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Mastering Nutrition

Is Hair Mineral Testing Useful? | Masterjohn Q&A Files #328

Nov 20, 2023
The podcast discusses the usefulness of hair trace mineral analysis for nutritional testing. It explores the limitations of hair mineral content as a test for specific minerals and highlights the need for corroboration from other validated tests. The chapters cover topics such as the value of HTMA for ultra trace minerals and edge cases, reliable markers for zinc deficiency, and recent scientific papers on hair mineral analysis.
24:15

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Hair trace mineral analysis (HTMA) can capture data for ultra-trace minerals without well-validated tests and identify mineral transport issues.
  • Validated markers like plasma zinc are more reliable than HTMA for assessing nutritional status and predicting deficiency symptoms.

Deep dives

Limitations of HTMA for Nutritional Status Testing

While hair trace mineral analysis (HTMA) can be a useful add-on for certain scenarios, it is not a highly validated or central tool for assessing nutritional status. The lack of well-validated markers for ultra trace minerals has led to the inclusion of HTMA as a means to capture some data in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, HTMA can be valuable in edge cases where other markers may not provide clear insights. However, it is important to note that HTMA is not a reliable indicator of zinc deficiency, as hair zinc concentration does not decline during zinc deficiency due to hair growth adjustments. Other markers, such as plasma zinc, offer more accurate representations of zinc status.

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