My [pretty awful] Hair Test results - minerals. Any comments ?

[Bansaw]

I am posting my hair test results here.
All of my minerals are pretty low and that seems to reflect how I'm feeling.
My doc put me on:

• Calcium Lactate
• Magnesium Lactate
• Zinc Liver Chelate
• Manganese B12

I think my gut is just not absorbing. She also wants me to look at Licorice or Ashwaghanda as adrenal support, and is recommending Catalyn as a good multivitamin. And of course Zypan to help absorption.

Any comments on my results (image below)?

(My aluminum was slightly high on toxic metals, but my lead and mercury were OK.
Anyboday had any success with the Ionic minerals liquids?

 

[Esther12]

I think that hair testing for mineral deficiencies is probably worthless.

I remember looking in to this ages ago, and a quick google now seemed to indicate reason for concern:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/11/health/la-he-skeptic-hair-tests-20101011

Personally, I'd ignore the results.

 

[Kati]

I don't know what kind of dr would do a hair analysis but I am certain that FDA would never approve that kind of test.

The post category is wrong, It should not be under 'general treatments'.

 

[Bansaw]

I think that hair testing for mineral deficiencies is probably worthless.
Personally, I'd ignore the results.

She also did a Zinc taste test on me. It was tasteless to me, indicating zinc is low. And my nails have white spots too (which might be an indication).

 

[Esther12]

To me, it sounds like this doctor is not worth spending time and money on. I know it's difficult to work out what is best, but this sounds like a poor bet to me.

 

[Sherpa]

I can say that my zinc taste test (barely tasing anything) correlated with my blood plasma results (low). I believe there is valuable info to be found in hair mineral tests but its not straightforward and takes a skilled person to read between the lines.

 

[Mary]

@Bansaw - your results look a lot like mine have in the past. I completely disagree with Esther and Kati re the validity of hair analysis. My doctor does this test every year - he's helped me much more than the standard M.D, who generally knows nothing about CFS/ME. Your doctor's recommendations sound good to me.

It does sound like your gut is not absorbing and Zypan looks like a good product. I've had good results with SP products.

I also note your potassium is quite low. I learned I needed to take potassium after starting Freddd's B12/methylfolate protocol. My potassium levels tanked quite badly a couple of days after initially feeling better after starting methylfolate (already had been taking B12 for years). The low-potassium fatigue which hit me was quite severe and I realized it was also very familiar - I'd had it several times before only I never knew what it was. I titrated up to 1000 mg. of potassium a day, that horrible fatigue went away, then went back down to 400 mg. a day but eventually I needed more and now take about 1000 mg. potassium gluconate a day, sometimes adding in low-sodium V8 which has 900 mg. potassium in an 8 oz. glass but only 50 calories.

I think it's extremely likely that you need more potassium and doctors in general just don't seem to be on top of this. It really helped my overall energy so much. I still crashed (PEM), but taking care of my potassium deficiency at least took care of one type of fatigue which was easily treatable.

Your iron is also quite low and copper is low too. I would talk to your doctor about those two minerals - they're very important and taking zinc can actually contribute to a copper deficiency if your copper is low.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/copper/

 

[JPV]

I don't know what kind of dr would do a hair analysis but I am certain that FDA would never approve that kind of test.

Who cares what the FDA does or don't approve. It is a completely corrupt government agency that is controlled by pharmaceutical industry interests...

Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption (The New York Review of Books)

 

[Bansaw]

I can say that my zinc taste test (barely tasing anything) correlated with my blood plasma results (low). I believe there is valuable info to be found in hair mineral tests but its not straightforward and takes a skilled person to read between the lines.

What Zinc did you take Sherpa?

 

[Bansaw]

@Bansaw -
Your iron is also quite low and copper is low too. I would talk to your doctor about those two minerals - they're very important and taking zinc can actually contribute to a copper deficiency if your copper is low.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/copper/

My doc does know about the copper and warned me about it. The protocol I posted in my OP was the protocol recommended by the hair test lab itself. I was surprised it didn't mention copper. But maybe they reckon that we get enough in our diet to keep that up. I don't know... did you supplement copper Mary, and if so, what supplement did you take?
I told my doc I was now "back on eating bananas" for potassium and she wasn't impressed. Said they were hard to digest and get potassium from.
I am also looking at the Ionic zinc supplements I mentioned in my OP, here. And I also have Celtic Sea salt in the office which I am going to restart.

 

[Esther12]

@Bansaw - your results look a lot like mine have in the past. I completely disagree with Esther and Kati re the validity of hair analysis. My doctor does this test every year - he's helped me much more than the standard M.D, who generally knows nothing about CFS/ME.

Do you know if there's any evidence for the validity of this testing? When I searched it looked as if the evidence available indicated that it was not reliable.

 

[Mary]

My doc does know about the copper and warned me about it. The protocol I posted in my OP was the protocol recommended by the hair test lab itself. I was surprised it didn't mention copper. But maybe they reckon that we get enough in our diet to keep that up. I don't know... did you supplement copper Mary, and if so, what supplement did you take?
I told my doc I was now "back on eating bananas" for potassium and she wasn't impressed. Said they were hard to digest and get potassium from.
I am also looking at the Ionic zinc supplements I mentioned in my OP, here. And I also have Celtic Sea salt in the office which I am going to restart.

I'm taking Swanson's brand copper - it's a low dose, 2 mg. I've been taking zinc for many years, my doctor has me taking it and I know it's crucial for immune health but I didn't realize that it could increase my need for copper until this year, and my copper was pretty low on hair analysis like yours.

I think bananas are okay but I think you would need to eat a lot to get enough potassium, and I can't handle all that sugar. So I was very happy to find low-sodium V8 which has a lot of potassium and is low in calories. The regular V8 has around 500 mg. per 8 oz glass compared to 900 mg. for the low-sodium, so you might want to try that and just see how you feel. I'm also taking potassium gluconate, roughly 300 mg. 3 x a day.

 

[Mary]

Do you know if there's any evidence for the validity of this testing? When I searched it looked as if the evidence available indicated that it was not reliable.

I'm not going to debate this with you but here are a couple of links you might want to look at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23415695
http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/hair_analysis_controversy.htm

 

[Esther12]

I'm not going to debate this with you but here are a couple of links you might want to look at:

That's okay. It doesn't look good to me, but it's up to everyone to make their own decisions. Good luck.

 

[Tammy]

@Bansaw -

It does sound like your gut is not absorbing and Zypan looks like a good product. I've had good results with SP products.

I think it's extremely likely that you need more potassium and doctors in general just don't seem to be on top of this. It really helped my overall energy so much. I still crashed (PEM), but taking care of my potassium deficiency at least took care of one type of fatigue which was easily treatable.

Your iron is also quite low and copper is low too. I would talk to your doctor about those two minerals - they're very important and taking zinc can actually contribute to a copper deficiency if your copper is low.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/copper/

This is why I have a hard time with these hair mineral tests................everybody interprets them differently. @Mary..... You have suggested something different than what the lab has recommended. It is obvious when looking at the results that the lab is not just looking at the ranges and recommending minerals based on whether they are below normal..............otherwise they would have come up with a completely different protocol............because she shows below normal on almost all of them. I'm assuming they are basing her protocol on the results of the ratios of the minerals to one another............and maybe that is why they didn't recommend iron or copper..........or potassium. ( Who knows?).........having had a couple of these tests in the past with different interpretations...........I am not impressed. I think it is safe to say that probably most of us aren't absorbing nutrients/minerals as well as we should be and wouldn't hurt if we took enzymes

 

[taniaaust1]

One of my doctors though he had issues re hair tests years before when I'd asked him about them, so dissuaded me against doing one back then when I'd asked, he ended up coming a full circle with how he felt about these as he found he had quite a few patients in which getting the info from these had been helped by the info. (he'd then got those things tested through standard testing and vertified things), so ended up many years later to my surprise, out of the blue actually telling me to get some hair testing done. (He obviously forgot that I'd asked him many years before).

This specialist believed that you couldn't trust the hair tests when it came them showing excess things as the hair can pick up things from the environment.. but he trusted a lot of the deficiency results for these so was using these then for those for his patients

For myself it turned out the hair test the hair test is one of the best tests of all kinds I've had yet. It showed me deficient in molybdenum and supplementation of that was then very helpful to my brain (before that, guessing my supplements was like a needle in the haystack, its very rare a supplement helps me). I went from not being able to maths in my head from molybdenum deficiency for years to be able to do it in my head again after only 5 days of supplementation of it. It was a very important thing in my case which was being missed.

My hair test also showed up off chart level of copper in my tissues.. he ignored that as he didn't trust hair tests for that but I know now I have a double gene mutation which can cause high copper and low molybdenum (which explains my results) so I do think the copper results from hair test were correct. (I've now got my copper levels in normal range on hair tests by some chelation).
.....

Thing is with hair tests, the accuracies of different companies which do these can vary, so do make sure that the company you are going through for these is highly recommended.

At though with a hair test it can give you a better guide on what to try as far as supplementation goes rather then doing what most do here and just take blind guesses on what to trial next.
.....

I agree with Sherpa.. hair testing is a complex thing and the company does need to have a lot of knowledge in this area if a person is to get an accurate report on the findings (I got about a 13-16?? page report.. (I forget now, it was long). It was mind blowing as it said so much about the conditions I have or which run in my family without having that info, it suspected due to certain hair test results and had dietary advice for helping these).

.....

Wow Banshaw.. yeah from that it does appear you aren't absorbing things. Looks like a very good high quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplements are needed. (add more salt to your meals as its quite important for the low blood volume we often have)

 

[Valentijn]

@Bansaw - Hair testing isn't particularly conclusive for most things. It would make sense to confirm the abnormal results with a blood test, before assuming that there's an actual deficiency.

 

[Bansaw]

Wow Banshaw.. yeah from that it does appear you aren't absorbing things. Looks like a very good high quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplements are needed. (add more salt to your meals as its quite important for the low blood volume we often have)

I have Celtic Salt and had been putting this under my tongue (yuk!)
What do you think of the Ionic minerals from Amazon, (link here)?