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| What your hair reveals about your healh | |
(as published in Healthy Options magazine June 2006)
Wouldn’t it be a useful mechanism if you could easily, accurately and affordably assess your potential for various disorders? And then be able to reverse the tendencies through use of specific nutrients that your profile reveals? Imagine if you could see graphically the effects of certain environmental hazards, and have access to nutrients that chelate (bind and excrete) the various toxic heavy metals from your body. Most signs and symptoms of disease can be improved through the use of specific minerals, in a much more tailored and more in-depth manner than just taking a multi-mineral/ vitamin. Evidence is mounting to support a new way of understanding minerals, which relates to the various levels of minerals in relationship to each other, rather than just whether you have a deficiency or excess of a particular mineral. Therefore, you could have relatively high levels of two minerals, yet the incorrect ratio of the minerals in question could be predisposing you to a particular disorder. Before we discuss some of the most important ratios and what they could reveal about you, let’s learn a bit more about minerals and how to test for the mineral levels in the first instance. More about minerals Today’s poor soil conditions (where nutrients have originally been taken from the soil to be assimilated in the food growing process, but are generally not replaced in a balanced and natural manner for successive crops) have resulted in food that is much lower in mineral content than in the past. Coupled with environmental pollutants and a less diverse choice of foods consumed, these factors take us further down the path of mineral-insufficiencies for the average Western consumer. Other more personal causes of mineral imbalances include: stress, genetically inherited patterns, incorrect nutritional supplementation and certain medications (like diuretics, aspirin, oral contraceptives and antacids) can easily deplete the body stores of some minerals. As a result, it becomes even more important that we pay attention to our nutritional status if we want to maintain good health in body, mind and spirit. Toxic minerals At the present moment, many irksome and chronic signs and symptoms can be linked to come common heavy metals. High lead (Pb) levels for example, can trigger chronic fatigue, poor concentration, headaches and joint pain. Toxic car fumes; old paint (which used to contain lead) and some shampoos and hair-dyes can be elevating your lead levels. Lead, as well as the other heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, arsenic etc) can linger in your body indefinitely, and are very hard to remove. Heavy metals are a double-edged sword, because they also compete with other beneficial minerals for sites within your body, in effect producing deficiencies of the other minerals and vitamins, which have obvious negative implications for your health. By just supplementing the deficient minerals you are not actual doing the correct thing from a therapeutic point of view – you are failing to treat the cause, which may well be high heavy metal contamination. The toxic ratios in the analysis provide useful information on the possible extent of the effects of the heavy metals on the beneficial minerals that they antagonize. Perhaps the most direct and alarming issue associated with heavy metals, is that they appear to have a mechanism for crossing the blood-brain-barrier (which is a tough barrier that protects the sensitive brain from having contact with harmful substances). Ultimately the heavy metals then wreak havoc within the delicate networks of the brain by impeding normal cellular communication and neurotransmitter function. Hence, we often see neurological disturbances as part of the symptomology of heavy metal infiltration. It can be hypothesized that many neurological disorders can be attributed to heavy metals. At present we may be focusing on the cascade resultant effects in the brain such as inflammation and mitochondrial insufficiency (resulting in decreased energy production for the neurons to function) that leads to the demise of the brain cells (neurons). This may then be measured as areas of the brain that no longer function. Interestingly, different parts of the brain are affected at a different rate, and to a varying extent some parts are more protected than others. Overall though, the brain is quite fragile because of the large volume of fatty acids incorporated into its structure. Anti-oxidants are essential in preventing rancidity (or oxidation), thus preserving the brain. It comes as no surprise that some of the most useful chelating agents for heavy metals are the anti-oxidants such as lipoic acid, glutathione and Vitamin C. Common symptoms of heavy metals can include headaches, metallic taste in the mouth, hyperactivity, poor memory, mood disorders, aggression, cramps, fatigue. Mineral Analysis Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis can provide you with a current snapshot of mineral levels, including major minerals, trace minerals and toxic minerals within your body. The process is non-invasive and simple on your behalf. A small sample of hair is cut off, as close as possible to the scalp, so as to reflect the most recent biochemical status. Hair is also a good general indicator of past mineral levels and can reveal a lot about your metabolism, adrenal function and various physiological activities. Hair tissue also has the advantage of showing not only what is in the blood stream, but also what enters into the body, via the hair, from the environment. Long-term changes in mineral levels are more easily detected in hair than in blood samples and hair samples test much more consistently in levels than blood, which is susceptible to changes on a day-to-day basis. It’s important to note that the circulatory system strives for equilibrium, meaning that the blood levels are kept as constant as possible at the cost of having a deficit inside the cells. Hair tissue gives an indication of what is actually inside the body’s cells. Hair analysis is in particular, very often used to assess toxic mineral levels and heavy metals. Although much more research is needed to understand some of the trace minerals that are emerging as paramount in health and disease, hair analysis is a useful method of also documenting some of the lesser-known trace minerals. This will no doubt assist in furthering the knowledge as patterns are documented and correlated with certain disease-states. Mineral Ratios and your health Hair analysis can give much insight into disease trends as well as provide reasons for the occurrence of various symptoms that you may have never suspected unless you looked at the resultant report. Let me illustrate an example in reference to diagram 1. The patient in question is a vegetarian who consumes varied nuts, beans, seeds, wholegrains, fruits and vegetables, some tofu and soy yoghurt some of which are organically grown. We’ll examine the first two elements within the single nutritional elements graph (left-hand side) - Calcium and Magnesium. Firstly a couple of points to mention: Judging from the diet you would expect the magnesium levels to be much higher than the calcium. Although the levels are both within the normal range, they are on the slightly lower side. When we compare these two minerals together in a ratio (see diagram 2: Ca/Mg) we see that the ratio is out of the reference range, being too high. This shows that magnesium levels are too low and need to be increased. This is interesting from the point of view that the diet is rich in magnesium. So what are the implications of a higher calcium than magnesium level? Magnesium is required to prevent excess calcium from depositing in soft tissues. Thus insufficient levels of magnesium can mean that calcium deposits as gallstones, kidney stones and contributes to the hardening of arteries that can be implicated in heart disease. One interesting study reveals how excess calcium deposition in the arteries is higher in parts of the world where magnesium is deficient in water and soil. In this example hair analysis reveals that magnesium is needed to keep calcium in balance. However, it is important to note that the emphasis is on balance. If you elevated the magnesium levels too much then the ratio could easily become too low and a different set of tendencies could become evident. This patient needs to avoid high calcium supplementation, whilst their magnesium levels are balanced. Imagine is they decided to self-medicate with calcium without having done an analysis – they would actually be putting themselves at risk of calculi and heart disease if they continued down this path. To make this case even more interesting, it was noted that the father had a history of gallstones, kidney stones, arthritis and some issues with his heart. Immediately I had the suspicion of the same imbalance, which was now sounding like it could be a genetic inheritance in terms of a poor absorption and/or retention of magnesium. Upon testing, it was revealed that the father also had low magnesium levels and was fond of ice-cream, cheese and other calcium-rich foods. In time, with an emphasis on magnesium-rich foods and high supplementation to overcome the poor absorption of magnesium, the ratio became more normal and the symptoms of magnesium deficiencies (headaches, cramps, irritability, anxiety were reduced significantly. There are several other important ratios that indicate other tendencies that your results will reveal, for example:
Predicting health trends from mineral ratios Since minerals have an affinity for a particular organ or physiological function, the dominance of one-mineral over another (giving a resultant ratio) provides the clue to what disorder or tendency is likely to occur. Some minerals play an important part in regulating the adrenal glands and metabolism. Hence, based on the ratios the analysis can describe what type of metabolism you have (how active your thyroid gland is) and how you cope with stress (how your adrenal gland functions). It is fascinating to realize the potential of this in treating, say obesity, which can often involve slow thyroid function (hypothyroidism). When you can see it on the graph you can easily understand what minerals you need to increase, to elevate your metabolism and burn more calories. Likewise you can potentially assist in coping with stress more effectively by changing the mineral ratios. Treatment options A naturopath or nutritionist who has an understanding of the intricacies of HTMA can then assist you to:
Reassessment Within 3-6 months of beginning your dietary and lifestyle changes it is important to have a comparative Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis done via your naturopath or other healthcare practitioner who knows how to interpret the results. This will allow your practitioner to check the improvements and make any further refinements to your treatment protocol. It is usually a great source of inspiration and motivation when you see that you have successfully managed to bring the mineral levels to the desired level, the ratios have improved, your heavy metals have declined and of course you are feeling much more balanced and healthy and confident that you have reduced the likelihood of developing certain diseases in the future. Izabella Siodmak BSc (Biochemistry/ Biological Sciences), ND, cert. Life Coach, is the principal practitioner at the Natural Attitudes Health and Wellbeing Retreat & Health Retreat Australia, providing residential health retreat Programmes. Contact Izabella for more information on Hair Analysis, for copies of the diagrams or to find out how to have your levels assessed. MORE HEALTH ARTICLES by author below: REFERENCES Katz, SA.: The Use of Hair as a Biopsy for Trace Elements in the Body. AM. Lab. 1979-Feb. Hopps, HC.: The Biological Basis for Using Hair and Nail for Analysis of Trace Elements. Sci.Tot.Environ. 177:7 Jenkins, DW.: Biological Monitoring of Toxic Trace Metals. EPA-600/3-80-089.1980.Sept. MORE HEALTH ARTICLES by author:
Heal your body . heal your mind . |
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