Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities

By Andrew Hall Cutler, Ph. D., P. E.

Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities is a practical book. The book starts out telling you how to interpret a hair test for mercury and other heavy metals. It provides a step by step discussion of this with figures to make this easy to do. It gives examples using actual hair test results from real people.

Mercury interferes with how the hair element results come out ? mercury is often low and other minerals take unusual values. It is crucial for proper hair test interpretation to know how to recognize mercurys characteristic signature.

Mercury often causes retention of certain minerals. Arsenic, antimony, tin, titanium, zirconium and aluminum are elements many people retain too much of when they really have a mercury problem.

Hair tests are worth doing because a surprising number of people diagnosed with incurable chronic health conditions actually turn out to have a heavy metal problem. Heavy metal problems are easy to correct. Hair testing allows the underlying problem to be identified and the chronic health condition often disappears with proper detoxification.

Table of Contents
Why hair tests can be confusing
Mercury causes deranged mineral transport
The counting rules - how to pick up mercury problems
Medical textbooks say many terrible conditions can be from heavy metals and hair tests show it
What they say about Parkinsons disease
What they say about childhood developmental disorders
What they say about ALS (Lou Gherigs disease)
What they say about schizophrenia
What they say about cancer
These chapters contain case histories and hair tests from people diagnosed with the condition in question who are actually toxic, and the outcomes of conventional or alternative treatments where available.
Heavy metal poisoning is often missed despite textbook coverage
Mercury poisoning signs and symptoms
Why worry about heavy metals?
Sources of exposure to toxic metals
Other toxic elements ? signs and symptoms:
Aluminum (Al),
Antimony (Sb),
Arsenic (As), Beryllium (Be),
Bismuth (Bi),
Cadmium (Cd),
Gadolinium (Gd),
Gold (Au),
Lead (Pb),
Nickel (Ni),
Palladium (Pd),
Platinum (Pt),
Silver (Ag),
Thallium (Tl),
Thorium (Th),
Tin (Sn),
Titanium (Ti),
Tungsten (W),
Uranium (U)

Meaning of essential and other element results:
Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Relationships between Calcium and Magnesium , Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Relationships between Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium, Barium (B), Boron (B), Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Germanium (Ge), Iodine (I), Iron (Fe), Lithium (Li), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Phosphorus (P), Rubidium (Rb), Selenium (Se), Silicon (Si), Strontium (Sr), Sulfur (S), Vanadium (V), Zinc (Zn), Zirconium (Zr).
Case summaries and example hair tests
You need to be sure to get the right test!
Metabolic defects - manganese
Metabolic defects - copper
Sometimes mercury is high and mineral transport is normal
Mercury runs in the family
Hair tests do not improve without chelation
Hair tests do improve with chelation
Hair testing and shampoo
Ambiguous hair tests can be confirmed by other means
Toxic people can have normal hair tests
Mercury and uranium in an MS like case
Mercury and silver do a job on vision
Many autistic children are toxic
Siblings sometimes have different toxins
Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are usually mercury
What to do about heavy metals (chelation etc.)

A few of the more common problems that can be due to toxicity:
Autism and PDD
ADHD
Learning disabilities
Allergies
Neurological disease
Autoimmune disease
Heart problems
PMS & female problems
Chronic fatigue
Fibromyalgia
Depression
Mental illness

Essential element levels contain much useful information about hormones as well as nutritional problems. High hair levels do not always mean high body levels ? interpretation is specific to each element. Some of the essential elements can be toxic if they show high hair level, others actually show high hair levels when the body is deficient and needs more of them. Excessive stress, poor digestion, adrenal issues and thyroid problems all show up in hair tests long before they can be identified by other laboratory methods.

There are over fifty example hair tests with background information and interpretation. All of these tests are actual results from real people, with complete details of their health situation, what they are doing about it, and in many cases how they responded to different treatments. Several families are presented with hair tests and health histories for all members, one including identical twins. Several of the cases have before and after hair tests showing the effects of different treatment regimens on test results.

Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities contains a discussion of what to do based on the test results, e. g. how to chelate heavy metals.

Useful information excerpted from Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities:

Potassium and sodium up with calcium and magnesium down means too much adrenaline but not enough cortisol. Potassium and sodium down with calcium and magnesium up means not enough cortisol, adrenaline and thyroid hormone. The usual blood tests wont identify problems in time to avoid prolonged misery.
Children accumulate antimony much more readily than adults. Children with antimony problems dont like to be touched or looked at. Antimony is the flame retardant in childrens pajamas, mattresses, and much carpeting and upholstery. Antimony causes heart problems. Hair is a good measure of antimony.
Lead is associated with reduced intelligence, behavior problems, learning disabilities, ADHD, lazy eye (amblyopia) and developmental delays in children. Adults may experience cognitive decline, gout, high blood pressure, vision problems, miscarriages, depression, irritability and sleep disturbances. Lead reduces long term memory, mercury reduces short term memory.
Bismuth may cause neurological and hormone problems. It is in many make-up preparations, stomach remedies and diaper rash balms.
Silver toxicity causes emotional lability and theatrical behavior.. Intellectual impairment and digestive disturbances are also possible. Vision problems and sensitivity to small glasses prescription changes occur with silver and arsenic, while mercury only causes vision problems
High hair zinc usually indicates low body levels. Vegetarian diets and modern foods are low in zinc. High carbohydrate intake reduces zinc levels. Zinc deficiency causes intellectual impairment, growth failure and immune deficiency. 10% of todays children are believed to be zinc deficient.
Calcium levels in hair often move oppositely to body inventory. High hair calcium suggests calcium loss such as occurs in osteoporosis. People with high hair calcium often need to take more calcium.