Hair Analysis

Has anyone done the whole hair analysis test for heavy metals etc?

Its something i’ve never done and wondering how reliable it is?

 

My perhaps outdated understanding of hair analysis is that it is not that accurate. However, Doctor's Data is a long-standing, reputable US company used by many alternative health professionals, and measures heavy metals in hair, as well as after administration of chelation drugs.


About Doctor's Data: https://www.doctorsdata.com/about-us/


Qualifications and licensing: https://www.doctorsdata.com/licensing/


Clinical Laboratory and Technologies: https://www.doctorsdata.com/clinical-lab-technologies/


Hair elements test:

https://www.doctorsdata.com/hair-elements/#detailed_information


About 20 years ago I did a hair analysis - not through Doctor's Data.

This test did not compare well to chelation provoked heavy metals tests I had done.

However, my hair analysis was as noted, about 20 years ago.

In my experience, chelation drugs do pull out heavy metals, but are tough for pwME re pulling out good metals (e.g. iron), and could be a problem due to drug and chemical sensitivity.

It might be worth asking companies like Doctor's Data about how the tests compare.

 

Wouldn't blood testing be more reliable?

 

Provoked testing is very inaccurate. If you took 1,000 people and did a provoked test every single test would show up as positive. However, if those same people did an unprovoked test chances are very few would get a positive result. We all have some metals in us that don't do any harm. It's when they are in high amounts that they cause problems.

 

Probably but wanted to know if anyone tried the hair analysis out of interest

 

My understanding is heavy metals are sequestered in the tissues shortly after exposure, and are not easily released from tissues without provocation. Therefore, yes, unprovoked testing would not yield much in the way of any heavy metals. We can all cope with a certain level of heavy metals, but amounts don't need to be extremely high to cause problems.

From Statistics Canada on heavy metal exposure:

"Findings
The heavy metals lead, mercury and cadmium are widely dispersed in the environment, and at excessive levels, are toxic to humans. Chronic exposure to these substances may also be hazardous. Although these metals occur naturally, exposure may be increased by human activities that release them into the air, soil, water and food, and by products that contain heavy metals." (emphasis added)

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2008004/article/6500106-eng.htm


From the Doctor's Data website:https://www.doctorsdata.com/urine-toxic-metals/

"Detailed Information

Analysis of the levels of toxic metals in urine after the administration of a metal detoxification agent is an objective way to evaluate the accumulation of toxic metals. Acute metal poisoning is rare. More common, however, is a chronic, low-level exposure to toxic metals that can result in significant retention in the body that can be associated with a vast array of adverse health effects and chronic disease. One cannot draw valid conclusions about adverse health effects of metals without assessing net retention. For an individual, toxicity occurs when net retention exceeds physiological tolerance. Net retention is determined by the difference between the rates of assimilation and excretion of metals. To evaluate net retention, one compares the levels of metals in urine before and after the administration of a pharmaceutical metal detoxification agent such as EDTA, DMSA or DMPS...." (emphasis added)

This is a sample report for heavy metal testing with Doctor's Data:

https://www.doctorsdata.com/resources/uploads/sample_reports/Sample Report UT.PDF

 

A few words of caution if looking at one's heavy metal status. Some with various health concerns may consult dentists, who believe that mercury in dental fillings causes health problems. Without getting too far into whether the mercury in amalgam dental fillings causes health problems, I would caution about the alternative advice to extract all root canaled teeth. The theory goes that these stay infected regardless of dental expertise in treating them.

IMHO, extracting asymptomatic root canaled teeth does not cure health problems. That's just my opinion. Others may say differently.

 

I've always assumed that shampoo, conditioner, and other hair products would distort the results of any hair analysis. As would air freshener. Also, anyone who works in a dirty industry could have dodgy results, as could anyone who always walked along busy roads or cycled to work. All the exhaust fumes would settle on skin and hair and might not all get washed out. I've always been dubious about hair testing reliability as a result - I think it would measure environmental pollution more than metals trapped in the body.

 

A few years ago i was talking to someone who was convinced my ME was the cause of mercury in fillings and proceeded to talk at me about this for 10 minutes.

She forgot to ask if i even had any. I’d never had a single filling in my life

 

I think hair testing has been shown to be useless.

 

Hospitals don't seem to have any problem diagnosing heavy metals and they don't use provocation.

 

Higher levels of heavy metals may be detectable without provocation; lower chronic exposures may not be. There are variables such as the body's ability to excrete these metals that can be individual to each person.

 

Hair testing , i am told used to be used to assess calcium levels in heart conditions pre CAC scan. ( Chemistry professor)

A chemistry lecturer i had a discussion with was of the opinion that they had some use, however it is interpretation that may be a bigger issue. His background pre teaching was research ( effect of PUFAs) and later food industry.

My son had bad PV fatigue after glandular fever. Doctors did not have a clue ( he should have rested more and was basically forced back to school too early).

He had a 4 day migraine like headache which saw him admitted to hospital and he had a lumbar puncture ( suspected bleed on brain ). This was the first time i had seen doctors truly flummoxed and as a parent it was oretty scary.

This shed no light for the neurologist so he was discharged with paracetamol (!) . No follow up, no suggestions.

We did a hair test with an alternative pratitioner afterwards. I was a complete skeptic and offered no info on his health other than he had previously been asthmatic and the headache.

This process was different to doctors data in that you had a couple of phone consultation s ( too ill to travel) , one before and one after. I was a bit gobsmacked by the amount of info that could be presented, moreover that the feedback accurately captured specifics to his health over the past couple of years that i had not detailed.

The test flagged up very skewed , very low electrolytes.

Supplementation and focused diet made a huge difference, and although he lost the last two years of school, he recovered and is now at college.
He did not have ME ( though now my GP thinks he " probably did").

I appreciate that he may have recovered anyway. Given the very low base we were at, i doubt that it would have been within the timeframe experienced.

We have done hair tests for my daughter which also show really crap electrolytic ratios, though these have improved over the past 10 months.
She also has issues flagged up with metals, which , given the limited toe we have dipped into genetics, makes sense.

I would not vouch for complete accuracy, but in our case, these have been a useful tool.

 

Since we are a forum discussing science, I thought it would be fair to take a look at what mainstream medicine things of hair analysis.

Quack Watch does just this:
https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/hair.html

Here is an exerpt:

 

Below is a link to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news item about faulty hair analysis in child protection cases. Testing totaled over 35,000 analyses, and was done for over 20 years at a lab affiliated with the renowned Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.

The lab tested for drug and alcohol use; based on results, children could be removed from their parent's care - sometimes permanently.

One mom featured in the article was accused of chronic alcohol abuse; later it was found her hair spray contained 70% alcohol.

A dad accused of heavy cocaine use had a hair test done at an accredited forensics lab in the US, and was cleared to regain custody of his child.

"It's a tragedy: How the flawed Motherisk hair test helped fracture families across Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/motherisk-hair-testing-families-1.4360577


CBC article excerpts:

" Motherisk scientists were operating without any forensic training or oversight. Its test results, it has now been discovered, were faulty opinions."

The province of Ontario appointed retired justice Susan Lang to investigate this lab; she reported:

"... these results are inadequate and unreliable and no forensic lab in the world conducted tests and interpreted these tests in that manner..."

What was also astonishing, Lang said, was that virtually no one ever challenged Motherisk's tests in court, even when desperate parents were certain the results were dead wrong. The experts were always right." (emphasis added)