The Missing Piece to Root Cause Health
Everyone seems to have their own definition of “root cause health” in holistic health, and oftentimes it starts with gut health, hormones, inflammation, or something else that is still, ultimately, a consequence. There is nothing wrong with supporting these areas of health, but this still leaves out a missing piece of the puzzle potentially leading to short-term gains at the expense of longterm, systemic healing. What is this foundational aspect of health that people miss? Minerals.
Minerals have often been called the stepchildren of nutrition – forgotten about in favor of more trendy topics. But minerals are involved in all bodily functions, and are the essential building blocks of our bodies.
Why is it that minerals are treated so inconsequentially in the health world?
Addressing minerals is not a money maker.
Anyone with a basic understanding of the medical industrial complex will appreciate the weight of this answer. When we realize the root of so many symptoms, disorders, and diseases is as simple as mineral balance, big pharma loses out. Sure, there may be attempts to patent specific forms of magnesium, but really, you cannot have a sole legal claim on a nutrient. So how does a big company or industry profit, at least in the way it does off of a drug?
Bloodwork is the preferred form of testing for most health professionals, but bloodwork is not the best way to assess mineral status.
Doctors and health practitioners are not able to move the ball forward with minerals that much because they are not using the appropriate testing. Blood exists in homeostatic pursuit – it is always seeking homeostasis, or balance, out of survival. Blood will pull minerals out of the cells and tissues, to the point that actual deficiencies go undetected until they become quite serious. For instance, the blood will pull magnesium and potassium from cells to remain in homeostasis, and therefore bloodwork on these two minerals may come back normal. But the person may experience symptoms of deficiencies in both of these minerals because a deficiency is actually occurring at the cellular level. Conversely, heavy metals will be shuttled out of the blood into cells and tissues, meaning that any serious toxicities may go unnoticed.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) is an affordable, at-home test in which a snippet of hair is analyzed. Hair tissue, while having its imperfections, gives us a fairly accurate picture of intracellular mineral and metal status in cells and tissues throughout the body.
Very few practitioners are educated in HTMA or know how to properly interpret it.
You may find an MD who will order an HTMA for you, but the likelihood of that person knowing how to interpret it is quite low. This is not essential doctor training, but is a specialty that can take years to really grasp or understand, and to know how to apply clinically. HTMA is a complex report that goes far beyond “high calcium” and “low sodium.” Isolated element values can mean very little when not viewed in context with the entire test. Supplementing isolated minerals or giving nutritional advice based on individual values is not the best way to apply the results. This may even make the patient or client worse off.
People like quick results, and may be resistant to a healing approach that takes time.
Healing the body through mineral balancing is not a three month program. Sure, someone will get a protocol for a three-month period, but this is just part of the broader program. Through mineral balancing, you are correcting foundational deficiencies, imbalances, and toxicities that have likely been inherited and acquired through generations passed down in utero, plus decades of personal exposure. This can take years in some cases, but it is far more effective than quick fix protocols.
How does mineral balancing get to the actual root of these “root cause” approaches?
Because mineral balancing works at the cellular level, it gets to the heart of all these more surface-level health topics. In this case, mineral balancing is also not diagnosing or treating anything in particular (which can annoy people). It is healing at the foundational level, and therefore an individual may see improvements in all areas of health as opposed to one condition or symptom that is leading them to take action.
There is a strong relationship between minerals and hormones, and to skip over the minerals is ignoring a massive area of balance.
On a hair test, specific minerals give insight into specific hormones. Certain minerals are required for hormones to function adequately, and these unique minerals also influence hormone levels. We can tell a lot about adrenal health from magnesium, sodium, and potassium. Balance between calcium and potassium determines thyroid hormone function at the cellular level. Copper and zinc influence sex hormones for both men and women.
Hormone therapies will never be able to substitute for mineral balancing, and will never provide a sustainable, longterm solution for these imbalances.
The gut is dependent on minerals for optimal function.
Why are things like bone broth, aloe vera, cabbage juice, and licorice root so often suggested for gut issues? While these therapeutic foods contain a variety of compounds, they are full of minerals! Zinc, sodium, cobalt, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium – all absolutely essential for healthy digestion and gut health. So many health issues start with poor stomach acid production, but stomach acid requires zinc and electrolyte minerals.
The most important mineral ratio plays a key role in managing the inflammatory response.
Sodium and potassium make up the vitality ratio on an HTMA. Major imbalances in this ratio, particularly high disparities between sodium and potassium, can indicate risks for serious inflammatory conditions long before they manifest. Addressing this ratio through mineral balancing can prevent a laundry list of problems down the road.
Blood sugar balance is heavily influenced by minerals and metals.
Calcium and magnesium make up the blood sugar ratio on an HTMA. So while blood sugar balance is often a key issue to be addressed in a large number of health concerns, minerals need to be part of the protocol. Calcium is required for the release of insulin from the pancreas, and magnesium inhibits insulin secretion. Any excessive imbalance – high or low – will result in symptoms of hypoglycemia and indicate intolerance to certain carbohydrates.
At the same time, there are heavy metals that will disrupt this process and displace minerals, namely lead and cadmium.
HTMA ultimately reveals stress in the body and mind.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis is essentially a set of data revealing where in the stress continuum a person may be, and what areas of dysfunction/depletion/imbalance may be contributing to that stress. It is not uncommon for many diseases and symptoms to be blamed on stress. HTMA can show, in a unique way, how stressed out a person is. Not only that, but it can provide a general blueprint for how to address that stress through nutrition, lifestyle, and supplementation.
HTMA may not be the only way to dig into root cause health issues, but it is a powerful tool that is holistic, affordable, and accessible to most people.
God has provided us with many methods and modalities for healing, in His Wisdom. So I will never tell someone mineral balancing is the only approach to take. But it is certainly a high ranking one in my book, and one that people can integrate into their life regularly without the cost and inconvenience of alternatives.
Have you ever had an HTMA done? What were some interesting takeaways you found?!
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