Has anyone here ever done the Mineral/toxic hair test? If yes, what were your results?

If not hair, did anyone have positive results with a blood or urine test? If not, then how does one know for sure if you are mercury toxic?

Hi Snowbird, as far as I understand it mercury testing is really hard to judge. It can give a pretty misleading result. You can be heavily poisoned with mercury but have it bound up in your tissue and organs and show a very low level on a hair test (retention toxicity). Some of the sickest patients how the lowest levels.

In normal healthy people, there is a certain level of mercury because we are all exposed to it daily in many different ways. If a person is showing every sign of toxicity from metals/mercury, yet shows almost no level, it can be a very bad sign rather than good.

If a person shows a high level, it maybe acute exposure, or that they are readily eliminating the mercury that they are being exposed to.

Someone with a low level may have it bound up tightly OR they are simply so intolerant to mercury it may only take a very small amount to make them sick.

There are many reasons for differing results. I think an expert has to do many forms of testing to see whether mercury is behind it. Like looking at certain mineral levels that mercury interfers with and looking for a pattern that might be typical in mercury toxicity.

I showed very low levels on my hair test and very low levels of selenium (which mercury competes with), and I think very high potassium levels etc. all my metals were basically low, yet I showed extremely obvious metal toxicity. I actually smelt of metal, tasted metal and had all the symptoms, yet because my hair test and other testing showed little to nothing, I was then disregarded by the doctor in question.

I was very lucky to have one of the best doctors in NZ explain to me why this was happening and he explained that in very toxic invididuals a low level is a bad sign and he likes to try to get the levels UP, so that it shows the mercury is starting to come out and show in the hair.

So I dont take too much note of hair, blood/urine testing. I think it might be possible to provoke mercury outwards into the urine if there is a properly done chelation challenge testing, but it's got to be done right or that can go wrong also.

HOw do you know for sure if you have mercury? Probably getting a hair test and checking for mineral levels. Also another indication is your reaction to specific mercury detox products. if you get an exacerbation of symptoms or improvements, that can be another sign you may have nailed your problem. My reaction to mercury chelation was very obvious I was loaded with metals. I used to salivate uncontrollably as my body tried to eliminate what the chelating agents had stirred up. I would also come out in rashes and as I said, smell of metals.

But everybody is different. You can usually put two and two together by different types of testing, checking the mercury symptom list and trying chelation to see your reaction. Though I'd be really careful to do any chelating whilst you have amalgams still in. Maybe ok for some, but others can get very sick.

snowbird,
I had a hair test done. It showed very low levels of heavy metals, and no mercury, but my minerals were very derranged.
I also had a unprovoked urine test which showed high aluminum, cadmium, and barium. Nutrients were again derranged but not really close to the hair test.
hth some.

I just did a DMSA challange test a few days ago and get results next month to see what turns up.
My selenium was also nill to nothing as well Bex .
hth some.

Hello Snowbird:

We need a better way to prove mercury poisoning.

I did a Urine test ordered by my new doctor - a challenge test using NDF+. It showed an elevated level of mercury, but not totally toxic. Yet I had tons of symptoms.

I have been tracking hair results. I also have been tracking blood - I think I see some more conclusive things in that tracking than hair, but you will note that chelation seems to work - you can see the levels dropping over time. It's the way I know if I am getting results or not. If anyone wants, I can post blank blood and hair tracking forms. (Sorry can't attach a .xls file - tried....)

Also, please note that before the first test, I may have been over the limit on mercury, but I will never know as I did not start hair testing until I had worked my way through 3 or 4 ? bottles of NDF+ the doctor prescribed me. And yes, I found out later that Cutler does not believe in NDF,or think it works, but it did help me. Because of Cutler, I stopped NDF+ later and took up DMSA and then DMSA and ALA. NDF+ uses what they say is nanonized chlorella, which is supposed to be the key to safe, effective chelation. But I really have not heard much about NDF in quite some time -wonder what's up with that?

On the hair testing itself, I feel there is strong evidence also of deranged mineral transport, but I do not meet Cutler's counting rules. However, I was supplementing heavily for some time before the tests. Maybe that affected some of the values.

(Sorry can't attach a .xls file - tried...)

I just ordered a Hair test from these guys, http://www.directlabs.com/index.php

“hair elements” @ $93 is the test I have just ordered.

Reason I ordered this is because this test is that Andy Culters uses and it is easier to compare/understand the hair test results. His book “Hair Test Interpretation” can be used to understand what’s going on..

http://www.noamalgam.com/hairtestbook.html

“It is best to go with DDI because they have the best reputation for hair analysis and Andy used DDI tests to develope the counting rules.

They are good for finding things like thyroid and adrenal problems, sugar regulation problems, need for digestive enzymes, stomach acid.”

http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/HOW_TO_hair_test.html#counting_rules

Found this...

The Diagnostic Dilemma
Since mercury, soon after entering the body (naturally or iatrogenic) is firmly bound in the nervous system (brain, spinal chord, peripheral motor and sensory ganglia, autonomic ganglia), it does not appear in the blood, hair, urine, feces, sweat or any other body fluids (except for a short period after acute exposure). Therefore, a regular trace element analysis of these body "compartments" will not show any mercury toxicity. There are to my knowledge currently four types of tests which can demonstrate CNS mercury toxicity:

(1) Placing fillings with radio labeled mercury and subsequently scanning the brain/spinal chord for radioactive emissions. l

(2) Brain/spinal chord tissue biopsy and analysis.

(3) New MRI technology, that scans the brain for spectral emissions typical for mercury (based on resonance principles. 9

A current research project studying amino acids is under way at the University of Washington, Seattle using the same MRI technology. The author has modified this technique into a low tech manual approach referred to as "autonomic response testing' (A.R.T.) which uses the same resonance principles.

(4) Challenge tests with complexing or chelating agents (administration of appropriate agent followed by mercury urinalysis). Our clinical experience has shown that when a patient is mineral deficient (especially sodium, calcium or potassium), the body is unable to mobilize toxic metals with a challenge test!!! The mineral status has to be corrected before successful mobilization for mercury should be attempted.

All four approaches have demonstrated significant levels of mercury in patients with a history of dental amalgam fillings.

from...
http://www.saveyourteeth.com/metals2.htm

Sandi
xoxo

For those interested, Cutler's "Hair Test Interpretation" book is also available here on this website (choose First Class shipping for cheapest rates):

Hair Test Interpretation by Dr. Andrew Cutler

Sandi:

Hope all is well with you. Great info!

I'll take curtain #3. The box at #4 I tried and did not impress me too much. The curtains at #1 and #2 seem to be too close to final curtains. But if there were a safe method of "tagging" or showing existing mercury, it would be great. I feel strongly there is a way right now that this can be done. Maybe #3 is that way????

Please let us know if you find more. Wouldn't it be great if they could show us how much mercury is in our brains? Then we would know when we were done chelating.

TW

I don't think we will ever really be done chelating TW, we are ingesting more metals every day just by breathing. But I think you will know when you are better, I sure felt one hell of a lot better immediately after getting my amalgams out. My head came out of my shoulders and my chronic neck and back pain all but disappeared.

But testing would be neat, but I really don't believe there is anyway to measure what is left in our bodies, only what is coming out.

best love,
Sandi
xoxox

Would a hair test come out w/ a mercury indicating set of mineral unbalances if you were supplementing with them?

I believe Andrew Cutler's Hair Test Interpretation book (which is available on this website) does indicate that mineral imbalances will show up due to mercury toxicity, even if one is supplementing with minerals. If I recall, he indicates that mercury toxic people often have to take many times greater mineral doses than non-toxic people, even in amounts that might be considered excessive. This is because mercury interferes with the absorption and utilization of minerals.

In my personal experience, even though I supplemented daily with a high multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, along with a large handful of various other herbal and nutritional supplements, my hair test still showed mineral deficiencies.

We actually have several sample pages from Cutler's Hair Test book on our website, which might help you get a sense of the type of information he provides and how it is presented.

Hope this helps,