Paul

Not sure if anyone has replied to you yet.  To answer briefly and without knowledge of a specific situation that you might have come across, hair analysis is generally not well regarded as a technique to measuring nutritional status – past or present.  It is generally considered a tool of alternative practitioners rather than evidence-based/conventionally trained nutritionists.  It rises in popularity from time to time with the promise of being able to monitor some health characteristic of interest – allergy, nutritional inadequacy, chronic fatigue for example.  It’s hard to imagine that hair characteristics could be sensitive enough to pick up the constant changes in blood concentrations of stress or catabolic/anabolic hormones experienced over a day or week in the life of an athlete against the background of topically applied agents that we expose our hair to – chlorine, colouring agents, shampoos, “product” .   

I have cut and paste the following from quackwatch.org..  I also did a quick Google and you can find samples of what a hair analysis lab might return to you http://www.hairanalysistest.com/downloads/adult_sample.doc

http://www.hairanalysistest.com/downloads/child_sample.doc

If you have more details of a particular test or new product that is doing the rounds it might be easier to give a more specific critique

Louise

Commercial Hair Analysis:
A Cardinal Sign of Quackery

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

Hair analysis is a test in which a sample of a person's hair—typically from the back of the neck—is sent to a laboratory for measurement of its mineral content. This discussion concerns multielemental hair analysis in which a single test is used to determine values for many minerals simultaneously. This type of analysis used by chiropractors, "nutrition consultants," physicians who do chelation therapy, and other dubious practitioners who claim that hair analyses can help them diagnose a wide variety of diseases and can be used as the basis for prescribing supplements.

Analysis of Proponent Claims

Proponents of hair analysis claim that it is useful for evaluating a person's general state of nutrition and health and is valuable in detecting predisposition to disease. They also claim that hair analysis enables a doctor to determine if mineral deficiency, mineral imbalance or heavy metal pollutants in the body may be the cause of a patient's symptoms. These claims are false.

• Although hair analysis has limited value as a screening device for heavy metal exposure, it is not reliable for evaluating the nutritional status of individuals. In 1974, the AMA Committee on Cutaneous Health and Cosmetics noted: "The state of health of the body may be entirely unrelated to the physical and chemical condition of the hair . . . Although severe deficiency states of an essential element are often associated with low concentrations of the element in hair, there are no data that indicate that low concentrations of an element signify low tissue levels nor that high concentrations reflect high tissue stores. Therefore . . . hair metal levels would rarely help a physician select effective treatment." [1]
• Most commercial hair analysis laboratories have not validated their analytical techniques by checking them against standard reference materials. The techniques typically used to prepare samples for analysis can introduce errors for many of the elements being determined.
• Hair mineral content can be affected by exposure to various substances such as shampoos, bleaches and hair dyes. No analytic technique enables reliable determination of the source of specific levels of elements in hair as bodily or environmental.
• The level of certain minerals can be affected by the color, diameter and rate of growth of an individual's hair, the season of the year, the geographic location, and the age and gender of the individual.
• Normal ranges of hair minerals have not been defined.
• For most elements, no correlation has been established between hair level and other known indicators of nutrition status. It is possible for hair concentration of an element (zinc, for example) to be high even though deficiency exists in the body.
• Hair grows slowly (1 cm/month), so even hair closest to the scalp is several weeks old and thus may not reflect current body conditions for purposes of health diagnosis.
• The use of a single multielemental hair analysis test as the sole means of diagnosis violates basic tenets of medical practice that laboratory findings should be considered together with the patient's history and physical examination, and that the practitioner should keep in mind that laboratory errors occur.

For these reasons, multielemental analysis of human hair is not a valid technique for identifying an individual's current bodily excesses or deficiencies of essential or nonessential elements. Nor does it provide a valid basis for recommending vitamins, minerals, or other dietary supplements [2,3]

In the mid-1980s, about 18 laboratories were doing commercial hair analysis in the United States. Today there are fewer. Some laboratories have belonged to the American Society of Elemental Testing Laboratories (ASETL). In 1982, ASETL began a program in which a well-known proficiency-testing service received and tabulated the data from analyses of identical hair samples sent to seven member laboratories. However, at the end of the year, the testing service refused to continue because the data were inconsistent and appeared to have no clinical significance.

In 1983 and 1984, I sent hair samples from two healthy teenagers to 13 of the commercial laboratories [4]. In 1985, I sent paired samples from one of the girls to five more labs. The reported levels of most minerals varied considerably between identical samples sent to the same laboratory, and from laboratory to laboratory. The laboratories also disagreed about what is "normal" or "usual" for many of the minerals, so that a given mineral value might be considered low by some laboratories, normal by others and high by others.

Most of the reports contained computerized interpretations that were voluminous and potentially frightening to patients. The nine labs that included supplement advice in their reports suggested them every time, but the types and amounts varied widely from report to report and from lab to lab. Many of the items recommended were bizarre mixtures of vitamins, minerals, nonessential food substances, enzymes, and extracts of animal organs. One report diagnosed 23 "possible or probable conditions," including atherosclerosis and kidney failure, and recommended 56 supplement doses per day. Literature from most of the laboratories suggested that their reports were useful in managing a wide variety of diseases and supposed nutrient imbalances. I concluded that commercial use of hair analysis in this manner is unscientific, economically wasteful, and probably illegal, and that even if hair analysis were a valuable diagnostic tool, it is doubtful whether the laboratory reports themselves were reliable.

In 1985, the public affairs committee of the American Institute of Nutrition/American Society for Clinical Nutrition issued a position paper on hair analysis. The paper concluded that although hair analysis may have some value for comparing population groups as to status of various minerals or assessing exposure to heavy metals, assessment of individual subjects appears to have "almost insurmountable difficulties." For this reason, said the paper, hair analysis might best be reserved for experimental studies designed to evaluate its potential as an indicator of nutrition status and perhaps for some public health surveys. Noting that about 100 articles a year were published on hair analysis, one nutritionist who reviewed the position paper suggested that the test's inherent limitations made much of the research useless [5].

The AMA's current policy on hair analysis—adopted in 1984 and reaffirmed in 1994, is:

The AMA opposes chemical analysis of the hair as a determinant of the need for medical therapy and supports informing the American public and appropriate governmental agencies of this unproven practice and its potential for health care fraud [6].

Some hair analysis proponents claim that hair analysis can detect allergies. The claim is completely senseless. In 1987, the Lancet published a study in which the ability to diagnose allergic disease was studied in 9 fish-allergic and 9 control subjects, who provided specimens of blood and hair for testing. All fish-allergic subjects had previously been shown at Guy's Hospital to have a positive skin prick test to fish. The specimens were submitted as coded, duplicate samples to five commercial laboratories that offered to test for allergy. All five laboratories were not only unable to diagnose fish allergy but also reported many allergies in apparently non-allergic subjects and provided inconsistent results on duplicate samples from the same subject [7].

A subsequent 2-year study of students exposed to fumes from metal welding found that hair analysis did not consistently reflect blood levels of 11 heavy metals [8].

In 1999, researchers from the California Department of Health located nine laboratories and sent identical samples to six of them. The reported mineral levels, the alleged significance of the findings, and the recommendations made in the reports differed widely from one to another. The researchers concluded that the procedure is still unreliable and recommended that government agencies act vigorously to protect consumers [9].

In 2001, German researchers did a study similar to mine in whch they sent hair samples from two volunteers to seven commercial hair analysis laboratories. They found inconsistencies in both both the results and the laboratory reference ranges and concluded that "hair mineral analysis from these laboratories is unreliable." [10]

Government Actions

Hair analysis was involved in a case prosecuted in 1980 by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. According to the official press release, Benjamin Colimore and his wife, Sarah, owners of a health-food store, would take hair samples from customers in order to diagnose and treat various conditions. Prosecution was initiated after a customer complained that the Colimores had said she had a bad heart valve and was suffering from abscesses of the pancreas, arsenic in her system, and benign growths of the liver, intestine, and stomach-all based on analysis of her hair. Two substances were prescribed, an "herbal tea" which turned out to be only milk sugar, and "Arsenicum," another milk-sugar product that contained traces of arsenic. Another sample of hair was taken when the customer returned to the store five weeks later. She was told that the earlier conditions were gone, but that she now had lead in her stomach. A government investigator received similar diagnosis and treatment. After pleading "no contest" to one count of practicing medicine without a license, the Colimores were fined $2,000, given a sixty-day suspended jail sentence, and placed on probation for two years.

In 1985, in response to a petition by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against Arthur, Ethel and Alan Furman and any business through which they might act. The order forbids "holding themselves out . . . to persons other than health professionals, as being able, on the basis of hair analysis, to measure accurately the elemental content of a person's body or to recommend vitamin, mineral or other dietary supplements which can correct chemical excesses and deficiencies in a person's body." [11] As a result of the FTC action, the Furmans' laboratory closed and, until the Internet became popular, direct advertising to the public was rare. However, the FTC has ignored the laboratories that serve practitioners because it feels that practitioner misconduct should be regulated by state agencies.

In 1986, Analytical Research Laboratories (ARL) of Phoenix, Arizona signed a consent agreement with the New York State Attorney General to stop "soliciting and accepting hair specimens for laboratory examination where the purpose is to determine possible excesses of deficiencies in nutrient mineral levels or toxic metal levels in the body." The Attorney General acted because a health food store proprietor had been using hair analysis as the basis for recommending vitamin and mineral supplements. ARL had not been licensed to operate within New York State, and hair analysis for the purpose of determining nutrient levels is not legal there.

In 1986, Doctor's Data, a Chicago-based laboratory agreed to stop accepting human hair specimens from New York State unless it can obtain a permit from the New York State Department of Health. The company also agreed to pay $25,000 in costs and penalties. Action was taken because a bogus "nutrition consultant" had been using the test as a basis for prescribing vitamins, minerals, and other supplements.

A Sampling of Internet Claims

Biochemical Laboratories, of Edgewood, New Mexico, claimed that abdominal pain, hypertension, anemia, hypoglycemia, anxiety, impotence, depression, infertility, diarrhea, joint pain, learning, disorders, fatigue, headache, and premenstrual syndrome all result from "chronic metal imbalances," which, presumably, can be diagnosed with hair analysis and treated with dietary supplements.

Trace Elements, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, has promoted "balancing body chemistry through hair tissue mineral analysis." The company claims to have developed "a precise nutritional therapeutic approach based on the recognition of eight individual biochemical types using elemental analysis of hair." It has also sold "metabolic supplements synergistically formulated" for each of these types. It markets primarily through chiropractors.

Trace Mineral Systems, of Alexandria, Virginia, touted its hair analysis as "the test that helps body chemistry" and markets it directly to the public. A recent magazine ad claimed that its test reports would show "the body's excesses, deficiencies & toxicities and the diseases associated with them." [12]

Doctor's Data reports the level of a "toxic mineral" as high when the amount is near the top of its "reference range." This merely means that the specimen contained more than most other specimens handled by the lab. It does not mean that the level is abnormal or that the level within the patient's body is dangerous. In a recent paper, the company acknowledged that "compared to interpretation of commonly measured analyses in blood or serum, interpretation of elemental analyses from hair seems primitive." Despite, this, the authors claimed that it would be prudent to "adopt a reference range consistent with what is observed in 95% of a healthy population." [13]

The Bottom Line

Hair analysis is worthless for assessing the body's nutritional status or serving as a nasis for dietary or supplement recommendations. Should you encounter a practitioner who claims otherwise, run for the nearest exit!

For Additional Information

• Aetna Clinical Policy Bulletin on Hair Analysis
• Mercury Testing in Hair

References

1. Lazar P. Hair analysis: What does it tell us? JAMA 229:1908-1909, 1974.
2. Hambidge KM. Hair analyses: Worthless for vitamins, limited for minerals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 36:943-949, 1983.
3. Klevay LM and others. Hair analysis in clinical and experimental medicine. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 46:233-236, 1987.
4. Barrett S. Commercial hair analysis: Science or scam? JAMA 254:1041-1045, 1985.
5. Fosmire GJ et al. Hair analysis to assess nutritional status. AIN Nutrition Notes 21(4):10-11, 1985.
6. Hair analysis: A potential for medical abuse. Policy number H-175.995,(Sub. Res. 67, I-84; Reaffirmed by CLRPD Rep. 3 - I-94)
7. Sethi TJ and others. How reliable are commercial allergy tests? Lancet Jan 10;1(8524):92-94, 1987.
8. Teresa M and others. Trace-element concentration in blood and hair of young apprentices of a technical-professional school. The Science of the Total Environment 205:189-193, 1997.
9. Seidel S and others. Assessment of commercial laboratories performing hair mineral analysis. JAMA 285:67-72, 2001.
10. Drasch G, Roider G. Assessment of hair mineral analysis commercially offered in Germany. Journal of Trace Elements in Medical Biology 16:27-31, 2002.
11. FTC v Furman, 1985-1 CCH Trade Case (CCH) ¶66486 (ED Va 1985).
12. Trace Mineral Systems. Alternative Medicine Digest, Aug/Sept 1998, p 99.
13. Druyan ME and others. Determination of reference ranges for elements in human scalp hair. Biological Trace Element Research 62:183-197, 1998