The Test
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis, in plain language.
HTMA measures the mineral content of hair — a slow-turnover tissue that reflects intracellular status over months, not moments. It's a window into chronic patterns that blood tests can miss.
Why hair?
Blood tells today. Hair tells the last season.
Serum levels are tightly regulated — the body will pull minerals from bone and tissue to keep blood values steady. That's useful biology, but it hides deficiency.
Hair, on the other hand, is not homeostatically regulated. Once minerals are deposited in the shaft, they stay — offering a stable record of what's been circulating.
The same principle applies to toxic metals: mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum, and arsenic accumulate in hair and can be flagged long before they appear in blood.
How it works
Four steps, start to protocol.
01
Collect the sample
About one tablespoon of hair is cut from the nape of the neck — the newest inch closest to the scalp. Hair is a soft-tissue reservoir that records mineral status over roughly the last 90 days.
02
Lab digestion & ICP-MS
A certified lab digests the hair and analyzes it via inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry to quantify 20+ essential and toxic elements in parts per million.
03
Read the ratios
HTMA is more than levels — it's the ratios (Ca/K, Na/Mg, Zn/Cu) and oxidation type that tell the metabolic story: fast, slow, or mixed patterns.
04
Build a protocol
Findings guide a mineral-first plan: replenish depleted minerals, support drainage, and address toxic metal burden with the right cofactors.