Hair Toxic and Essential Elements-Doctor's Data Kit:
Note: This is a home collection test kit that will be mailed to you.
Fasting Required: No
Lab: Doctor's Data
Specimen: Head Hair or Pubic Hair
Results: Average processing time 2-4 business days
Note: Result turnaround times are an estimate and are not guaranteed. Our reference lab may need additional time due to weather, holidays, confirmation/repeat testing, or equipment maintenance.
Special Instructions: The test requires no special diet and you do not need to discontinue taking medications or dietary supplements unless otherwise instructed by your physician. Never discontinue prescription medications without first consulting your physician.
Collect the hair specimen according to the directions on the included scale. Hair that has been permed, dyed, bleached or otherwise chemically treated is vulnerable to contamination and is not recommended for analysis. Do no mix head hair with pubic hair.
Cut samples of hair from back of the head. Using stainless steel scissors, cut hair as close to the scalp as possible. It is best if small amounts of hair are cut from 5 or 6 areas in the back of the head.
As each piece of hair is cut from the head, save only 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the hair closest to the scalp. Cut off and discard the rest. The total weight of hair needed is 0.25 grams.
Please Note: Pubic hair and scalp hair are very different tissues with respect to protein and chemical composition, and rate of growth. The levels of most nutrients elements in pubic and scalp hair for a given individual are typically quite different. Although we do have reference ranges for nutrient elements in pubic hair specimens, there is a lack of clinical data to support sound interpretation at this time. For potentially toxic elements, however, there appears to be good correlation between scalp and pubic hair. Some clinicians utilize pubic hair for toxic element analyze, (a) to confirm results from scalp hair, and/or (b) when scalp hair has been recently treated with dye or permanent and bleaching reagents.
Description: A specialist and pioneer in essential and toxic elemental testing since 1972, Doctor's Data has been validated as a supplier of trace element results for the certification of a hair reference material to the European Commission Joint Research Centre. With respect to its contained elements, hair is essentially an excretory tissue rather than a functional tissue. Hair element analysis provides important information which, in conjunction with symptoms and other laboratory values, can assist the physician with an early diagnosis of physiological disorders associated with aberrations in essential and toxic element metabolism.
As protein is synthesized in the hair follicle, elements are incorporated permanently into the hair with no further exchange or equilibration with other tissues. Scalp hair is easy to sample, and because it grows an average of one to two cm per month, it contains a "temporal record" of element metabolism and exposure to toxic elements.
Nutrient elements including magnesium, chromium, zinc, copper and selenium are obligatory co-factors for hundreds of important enzymes and also are essential for the normal functions of vitamins. The levels of these elements in hair are correlated with levels in organs and other tissues.
Toxic elements may be 200 to 300 times more highly concentrated in hair than in blood or urine. Therefore, hair is the tissue of choice for detection of recent exposure to elements such as arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, lead, antimony and mercury. The CDC acknowledges the value of hair mercury levels as a maternal and infant marker for exposure to neurotoxic methylmercury from fish.
Includes:
- Aluminum
- Antimony
- Arsenic
- Barium
- Beryllium
- Bismuth
- Boron
- Cadmium
- Calcium
- Chromium
- Cobalt
- Copper
- Germanium
- Iodine
- Iron
- Lead
- Lithium
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Mercury
- Molybdenum
- Nickel
- Phosphorus
- Platinum
- Potassium
- Rubidium
- Selenium
- Silver
- Sodium
- Strontium
- Sulfur
- Thallium
- Thorium
- Tin
- Titanium
- Uranium
- Vanadium
- Zinc
- Zirconium