This screening tool is an excellent way of assessing nutritional status. The mineral content of the hair represents the nutritional trend over a period of time, rather than just a moment in time and can help pinpoint cellular deficiencies and imbalances.

Hair is sampled and sent to a lab for analysis, looking not only at essential nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and zinc but also for heavy metals such as lead, mercury or aluminium.

The licenced laboratory produces a detailed report looking at essential ratios and health trends, giving the practitioner insight into underlying problems such as lowered adrenal function, poor thyroid conversion, malabsorption or even hormonal imbalance.

Retesting can assess whether nutritional measures are achieving the desired results.

Who might benefit from Hair Mineral Analysis?

Anyone who really wants to look after their health in a preventative way can benefit from testing. It is useful to assess calcium status and therefore osteoporosis risk. It is also a useful pre-conceptual screening tool, particularly for couples troubled with unexplained infertility. In cases of a chronic nature, with lowered immunity, joint deformity and fatigue it is also useful to assess nutritional status. One area where it has achieved positive recognition is in the treatment of children with behavioural problems.

At Health Food & More we recommend testing is used as part of a treatment protocol with our medical herbalists. We can arrange testing for you and simply provide you with a report, but feel it is best used as a clinical tool as part of an holistic treatment strategy.