Each hair tissue mineral reading represents an average rate of accumulation over a 2 to 3 month period, so a retest taken 3 to 5 months after the first test measures a new window of growth. When a level repeats across two or three of those windows, the Analytical Research Labs (ARL) and Trace Elements, Inc. (TEI) material gives a defined set of reasons. I have read hair tissue mineral analyses since 2010, when I began under ARNP Julie Walker in Kennewick, Washington, and these are the reasons I check first.
A hair reading is a sum, not a quantity
ARL’s glossary defines each reading as the sum of several metabolic events:
- Normal mineral metabolism sets the baseline level.
- Retention raises the reading.
- Bio-unavailability, a mineral present but unusable for lack of a releasing factor, usually raises the reading, unless the mineral is locked in tissues other than hair, in which case the reading may be very low.
- Loss through the hair, for lack of a retaining factor, raises the reading.
- Excretion of a mineral the body no longer needs raises the reading.
- Displacement raises the reading of the mineral displaced.
- Defender: a level held high or low to protect another level, ratio or pattern.
Retention, loss, excretion, displacement and bio-unavailability all raise a hair reading, so the same number on two tests can come from two different processes. ARL’s System Principle states that a chart “must be viewed as a system — that is, all at once,” which is why an unchanged mineral level is read against the ratios that moved beside it.
The defender: a zinc reading that held at 8 mg%
ARL’s clearest worked example is a case history of a 3-year-old retested after 4 months on a program. Zinc read 8 mg% on both tests, against an ideal of 20 mg%, after 4 months of substantial zinc supplementation. On the same retest, lead fell from 1.54 to 0.84 mg%, aluminum from 3.66 to 1.10 mg%, and manganese from 0.123 to 0.078 mg%. ARL gave four explanations for the zinc:
- The body kept tissue zinc low to help raise tissue sodium, because the child’s Na/K ratio was extremely low (0.4:1 on the first test). Dr. Paul Eck called this a defender: zinc stayed low to defend the sodium-to-potassium ratio.
- Zinc was poorly absorbed for other reasons.
- Zinc was absorbed and used as fast as it was supplied.
- Zinc was absorbed and incorporated into tissue to replace toxic metals in enzyme binding sites as they were eliminated, so no extra zinc reached the hair.
ARL’s conclusion was to persist, and that the hair zinc level eventually rises. The same case states the general rule for retests: “The test results can lag symptomatic changes, or at times test results can anticipate symptom changes as well.”
Metals that appear only on later tests
ARL’s Layers of Metabolism principle reads: “On successive tests, different layers of metabolism are revealed.” Several stored metals are documented as slow to appear in hair:
- Copper sequestered in the liver, brain, kidneys or bone often appears on the second or third hair test, as it is mobilized from storage.
- Aluminum may need several hair tests, and several months on a program, before it is mobilized; hair aluminum correlates with bone aluminum.
- Mercury: ARL states that sequestered mercury “will remain in storage for years.”
- Cadmium has a half-life of 17 to 30 years; ARL reports that it can often be eliminated in 6 to 12 months through nutritional therapy.
Elimination requires biochemical energy, so a program raises energy production first, and stored metals are mobilized second. ARL puts the minimum time to uncover deeply hidden metals at “at least a year or two,” and states that raising a general level of health will “often require several years.” One or two unchanged retests sit inside that time frame.
Sampling error
ARL lists sampling error among the causes of an unchanged retest: “A sample cut too far from the scalp will not show recent changes.” TEI’s collection protocol is scalp hair from several sites between the crown and the nape, cut at the scalp, about 250 mg, using no more than 1½ inches (4 cm) of length and discarding the rest. TEI documented the reason: a 22-inch strand cut into 14 segments read calcium at 27 mg% at the scalp and over 200 mg% at the far end. Samples are analyzed unwashed, because washing removes over 90% of sodium and potassium, the two minerals that set the Na/K ratio.
Holding at ideal versus holding below it
An unchanged ratio is read against both labs’ ideals. Trace Elements puts the ideal Na/K at 2.4 and Analytical Research Labs uses 2.5, and I read the range between them; for Ca/Mg the two figures are 7 and 6.67, for Ca/K 4.2 and 4, and both labs use 8 for Zn/Cu. A Na/K that holds at 2.45 across three tests is holding at ideal on either lab’s figure. A Na/K that holds at 1.6 is inside TEI’s acceptable band of 1.4 to 3.4 and below both ideals, and ARL reads a Na/K under 2.5 as fatigue present to some degree. ARL also defines psychological override: a person’s psychological make-up can keep a mineral pattern in place in spite of nutrient therapy.
The written symptom list
I write my symptoms down, because symptoms that disappear are forgotten. ARL’s retest guidance gives the same instruction: “it is always wise to keep a written record of all symptoms and conditions at the beginning,” then read the list back item by item, because “often half are gone and forgotten.”
ARL lists the cases in which the test and the symptoms move separately. With no change on the test while the person feels better, the causes are a diet or lifestyle change that has not yet registered in body chemistry, a subtle level or ratio change that was overlooked, or a sample cut too far from the scalp; ARL states that “Eventually… the trend in body chemistry will be revealed.” With a better test while the person feels the same, the usual cause is gained energy spent on increased activity, and ARL asks about naps, activity and stamina instead of asking whether the person feels better.
A hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for nutritional and toxic-element patterns, read as a trend across retests. An unchanged level on one retest is one data point in that trend, interpreted through the six components of the sum, the defender rule, the layers of stored metals, and the sample itself.
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This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for nutritional and toxic-element patterns, not a diagnosis.
