Response to sstieger

[Guest guest]

Hi Shirley,

Welcome to the group. I've been using hair analysis for myself for over 10

years and find that the results are very consistent. Unfortunately the

results take some interpretation. For example, it seems that everyone in our

group has high calcium and magnesium levels, but that usually means that

calcium and magnesium are being excreted fast and are probably not available

to the body, so supplementation of these is necessary. So just because an

element is high in the hair doesn't always mean that you have high levels in

your blood. Dr. has reviewed over 10,000 hair analyses, has written a

textbook about hair mineral analysis, and teaches other doctors how to

interpret analyses. I feel that he is very well qualified to do this and will

use him to do my next hair analysis.

On the other hand, I disagree with some of the supplements that he recommends

and I don't feel that he understands the thyroid or pheo conditions very well.

So far we have seen patterns developing in our group which Dr. says

are unusual: in particular, we are slow oxidizers (high ca/mg) with low

sodium/potassium ratio (Na/K). We are trying to figure out what this means.

The Na/K ratio applies to the sodium/potassium pump which moves materials

into and out of cells. I was studying this and calcium channels today and it

is interesting that in hyperthyroidism the Na/K pump in overactive for all of

the body's cells except the red blood cells. Many scientists are trying to

figure out why the membrane of the red blood cells is not allowing materials

to pass very readily. The result is that the hyperthyroidic becomes anemic.

It's a mystery at this point, but the low Na/K ratio in the hair seems to be a

sign of this disturbance in the sodium/potassium pump action.

We have spent a lot of time looking at the possibility of mercury toxicity in

thyroid diseases. In 1985 I became very sick after getting a mercury amalgam

filling installed and then the same thing happened in 1986 when I had two

fillings installed. I subsequently became hypothyroidic which wasn't

corrected until I had all my mercury fillings replaced and began to take

selenium. When I developed hyperT in 1997 my hair levels of mercury were high

(and this was 9 years after complete amalgam removal) and then dropped to

undetectable levels by the time I recovered. I credit selenium

supplementation for that improvement.

I believe that mercury is a very serious problem which is amplified when the

person is also selenium deficient. I would certainly think it would be a good

idea to determine if you have high levels of mercury.

Interestingly the 's syndrome to which you refer is related. This is a

different Dr. from our hair analysis doctor, and is not to be confused

with 's disease, which is excess copper in the blood--it's a coincidence

that we are dealing with copper a lot. 's syndrome occurs when there is

poor conversion of the prohormone T4 into the cellularly active hormone T3.

This conversion requires selenium enzymes and I believe that the conversion

problem is probably completely a result of a selenium deficiency (and this

selenium deficiency might be caused by excess mercury).

Whether your hypothyroidism has immune involvement (Hashimoto's thyroiditis)

or not, it appears that the same nutrient deficiencies are involved and

correcting the hypothyroidic condition will cause the immune system

involvement to stop.

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