FACTS AND INFORMATION

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) Why Use Hair? Benefits of HTMA Why test for Minerals? Mineral Imbalances and Health What can cause a Mineral Imbalance?

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)

A unique window on metabolic activity HTMA is a precise analytical test that assays the mineral composition of the hair, providing a sensitive indicator of the long-term effects of diet, environment, stress and toxic metal exposure. As one of the body's most metabolically active tissues, hair is exposed to blood, lymph and intracellular fluids. As the cluster of matrix cells, which form a hair follicle, reach the surface of the skin the outer layers harden locking in the trace elements that accumulated during growth and providing, in effect, a biochemical blueprint. Clinical studies and a wealth of scientific literature have shown that when sampled and analysed correctly, hair analysis can give an accurate indication of nutrient mineral excesses, deficiencies, biochemical imbalances and toxic metal accumulation. Since hormonal activity is well known to affect the metabolic utilization of certain trace nutrients, HTMA is now used widely by medical practitioners to aid in specifying a patient's metabolic type. The correlation of over 300,000 tissue mineral patterns with specific physical and biochemical characteristics has enabled Dr Watts and his team at Trace Elements to identify eight distinct metabolic categories. These are fast and slow metabolic types each with their four sub-types, which are associated with the various stages of stress, whether acute or chronic in nature. HTMA reveals cellular metabolic activity unattainable through most other tests. It is a screening tool applicable to both assessments of health status and toxic metal accumulation, while also serving as an invaluable diagnostic aid. If a patient is suffering from an illness or syndrome which cannot be identified through routine clinical tests, hair analysis can help to pin point a possible metabolic disturbance and help the clinician choose the appropriate course of treatment. At the very least, hair analysis should be used once a year to evaluate toxic metal exposure and accumulation.