I had lots of questions and concerns raised when I posted my hair mineral analysis test a short time back. In fact some people were scared for my life due to the super high arsenic levels. So I figured I would address those concerns a bit more here.
Is arsenic bad?
Arsenic and many of its compounds are especially potent poisons. Many water supplies close to mines are contaminated by these poisons. Arsenic disrupts ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits lipoic acid, which is a cofactor for pyruvate dehydrogenase; and by competing with phosphate it uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which, it is speculated, has potential to form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure, it is presumed from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis. A post mortem reveals brick-red-coloured mucosa, owing to severe haemorrhage. Although arsenic causes toxicity, it can also play a protective role. From wikipedia.
What caused this high arsenic level?
Unfortunately I’m not sure on this question. There are two options.
1) My body actually has accumulated a lot of arsenic at some point.
2) The sample was somehow contaminated.
Here are a list of symptoms:
- Headaches
- Confusion
- Severe diarrhea
- Drowsiness
- Convulsions
- Changes in fingernail pigmentation
- Vomiting
- Blood in the urine
- Cramping muscles
- Hair loss
- Stomach pain
Since I have zero of these symptoms, and in general am completely healthy, I’m leaning toward option two. However that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything about it.
So where might it have come from? Again I’m not sure.
Sometimes water is contaminated. I suppose I could have my sources checked. But having moved around much in the past year my sources have often changed.
Recently in the news lots has been made of high arsenic levels in juices. Besides using some apple juice for certain cleanses (when I couldn’t freshly juice my own) I don’t drink juice. So this couldn’t be it.
Perhaps I just somehow got arsenic in my hair that day? The truth is I don’t know where it came from but I can move onto the next step and see what can be done about it.
What can be done to remove Arsenic?
There are some really great chelating natural foods like chlorella and cilantro. I’ve heard many times from many sources these remove heavy metals. But arsenic is not a heavy metal or is it? Technically it’s classed as a metalloid, something that has metal and non-metal characteristics. And with some more research I found that these foods do seem to be not just heavy metal removers but metalloid removers too.
A new experiment conducted at the Department of Pharmacology at the Mymensingh Medical College in Bangladesh discovered that Spirulina extracts can effectively remove arsenic from the livers of mice suffering from arsenic poisoning (arsenicosis)
It also appears that garlic specifically scavenges arsenic from the blood.
The good news is these are foods I use some-what regularly and plan take even more now.
After doing this for awhile I’ll get another hair mineral analysis and see what the changes may be.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Health by on Feb 10th, 2012. 11 Comments. 
I recently got a hair mineral analysis test done. This was just one more in the line of testing of done on my health in the past year. You can read about my blood test and my omega test.
This test takes a small amount of your hair, which is then sent to a lab, then you get a report full of details on the many minerals in your body (and thus your hair). Hair is generally recognized as the best way to test minerals, as they’ll all be found in the hair and it shows the results over time, not just a snapshot of one day, like other tests might.
Here are my results:
Hair Mineral Analysis Test
Along with these two pages of charts the hair mineral analysis then included many pages describing the results and action steps you can take to correct the problems.
What immediately jumped out to me was the sky high Arsenic level I had. In the info they stated it would be good to test again and possibly in some other ways to see if the cause was external or a chronic internal problem. There were also suggestions on high arsenic foods (from pollution) that should be avoided.
Other issues were a little high on sodium levels. This can easily be dealt with by cutting back on salt. And let me say there is a big difference between chemically treated salt and a natural sea salt. But even the healthy salts can obviously be overdone.
Then we get to the ratios. From the report it states:
Continuing research indicates that metabolic dysfunction occur not necessarily as a result of a deficiency or excess of a particular mineral level, but more frequently from an abnormal balance (ratio) between the minerals.
I had a low Calcium/Potassium ratio. To fix this all I need to do is eat more calcium containing foods, cut back on potassium containing foods, supplement with a quality calcium (of which the vast majority of calcium in supplements are not), do some things to increase calcium absorption, or a combination of any and all of the above.
Along with the recommendations you’ll also find some possible symptoms you could have from the deficiency, excess, or abnormal ratio. Overall its quite complete and will give you lots to play with. Even if you don’t follow all the suggestions it will give you a number of things to test and try out.
So the bottomline is if you are serious about your health, getting testing is well worth it. A blood test is probably the best place to start, but I would put this as a close second. Add to the fact that its cheaper to have this one done, and you may want to get started here.
I got my hair mineral test done thru Mineralife. For less than $100 you can do the same, and then they have some of the best quality mineral supplements (ones that I personally use) that can aid in any corrections you need to make.
If you have any questions or comments write them below.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Health by on Jan 27th, 2012. 2 Comments.
