Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) is a non-invasive biopsy that can identify mineral imbalances and deficiencies from a small sample of your hair. It measures the amount of minerals and heavy metals that are excreted into your hair follicles, which is one of the ways our body eliminates minerals and toxins.
When you sign up for a consultation, the lab cost is included in the package price. Once you sign up, you will receive instructions for how to prepare your hair, take your hair sample (about 1 inch of hair is needed from close to your scalp), and send your hair into the lab.
It can take 2-3 weeks to receive your results from the lab once they receive the sample from you. So it could be 3-6 weeks until we have our consult based on
- when you send the sample in
- how long the lab takes to send the results
- how booked out my consults are at the time I receive your results
You can see some small examples of HTMA results here and here.
Essential Things You Should Consider Before Booking Your Analysis
- This is not a quick fix. In our consultation, you will receive a protocol for the next three months. It can take years to detox heavy metals and bring your mineral levels back into balance.
- Mineral Nutritional Balancing works BEST when you retest after three months. I will likely recommend different supplements every three months as your hair analysis will evolve as you heal. I recommend giving yourself a year to commit to this program and then reevaluate to see how this program works. The longer you engage, the more benefit you will receive.
- The supplements I work with are a mix of whole food based supplementation plus a supplement line explicitly formulated for HTMA patterns.
- Supplements alone are not going to heal you. I also recommend nutrition practices and gentle detoxification practices that are critical to incorporate for root cause healing.
- I focus on a NOURISH FIRST approach. I will not recommend kale salads and green juices or focus on restricting things from your diet. I weave in traditional ancestral food principles and will support you in finding ways to make these accessible for modern living. I believe food needs to be nourishing and enjoyable. I will likely tell you to remove gluten because it is pretty inflammatory for most people - but I've seen time and again that when people start eating enough nutrient-dense foods, the unhealthy addictions to sugar, alcohol, etc., begin to fall away on their own.
- Your healing process may evoke what are called 'healing reactions' in the program -- essentially, you may have bouts of symptoms recur, feel more fatigued, experience headaches, diarrhea, or other symptoms you have been struggling with. These should not last long, and if/when these arise, I suggest stopping the mineral supplements for some time to allow your body to integrate. These reactions are part of the healing and can often result from your body eliminating a lot of heavy metals as it receives the preferred minerals and nutrients it has been missing.
- I recommend an animal-based diet to all of my clients. This is not the right program if you are not open to eating an animal-based diet.
- The HTMA focuses on overall metabolic function, not diagnosing illness. It provides insights into how well critical metabolic systems like the adrenals, thyroid, and liver function. It also provides insight into your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and overall cellular vitality (relating to inflammation). It can also help you understand if your metabolism is slower or faster.
- This test and how I run my consults are very comprehensive. Before we meet, you will fill out an extensive client intake form. I spend hours reviewing your results and intake form before we meet, and in our 90-minute consult, we often cover physical symptoms along with lifestyle changes, psychological orientation towards life, and stress reduction practices.
If you would like to book a consultation or have any questions for me, please sign up for a 15-minute call here.
Warmly,
Sena
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