Tissue Mineral Analysis                          

Tissue mineral analysis can be done on any body tissue, but hair is a non-invasive way to sample. Also, the reference ranges have been determined mostly for this type of sample.  This technology uses mass spectrometry and it is reliable.

Hair analysis is not diagnostic. Just like any other test in medicine it should be the start of another investigation. In fact a useful way to think of TMA (tissue/hair analysis) is to imagine a map and “home” is the centre of the map. “Home” is the normal range, where we should be. The first TMA is just a map point (GPS position) of where you are at the time. A baseline reading. The test doesn’t tell you how you got there (just like a high blood sugar or cholesterol). The test doesn’t tell you how to get home and it certainly does not depict the terrain of that homeward journey.

In a hair analysis, most of the nutrient minerals are measured.  These are calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, copper, zinc, iron, selenium, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, cobalt and boron.  The test tells whether the levels are low, normal or high, but more importantly, it tells whether they are in balance or not.  The hair analysis also detects heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium.  In this setting, it is much more sensitive than a blood test.  If you detect lead in the blood, there is already liver damage.  If one can detect cadmium or lead in the blood, there is already damage done. 

The reason for this discrepancy is that the blood is just a transport system.  If all the minerals were stored in the blood, we would be dead.  Most intracellular mineral stores have the same feature, in that deficiencies don’t show up in a blood test.  Most doctors should know this, but they choose to believe the blood test rather than the patient. 

In terms of the nutrients, the body tries to keep everything in balance.  The common pairs are calcium-magnesium; sodium-potassium; copper-zinc, copper-molybdenum, cobalt-potassium and chromium-vanadium as examples.  Many illnesses result from imbalance between these pairs.  The commonest abnormalities arise from imbalances between copper, zinc and molybdenum. This imbalance has at its root the Estrogen hormones or chemicals which behave as Estrogens (pesticides, petroleum products, plastics and hormones in food). 

Minerals with charges like sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, molybdenum and chromium are very easy to study because deficiencies of them give “tell-tale” symptoms. There are hundreds of studies in humans and thousands of studies in animals about the function of these. Therefore making a list of specific symptoms for each of these could be used in a questionnaire and correlated to any testing (blood, urine, hair). For hair analysis, in some situations the symptoms do match the levels, but in many situations they do not. In the case of magnesium and zinc, normal (and high) levels can still give rise to symptoms as well as the more obvious low levels. So is it only low levels that really mean anything or is there a problem with the interpretation of these too? We sometimes see on hair analysis say, zero level of potassium or molybdenum. Can we then assume that the level equates to the whole body? Clearly not, because some of these levels (if extrapolated) would be incompatible with life! However, the same pattern is probably happening somewhere in the body and this needs a practitioner to assess. A test is not a diagnosis.

We believe it is more fruitful to examine why minerals vary from the reference ranges. 

Therefore evaluation of the nutrient elements should take into account everything that we know about the patient (including past toxin exposure and the toxic elements). For instance, Xenoestrogens such as DDT (which cannot be seen on a hair analysis) typically cause copper levels to rise on hair analysis to over 7 p.p.m. That is why clinical interpretation will always be more relevant and more powerful.

At the end of the day, a test is not a diagnosis; it is just the beginning of another investigation. In addition, a test is only as useful the person interpreting it.

To Make an appointment with a Doctor or Natural Practitioner who uses hair analysis in their investigations please Ring Nutrition Review Service (Dr Igor Tabrizian’s clinic) on 08 9438 2299.