Hair Analysis: Top 5 Reasons Over 50’s Should

hair analysis secrets

With ageing our health becomes more important. I’m not telling you anything profound or new there. What a lot of people don’t know is that valuable insights into your bodies nutritional status can be determined with a simple inexpensive test called a hair analysis. We’ve written a lot about this before and you can check it out here but in this article we are exploring the top five reasons why over 50’s should consider doing a hair mineral analysis.

hair analysis sample

Deficiency

This is so simple and important; yet commonly overlooked. Here is the rule that you must always remember: all cells require nutrients to function. If the nutrient is not present, the cell will not function at its best. A simple example is oxygen. Without it, we have no life. Without our minerals and vitamins, we would face similar fates. With today’s lifestyles and diets, it is not surprising that deficiencies are commonplace. Magnesium, zinc and iron are common deficiencies but all minerals need to be in the correct range.

Excess

In our consumer-driven society, we are often led to believe that more is better. We buy into this in many subtle ways. One way is by using multivitamins indiscriminately. We tend to buy them as insurance policies and think that if we just keep putting more in, it will be good for us. This logic couldn’t be further from the truth! Let’s take Vitamin C as an example because, as it turns out, Linus Pauling had it wrong. He thought there was no way to have too much vitamin C, but the reality is that just as deficiency is an issue, excess is as well. If you have too little vitamin C, you will be immuno-depressed; if you have too much, you will become immunosuppressed. Either way, you experience a similar outcome. Copper, sodium and manganese are examples of minerals that are often found in excess.

Imbalance

Simply put, this is about getting the balance of your chemistry correct. The minerals in your body, for example, are in relationship with each other in a similar way that you are in relationships with your family and friends. Whatever you do, you need to take into account the effect it may have on your body. When you raise the level of a single nutrient, such as magnesium, you will affect the levels of other minerals. A very important example is the relationship between copper and zinc as well as Vitamin D and calcium.

Toxic Metals

Toxins have a far greater influence on your body than most people think—and everyone must deal with this growing problem. Toxins have the adverse effect of substituting or replacing the preferred nutrients in the body and they have the devastating effect of blocking the ability of the body to use nutrients, EVEN IF the nutrient is already present. Common toxic metals that are detected in excess are mercury, lead, aluminum amongst others.

Metabolism

Valuable information about your body’s oxidation/metabolism rate can be detected with hair analysis. As we age we become more fatigued and it becomes vital to ensure our mitochondria and metabolism are functioning as well as possible. While not an exact science we can gain insight into our metabolism and specifically if it’s running fast or slow. Fast is usually the result of stress and we tend to see high sodium and potassium. Slow is far too common and we tend to see high levels of calcium and magnesium in the hair analysis. Slow oxidation has the added detrimental effect of reducing our ability to eliminate toxic metals.

Hair Analysis

I would acknowledge that a hair analysis test is not that well known and has limitations. I would also point out though, that all tests have limitations and you wouldn’t get a blood test if you suspected a broken bone. If you are having health issues and suspect that there may be some deficiencies, excesses, imbalances, or toxins it would be a good idea to investigate getting a hair mineral analysis done. In the hands of a practitioner who can properly interpret it based on the actual science that exists you can get insights you can act upon.

Personalised health care is the result.

To learn more you can visit our website blog HERE

To order a test you can do so at Lifestyle Integration

Here is a condensed video version to watch or share with those interested.

 

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Hair Analysis Is An Ideal Test To Measure Your Stress Level

stress management

Five ways to measure your stress level with a hair analysis

A hair mineral analysis (HMA) is a screening test that measures the levels of twenty-one minerals and toxic metals present in a sample of hair.  When it comes to stress assessment and then guiding the process to recovery this test is crucial.  To really understand why this test is so critical to the process we need to go a little deeper into understanding how stress affects us.

FACT #1:

Physical, emotional, and chemical stresses are the negative driving factors of chronic degenerative disease.

FACT #2:

If you can measure or see a change in your body, then your chemistry has changed from normal to abnormal.

The chemistry changes we are going to look at and measure are magnesium, zinc, sodium and iron.

hair analysis sample

 

Magnesium

Magnesium is lost through the sweat and urine and this is increased by alcohol and coffee. Most importantly when you are under stress, you stress hormones like cortisol and adrenalin deplete magnesium.

Zinc

Zinc is another heavy hitter when it comes to stress management.  A hair mineral analysis is one of the better ways to assess this notoriously difficult to measure mineral.  It helps with stress in several synergistic ways. Prolonged stress is well established factor that depletes zinc levels in the body. It has also been demonstrated that zinc deficiency increases plasma cortisol and some pro-inflammatory markers.

Sodium

Sodium is known as the great solvent.  A general example is adding salt to your swimming pool to try and avoid calcium from precipitating.  It keeps calcium in solution.  When sodium is low on a hair analysis you will often see calcium levels in the tissue being very high.  Conversely,  when under the acute stage of stress we see high levels of Na in the tissue and low levels of calcium (and magnesium).  High sodium is a very clear indicator of acute stress.

Iron and Selenium

In this study plasma zinc, iron, copper, and selenium and selected blood proteins were measured in 66 men during a 5 day period of sustained physical and psychological stress called Hell Week.  Here are the relevant results.

Iron decreased by 44%
Selenium by 12%
Zinc by 33%

 

When you perform a hair analysis test you take the 3cm of hair closest to the scalp.  This represents three months of stress. Each cm is representative of one month of growth.  This is good news for assessing chronic stress as we need an average over TIME.  A blood test tells you what is happening now.  A hair mineral test shows you what is happening over time.

Both are valuable. They are just telling you different things and this is why a blood test will often be normal but a hair analysis will show you the bigger picture.

We have been using hair analysis testing for over 10 years.  A test can be purchased at Lifestyle Integration and it is all done online. No in person meetings are required so no matter where you live you can benefit from this unique form of assessment.

Want to know more or have some questions?  Reach out!

Yours in Health,

Dr Todd Lizon (Chiropractor)
B.P.H.E., D.C.

References

Córdova A, Navas FJ. Effect of training on zinc metabolism: changes in serum and sweat zinc concentrations in sportsmen. Ann Nutr Metab. 1998;42(5):274-82.

Chen WQ, Cheng YY, Zhao XL, Li ST, Hou Y, Hong Y. Effects of zinc on the induction of metallothionein isoforms in hippocampus in stress rats. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2006;231(9):1564-8.

Singh A, Smoak BL, Patterson KY, LeMay LG, Veillon C, Deuster PA. Biochemical indices of selected trace minerals in men: effect of stress. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Jan;53(1):126-31. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/53.1.126. PMID: 1984337.