Misconceptions about hair analysis
and some revealing answers

Hair analysis is a new field. It is to be expected that it is surrounded by misunderstandings and fallacies concerning its accuracy and value.

In this section, we discuss some of the most common objections many people have about hair analysis. We hope you find it helpful.

Misconception Number 1:

A hair analysis is not an accurate reflection of a person's dietary intake.

Answer: A hair analysis does reflect a person's dietary intake. But you must know how to determine this when you analyze a person's mineral chart. Many people discredit hair testing because it may not reveal a high level of a mineral they are presently taking. For example, many people take iron supplements, yet their iron level on a hair test is low! The reason for this is that the iron may be bound up in the liver and be unavailable for the body to use.  The iron is there, but it won't show up on an initial hair test.

On future hair tests, the excess iron may be released from the liver and then it would show up as a high level on a hair test. It takes a great deal of experience to properly analyze a person's mineral chart. If you quickly make a decision about a certain mineral based on a superficial understanding of he science of mineral balancing, you can easily be fooled!

Tissue mineral analyses reflect far more than dietary intake. They reveal a combination of many things - diet, emotional and physical stresses, hormonal balance, and exposure to occupational hazards. 

The analysis reflects the current state of a person's chemistry - the chemistry does not directly reflect what he is eating.

For example, a person who has avoided all foods with high sodium gets a hair analysis and cannot understand why he has a high level of sodium . What he doesn't understand is that he has been under a lot of stress - and the stress by itself has raised the sodium levels.

Another problem that occurs is that a person eats a great many foods containing magnesium, yet cannot understand why a hair analysis reveals a low level of magnesium. 

What could be happening is that the deficiency in magnesium is a body defense mechanism. The body may deliberately drop magnesium levels in order to maintain a high level of adrenal activity. In this case, eating more magnesium will not correct the problem.

Unfortunately, because people do not know how to interpret the hair analysis, they blame the analysis, rather than their lack of analytical skill.

Misconception Number 2:

Hair analysis does not measure vitamin levels in the body.

Answer: This is true. However, hair analysis indirectly assesses vitamin levels and vitamin utilization. Vitamins do not function without minerals. If a certain mineral is low, then there will generally be a problem with a corresponding vitamin .

For example, zinc and vitamin A function together.' If your zinc levels are low, there is a high likelihood that there is a problem with vitamin A utilization . Vitamin A cannot be mobilized out of the liver without the proper available amount of zinc.

There are similar relationships between all vitamins and minerals.

Misconception Number 3:

Hair analysis is not accurate because the numbers can change from laboratory to laboratory.

Answer: Unfortunately, this is true. There is very little standardization of technique from one laboratory to another. Also, many laboratories are using certain equipment to test for minerals which the equipment was not designed to accurately measure.

They do this to save time and money.

The minerals involved are calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and zinc. The levels on these minerals can be off by as much as 80% .

That is why - at this time - we recommend only Analytical Research Laboratories for consistent reliable analysis.

Misconception Number 4:

Hair is a dead tissue. It is useless as a medium for determining body chemistry.

Answer: Approximately the first one half inch of hair near the scalp is considered to be living. The rest of the hair is considered to be "dead!' However, this does not mean the dead portion of the hair is useless as a method of analyzing tissue chemistry. Quite the contrary.

The biological mineral patterns of your tissues are reflected in your hair. A person with a high tissue calcium level will generally have a correspondingly high calcium level in his hair. 

The same thing applies for all the other minerals in the body. Your overall health is reflected in every part of your body. Whether that part is living or dead makes no difference.

The shaft of a hair strand can be compared to a ring of a tree. Even through both may be largely "dead:' they can still reveal a tremendous amount of information. 

A tree ring can reveal clues as to what the climate and condition of the soil were like more than fifty years ago! If there was a drought during the first years of the tree’s life, there will be indications of this in the tree rings.  You can even tell if the tree was surrounded by many other trees in its youth. A “narrow" center ring indicates that other trees shaded a young tree, depriving it of moisture and sunlight. Tree rings even reveal if there was any fire damage to the tree.

A strand of hair will not reveal what your general health was like twenty years ago - because usually that hair has been cut off. However, if you did have a sample of your old hair it certainly would reveal what condition your health was like during that period.

For example, there is substantial evidence that Napoleon Bonapart was poisoned by arsenic over a long period of time. How did they determine this? They analyzed a sample of his hair The hair was dead for over one hundred years, yet it still contained pathological levels of arsenic.

Perhaps the most convincing argument that your hair reflects your overall health is the fact that healthy people have healthy hair. On the other hand, people who are ill often have dull, lifeless, brittle hair. If your body is healthy, all of your body is healthy. If your body is ill , all of your body is ill. Everything reflects everything else.

Misconception Number 5:

Sodium and potassium levels in the hair cannot be accurately determined. For this reason, they are almost useless as far as their predictive ability.

Answer: Unfortunately, this is true, for most laboratories. Most facilities use hair washing procedures which alter the levels of sodium and potassium. Also, they use equipment for measuring sodium and potassium that is not accurate for these two  minerals.

In addition, their equipment is especially inaccurate at high levels of these two minerals. Many labs will report levels of 2 and 3 milligrams percent for sodium and potassium when the true values for the test in question should have been 90, or even 250. 

When sodium and potassium are accurately determined , they are the two most important minerals in the hair chart. Based on these two minerals, you can determine an individual's personal energy ratio. This ratio has awesome predictive power for energy levels and personality characteristics.

Objection Number 6:

Hair analysis isn’t accurate because the levels can change depending on a person's hair color.

Answer: The reason people with different hair color have different minerals is precisely because there are differences in their biochemistry. Your hair color is not accidental. It is reflection of the mineral pattern in your body.

If hair analysis did not detect these differences in metabolism, it would be useless. The very thing hair analysis is being criticized for is the thing it should be praised for - its ability to determine metabolic differences.

Objection Number 7:

Hair analysis is not an accurate tool because many of the metals measured in the hair analysis are merely external contaminants from pollutants, shampoos, dyes, and conditioners and do not come from within the body.

Answer: It is easy to tell the difference. If a mineral is an external contaminant,

then you will have an isolated high level of that mineral.! If a mineral reflects what is in the body - then the entire pattern will be affected by the change in that mineral level .

Here are a couple of examples: Let us start with manganese. Manganese raises sodium levels. If a person has high manganese levels, you would expect sodium to be high also. If sodium is low, we have to suspect that the manganese is coming from outside the body. In other words, it is a contaminant.

There are cases like this. In one of them, the person picked up the contamination from working in a manganese mine. 

**When a contaminant is found in the hair, it is not just in the hair. There is a high probability it is also in the tissues. A perfect example of this is the fact that many Hindu women dye their hair red with vermillion and red lead.

When these women were tested, it was found that their urine and feces contained large amounts of lead. The lead was drawn into the body right through the hair. The lead didn't appear just in the hair. 

If a certain shampoo is high in a certain trace element, this element will also be drawn into the body through the hair.

The second example is copper. If there is a high amount of copper in the hair, Dr. Eck would expect to see a very low potassium and a very high calcium . If he does not, he suspects that the copper is a contaminant, and he checks with the person.

If the copper is a contaminant, it isn’t going to change the potassium and calcium levels. So, it is possible to detect outside contaminants. To do it, you have to have a thorough understanding of hair analysis. This takes 3 to 5 years of study to accomplish.

Objection Number 8:

Hair analysis is not accurate because it can change depending on recent events such as fevers, excessive stress, pregnancy, etc.

Answer: All of these situations cause changes in your body's chemistry. These changes are immediately reflected in the hair analysis mineral pattern . It is because of the accuracy of hair analysis that it detects these changes. Again, hair analysis is being condemned as being inaccurate simply because it is not understood.

A few examples: A pregnancy causes a change in copper levels. Fevers can elevate sodium and potassium, and drop the iron levels. Excessive stress can cause a rise in potassium in some people and a rise in copper, or a lowering of magnesium. All these changes are reflected within weeks in the hair analysis mineral pattern.

Objection Number 9:

Hair analysis is not accurate because people may show high levels of nutrients they are obviously deficient in.

Answer: This is a common misunderstanding of hair analysis. It is also a misunderstanding of what a high level means. It is assumed that a high level means a person has too much of something. This is not necessarily true.

What a high level often means is that a mineral is piling up in the tissues because it is unusable. It is what Dr. Eck calls "biounavailable:' (Dr. Eck was the first one many years ago to explain the concept of how high levels do not indicate mineral excesses. Now his concepts are being taken by others in the field.) Often, when you give supplements of the mineral that is considered "high: the level will come down.

For example, people with severe zinc deficiencies can show high levels of zinc. When you supplement their diet with zinc, the zinc levels drop. This shows that the body is no longer throwing off zinc. It is starting to use it.

Objection Number 10:

If you have a low level of a mineral on a hair test, it means you should increase your intake of that mineral. 

Answer: Replacing minerals with low levels is called "replacement therapy:' and has proven to be a failure. Often, if you give people with low iron levels some iron supplements, their iron will go even lower. If you give people with low zinc levels additional zinc, their zinc levels will drop even more.

You have to ask, why is the mineral low? It could be because of some other deficiency.

For example, you could have a low zinc level which could be caused by a low copper level/ The answer might be to give copper not zinc. This is the reason why we do not recommend you take supplements of the minerals you appear to be deficient in.

Objection No. 11:

Hair analysis is not accurate for copper determination because patients with Wilson's disease, a copper toxicity condition, may show low levels of copper on a hair analysis.

Answer: This objection is based on yet another misunderstanding of hair analysis. Unless the body is actively discharging its burden of excess copper, it may not show on a t issue mineral analysis. 

There are two pools of copper in the body, loosely bound copper, and tightly bound.

Tightly bound copper will not be revealed until it leaves its storage sites and is being eliminated through the hair.