A MEASURE OF YOUR HEALTH
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) is a safe and noninvasive trichology test. It measures the levels and comparative ratios of nutrient and toxic minerals found in hair. Your hair reflects the mineral content of the body’s tissues. If a mineral is either deficient or present in excess, it indicates a mineral deficiency or excess within the body.
HTMA is regarded as one of the most valuable screening tools available in preventive health care. The hair sample, which is obtained by cutting the first inch and one-half of growth closest to the scalp at the nape of the neck, is prepared in a licensed clinical laboratory through a series of chemical and high temperature digestive procedures. Testing is then performed using highly sophisticated detection equipment and methods. The results are usually accurate and precise.
Advantages Of Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis
- Hair specimens can be collected more quickly and easily than blood, urine or any other tissue, using a non-invasive method.
- Hair analysis is more cost-effective than mineral testing conducted through other means.
- Unlike blood, hair is less susceptible to the homeostatic mechanisms that quickly affect trace element levels.
- Long-term deviations of mineral retention or losses are more easily detected in hair than blood.
- Concentrations of most elements in the hair are significantly higher than that found in the blood and other tissues.
- Hair provides a record of past as well as present trace element levels, ie, biological activity.
- Hair provides information of substances entering the hair from the blood serum as well as from external sources.
- Hair is invaluable in the assessment of toxic metal levels.
- Reliable data on more than 35 nutrient and toxic minerals, and over 25 important mineral ratios.
- Personalized patient and trichologist interpretive test reports that assess your current mineral status, highlight areas of concern and recommend dietary changes and supplements for improved health and well-being.
Questions that can pop up are Why use the hair? Why not use blood? Hair is an ideal tissue for sampling and testing. First, it can be cut easily and painlessly and sent to the lab without special handling requirements. Second, clinical results have indicated that a properly obtained sample can give an indication of mineral status and toxic metal accumulation following long-term or even acute exposure.
An HTMA reveals a unique metabolic world: an intracellular activity, which cannot be seen through most other tests. This provides a blueprint of the biochemistry occurring during the period of hair growth and development. For example:
- Thirty to 40 days following an acute exposure, elevated serum levels of lead may be undetectable.This is due to the body removing the lead from the serum as a protective measure and depositing the metal into such tissues as the liver, bones, teeth and hair. Therefore, you can get to know of such discordant notes from your hair.
- Nutrient loss from the body can become so advanced that severe health conditions can develop without any appreciable changes noted in those same nutrient levels in a blood test.
- Symptoms of elemental deficiency can be present long before low levels can be detected in the serum.
Hair is used as one of the tissues of choice by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in determining toxic metal exposure. A 1980-report from the EPA stated that human hair can be effectively used for biological monitoring of the highest priority toxic metals. This report confirmed the findings of other studies in the US and abroad, which concluded that human hair may be a more appropriate tissue than blood or urine for studying community exposure to some trace elements.
There have been a few powerful pharmaceutical groups who intend to undermine the natural process. These groups say that while hair analysis can detect some poisons like lead or arsenic, there are no testing standards. Labs may report different findings from the same hair sample. And everything from air pollution to shampoo can change your hair’s mineral make-up. The American Medical Association is against hair analysis to determine treatment.
Those in favour of the HTMA test say that the ICL HTMA is scientifically robust and highly accurate. It is conducted by an FDA-certified laboratory and managed by qualified HAVE A GREAT HAIR DAY 194 biochemists. The ICL HTMA will stand scrutiny in any court of law where it is a highly respected forensic test for determining levels of toxic contamination from sources such as industrial pollution.
Most of the Internet postings that claim this testing to be quackery are dated — some more than 10 years ago. The technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in recent years and continues to improve. Technology does not stand still.
There is pressure from some interest groups to discredit this test. Scientists may be “encouraged” by polluting industries to discredit this test because it is the most accurate method for determining if a person or persons have been poisoned by a pollutant like lead or mercury from a dirty factory or dump site, for example. The polluter much prefers a blood test because it will only show recent exposure and not exposure that could have happened many years ago. The HTMA can accurately detect past exposure.
Whatever the pros and cons, its my personal opinion that the HTMA test provides great insights to problems relating to hair.
Is Hair Just of Aesthetic Importance? Read This Article To Get More Details On This Hair Test…
Hair is the body’s barometer of its health so if you have got good hair it simply means that you are healthy from within.
In fact the hair problems are the first signs that something is going wrong internally and needs to be rectified.
So to make it simple you will come across many individuals who will complain of some episode of stress and illness after which they complain of simultaneous decrement in the quantity and quality of their hair.
There is no doubt about the fact that hair plays a great role on one’s self image, confidence and social appearance but much more important is the fact that hair is actually a barometer of body’s health whether it is good or bad.
To give you examples you will come across people having thyroid disorders, PCOD, hirsuitism complaining about hair problems. Those who take chemotherapy medications, isotroin tablets, steroid medications or antibiotics also complain of hair problems.
Those who suffer from cardiac problems, nutritional deficiencies, certain infections also suffer from hair fall problems.
So the hair problems cannot be really ignored as hair indicates good health or lack of it. If you notice abnormal hair fall, hair thinning problems, dandruff which is persistent then you need to contact a trichologist without any delays. This is for the fact that your condition can be just more than a bad hair day.Understanding all this it is really very important to go for a tricho-check regularly in fact tricho-check should be a part of your annual check-up.
There is a very good hair test termed as Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis which measures the levels and the comparative ratios of nutrient and toxic minerals present in the body’s tissues. More than a diagnostic tool this hair test plays a great role in preventive health care.
The advantages of this hair test are…
- The hair specimen can be collected easily and quickly as compared to the blood, urine and the other body tissues.
- This hair test is definitely more cost effective than the other mineral testing conducted through other means.
- The measure of minerals following the hair testing is more long term and it is also not so susceptible to deviations like the blood measurements.
- Hair testing alone can give us a reliable data of about more than 35 nutrients and toxic minerals and also over 25 important mineral ratios.
- One can also come to know about their body’s metabolic type through hair testing and the results are really accurate and precise.
As we all know about the Hair Test reliability in forensic science it has been used widely by the forensic experts.
HAIR tests helps to know health of hair and body HTMA is gaining more and more importance.
This hair analysis test rightly helps in knowing mineral content of the body tissues as they are similar to the mineral content of the hair tissue. This hair analysis test actually provides an open window inside the cell.
These minerals are really very important in the functioning of the enzymes, hormones and other biochemical systems which sustains life. In fact with the help of this hair analysis test it is thus possible to read the mineral content of the body and it also helps in pinpointing any deviation from normalcy. It also helps in highlighting any development of metabolic dysfunctions even before the manifestations appear.
This hair analysis test not only helps in knowing the mineral content of the body but it also helps in detecting the toxicities of the body which in turn damages various systems of the body.The Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis Test indicates the nutritional content of the body, toxic heavy metals, the ratio of nutrients to heavy metals toxins and it also helps in knowing the metabolic type of the body.
The advantage of doing this test is that these kinds of imbalances can be often corrected through nutritional therapy that is if one follows the right kind of nutrition based on the readings they can prevent many medical conditions even before they appear in their body.
For this hair analysis test the hair is taken from the back of the scalp closest to the nape of the neck. The hair samples that are collected should not be exposed to any form of chemical treatments like the bleaching, dyes. Also there should not be application of any form of hair sprays, hair creams, gels and oils. The hair should be washed within 24 hours of sampling and they should be dry for at least 4 hours after shampooing.
Now coming to the people who should get done the {HTMA} hair analysis test, this is a test which can be done by anyone who wants to have a healthy future but it is really mandatory for those who suffer from prolonged illness problem without satisfactory explanation. In fact many people do HTMA as a part of yearly medical check-up.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis Test is actually a byproduct of an impressive research that has been published in the international scientific publications since 15 years. In fact in the USA itself around 1,50,000 hair tissue mineral analysis tests are carried by the federally licensed clinical laboratories for the sake of the health care professionals who want some additional assistance for a detailed patient evaluation.
Hair Analysis Test for health of the hair and the body should be carried out under the prescription and supervision of a trichologist. Forensic experts use HAIR as a Testing tool as it has got a high reliability in various medical tests so one can really rely on this hair analysis test.
RichFeel Clinic in India conducts this hair test termed as HTMA. It has over 88 branches in major citites like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore etc…