You remember those television detective shows where the police find a strand of hair at a crime scene and, from that hair, are somehow able to decipher the suspect's age, sex, height and genetic fingerprinting leading to the apprehension of the guilty party? Well, while great advances have been made in forensic sciences, there is much to be said about the art of using hair tissue mineral analysis for assessing one's health status.
Minerals are the stepchildren of nutrition, and are given less attention than the more glamorous nutrients such as vitamins. Trace elements and minerals are thought to be more important in human nutrition than vitamins. While the body can produce vitamins, it is unable to manufacture minerals. Minerals and trace elements are vital to bodily functions such as muscle contractions, nerve conduction, enzyme and hormonal reactions and structural integrity of bones and teeth. They include iron, calcium, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, sodium, potassium and cadmium.
Mineral levels may be abnormally high or low due to our nutritional intake, especially because of fad diets, chronic stress and medications including birth control pills, antacids and diuretics. Exposure to highly polluted environmental factors including second-hand tobacco smoke, contaminated water, toxic fumes and lead-based paint can lead to the body's accumulation of toxic metals including lead, mercury, cadmium and aluminium.
Some laboratories and practitioners advocate the use of hair tissue mineral analysis to assess a person's general state of health, pre-disposition to diseases and detecting mineral imbalance or environmental pollutants. They claim that testing using hair is preferential to that using bodily fluids - such as blood or urine - because hair reflects a more accurate level of minerals which is not subjected to daily fluctuations, it is non-invasive and gives a truer picture of the person's health picture over several months.
The procedure is simple enough. One snips multiple hair samples using only the first few centimetres from the nape of the neck. Untreated samples are sent to laboratories where they are subjected to a series of processes. This leaves trace minerals and metals, to be analysed using sophisticated equipment. By reviewing patterns of the minerals deposited in hair it may be possible to correlate the findings with an individual's health status and make specific dietary and supplementation recommendations to correct the imbalance.
Hair analysis has been surrounded by controversy from its inception. In 1974, the American Medical Association (AMA) Committee on Cutaneous Health and Cosmetics made this statement: 'The state of health of the body may be entirely unrelated to the physical and chemical condition of the hair . . . therefore . . . hair metal levels would rarely help a physician select effective treatment.'
