Time for a hair mineral test review! I always recommend starting with nutrition first and ensuring that you are eating enough, having balanced meals, and eating consistently. That in and of itself reduces a lot of stress in the body and can support digestion, gut health, thyroid, hormones, and liver detox. When it comes to further testing, I recommend this if it will change what you’re currently doing. Sometimes we are working on foundational habits like eating consistently, which can take time, so adding in something like a functional lab test may be overwhelming. You typically learn a lot about your body and walk away with new foods to focus on, lifestyle habits, and supplements. If you don’t have the capacity to work on those, to me, it’s not worth doing the test. If you are a data driven person and seeing the labs will help motivate you to implement, then I do think it’s worth it. Everyone is a bit different, but hopefully that helps you understand when lab testing can help. Let’s get into this hair test!
Below you will see the main part of a hair tissue mineral analysis or HTMA for Sarah, a Master Your Minerals course student that was newly postpartum at the time of completing this (about 4 months at the time of completing this test, which is when I recommend testing) with her second child. Sarah has a history of hypothyroidism, PCOS, and insulin resistance. She supported those prior to conceiving through nutrition, minerals, and individualized supplements and had a healthy pregnancy without any insulin resistance issues (woo!), which was a huge accomplishment. Her main concern going into the postpartum season was her thyroid. She retested her HTMA at 4 months postpartum in order to see how things were going. She actually felt really good, but wanted to check in since she was feeling a little buzzy at night time and having a hard time sleeping (despite needing sleep very badly). She did test her thyroid 2 months postpartum and those numbers actually improved from her last tests during pregnancy, which makes sense because she was no longer growing another human. The demands on postpartum can lead to more stress though, which can lower thyroid function, so she is keeping a close eye on things. Let’s walk through her hair test and see how this compares to her main concerns around sleep and thyroid health.
Let’s start with her Metabolic Type in the top righthand corner. You will see that Sarah is a Fast 1. You are either going to be a fast or slow metabolic type with the numbers 1, 2, 3, or 4 next to it. Fast types occur when calcium is lower than phosphorus/potassium and slow types occur when calcium is higher than phosphorus/potassium. The number designation is related to the thyroid and adrenal ratios. Ideally, you have a one next to your fast or slow type. That shows that all systems are slow for a slow 1 and all systems are fast for a fast 1. When you start to see a 2, 3, or 4, that shows that things are more dysregulated. Sarah is a fast 1 on this test and was a fast 1 on her HTMA that she completed in her thyroid trimester, but she was actually a fast 4 on her test that she completed right at the beginning of her second trimester (she did an HTMA before pregnancy, then two during). I see this pattern a lot during pregnancy or if someone enters a stressful season of it. It can be discouraging when you see that you’re a fast 4 since it often means you’re in burnout, but it’s important not to judge your test results and instead use the information to support your health and wellbeing.
Now that you understand Sarah’s metabolic type and history of metabolic types, let’s talk about her macro minerals and how these are connected to her main concerns. The macro minerals are calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. These are the minerals we want to focus on first, especially on an initial HTMA.
Mineral ratios take minerals and compare them to each other to give us an idea of how different systems of the body are functioning. Let’s run through Sarah’s major ratios quickly!
Nervous System Ratio (Calcium/Phosphorus): Sarah’s nervous system ratio is low since her calcium is low and her phosphorus levels are normal. This puts her body in a more sympathetic dominant state, which she is already in as she navigates having another baby with a toddler. Increasing her calcium will help get her out of this sympathetic state.
Stress Ratio (Sodium/Potassium): Sarah’s stress ratio is also low since her potassium is so high. When this happens, it means she has been dealing with the stressor for a while, which makes sense since she was newly postpartum at the time of this test after a nine month pregnancy. We don’t necessarily want to try to lower her potassium, the goal is to just support it. Her sodium was optimal, so I’m not super concerned about this ratio.
Thyroid Ratio (Calcium/Potassium): Sarah’s thyroid ratio is low since calcium is low and potassium is high, which is a sign of overactive thyroid. Her thyroid blood work did not show hyperthyroid levels, so it’s not a concern. The thing we want to consider when we see this is that when we are experiencing stress and cortisol levels are high, this can lead to a bit of hyperthyroid at first. Typically, that person then moves to hypothyroid after the moving to the burnout phase. Since we can see this, the goal will be to emphasize reducing outside stressors as much as possible to avoid the move to hypothyroid.
Adrenal Ratio (Sodium/Magnesium): Sarah’s adrenal ratio is a little high, which shows her adrenal glands are working hard. This isn’t a bad thing and we don’t necessarily want to stop a stress response since she is stressed. Stress is a normal part of life and certain times will be more stressful than others. The goal is to support her main minerals so that she can respond appropriately to that stress.
Blood Sugar Ratio (Calcium/Magnesium): Sarah’s blood sugar ratio is perfect. It was previously a little high, which can lead to low blood sugars. While her ratio is great, we know her calcium and magnesium are both low, which can lead to blood sugar issues. We will still support these minerals despite this optimal ratio.
Heavy metals on a hair test show us what heavy metals are leaving the body. They do not reflect stored levels. It can be concerning to see heavy metals show up on your hair test, but I think it’s important to remember that our bodies are designed to get rid of these. Our detoxification system is always working hard to remove toxins from the boy, process hormones, and support digestion. It’s also very common to see heavy metals increase on a retest since supporting your minerals supports your liver and can lead to the removal of heavy metals. Whenever I see high aluminum on a hair test I always think about a person’s magnesium levels. Sarah’s levels decreased from her previous test and her aluminum increased. This makes sense since a magnesium deficiency can lead to aluminum accumulation and we need magnesium to detox aluminum. Exposure of aluminum matters, but so does our mineral status. Her arsenic levels were also a bit high showing she is removing arsenic, which can also accumulate with a magnesium deficiency. She increased magnesium supplementation along with upping calcium rich foods, which will support the removal of this aluminum. Vitamin C also helps support the removal of arsenic. Sarah is already doing two adrenal cocktails per day and using the Jigsaw Adrenal Cocktail powder for one, which has a lot of vitamin C, so she is covered.
Sarah’s difficulty falling asleep during a stressful season of life makes sense given her low calcium levels and minerals that have taken a bit of a dip since her third trimester. Prioritizing calcium rich foods and increasing magnesium will help her nervous system and support the aluminum that her body is currently detoxing. She continues to prioritize minimizing stressors as much as she can during this season of life in order to avoid further mineral depletion. The main way she does this is by eating enough and providing consistent meals and snacks for her body. When we aren’t eating enough calories, this induces a stress response in the body. It can be tempting to want to take adaptogenic supplements for adrenal support, which I do think can be helpful, but if she isn’t eating enough then they won’t support her. Since she didn’t want to add more things to her plate, she is focusing on food and adrenal cocktails in order to support her body during this season. If she did not have the foundation of eating enough, that would be her main focus. I talk about how to know if you’re eating enough in this post.
If you want to do hair mineral testing and understand how to read your results, check out my Master Your Minerals course here!
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