Want to better understand why you still feel exhausted despite normal labs?
Browse by topic:
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) is a laboratory test that measures mineral levels and toxic heavy metals in the hair. It is commonly used by functional nutrition practitioners and nutritional balancing practitioners to assess mineral balance, stress patterns, metabolic trends, and potential toxic metal accumulation within the body.
Unlike blood tests, which mainly reflect short-term changes, hair mineral analysis may provide a longer-term view of mineral patterns at the tissue level. Because minerals play important roles in energy production, nervous system function, thyroid and adrenal activity, detoxification, and cellular health, mineral imbalances may contribute to a wide range of symptoms and health challenges.
HTMA is commonly used to evaluate patterns associated with:
- Fatigue and burnout
- Brain fog and poor concentration
- Anxiety and stress intolerance
- Low energy levels
- Sleep disturbances
- Hormonal and metabolic imbalances
- Nervous system stress
- Toxic metal exposure
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis does not diagnose disease. Instead, it is used as a wellness assessment tool to help identify mineral trends and imbalances that may impact overall health and wellbeing.
At Health Balancing, HTMA results are used together with nutritional balancing principles to provide personalized recommendations for diet, lifestyle, and nutritional support.
Learn more:
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) may help identify mineral imbalances, oxidation patterns, stress patterns, and toxic metal trends that can affect overall health and wellbeing.
Minerals are involved in many important functions within the body, including energy production, nervous system regulation, hormone activity, blood sugar balance, detoxification, and cellular function. When mineral balance becomes disrupted, people may experience symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, poor stress tolerance, low mood, sleep issues, and burnout.
HTMA is commonly used to assess patterns associated with:
- Slow or fast oxidation
- Adrenal stress patterns
- Mineral deficiencies and excesses
- Toxic metal accumulation
- Blood sugar imbalance patterns
- Nervous system stress
- Reduced metabolic energy production
Rather than diagnosing diseases, HTMA is used to evaluate mineral trends and metabolic patterns that may help explain why someone is not feeling well, even when conventional lab tests appear normal.
Learn more about Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis here.
Mineral imbalances can develop for many different reasons and are often the result of long-term stress on the body. Modern lifestyles, poor diet quality, chronic stress, toxic metal exposure, digestive issues, sleep deprivation, and blood sugar instability can all affect mineral balance and overall metabolic function.
Minerals work together in complex relationships within the body. When one mineral becomes too low or too high, it can affect many other systems including energy production, nervous system function, adrenal and thyroid activity, detoxification, and cellular health.
Common factors that may contribute to mineral imbalances include:
- Chronic stress and burnout
- Poor dietary intake or restrictive diets
- Digestive problems and poor nutrient absorption
- Blood sugar instability
- Poor sleep quality
- Overtraining and excessive exercise
- Environmental toxic metal exposure
- Chronic inflammation and illness
- Long-term emotional stress
- Excessive stimulant use such as caffeine
Many people experiencing mineral imbalances report symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, poor stress tolerance, low mood, hormonal imbalance, and feeling exhausted despite normal lab tests.
At Health Balancing, HTMA is used together with nutritional balancing principles to help identify mineral patterns and provide personalized recommendations designed to support mineral balance and overall wellbeing.
Learn more:
After placing your Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) order, you will receive instructions explaining how to collect and submit your hair sample for testing.
The process is simple and designed to be completed from home.
The general process includes:
- Collecting a small hair sample from the scalp area
- Completing the required submission forms
- Mailing the sample to the laboratory
- Laboratory analysis of mineral levels and toxic metals
- Receiving your HTMA results and recommendations
At Health Balancing, your results are interpreted using nutritional balancing principles to help identify mineral imbalances, stress patterns, oxidation patterns, and toxic metal trends that may be affecting your health and energy levels.
Depending on the service selected, you may receive:
- Laboratory data report
- Personalized analysis and recommendations
- Supplement recommendations
- Dietary and lifestyle guidance
- Ongoing support recommendations
Most people choose HTMA because they are searching for deeper answers related to fatigue, burnout, brain fog, stress intolerance, low energy, or symptoms that have not been fully explained by conventional testing.
Learn more:
Retesting the balance of the minerals in the hair tissue every 3 to 6 months is important to keep the program appropriate. A properly designed nutritional balancing program will slowly uncover deeper layers of biochemical imbalances, toxic metals, chronic infections and nutrient deficiencies. This changes the hair mineral readings. A new program is often then required to rebalance the minerals. A retest is needed to guide the changes in the diet, the lifestyle and the supplement program to keep the current body chemistry balanced.
Hair can be tested because it is one of the places that stores up deposits of elements. Learning from the evidence presented is easy. You can read about it in the reference material relating to toxic metal and mineral analysis published in high quality, respected medical journals and publications by leading authors. Environmental exposure and absorption of chemicals that contain hidden metals can build-up over time and lead to bioaccumulation within the brain, organs and tissues. Poisoning and contamination from toxic elements and their impact are often in the news; they have been shown to have serious implications for your health. Independent peer-reviewed medical papers and health surveys conducted by biochemists have concluded that a possible correlation has been found between elements in hair samples and your health. You can find references on the validity of hair mineral analysis in the Science of HTMA page.
HAIR CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS
- SHAMPOO YOUR HAIR THE SAME DAY, OR THE DAY BEFORE SAMPLING IT. Ideally, shampoo it, let it dry, and cut the sample right away. Use a plain shampoo if possible. Preferably do not add conditioner or any other products on the hair after washing it on the day you will take the sample. AVOID sending dirty, sweaty or greasy hair.
- CUT HAIR FROM ANYWHERE ON THE HEAD AND AS CLOSE TO THE SCALP AS POSSIBLE. It matters little where on the head you cut it. The way to avoid bald spots is to cut several small samples and combine them. If you cannot use head hair, the second best is beard hair. Underarm is ok also. Please do not send in pubic hair because it is not as accurate.
- SET EACH SAMPLE DOWN ON A DESK OR TABLE. MEASURE ABOUT 1 INCH OR 2 CENTIMETERS FROM THE CUT END NEAR THE SCALP. CUT OFF AND DISCARD ANY HAIR THAT IS MORE THAN ABOUT 1 INCH OR ABOUT 2 CENTIMENTS LONG FROM THE SCALP END. Shorter hair is excellent, and the shorter the better, in fact. AVOID SENDING HAIR THAT IS LONGER THAN 1 TO 1.5 INCHES LONG. Also do not send hair cut from the ends of long hair. It will skew the results.
If you shave your head, cut hair with a clean electric razor. Save the clippings in a paper envelope and then razor cut it again in a week or so, and repeat perhaps a few times until you fill a tablespoon with hair or tip the scale if you have a paper scale to weight hair (email or call me and I can send one to you).
- SEND ENOUGH HAIR. The lab requires 125 mg of hair. If you have a paper scale (call or email me to send one to you) it must tip for you to have enough hair. Otherwise, please completely fill a tablespoon with hair. Then place the hair sample in an envelope and write your name, age and gender on it. AVOID SENDING HAIR IN PLASTIC BAGS OR ALUMINUM FOIL.
- PRINT YOUR NAME, AGE AND GENDER ON THE HAIR SAMPLING ENVELOPE.
TINTS AND DYES. These rarely affect the test because they do not contain any minerals. Therefore, you may sample dyed hair. Ideally, take a hair sample before dying your hair.
PERMANENTS OR BLEACHED HAIR. These treatments somewhat alter the structure of the hair. Sample the hair before a treatment or wash the hair for at least a few weeks before sampling the hair.
IF YOUR HOME HAS A WATER SOFTENER. Before sampling hair you must shampoo it four times with unsoftened tap water or reverse osmosis water from the supermarket.
Yes, but only the hair close to the skin, older beard growth is not suitable. You can also use pubic hair, but it is not quite as accurate.
Tints and dyes rarely affect the test because they do not contain any minerals. Therefore, you may sample dyed hair. Ideally, take a hair sample before dying your hair.
For permed or bleached hair, you can sample the hair before a treatment, or wash the hair five times after a bleach or permanent treatment, before sampling the hair.
Most mainstream doctors and practitioners do not use hair testing at all.
Among the doctors and nutritionists who use mineral testing, many only use it for the detection of high levels of toxic metals. A smaller number of doctors also use the test to detect low levels of nutrient minerals. Then, most of them do replacement therapy. This means that they suggest foods or food supplements to raise the levels of the trace minerals that are low, or lower the ones that are high. This works poorly in our experience. Dr. Paul Eck, founder of Analytical Research Labs, firmly rejected this use of hair mineral testing.
We offer nutritional balancing along the lines of Dr. Eck’s work on “mineral balancing science”. Dr. Eck discovered that every mineral has an effect on every other mineral. It is scientifically impossible to change the level of even one mineral, without simultaneously affecting the levels of ALL other minerals. We take into account the synergistic and antagonistic relationship of minerals to recommend the right combination of nutritional supplements for a person based on their hair analysis results.
What is revealed on a hair analysis is mineral levels, ratios, patterns and toxic metals. According to your hair analysis, we set up a healing program that consists of dietary recommendations, vitamins and minerals that are right for you, lifestyle recommendations and detoxification methods.
Most programs focus on symptom removal. Whole body balancing can go much deeper and it is far more permanent and health-producing then simply removing your symptoms.
We help balance your body chemistry which helps to improve your energy. Energy is needed to take care of your body, to feel joy, digest food, to think clearly, and much more.
Nutritional balancing programs have been offered to more than 100,000 people over 45 years and has an excellent safety record. Our recommended nutritional supplements are carefully selected for non-toxicity, safety and do not have drug effects. The only issue you may experience during the program is a healing crisis which is toxicity being released into the blood-which is deemed as a positive – these tend to pass in time.
Everybody is different. This plan works easily for some but for others it does take longer. Children tend to heal quicker and the older you are unfortunately the more toxic you tend to be so it does take longer. If you think about the time it took you to get unwell, then you really have to be patient with your body and give it time to heal. You are developing your body, mind and soul and this does not happen overnight!! However, the jouney can also be rewarding and you will gain great knowledge and understanding of you body and mind
We are very cost conscious. For adults, the programs cost about USD$150.00 per month if they are taken 3 times daily, and about USD$100.00 if they are taken twice daily This is about what we find is required in most cases. Children and small animals require less.
Due to improvements of overall health, some clients have ended up saving money on healthcare.
The written hair test interpretation and nutritional balancing program booklet are incredibly informative. We also offer support via video consultation (45 min) and 30 min. email support. You can get extra support by buying an additional 30 min. video consultation session or an additional 30 min. Email support.
Most practitioners that offer hair mineral testing use it in one of four ways:
- Toxic metal testing only. Most practitioners who offer mineral testing use it mainly for the detection of toxic metals, and then recommend chelation therapy. We find that chelation therapy is not safe, and not necessary. It is also much less effective than nutritional balancing programs.
- Replacement therapy. Most practitioners try to use replacement therapy to correct the levels of the trace minerals. Replacement therapy is the use of either dietary restrictions or supplementation of minerals to normalize the hair levels of the minerals. This means that they suggest foods or food supplements to raise the levels of the trace minerals that are low, or lower the ones that are high. Replacement therapy, in our experience, does not work well. It does not balance body chemistry and does not adequately replace missing nutrients. This method works poorly because our bodies have a “mineral system” that reflects the body’s response to stress. In order to balance the minerals in the body, we need to work with the entire mineral system and not just focus on isolated minerals.
- Nutritional balancing. We offer nutritional balancing along the lines of Dr. Eck’s work on “mineral balancing science. Dr. Eck discovered that every mineral has an effect on every other mineral. It is scientifically impossible to change the level of even one mineral, without simultaneously affecting the levels of ALL other minerals. We take into account the synergistic and antagonistic relationship of minerals to recommend the right combination of nutritional supplements for a person based on their hair analysis results.
Nutritional balancing programs get rid of cellulite in women, tighten the skin without the need for surgery, and remove layers of toxins in the skin and elsewhere. A number of people have lost 100 pounds or more easily.
With nutritional balancing programs, there is no need for dangerous weight loss methods such as vigorous exercise, drugs, hormone replacement, stomach stapling, intermittent fasting or low-calorie starvation diets. These methods may cause weight loss, but they are all dangerous and worsen health.
We use macrobiotic concepts of the yin and yang qualities of foods and supplements, not the Chinese medicine perspective. Balancing these opposing and complementary forces in the body greatly enhance the effectiveness of the programs.
Fruit, fruit juices and sugars are too yin today for general consumption. Cooking makes food more yang, and this is extremely helpful, we find, even if a few vitamins are destroyed by cooking. Meat and eggs are more yang and helpful for most people.
The answer is definitely yes. Many clients who continue to be vegetarians improve their health greatly with a nutritional balancing program. It works almost as well with them as with anyone else. Not eating meat will slow progress, a little. However, they can do very well.
Supplementation is very important today due to nutritional depletion of our food supply today due to soil depletion, hybrid crops, modern fertilisers and pesticides and food processing. Modern stressful lifestyles, as well as the use of medical procedures and drugs also deplete the mineral reserves. Certain situations in life also require extra nutrition, including growing years, chronic illness, pregnancy, lactation, old age and congenital disorders.
Another important reason for taking nutritional supplements is to balance one’s biochemistry. This has a great impact on raising a person’s vitality level. A supplement program needs to be precisely designed based on hair analysis so as to correct mineral imbalances, nourish their body according to their metabolic condition, and to move the body to a healthier stage of stress.
The most important reason is that hair tissue mineral analysis works best to set up nutritional balancing programs. Other tests such as blood, urine, scans, muscle testing or electronic machines do not work nearly as well.
The main purpose of hair tests is to establish a person’s metabolic type, stage of stress and mineral ratios. This allows us to design a supplement program that corrects mineral imbalances, nourishes the body in this metabolic condition, and moves the body to a healthier stage of stress.
Importantly, the test must be run by a lab that does not wash the hair, of which there are only two in the entire world. Also, the test must be interpreted properly using stress theory, chaos theory, metabolic types set up by Dr. Eck, and a number of other parameters.
For details on why the hair mineral biopsy method works so well, read Introduction To Hair Mineral Analysis.
Nutritional supplements are among the safest products in existence. According to the Poison Control Centers in the United States, for example, there have been less than 10 deaths at all from nutritional supplements since they started keeping records about 23 years ago. Recently, these figures were further analyzed by interviewing people who claimed that death was caused by a supplement. The result was that in fact, there were no deaths from nutrients.
By comparison, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are just one small class of drugs, cause at least 10,000 recorded deaths each year. Many deaths from them are not reported. Hospital infections probably kill 20,000 per year in the US alone. Other classes of drugs, including insulin and others are far more lethal. Taking the wrong supplements can impair health, to be sure. But even this is often safer than taking many prescription drugs.
The simple answer to both of these questions is yes. Nutritional balancing programs reduces the need for most medical drugs quickly, effectively and safely. We do not use herbs, as a rule, because these are not as safe. Nor do we use bio-identical hormones, which we consider medical drugs. Nor do we use chelation therapy, which we consider a newer medical drug therapy, even natural chelating agents such as zeolite, chlorella, spirulina and others.
Sophisticated nutrient therapy based on a properly performed and properly interpreted hair tissue mineral analysis, combined with a healthful diet, a healthful lifestyle and proper drinking water is usually completely able to remove the need for most medical drugs within a few years or often less time than this.
The major exceptions are if an organ or gland has been removed surgically, and perhaps if one is too old to regenerate the glands and organs fast enough. Vitality decreases with age, so if you want to get well naturally, begin as soon as possible, as it is a process that takes a number of years in most cases, even in children and babies today.
Skin rejuvenation: besides tossing the skin lotion in the trash, we can eliminate toxins by getting our skin to work better. Skin becomes very soft using a sauna.
Sweating: Toxic metals, toxic chemicals, fungi, bacteria, infections can be eliminated through the skin. Takes the burden off of the kidneys and liver.
Exercise benefits: Sweating, better circulation, maintain excellent muscle tone.
Some reasons people have used sauna therapy: Muscle pain, joint pain, acne, eczema, psoriasis, bone pain, allergies, chemical sensitivity, radiation poisoning, fibromyalgia, helping digestion and infections, sinus infections, relieving pain, and chronic infections.
Please refer to guidelines for sauna use here.