Minerals are involved in all body functions. The chemical elements are the basic building blocks of our bodies. Even more telling are the ratios between minerals. Ratios represent relationships and balances in the body. Using hair analysis to assess balances and relationships provides information about every body system.
Hair mineral analysis is more than a test for minerals.
The analysis can show your horse's metabolic rate, stage of stress, immune system status, and adrenal and thyroid glandular activity. It also gives accurate information about carbohydrate tolerance, energy levels and tendencies for over 30 illnesses, often years before they are manifest. The analysis can indicate if your horse is getting enough protein or too many carbohydrates.
Trainers can use hair mineral analysis to help distinguish which symptoms or behaviors are due to biochemistry, and which are of emotional origin.
Balancing and strengthening your horse's body chemistry can enhance the effectiveness of his training.
Breeders can use hair analysis to screen brood mares for nutritional deficiencies and toxic metals.
Toxic metal poisoning is often passed on from mother to baby. Hair analysis can be used to help remove toxic metals in the brood mare's body before the metals are passed on to the next generation. This would reduce birth defects and foal mortality, and assure easier pregnancies and healthier foals.
Veterinarians can use hair analysis as a predictive and preventive health care method.
The chemical imbalances related to many conditions often develop years before the symptoms show up. Correcting the imbalances may prevent the disease altogether. Hair testing is one of very few ways to obtain a permanent, reproducible, graphic record of deep changes in body chemistry.
HOW IS ALL THIS POSSIBLE FROM YOUR HORSE'S HAIR?
Minerals are involved in all body functions. The chemical elements are the basic building blocks of our bodies. Even more telling are the ratios between minerals. Ratios represent relationships and balances in the body. Using hair analysis to assess balances and relationships provides information about every body system.
Why use your horse's hair?
Your horse's hair is classified as a soft tissue of the body. Hair analysis is a soft tissue mineral biopsy. A biopsy is an analysis of a body tissue, in this case to detect mineral levels. Hair analysis provides a reading of the mineral deposition in the cells and interstitial spaces of the hair over a 2-3 month period. Hair analysis is used as a screening test.
Your horse's hair makes an excellent biopsy material because:
- Sampling is simple and non-invasive.
- Hair is a stable biopsy material. It needs no special handling and remains viable for years.
- Mineral levels in the hair are about 10 times that of blood, making them easy to detect in the hair.
- Hair provides a unique cellular reading of the mineral levels.
- The cells, not the blood or urine, are the major site of metabolic activity.
- Hair analysis is one of the few ways to detect toxic metals. Toxic metals concentrate in the soft tissues, not in the blood or urine.
INTERPRETATION OF TEST RESULTS
Normal values used in mineral analysis are derived the same way normal values are derived for blood tests. Large numbers of tests are run on healthy horses to determine the normal ranges. Ideal ratios are most important for the interpretation of the test. Percentage changes in mineral values have great significance. An improvement in a reading from 10 mg% to 20 mg% is a 100% improvement! Twenty mg% is still a low calcium reading, but the change can make a crucial difference in the way a horse feels. Similarly, an increase in the calcium/magnesium ratio from 4:1 to 6:1 may not appear large, but is a 50% improvement. This can cause significant change in horses' symptoms.
Twelve interpretation principles are used when reading a hair analysis test:
1. Systems principle (all the hair mineral readings are inter-dependent and part of a mineral system)
2. Holism principle (a hair analysis represents dietary intake, and is a reflection of all aspects of a horse's past and present diet, life stage, activity and training as they affect body chemistry)
3. Adaptation principle (the hair analysis reveals how the body is adapting to and compensating for stress)
4. Oxidation types (it is helpful to identify fast, slow and mixed oxidation types as this guides nutritional therapy)
5. Stage of stress (alarm, resistance and exhaustion stages of stress can be identified from a hair analysis). Knowing the stage of stress provides extra information about the horse?s body chemistry that assists interpretation and correction.
6. Energetics (to assess energy levels by assessing glucose tolerance, oxidation rate and the energy pathways)
7. Layers of adaptation (a single hair analysis represents the top layer? of adaptation present. Retests reveal deeper layers of adaptation, as the surface adaptations are cleared)
8. Tissue biopsy (a hair analysis is a biopsy type of reading of the cells and interstitial spaces of the hair)
9. Averaging (the readings reflect the average rate of deposition of minerals in the hair during the sampling period)
10. Bio-availability (a mineral may be present but not available for use)
11. Ratios (mineral ratios are as important as or more important than the mineral levels on a hair analysis)
12. Summation (each hair reading represents a sum of metabolic events)
HAIR ANALYSIS AND DIET
Hair analysis is an excellent way to guide dietary recommendations and to help assess how a horse is metabolizing food. A diet may appear to be correct, but it is often difficult to know if your horse is getting the correct amounts of nutrients. Hair analysis and ration analysis help reduce the guesswork involved in designing a diet and supplement program for your horse. Hair analysis allows supplement programs to be based on a deeper understanding of biochemical causes of ill health.
To order your Hair Mineral Analysis through Equus Research Lab, or for more information about the procedure: mary@equusresearchlab.com or 860-887-1581
LINK to full article at http://equusresearchlab.com/html/hair_mineral_analysis1.html Entire article appears at http://equusresearchlab.com/html/hair_mineral_analysis1.html