The Averaging Principle

It would be very nice if rebuilding our health was something that didn't require any advice or input from anyone else. With respect to a hair mineral analysis this is certainly the case. Many people think that they simply need to follow the computer generated report and they will be fine. Unfortunately the computer can't take into account some of the concepts that must be interpreted by a highly skilled practitioner. The AVERAGING PRINCIPLE is one of those.

Each hair mineral reading represents an average rate of mineral accumulation in the hair sample over the sampling period (8-12 weeks). This means that the actual mineral deposition in the hair tissue can vary from day to day and week to week. we only know the average accumulation. This must be understood to avoid confusion, at times.  For example, a zinc reading may seem very high on one test, and then decrease on the next test. This may make little sense until one realises that the level may have been decreasing constantly over the past six months, but we can only see the average reading during each period that the hair grew.

Advantages and disadvantages of longer-term, average readings. Advantages of longer-term readings are:

1) long-term trends and patterns are often easier to see and,

2) readings are not affected by day-to-day ups and downs due to dietary changes, menstrual periods and other shorter term factors. The advantage of an instantaneous reading is it would give a more up to- date reading. The best we can do if this is required is to use very short pieces of hair cut very close to the scalp. This will provide a more recent picture, but it will still not be an instantaneous report like a blood test.

Implications:

1) A single hair test cannot reveal if a mineral level is increasing, decreasing or remaining steady over the three-month growth period of the hair.

2) Identical readings on a person's successive hair tests may have different meaning. For example, let us say the copper level on two tests is 4 mg%. It is possible that during the three months represented by the first test, the copper was rising, but averages 4 mg%. During the three months represented by the second sample, the copper level may be falling, but still averaged 4 mg%. The meaning is different, but the average reading is the same.

Hopefully you can see from these short examples how critical the interpretation of a hair mineral analysis is.  If you have questions about any levels, or ratio's on your report I'd love to hear them whether you are one of my clients or not.