HAIR TISSUE MINERAL ANALYSIS

What exactly is hair analysis?

Your hair contains all the minerals present in your body, including nutritional minerals as well as toxic heavy metals. Hair mineral analysis is a laboratory test that measures this mineral content in the hair. In most cases, the test results reflect how much of these elements are in your tissues and provide a vivid picture of your internal environment. With this information, a world of metabolic events can be interpreted. Not only can your nutritional status be viewed, but we can also learn much about how efficiently your body is working. Ultimately, this tells you how you should alter your diet to suit your metabolic type and to balance the mineral levels in your body.

What is the process for the hair analysis test?

When you come in for an appointment to get the test done, our physician will cut a small amount of your hair from a discrete location on the back of your head. The hair will then be sent off to the lab for them to perform the hair tissue mineral analysis. When your results come in, you will come back for a follow-up appointment to discuss with the physician what your results mean and what steps you should take to follow the recommendations of the results.

How can hair analysis help me achieve better health?

If we consider that diet is what we consume and nutrition is what we retain, then we can see that discovering what your body needs when it needs it is a valuable tool in creating health. After 30 years of research, hair analysis has emerged as the most practical method of testing for mineral balance in your body. This valuable tool indicates which foods and supplements you need and which ones you should avoid in order to achieve balance between the essential minerals in your body.

Doesn’t a blood or urine test tell me just as much as a hair analysis test?

Blood tests give information about your mineral levels at the time of the test only. If you’ve just eaten a banana, your test can indicate a high potassium level, even though you may actually need potassium supplementation. On the other hand, hair analysis results indicate your overall level of potassium - your actual storage levels over a period of time, not just what you ate that day or even that week. So a blood test will only accurately report what is being transported in your blood at the time of the test.

Testing for minerals in the urine measures the minerals that are being excreted from your body - not necessarily what has been absorbed as fuel for your body.

So blood and urine tests are like snapshots, whereas a hair analysis is the video of your mineral retention.

What can cause a mineral imbalance?

Diet, stress, medications, pollution, nutritional supplements and inherited patterns can all contribute to mineral imbalance.