxic elements at the workplace or home can elevate levels of those toxic elements in hair.

 

Medication influences on element levels

  • Diuretics deplete the body of sodium and/or potassium
  • Lithium may lower sodium levels
  • Antiperspirants contain aluminum and may elevate hair aluminum.

 

Hair washing

Whether or not to wash a hair sample prior to analysis is one of the most contentious issues in the field of hair element analysis. Extensive testing of various washes by our host lab found the results from washed samples to be comparable to other testing laboratories employing a wash procedure. A reduction in the concentration of the lighter elements (Na, K, Rb, Li) was observed with all wash procedures.

 

Element ratios

Many practitioners examine the ratios of various elements (e.g. Ca/Mg: calcium/magnesium, Na/K: sodium/potassium, Zn/Cd: zinc/cadmium) for signs of endocrine problems like metabolic syndrome and adrenal fatigue. The same caveats which apply to the individual elements also apply to the ratios: care must be taken not to over-interpret element ratios. In other words, the patient’s clinical picture should always be considered prior to acting on laboratory results.

 

Reporting format

The report has four sections: toxic element results, essential element results, element ratio results, and the interpretation. The results for all the elements are displayed with reference to age and gender-matched normal, healthy individuals. Our custom software automatically assesses the distribution pattern of the essential elements, and determines whether it is normal or abnormal. The first part of the interpretation describes this assessment. The results (both the individual elements and the various ratios) are then discussed in the context of the underlying “tone”, i.e. normal or deranged element transport.

 

What the numbers mean

For essential elements, we plot how far the result is from the mean; for example, the 16th percentile is equal to one standard deviation (SD) below the mean while the 84th percentile is equal to one SD above the mean. This means that 68 percent of patient results lie within one SD of the mean (when the results are normally or lognormally distributed). For toxic elements, we use a one-sided format. If the result for element ‘x’ is 0.5 mcg/g and the bar extends to the 68th percentile, this means that 68% of the population will have a result of less than 0.5 mcg/g for that element.

 

Detection Limits

It is impossible to accurately portray a result which lies below the detection limit of the instrument. In such cases. We display a gray bar to indicate the area of the detection limit. If you see a gray bar for an essential element, it means that the patient result lies somewhere past the end of the gray bar. For toxic elements, the result lies somewhere within the gray bar.