Section 1

What exactly is Hair Analysis?

Your hair contains all the minerals present in your body, including nutritional minerals as well as toxic heavy metals. Hair mineral analysis is a laboratory test that measures this mineral content in the hair. In most cases, the test results are the most comprehensive reflection of how much of these elements are in your tissues and provide a vivid picture of your internal environment. With this information, a world of metabolic events can be interpreted. Not only can your nutritional status be viewed, but we can also learn much about how efficiently your body is working.

Personalized Nutrition Consultants works with only the leading worldwide laboratories. After hundreds of thousands of hair analyses, our laboratory relationships enable us to present scientific research that has, over millions of tests, developed a unique ability to interpret hair analysis results, which are detailed for you in your Hair Analysis Report of Findings.

How can hair analysis help me achieve better health?

If we consider that diet is what we consume and nutrition is what we retain, then we can see that discovering what your body needs when it needs it is a valuable tool in creating health. After 30 years of research, hair analysis has emerged as the most practical method of testing for mineral balance in your body. This valuable tool indicates which supplements you need and which ones you should avoid. And it's now no secret that doctors of almost every specialty as well as nutritionists and dietitians routinely use hair analysis. Progressive health care providers are now well aware of the vast amount of research linking nutrition to disease. But what serves as good nutrition for one person may not be good for you. Your Hair Analysis Report is designed to help you and your health practitioner determine the best nutritional program for you.

But how do I know that my hair analysis results are reliable?

With a properly obtained sample, hair analysis is extremely accurate. Highly sophisticated instruments and software programs allow for extensive quality control. Through PNC's labs that specialize in hair analysis testing exclusively, for these types of tests we analyze over 50,000 samples per year. Most labs that provide hair analysis services do other laboratory testing as well. But through PNC's attention to medical detail, our full attention is directed toward assuring the accuracy of your results with this gateway nutritional test.

What about contamination - hair dyes and soaps - won't these affect my results?

Certain cosmetic hair treatments can contaminate scalp hair such as dyes that contain lead acetate, bleaching processes that artificially affect calcium and medicated shampoos that contain zinc or selenium. However, only the individual element is affected. All of the other minerals tested are valid. With our extensive ability for interpreting and comparing test results to individual metabolic characteristics, these effects can be overcome.

Doesn't a blood or urine test tell me just as much as a hair analysis test?

Blood tests give information about your mineral levels at the time of the test only. If you've just eaten a banana, your test can indicate a high potassium level, even though you may actually need potassium supplementation. On the other hand, your hair analysis results indicate your over all level of potassium - your actual storage levels over a period of time, not just what you ate that day or even that week. So a blood test will only accurately report what is being transported in your blood at the time of the test.

Testing for minerals in the urine measures the minerals that are being excreted from your body - not necessarily what has been absorbed as fuel for your body.

So blood and urine tests are like snapshots whereas a hair analysis is a video of you mineral retention.

Will my insurance company cover my hair analysis test?

Some insurance companies do cover hair analysis. Almost all will reimburse for the toxic metal screen, but as with most preventative health care, many will not reimburse for elective tests. Please contact your insurance company to check your coverage.

So... hair analysis is widely used and accurate. Do I have to be sick or feel badly before using it?

Although most people who have a hair analysis are ill and their doctors are looking for answers to their problems, you do not have to be in ill health to use this valuable tool. Many people use the test for prevention of potential problems, to monitor toxic metal exposure or to just fine tune their nutritional needs. Hair analysis is routinely performed on world-class athletes who push their bodies to the limit, as well as heads of government and famous singers and actors whose careers depend on their physical well being. So you can see, hair analysis is widely used for people of all ages, from babies to octogenarians and every level of physical condition.

Where do I obtain the hair and how much is required?

Proper collection of the hair sample is extremely important and cannot be over-emphasized. The hair to be collected should be clean and you should not use permed, dyed or bleached hair. The hair should come from several areas of your scalp on the back portion of your head. You simply part the hair and cut as close to the scalp as possible. Cut away excess hair from the sample, leaving about 1 to 1 inches of the root end. The total amount of hair needed is about a tablespoon. If you can't send scalp hair, nails and pubic samples can be used as a last resort. But be aware that the test results may not reflect your most recent mineral patterns because these tissues grow more slowly and sporadic than scalp hair.

Exacting procedures for obtaining a proper hair specimen for analysis can be found in PNC's professional information packet provided to you when your test kit is sent out.

How is the hair mineral analysis performed?

When the hair specimen arrives at our laboratories, it is inspected then assigned a laboratory control number and recorded along with all pertinent patient information in our computer database. Afterwards, the sample is finely cut, then weighed accurately to within one-thousandth of a gram of the required weight. The weighed specimen is then placed into an individually marked sterile centrifuge tube in preparation for a precise temperature-controlled microwave/acid digestion process. The microwave digestion consists of a pre-programmed series of digestion sequences based upon specific temperature levels. The combination of high temperature and ultra-pure acid will uniformly dissolve the hair strands, thereby releasing the elements contained or held within the protein matrix of the hair. The tube containing the "digested" specimen is then diluted with a special reagent and thoroughly mixed to attain complete homogeneity. The specimen is then ready for analysis using the highly sophisticated ICP-Mass Spectrometry instrument. Upon completion of analysis on the ICS-MS, the test data is automatically transferred into a dedicated computer containing a comprehensive computer program that will analyze each and every test result, including all in-line QC materials. This custom software assists the Chief Chemist and Laboratory Director in reviewing and verifying all data for compliance to strict quality control criteria. Failure to meet these QC criteria requires that the appropriate patient specimens undergo a complete reanalysis. Upon acceptance of all test data, the data is then finally released to the report processing department for printing.

What does the laboratory report consist of?

Our laboratory's comprehensive reports are based upon a vast amount of scientific studies and on-going research conducted by career PhD. Nutrition specialists. Each report will evaluate several hundred factors, such as: the nutritional mineral levels, their interrelationships (ratios), heavy metals, as well as your individual metabolic categorization. Your individualized Hair Analysis report takes each of the factors into consideration along with your age, sex and current health symptoms. What emerges is a very comprehensive report complete with graphs and accompanying explanations and recommendations for you and a more technical report for your health care professional. Use of this additional screening test may help you to learn a lot about your body, perhaps answers you have been seeking for years.

Why can't I just take a good multiple vitamin?

We now know more than ever about the interactions of vitamins and minerals. Updating your own knowledge is essential to your future health. Your may know that vitamins and minerals are essential for good health, but did you know that they might not always be helpful?

Too much zinc for example can antagonize vitamin D. Therefore, taking zinc indiscriminately may cause an imbalance in vitamin D. Too little vitamin D, in turn, antagonizes calcium, creating poor conditions for calcium absorption. So now you have a shortage of calcium. Too much vitamin C can cause a copper deficiency and allow too much iron to build up in the body. A domino effect occurs. While you may be aware that vitamins and minerals are needed, too much of something can be just as bad as too little. In the years to come you'll be hearing a lot more about "over nutrition" (too much of a nutrient) being more of a problem than undernutrition.

Do you see why it's not wise to simply take a multiple vitamin or to increase vitamin C or other nutrients without knowing your particular mineral balance? You risk creating additional imbalances.

This sounds complicated. Why don't I just forget about supplements altogether and eat my 3 square meals a day?

That sounds reasonable. But unfortunately in this day and age, influences never before known to man affect the quality of our food and our capability of absorbing the nutrients from that food.

We all know that the nutrient content of food depends on the soil content. Consider how pollutants in the air, water and food we eat affect the nutrients that we actually get. How does medication you've taken over the years influence your body even now? Then, there are the age-old influences like how activity or lack of it affects nutritional needs. Additional considerations include genetic factors such as metabolic type and other inherited characteristics.

All these factors determine your nutritional needs. Why not use the modern technology available with hair analysis? Then you'll know what you need to take and what you don't.