Frequently Asked Questions

The Test

Can Mineral Balancing Help With My Symptoms?

Understanding My Test Results

Taking The Program

The Test

What information are you looking for when you do a hair analysis?

We are generally looking for three things. First, we are looking at the actual levels of the trace elements that run your metabolism. Second, we are looking for heavy metals that may be stored in your tissues. Heavy metal toxicity can cause disruption to normal metabolic functions. Third, we are looking at the ratios of the minerals in your body.

What is “Hair Analysis”?

Just as a baker must have the right ingredients in the right amounts for his breads and pastries to turn out right, we too need the right minerals in the right amounts in order to maintain good health. Hair analysis is a way to look at what is happening in the body at a cellular level. All of your nutrient minerals and toxic metals levels can be read by a properly performed hair analysis.
For more information on the hair analysis, check out our more in depth page here.

Why do you ask if I use softened water?

If you use a water softener, it can skew the sodium and/or potassium levels that are read in the analysis. This is because when you wash your hair, the sodium or potassium salts that are softening the water get deposited on the hair shaft. Since your hair sample gets digested into a liquid sample at the lab, the salts will show up as if it were from inside your body. If you have softened water, rinse your hair with clear water for a few days before you cut the sample after you have washed it. This will give us a much more accurate sodium and potassium reading, so your supplement program will thus be more accurate.

Can Mineral Balancing Help With My Symptoms?

Can people who are coping with depression, bipolar disorder and other emotional problems be helped with mineral balancing?

Almost always the answer is yes. Although, in some cases the problem may get worse before it gets better. Most people that are suffering from these disorders have a metabolic reason for it, and usually it’s more than one. It’s basically a chain reaction and putting everything back in order will solve it, but it has to be done in steps and according to each person’s metabolic make-up. Is the depression caused by a lack of something or too much of something and is there a metal involved? If it’s just an imbalance, it’s relatively easy to fix and changes rapidly. If it is due to a heavy metal, that will have to be removed before the depression will really go away and when the metal is coming out, the problem may get worse for a little bit before it gets better. We’ve found that for most people, knowing why you have depression and that there is a way to fix it usually helps people get through the process.

How do PMS, menopausal symptoms and other related female hormonal issues relate to imbalanced minerals?

All of your hormone production is reliant on your minerals being at the right levels. Too little and you don’t produce enough, too much and you over produce. If you normalize the levels, the problems and the related symptoms will go away.

How does indigestion and constipation relate to mineral imbalances?

The answer is really another question, Why? Do they have constipation due to a lack of something or due to an overage of something? Is it heavy metal toxicity or a mineral imbalance? Are they lacking magnesium or has a heavy metal killed off all of the natural bacteria in the digestive system. All of these are answered by a properly read hair analysis.

I’m very fatigued, can mineral balancing help me with this? Why would imbalanced minerals cause fatigue?

There are many reasons a person would have fatigue and again this is why we look at the actual levels of the minerals and metals as well as the ratios. You could simply be depleted of nutrient minerals like sodium and potassium which would be a relatively easy fix, or you could have too much of something like calcium which, if out of balance, will cause your Adrenal, Thyroid and parathyroid to not operate correctly, or you could have a heavy metal toxicity like mercury which causes fatigue. The hair analysis gives us a scientific place to start rather than guessing and their progress can be measured by subsequent analysis.

Understanding My Test Results

In the report I got there are overall patterns or trends that are emphasized. How are those trends determined and what do they tell you?

Again, this is taking into consideration the levels of the minerals and metals as well as the ratios. The actual levels in the first part of the report give us the ratios. The ratios give us the trends. The metals give us the potential disease and disruption. For instance, a person could have a very poor memory due to a lack of magnesium, meaning the actual level of magnesium is too low. They could also have a very poor memory due to high Calcium to Magnesium ratio. In this case the magnesium level could be perfectly normal, but because they have too much stored calcium, the ratio or relationship of calcium to magnesium is too great. This would be a relative magnesium deficiency. Thirdly, they could have a very poor memory due to either one or both of these reasons plus aluminum toxicity. This is the disease or disruption part. If you were only lacking magnesium it would be a relatively small problem and easy to correct. If you have high calcium to magnesium ratio the problem is a little more serious but still relatively easy to correct. If you throw aluminum into the mix the issue becomes much more severe and the process to correct it becomes multi-faceted. This is where it goes from a poor memory to Attention Deficit Disorder. If the toxicity is very high, it becomes Alzheimer’s disease. This is what we get from the ratios.

My numbers for toxic metals on my second test went up rather than down! Can you explain why those results are not necessarily bad news?

Remember, the hair is an excretory channel and if you are on a program to be chelating out or eliminating an element, it will show in the hair. The number will be greater because you are getting rid of it and that is usually what we are looking for. It does not mean that you are more toxic, it means that the element is being eliminated or forced out. This is why regular testing is important while you are on a program designed to eliminate toxicities.

The middle of the report lists toxic metals. What is the process for releasing toxic metals while balancing nutritional minerals?

While no toxic metals would be best, everyone is going to have at least a trace amount of some of these metals. It becomes an issue when the quantity reaches a symptomatic level meaning the known symptoms of that metal have become evident and it is now considered disruptive to other functions. The metals are actually toxic at any level, but at the point that a metal toxicity becomes “symptomatic” is when it is considered to be toxic. On our graph, this is the 100% line. Anything under the 100% line is not great but not considered toxic either. Once it exceeds the 100% line, it’s toxic and the known symptoms will start to be evident.

The test results are broken into three parts. The first section shows nutrient minerals. What kind of information do you get from this section?

These are the elements that we absolutely need in order to function properly. We are looking at the actual levels of each element. Whether they are depleted meaning you don’t have enough, or if your body has stored too much. Too much of a good thing is still too much and can actually cause big problems with your metabolism and organ function. In this section, the elements should be at the 100% level. Not over or under. No one is actually going to have exactly the perfect level of every single element, but the goal is to get them as close as possible and hold them there.

The third section of the report shows ratios of various minerals. Why are these ratios important to know?

This would be the relationship of a given trace element to another. These ratios are very important because they tell us just how extreme a problem or disease trend is. Hair analysis does not diagnose disease, but it will tell what direction you are headed in. Everyone who has diabetes for instance has a certain set of ratios and fits a certain pattern. Hair analysis cannot definitively say if you are diabetic right now, but if you fit the pattern, it’s a strong likelihood that if you don’t make some metabolic changes, that will be the outcome. Are the ratios just a little out of bounds or is the problem much more serious. Is the trend toward diabetes small or are the red flags flying. The ratios also help us to know how to put together a supplement program that will be effective, not too much or too little.

What factors do you consider when determining how to balance a person’s minerals when they are out of balance?

This depends on whether they have amounts that are too high or too low, or both. If a person has a toxic amount of any of the nutrient minerals or heavy metals, those have to be chelated out first. You can’t do anything to raise deficient levels in the face of toxicity. If they are simply deficient, it’s just a matter of knowing what element to raise first and how. Replacement therapy does not work. You can’t just take more of something that you are low in because it will have an effect on something else. The metabolism works synergistically. Cause and effect, equal or greater reaction. There is a science to bringing up deficient levels in an equalizing manor.

Taking The Program

Can I take other nutritional supplements while on the Perfect Balance program?

There are many other supplements that are very good. We always try to make the supplement program as small as possible so people are more likely to take them regularly. We would always prefer to know what a person is already taking so that if there is a conflict between what they already take and what we recommend we can alert them so they aren't spinning their wheels taking something that will inhibit their progress as far as their mineral balancing is concerned. There is a time and place for everything, but not everything can be taken at once. Some things that seem very simple like vitamin c or vitamin e can cause a real problem in some cases as it has an effect on the absorption of other minerals and directly effects sodium which can effect energy levels, hypertension and depression, just to name a few. If a person has supplements they would like to take we can usually work them in, but we need that information in order to be able to do it correctly.

How long do I have to take the supplements?

Really, this is up to you. Most people have a hair analysis done because they want to get better or get over something that is wrong with their metabolism. We have people that stay with the program only until they feel better, some stay with the supplement program until all of the issues have been resolved, regardless of how well they feel and some people stay on their programs indefinitely. Once they have done all of the work to get well, they want to keep it that way. There are also people that just don’t like to take vitamins and can’t stick with it. Really, it’s up to you.